Great Survivor of the Tudor Age

Like Cromwell and Wolsey before him, William Paget came from nowhere to become one ofHenry VIII's most powerful 'new men'. After serving as ambassador to the Court of Francis I ofFrance, he became Henry's most influential foreign policy advisor and developed a closerelationship with Emperor Charles V. He had the king's ear in Henry's later years, was thekey player in drafting his will ( was it a forgery?) and in enabling Somerset to become LordProtector in the reign of the boy king, Edward VI. For a while, he was Somerset's 'right-handman'. When Somerset fell, Paget was imprisoned in the Tower and nearly executed. But he survivedand regained power. He had a major role in delivering the Crown to the Catholic queen, Mary,and in arranging her marriage to Philip II of Spain, whom he then advised on English politics. Hekept in with the Protestant princess Elizabeth and survived to have influence when she came tothe throne. William was the founder of the aristocratic Paget family - Barons of Beaudesert, Earls ofUxbridge and Marquesses of Anglesey. From records of the mansion that he built on a site next to today's Heathrow Airport, a picturehas been created of how life was actually lived in a Tudor household at the personal familylevel. The story is partly told from previously unexamined family letters. It is an exciting narrative ofdramatic ups and downs: from rags to riches, plague to plenty, and prison to peerage. Courtintrigues, conspiracies, rebellions and coups, follow one after the other. William is usually in thethick of it, the power behind the throne.