In the final months of 1529, Cardinal Thomas Woolsey waits abandoned at Esher,

his enemies gathering to cement his downfall. Having been forced to concede his beloved Hampton

Court to Henry VIII, he is now all but alone in a cold,

damp and empty palace. On his journey, people had gathered on the banks of the Thames to watch

in expectation of the famous cardinal being taken to the tower.

In fact, it would be another year until he was arrested for high treason.

And Woolsey, evasive to the last, died before they could get to the tower and his final ruin.

But what led to Woolsey's downfall and was it inevitable? As the

Cardinals saw it, he was loyal until the end, lamenting, if I had served God as diligently

as I have done the king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs.

So how did a butcher's boy from Ipswich climb so high to fall so far?

And who would replace such a man?

The role of Henry the 8th's chief ministers has long been debated.

Men from non-aristocratic backgrounds whose rise to the highest civil role in the land would end in dramatic circumstances

at the hands of a king who is often called a tyrant.

This episode and the other episodes in this series will track the rise and fall of Henry's

trusted men, the three Thomas's, Thomas Woolsey, Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell.

Were these men the architects behind Henry's achievements,

or were they fodder for the machinations of court politics?

How did they climb so high?

Who profited when they fell?

And what impact did they have on Henry's reign and legacy.

...