William Paget was an extraordinary man, forged by extraordinary times.
His whole life demonstrates how different England was from the rest of Europe and how those differences created not only the largest empire the world had ever seen but also what was to become one of the most successful nations in human history. His rise from the most humble of backgrounds to the very heights of power through hard work and immensely sound judgement is an astonishing tale of the emergence of modern man.
At the end of the fifteenth century, the English craved order as the entire period since the arrival of the Normans had been unremittingly savage. Wars at home, plagues, wars abroad, internal revolt and more wars at home. Foreigners kept well away from this rain drenched, blood-soaked island.
Then came the Tudors. Famous now for the apparent mercurial nature of their age, in fact the Tudors laid the success of Britain. Henry VIII’s father, the notoriously tight-fisted Henry VII, broke with England’s violent past. He banished private armies. He succeeded in stopping future challengers doing unto him as he and done unto others. Fortunately, an important side effect was the end of open warfare within England, which had been astonishingly prevalent for half a millennium.
The change is obvious in the very architecture of England itself. Almost literally overnight, the residences of the rich and powerful ceased to be fortified citadels of violence and instead became bright red brick pleasure palaces with landscaped gardens for conversation and gentle walks in fine clothes. Suits of armour were donned for tournaments, not to kill your nearest neighbours.
The common people benefitted directly from this change. The nobility needed bright and ambitious young men to manage their new fortunes. They could hardly be expected to sully themselves with such work. Schools all over the country selected their best through competition and the rich paid their school fees. These ‘bright boys’ could rise to the highest levels of power. Some might resent them, but everyone needed them.
This was how Paget excelled. Through shrewd judgement and a genuine loyalty to the fate of England he managed to, literally, keep his head when all about were losing theirs. Of course, he made a fortune along the way. This was both accepted and indeed expected. It was also necessary so he could maintain status without an inherited title.
Paget’s extraordinary achievement was his ability to navigate through England's extreme swings of belief and fortune. It could easily be said that Paget helped establish the ideal of a neutral civil servant who implements the policy of national leaders while trying to steer it in the direction they considered was in the best interests of the state. Elsewhere in the world, leadership was cursed with sycophants and crooks who bled the state into their own coffers.
While making the required living to maintain his status, Paget never generated the sort of envy which brought about the fall of others. As in so many things, he walked the financial tightrope well.
My hope is that after reading my trilogy you will understand what happened behind the headlines and lead characters, and how the foundation of the most powerful state the world would ever see, the British Empire, was laid in the Tudor Age where a man really could rise from almost nothing to run the kingdom.
On such opportunities are dreams, of individuals and nations, made real.
Whilst this is a novel rather than a history book, there is little in it that is truly fiction – Paget’s name and story ring out clearly across 500 years through the letters and official documents of the Kings and Queens of England, through the writings of Paget’s contemporaries, through Paget’s many letters and those of his wife, Ann. It is, of course, impossible to be certain of all acts and motivations. No facts or characters have been changed in this book - but interpretations of how and why events happened have sometimes been made in order to make sense of what we know to be true.