Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon has fascinated historians for centuries, so it can be hard to offer much new on the topic, yet Catherine Fletcher manages to do just that by focusing on Henry's man in Rome, Gegorio Casali. Along with his family, Casali was a diplomat trying to navigate the turbulent waters of 16th-century Europe. In the service of the English king, he bribed cardinals, solicited scholarly opinions, and organized kidnappings. To further his own fortunes, he married an heiress with a contested inheritance. If anything, I wish there had been more details of Casali and his family's exploits, as these figures clearly interacted with some of most interesting people of their age, yet remain slightly obscured to history. A history book that manages to offer a new perspective to a oft-covered topic and well worth the read for a better understanding of Renaissance diplomacy. ( )

Henry the VIII is such a interesting figure, great read on him.

This is an intereting book highlighting the ins and outs of papal diplomacy in the 16th century. It got a little drawn out towards the end but the overall narrative is pretty fascinating. ( )

I read a lot of Tudor related books -- both historical and historical fiction. This book is a fascinating read that (for once!) does not simply regurgitate the same information and facts that are all present in each of the many Tudor-related books that are released. First of all, Catherine Fletcher is no slouch -- as the promotional material states she holds a PhD in history from the University of London. Secondly, she has taken the entire matter of Henry's divorce and the related break with Rome and turned it on its head by digging through the Italian and Vatican archives to find documents that detail the correspondence going on between London and the Vatican as well as documents pertaining to the inner workings of the Vatican in its attempt to find a solution (or block a solution) to Henry's little problem: Katherine of Aaragon who just happened to be the niece of the King of Spain.

If you've read the other books about Henry VIII and think you're ready for a more scholarly look at the issue from a relatively new angle pick up this book. ( )

I discovered this book through a post on the History Matters blog, "How Book Covers Sell History". The book was originally titled Our Man in Rome: Henry VIII and his Italian Ambassador, with a cover image of a man's hands leafing through a book on a table, a small folded document lying next to the book. But for the US edition and for the UK paperback, the title was changed to The Divorce of Henry VIII: the untold story from inside the Vatican, and the cover art is now a portrait of Henry.

The change was a mistake. This is not just another "Henry divorces Catherine to marry his bimbo and creates the Church of England" book. It's really the story of Gregorio Casali, Henry's ambassador at the Vatican, and Renaissance diplomacy in general, seen through the lens of Henry's "great matter". I'd likely have skipped this one if I'd just seen the later title, and I expect that some people drawn to the book by that title may be disappointed, though one hopes that others will find an interesting new field to explore.

One must have needed strong nerves to serve as an ambassador at this time. Communications - yours to your prince and your prince's to you - took time, assuming they arrived at all; your messengers might succumb at any time to bandits, kidnapping, illness, or sheer exhaustion. You had to expect that your letters would be intercepted. You might need to act on your own, and hope that your actions would meet with your prince's approval. And in a time when the great powers of France and the Holy Roman Empire won and lost allies as those allies' interests changed, you could never be sure who was your friend and who your enemy.

The story of Gregorio Casali is also one of the importance of family in this time. His own career was aided by family ties to the Vatican and Roman nobility. Because of those ever-shifting alliances, and (to borrow one of Fletcher's chapter titles) the ingratitude of princes, it helped to have multiple irons in the fire. So Gregorio did his best to find posts for his brothers that would tie the family to other European powers in the event that his connection with England collapsed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and learned a great deal. Though I have read a fair bit about this period, I am by no means a Renaissance scholar. I did not know, for instance, how common it was for countries to be officially represented abroad by non-citizens, something that would raise eyebrows today. Nor did I know that there was a serious suggestion that Henry be allowed to commit bigamy (an idea he quite reasonably rejected on the grounds that it would cast doubt on the succession).

So come for the divorce and stay for the diplomacy. You won't be sorry.

Other recommended reading: Letters of Henry Viii, 1526--29: Extracts from the Calendar of State Papers of Henry VIII

The period of Henry the VIII has always held a fascination for me so I was excited to get this book. The nice thing about this book is that it is covering an area of the period that is not often covered. It is packed with information and took a bit to get into for me but I did enjoy it. It is a scholarly work and as such would not recommend it to all readers interested in the times. I was fascinated by all of the facets of politics that were occurring at the time and the level to which diplomats worked on their own. ( )

I have been an avid reader of the story of Henry VIII and the Tudor dynasty since the tender age of ten. My mother gave me my first book about The War of the Roses at that age. (I was a precocious reader. ) I wanted to know more about these Lancasters I was reading about and this lead to Henry.

In all my reading I have not come across a book the focused on the subject told from the viewpoint of Henry's diplomatic corps.

I learned from Ms. Fletcher's tome a great deal about how diplomacy worked during this time period. There was new insight into how/why some decisions were taken. I found myself often feeling like I was re-reading a familiar scene from the other side of a mirror.

I have put the hardcover non-advanced readers version on my holiday gift list. ( )

If it's English History, then I am in. This book however struck a new chord in my repetoire of English stories because the view is from the eyes of an Italian diplomat. The story maintains a very good amount of drama as it unfolds the story of the role that Gregorio Casali played in the divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Ms Fletcher holds the book together with not just the widely known facts of the divorce but she introduces many obscure yet interesting facts. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in English history, anyone wanting to learn about how the Vatican sometimes manouvers in the background of Global politics or someone who just likes a good drama. We all knew the outcome, but Catherine Fletcher brings us there along an entirely new road. Great book! ( )

This book documents the diplomatic proceedings in pertaining to the desired divorce by the English monarch Henry VIII from his wife of twenty years, Catherine of Aragon. The book main focus is on the diplomatic maneuvering on behalf of Henry VIII in Rome. The information contained in this book is mainly taken from preserved Vatican documents, The central figure of this book and representative too Rome for Henry VIII was the most able diplomat Gregorio Casali and his family.

This work sheds light on the diplomatic maneuvering required for an ambassador of this time period too keep his patrons confidence. In this case England, and with negotiating the the powers that be that included the Vatican, the Holy Roman Empire, the various Italian City States, France and Hungry. The network of the Casali family is shown to be impressive and far reaching; especially before the English Reformation began in earnest. It is interesting too see that the English Reformation started out as a ploy too place pressure on the Holy See too advocate the divorce in Henry VIII's favor and eventually took on a life of its own as Henry became impatient.

The maneuvering of Casali would make Machiavelli proud as he used all means at his disposal; bribery, flattery, kidnapping, forgery, disinformation, theft and more. All this was considered normal for an ambassador of the this time period as long as it was not overt. As you read this detailed account and see how Casali worked in earnest it was clear that with Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor, a siege on Florence and war in the east that Pope Clement who seemed more interested in his temporal well being found it prudent too not make any monarch angry with him; least of all Charles V.

I found the details of of Italian diplomacy interesting and this book shows us what was the norm of that time. Too see a family try too provide for them selves as they try too put forth a foreign monarchs cause in Italy all the while trying too keep their Italian benefices is very interesting. The necessity of keeping in good graces of all parties involved all the while disinformation is being spread too discredit your work.

For a look at Italian Renaissance diplomacy and politics this book should be consider mandatory reading for any historian of politics. As well as a unique perspective on the English Reformation. ( )

If you like historical non-fiction and, especially, old school English drama, you will probably enjoy this book. An interesting and well-researched investigation of an overly investigated time in history. Henry VIII's divorces are stories that have been told so many times, and in so many different ways, that I couldn't imagine there was a different point of view to approach it from. But there is! It's in this book! Check it out if you are an Anglophile and history buff. Of course, be prepared for a lack of Henry VIII and his drama compared to the Caseli family and the Catholic perspective. After all, it is in the title of the book: "from Inside the Vatican." You're getting less of the English scandal and more of what's happening on the Vatican end. ( )

The history of King Henry VIII's divorce has, I am sure, been written about many times, so I thought that hearing 'The Untold Story from Inside the Vatican' which is the subtitle of this book, would be very interesting. I was excited about learning the story from a different perspective, namely from the Vatican's point of view. However, I was somewhat disappointed when I discovered that is not really what this story is about. Rather it is about an Italian family who supposedly tried to assist Henry VIII in obtaining his divorce from Catherine of Aragon with the Vatican's approval. I found the story very slow in developing, and I felt that it often wandered off on various tangents that were not important to the story. For the most part, I felt the story was fairly boring, but I stuck with it. It did not pique my interest until the telling of the final events leading up to Henry's divorce. ( )

This book focuses more on the Caseli family rather than Henry VIII's divorce. It centers on the struggle that the Caseli brothers faced between satisfying Pope Clement VII, Henry VIII and their self interest.

The author assumes that the reader has sufficient knowledge of the divorce so I would not recommend it for beginners. And for those who are familiar with it, there is really no new information. However, I did think it was an interesting book if not from the divorce perspective then from the fact that it shows the everyday life of an ambassador in the 16th century. ( )

Catherine Fletcher's new book on Henry VIII's separation from Catherine of Aragon in favor of Anne Boleyn makes an attempt at breaking new ground, or at least different ground, on a much-covered area of British history. The US title of the book boasts that this is "the untold story from inside the Vatican," but the book's British title, "Our Man in Rome: Henry VIII and his Italian Ambassador," seems to be much more relevant. The book centers around Gregorio Casali, a figure that Fletcher argues is central to the treatment of "the king's great matter," his seeking of a divorce from his queen, Catherine of Aragon. Fletcher's work is well-researched, perhaps a bit too conspicuously so at times. There is a fine line between rich historical detail and irrelevant cataloging, and this book walks it at times. Still, Fletcher succeeds in bringing to light a story of political intrigue and cloak-and-dagger scheming worthy of the complex Renaissance world of 16th century Europe. The panoply of corrupt cardinals, back-stabbing courtiers, and sumptuous living present rich material, and one only wishes that Fletcher would occasionally have more fun with it. To be fair, there is a lot of material to cover, and Fletcher does so accurately. The pacing of her account is somewhat inconsistent, feeling at times rushed and at times unnecessarily plodding, with distractions from the current timeline popping up here and there to tell the reader of something that happened twenty years previously or of what is to come in thirty years' time.
Fletcher seems most comfortable when she is focused closely on Casali family affairs. We get pretty clear pictures of Gregorio and a number of siblings and relatives, the most interesting of whom, Giambattista, spent significant time as a prisoner of the Habsburg King Ferdinand of Hungary. The situation in England tends to get a little muddy, especially as the book wraps up and attempts to cover the fall of Anne Boleyn, Henry's marriage to Jane Seymour, the birth of Edward VI, and the subsequent placements of all the book's major players during the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth in the span of a few pages. Overall, an informative read, but would have benefited from a tighter organizational structure. ( )

I found this book more than a little dry. It was very well researched and documented. I could not really get 'into it' though. I really hesitate to give it a bad or mediocre review based on my disinterest in the books first few chapters. I am going to try to give it another go in a few weeks. Hopefully I will be able to edit this review to give a more helpful one. ( )

This book follows the fortunes of the Casali brothers, Italians who for many years were Henry VIII's ambassadors to Rome and did their best to obtain his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. This book was, well, as interesting as papal diplomacy can be. Fletcher tries her best to liven it up, but the story bogged an awful lot, especially since the Casali brothers never succeeded.

While I generally enjoy books about the Tudor Dynasty and have read many of the books published by Alison Weir (not her novels but her historical books), I found this book really dry and hard to read. It gives a lot of information about the diplomat Gregorio Casali who was King Henry's lobbyist in Rome. It tells less about the actually divorce of Henry the VIII and more about the life of Casali and his family and what it was like to be a diplomat in that time period. This book who would be great for a history class or scholar who was concentrating on that time period but I wouldn't recommend it for the causal reader. There are other books out there that are better written and more accessible. ( )

The English perspective of Henry VIII's failed attempt to receive Papal permission to divorce Catherine of Aragon and his subsequent break from Rome is well documented. This book examines the situation in the Vatican at the time, focusing on Henry's ambassador, the Italian Gregorio Casali. It's a bit slow going, but ultimately it's a story of war, bribery, diplomatic tricks, double-dealing, and constant requests for money. In the ARC the plates, map and family tree were missing, bit there were 8 pages on illustrations that were not cited in the text.

I'm a fan of Tudor history, so was quite excited when I won this book. Alas, I couldn't get into it and gave up after a few chapters. I kept comparing this book to another I've read recently on Italian history, Nancy Goldstone's "The Lady Queen." Without resorting to novelistic devices, Goldstone does a great job of distinguishing amongst a vast cast of characters. I know relatively little about 14th century Italy and France but Goldstone made it all intelligible.

Fletcher, on the other hand, left me confused. She didn't provide a rich enough context for me to understand who the characters were, and why or even whether they were powerful or just incidental to the story. When I was on firmer ground in the sections dealing with England, I was bored. This was a disappointment. ( )

As Fletcher states in the Preface, You probably know the story. The Divorce of Henry VIII The Untold Story From Inside the Vatican goes over familiar ground by concentrating on the career of Gregorio Casali, an Italian, who was Henry VIII's ambassador to the Holy See during the Great Matter of Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

Casali was well-positioned to serve Henry's interests in Rome given that his guardian had been Cardinal Raffaele Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV. Foreign ambassadors were expected to act as lobbyists and spies and to offer gifts (bribes) as needed. In addition to entertaining lavishly, they served as consultants for any visiting legates or representatives. They enjoyed great latitude due to the slowness of communications. It could take two weeks to advise Henry and Cardinal Wolsey of events in Rome and another two weeks for a reply to be received but this also could be dangerous if Casali took a position that did not align with Henry's wishes. Diplomats often had multiple allegiances and were known to switch sides if it became beneficial to do so.

I suspect that this was Fletcher's doctoral dissertation. Her writing style is extremely dry and suffers from the frequent use of very short sentences, often only three or four words long, which produces a choppy effect. She also overuses the phrase "our man in Rome" which becomes even more annoying in view of the fact that the book was originally published in the United Kingdom as Our Man in Rome. Some chapters of the book have nothing to do with Henry's efforts to divorce his wife and it appears that the title for the American edition may have been chosen to obtain a wider audience. In fact, the book seems to be more a biography of Casali and his life as a diplomat than about Henry, Catherine or Pope Clement VII. Casali is hardly mentioned in David Starkey's Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII or Retha M. Warnicke's The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII so there may have been an opportunity to gain a new perspective but Fletcher does not provide new insights.

The Advance Reader's Edition did not contain the map of Europe or index and had only six of the ten listed illustrations which will appear when the book becomes available June 19th. The Casali family tree which would have helped to keep track of all the Casali brothers and cousins was also omitted. The text was well footnoted and a bibliography was included. ( )

This book is highly recommended for those interested in Henry VIII and the Tudors, the Vatican, and history lovers who enjoy learning behind-the-scenes details. Thoroughly researched and annotated, The Divorce of Henry VIII divulges the machinations his diplomats employed in their ultimately unsuccessful attempts to obtain Papal permission for Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon. In this high-stakes world, anything was possible, and that includes kidnapping, bribery and theft.

Author Catherine Fletcher first explains the dynamics of this period, in which Spain was a powerful force that overtook Rome. Needless to say, the Vatican did not want additional problems with Spain and had every reason to do whatever possible to delay Henry's petition to divorce the Spanish-bred Catherine of Aragon.

Athough I've read a great deal of nonfiction regarding Henry VIII, his wives, his court, etc. I'd never heard of Gregorio Casali, the man in Rome charged with obtaining Henry's divorce. The book is told from his perspective, and Casali had a challenging task - to put it mildly. The English court hoped his Italian background and connections would further their case. Casali also had various members of his family involved in this years-long quest, doing everything in their power via diplomatic, religious and legal channels to further Henry's case.

Highly entertaining, this detailed breakdown of the campaign to get Henry VIII his divorce is a fascinating read that provides great insight into the difficult, double-dealing and sometimes treacherous world of diplomacy. ( )

This is the story of King Henry VIII divorce from Catherine of Aragon from the point of view from the English Ambassador to Rome, who was in fact Italian. It is also the story of the Ambassadors entire family and how almost all of them were working on behalf of the English King. This is a very different book from the many written on this subject. I had not heard of this character before and I found it a very interesting book to read. It was quite dry in some places and if you are looking for a book that details Anne Boleyn and the King this is not the book for you. I thought it was very well written. The author had obviously spent a lot of time researching the Ambassador and his family. Highly recommend this book to anyone interested in ALL aspects of the divorce. ( )

Just when you thought you had read everything there was to read about King Henry VIII’s quest to marry Anne Boleyn, out comes this new work by Catherine Fletcher. The Untold Story from Inside the Vatican relates just that, how King Henry’s ‘Great Matter’ was handled in Rome. At the heart of the story is Henry’s Italian diplomat, Gregorio Casali. Casali worked tirelessly to secure the English Monarch his heart’s desire. Kidnapping, bribery, spying and stealing were all in a day’s work for Casali. The author relates in detail the behind the scenes intrigue that took place within the Vatican and the deep diplomatic wrangling that occurred. Spanning years the Great Matter pitted diplomats, theologians, monarchs and nations against each other. The novel sinks right into the matter, so readers should have a fairly good grounding of the history leading up Henry’s attempt to annul his first marriage before diving into this book. ( )

I was intrigued by the premise of this book. There are numerous books out there on this topic, mainly that just focus on Henry, Anne, and Catherine. However, this is the first book I came across that focuses on Henry's ambassador and what he had to go through during this important time period. I actually had not thought much about Henry's ambassador. That was the reason I was excited to read this book. This is a good book that was well researched but I found it difficult to read. Part of that is probably because this is an Advance Reader's Edition. In my copy, the illustrations are omitted, which would have been nice to see as it will definitely assist the reader because it will put faces to a name. A cast of characters, as other readers had pointed out, would be extremely useful as I found myself getting lost and having to re-read some sections to make sure I fully understood it.

This book, since it's written about the ambassador, focuses both on English and Papal politics. Both which move extremely slowly. This book can be difficult to get through, not because of the topic but it can be confusing at times. I believe that is because the reader doesn't have a true sense of why Henry was going through this and what the main characters were trying to achieve. A reader who is well versed in this time period should be able to get through this book without too much difficulty. However, a new reader to the time period should not choose this book as one of the first they read.

I would only recommend this book to readers who are looking for a biography on Henry's ambassador or who knows a great deal of this time period. ( )

The divorce of Henry VII from Catherine of Aragon was a tale of two sorts of politics: English politics and Papal politics. Most histories of the event are told from the English perspective. This one tries to get at the perspective from Italy.

That's the good news. The bad news is, sometimes it gets a little too close to Italian affairs.

There is a caution about this review: it is based on an Advance Reader's Edition, which has not been corrected. There are a number of oddities -- e.g. some of the illustrations seem to have been omitted. My copy also lacks an index. Might this be included in the final edition? It would help immensely. So would some sort of cast of characters. In the absence of either one, I got lost a lot.

In a way, that is fitting. Because it took weeks if not months for a message to get from England to Rome and vice versa, the two courts were often operating on different assumptions. It makes some sense that contemporaries would also get lost.

But the book really needs to give more perspective on the English situation -- on what Wolsey, Henry, and Catherine were trying to achieve. This, ultimately, is the unifying theme of Henry's divorce -- and it's all happening off-stage.

The research of this volume appears meticulous. And it covers parts of history that rarely see the light of print. It will doubtless be a treasure trove for scholars. (Once it has an index, anyway.) For those of us who have only an interested lay person's knowledge of Tudor history, it can be rather a hard slog. ( )

This book was very difficult to get through. If you're looking for an account of Henry VIII's first divorce, you won't find it here. The story is mainly a biography of Henry's ambassador in Rome, Gregorio Casali. The book is well researched but it is difficult to read. Unless you are an avid scholar of this period of Tudor history, you are better off looking elsewhere. ( )