England in the Italian War

In the early 1520s Henry VIII aligned England with Emperor Charles V against Francis I of France. The diplomacy formed part of the wider Italian Wars, in which the Habsburg and Valois dynasties competed for power in Italy and across western Europe.

English armies campaigned in northern France while Cardinal Wolsey managed the diplomatic and financial demands of the war at home. Charles V’s visit to England in 1522 publicly demonstrated the Anglo-imperial alliance.

Steven Veerapen’s Anthony Blanke mysteries are set during this phase of Henry VIII’s reign. The war, Wolsey’s government and named Tudor figures are historical; Anthony Blanke and the murder investigations are fictional.