June 1540. Thomas Cromwell, lately Earl of Essex and lord great chamberlain of England, is arrested, stripped of his titles and imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he awaits trial. His fall has been dizzying. As Cromwell struggles to make sense of it, he is visited by his friend and former ward, Rafe Sadler, now one of the king's gentlemen. Rafe is the only person brave enough, and loyal enough, to bring the so-called traitor news from court. 

Cromwell's marital diplomacy brings Princess Anne of Cleves to Henry's court. Will the alliance create a Protestant superpower in northern Europe, or has Cromwell's luck run out? 

The court of King Henry is on the brink of a new era. Henry and Jane are expecting a child, and for the third time in his life, the king allows himself to imagine a legitimate heir. The war in the north is over, the rebels are stilled, and the Lady Mary is back at court and out of reach of Henry's enemies. England is cautiously hopeful. But joy at the birth of the young prince in the autumn of 1538 is short-lived, for Edward is only 12 days old when his mother Jane dies in the complications of childbirth, and Henry's court is plunged into mourning.

A rising in the north destabilises Henry's kingdom. Despite the risks to his own life, Cromwell moves to protect Lady Mary from becoming the rebels' greatest prize.

Cromwell has become the most significant politician in the whole of England, his place as Henry's principal adviser secure. The duke of Norfolk, England's most senior nobleman by rank, is in disgrace, tainted by the treasonous behaviour of his niece, Anne Boleyn. So when Cromwell uncovers a clandestine affair between Norfolk's brother and the King's niece, an opportunity opens up to destroy his foremost enemy for good. Yet Cromwell stays his hand.

The Mirror and the Light opens in the heartbeat after Anne Boleyn's death, as the young queen's blood is sluiced from the scaffold and Thomas Cromwell picks his way across the wreckage to take up his position as principal councillor to an unpredictable king.

Despite his lowly beginnings in a Putney blacksmith's forge, Cromwell has made a reputation for himself as one of England's most formidable politicians. On the day of the queen's death, he is at the height of his powers. He has found a bloody way for the king to escape his marriage, pinning Anne Boleyn and her circle to crimes they could never have imagined. He has delivered her to the Calais swordsman's blade. He has smoothed the path for the king's marriage to his third wife, Jane Seymour. And he has been rewarded well. Now both master secretary and lord privy seal, there are few parts of the state's business that do not pass over his desk.

But in rising so high, Cromwell has also attracted powerful enemies...