Commonly, a book or a play about a historical character follows on from what historians have had to say about him. Think of the musical Hamilton, based on Ron Chernow’s biography of the Founding Father.
In the case of Thomas Cromwell, the chief author of the English Reformation under Henry VIII, the reverse is true. There has been no really good biography of him, though there have been many studies of his policies, because, following his fall, so much of his private correspondence from his side was destroyed by his own people.
