The last novel of Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy is approached through the lens of the contemporary theory of power. As a historical novelist, Mantel opens up the mentality behind political and social forms of power under Tudor monarchy, the dominance of traditional medieval system and, in Cromwell’s attempt to create bureaucratic government, the emergence of power devoid of the coating of sacredness. The paper is focused, though, on what is seen as the novel’s central plot, the dynamics of interpersonal balance of power between king Henry VIII and his Lord Privy Seal.