Rome

Rome centers papal authority as envoys like Stephen Gardiner pursue Henry VIII's annulment amid Pope Clement's resistance and lurking spies. Cromwell deems its diplomacy too intricate for Gardiner alone. Bilney eyes converting the Pope. News of Clement's treaty with Charles V arrives, shifting English leverage. Cranmer returns bearing word of the Pope's decree against Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn. Wolsey fields letters from Katherine of Aragon routed through here. Distant bastion of Catholic power, it fuels high-stakes plots that ripple across courts, thick with intrigue, candlelit councils, and unyielding doctrine.