A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt is a play set in the 1530’s in England just before the start of the Reformation and based on real events in English history. The main character and hero of the story is Sir Thomas More who is a dedicated Catholic. More is also a close friend of King Henry VIII, the King of England at that time.

A portrait of Sir Thomas More

King Henry soon realizes that his Queen will not be able to provide him with an heir to his throne and therefore orders Cardinal Wolsey, the head of the English church, to organize a divorce. When the divorce is not allowed by the Pope, Wolsey falls from power and More takes his place.

Thomas Cromwell, who is the villain of the story and an assistant to the King, then proposes that the King start his own church and therefore be able to divorce the Queen. This is done and the Church of England is formed with the King as the leader.

Thomas More is very much against the divorce because it is against Catholic law and he will not sign the document to agree to the new church. He is consequently imprisoned and, after a trial in which Cromwell convicts him, executed.