So glad you reviewed this!

And now I can finally mention my favourite part of this book to you, when Henry is shouting at Cromwell and he makes the pain-confusing gesture of the blacksmiths at him (successfully). It reads as so real, had been built up just nicely enough, and as a metaphor for being burnt by the material you work with is beautiful foreshadowing of his own fate.

Relatedly, I didn't find the background-related insults annoying. The reason they might seem a little... fake is that noble blood or even gentility is such an unreal thing to brag about in our days, something few can imagine being taken as deadly serious. So it comes across a little Mary Sue-ish, as when a protagonist is unfairly persecuted for having red hair or (shudder) violet eyes. But in Cromwell's world, these things were all too real and it would have been fantastical to imagine a world in which these things were not up for constant comment. Even Anne gets backtalk for being "just" a gentlewoman, and you can see the way the Boleyns are distaned by the older families for being sort of nouveau riche.