Ford Madox Ford was a prolific English novelist and poet in the early 20th century. Ford wrote the best-selling novel The Good Soldier, as well as the Parades End series. Privy Seal is the second novel in the well-known Fifth Queen trilogy that recreates Tudor England in a masterful story of court intrigue, romance, and betrayal. Here Ford focuses on the figure of Thomas Cromwell, a powerful advisor to the King who comes to see Katharine as a rival whose good nature threatens his ambitious political agenda.