👑!!

Preface it by saying this isn’t me knocking casual interest/ reading for fun (I myself have only shallow knowledge on several topics, and probably not much depth of knowledge for any except like…Tudor but not even all Tudor? Henrician but a pretty shallow understanding of Marian and Elizabethan eras)…

But if your end goal is the understanding of a particular figure at Henry VIII’s court, like Thomas Cromwell or Anne Boleyn, you will eventually need to do some reading on Henry VIII as well. A few articles, and probably at least one biography focused on him at some point. 

Personal dislike/hatred aside, you’re not going to have an adequate understanding of the workings of an intricate court if you totally sidestep/ignore…the figure at its center. This is true for whoever your favorite figure at his court is; but it’s especially true if that figure had a significant relationship with Henry. 

Nor will you have one if you only do reading on the most notorious of his deeds.