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Harry Norris
Francis Weston is a wealthy courtier and one of the five men executed for their suspected affairs with Anne Boleyn. Years ago, Weston took part in the play that mocked Cardinal Wolsey, acting as the “right hindpaw” of the demon that dragged the fictionalized Wolsey character to hell. Then, early in the novel, Weston cruelly taunts Cromwell and Gregory for their lack of noble blood. It therefore follows that once Mark Smeaton has implicated Weston as one of Anne’s lovers, Cromwell celebrates this opportunity to take revenge. But Weston’s tremendous privilege makes him more difficult to convict than the others: Weston’s family tries to bribe Cromwell to save their son, and when that fails, the King of France attempts to intercede (via an ambassador). Still, Cromwell will not bend, not even when Weston apologizes and he glimpses the young man’s anxiety and naivety.
Francis Weston Quotes in Bring Up the Bodies
The Bring Up the Bodies quotes below are all either spoken by Francis Weston or refer to Francis Weston. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 2, Chapter 2: Master of Phantoms Quotes
‘I remember,’ Wriothesley says, ‘a certain play at court, after the cardinal came down. I remember Sexton, the jester, dressed in scarlet robes, in the character of the cardinal, and how four devils bore him off to Hell, each seizing an extremity. And they were masked. And I wondered, was George –’
‘Right forepaw,’ he says.
‘Ah,’ says Call-Me-Risley.
[…] [Cromwell] remembers it: an evening of feral stench, as the flower of chivalry became hunting dogs, baying for blood, the whole court hissing and jeering as the figure of the cardinal was dragged and bounced across the floor. Then a voice called out from the hall: ‘Shame on you!’ He asks Wriothesley, ‘That was not you who spoke?’
‘No.’ Call-Me will not lie. ‘I think perhaps it was Thomas Wyatt.’
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‘I must take your mind back. I do not ask you to remember the manifold favors you received at the cardinal’s hands. I only asked you to recall an entertainment, a certain interlude played at court. It was a play in which the late cardinal was set upon by demons and carried down to Hell.’
He sees Norris’s eyes move, as the scene rises before him: the firelight, the heat, the baying spectators. Himself and Boleyn grasping the victim’s hands, Brereton and Weston laying hold of him by his feet. The four of them tossing the scarlet figure, tumbling him and kicking him. Four men, who for a joke turned the cardinal into a beast.
[…] Would Norris understand if he spelled it out? He needs guilty men. So he has found men who are guilty. Though perhaps not guilty as charged.
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Francis Weston Character Timeline in Bring Up the Bodies
The timeline below shows where the character Francis Weston appears in Bring Up the Bodies. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 1: Falcons
...talk about his own daughters Grace and Anne, though they died seven years ago. Francis Weston, another one of Henry’s courtiers, snickers that Cromwell’s daughters were probably not very beautiful. This...
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...himself was not responsible for Wolsey’s death. The conversation turns to Thomas More’s trial, and Weston jabs at Cromwell, hinting that Cromwell railroaded the jury into finding More guilty. At Rafe’s...
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...Cromwell goes up to his room, he sees Gregory and Rafe pretending to kick Francis Weston out the window. Cromwell laughs but also urges caution, reminding his son that Henry favors...
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Part 1, Chapter 2: Crows
...Anne: her father, the Earl of Wiltshire, her brother George, Lord Rochford, and bratty Francis Weston. For a while, Cromwell has tried to accommodate these men, flattering them and playing nice....
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...English cook Thurston, who is clued into all the London gossip. Today, Thurston reveals that Weston is trying to defame Cromwell by saying he is Jewish. There is also a rumor...
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Part 1, Chapter 3: Angels
...he is blocked by three men in costume: Harry Norris (dressed “in Moorish drapery”), Francis Weston (dressed as a dragon), and William Brereton (dressed as a hunter). The men tease each...
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Part 2, Chapter 1: The Black Book
...Monseigneur column, he adds Wiltshire and the rest of the Boleyns, plus Harry Norris, Francis Weston, and William Brereton. In the “Wiltshire” column, he adds the Norfolk, Nicholas Carew, William Fitzwilliam,...
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...male attention, has begun to give large sums of money to Mark Smeaton and Francis Weston. There is even gossip that Anne has given up on conceiving with Henry, instead planning...
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Part 2, Chapter 2: Master of Phantoms
...Cromwell’s urging, Lady Rochford repeats her earlier claims that Anne has been having affairs—with Francis Weston, Harry Norris, William Brereton, and others, too. Lady Rochford also insinuates that Henry and Anne...
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...Cromwell how often he sees the queen, and complaining that her ladies-in-waiting and other courtiers—namely Weston and Norris—try to keep them apart. When Mark is done speaking, Cromwell announces that he...
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When Norris pushes back, Cromwell insists that his prisoner must confess—and implicate Brereton and Francis Weston. Norris erupts, accusing Cromwell of trying to trick all the various defendants into betraying each...
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...of crimes that he is alleged to have committed, then asks Brereton to incriminate Francis Weston. When Brereton refuses, instead asking why Cromwell is not interrogating Wyatt, Cromwell ignores him. Cromwell...
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At last, Cromwell goes to visit Francis Weston (“right hindpaw,” as he puts it). The Weston family anticipates Cromwell’s accusations, and they have...
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Cromwell points out the evidence: Anne gave Weston money to pay off his debts, a sign (at least in the future jury’s mind)...
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Cromwell continues to question Weston, and Weston appears to be on the edge of incriminating Norris. But before he can...
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...for Kingston: “bring up the bodies.” This means that Kingston has to deliver the accused men—Weston, Brereton, Mark Smeaton, and Norris—for trial. People are placing bets on who will survive. Many...
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...again; the only thing she has to admit to is that she gave money to Weston. Cromwell keeps his voice flat and affectless, in an attempt to make the whole thing...
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...Cromwell wonders why the ambassador has come, he explains he is here to defend Francis Weston, who is guilty of “nothing more than a poem or two.” Cromwell realizes, with some...
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...have settled down, but the ambassador declines, angry that Cromwell will not agree to spare Weston. After the French ambassador leaves, Kingston wonders how Weston could be guilty of writing “poetry.”...
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“On paper it is done”: George Boleyn, Smeaton, Weston, Brereton and Norris have all been executed with an axe. George made an eloquent speech,...
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