Previous
Part 2, Chapter 1: The Black Book
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Bring Up the Bodies, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Rumors, Language, and the Creation of History
Lineage, Class Mobility, and Social Change
International Politics vs. Interpersonal Desire
Faith and Grief
Gender, Bodies and Objectification
Objective Justice vs. Personal Revenge
Summary
Analysis
London, April–May 1536. Cromwell invites Lady Worcester, one of Anne’s ladies-in-waiting, over for tea and cake. Lady Worcester is pregnant, and everyone in court is gossiping about it, suggesting that the baby might have been fathered by someone other than her husband. Worse still, Lady Worcester is in debt, having borrowed money to pay for commissioned poems and songs by the young men she finds most attractive. As Lady Worcester devours cake after cake, Cromwell, thinking of Mark Smeaton’s fine clothes, comes to his point: does Anne “pay out” in this way, too?
Like many of the nobles in the novel, Lady Worcester is portrayed as greedy and a little daft, once more giving the lie to the idea that noble blood has any real impact on personality. Lady Worcester’s behavior also makes clear how common affairs are at court, though most of them do not hold the significance that Cromwell is hoping to ascribe to Anne’s (alleged) infidelity.
Active
Themes
Lady Worcester admits that yes, Anne sometimes engages in similar acts of “patronage.” When Cromwell pushes Lady Worcester to say whether Anne ever sees her young men in “private,” she will not give him a straight answer. But after Cromwell promises to relieve Lady Worcester of her debts (“the bank of Cromwell,” he jokes, “is generous”), she makes a more direct reference to what happens behind a “closed door.” Before she leaves, Lady Worcester hopes that these rumors will be enough for Henry to put Anne “aside” without fuss; she is anxious that no harm will come to the queen.
Even as Cromwell begins what seems like a more official investigation into Anne’s behavior, he still must build his questions out of suggestive phrases and loaded codes rather than asking about Anne’s sex life in any straightforward way. The fact that Lady Worcester is hesitant to see Anne come to harm shows that even as women in Henry’s court know they must turn against one another to survive, Anne’s ladies-in-waiting (with perhaps the exception of Lady Rochford) do try to establish some measure of solidarity.
Active
Themes
St. George’s Day arrives, and all over England, people are celebrating with flowers and paper dragons. The Garter knights, the oldest order of knights in England, are meeting today. Nicholas Carew has just been elected as the newest member of the Garter chapter, besting George Boleyn, who tries to pretend like he never wanted to be chosen in the first place. Harry Percy is in town for the Garter meeting, and Cromwell wonders if he can use Harry and Anne’s history to delegitimize the queen’s present marriage to Henry.
Active
Themes
Cromwell decides to talk to Wiltshire, in the hopes that Anne’s father can convince his daughter to “go quietly.” George Boleyn arrives at the meeting in stripes and tassels. As Wriothesley takes notes, Cromwell gets down to business: he needs Wiltshire to say that Anne and Harry Percy actually were married (even though a few years ago, Cromwell instructed Wiltshire to say the opposite). This way, Henry can nullify his marriage with Anne and move on.
Active
Themes
Get the entire Bring Up the Bodies LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Cromwell watches Wiltshire process the situation—Wiltshire seems to accept that “women age” and “men like variety.” Wiltshire suggests that Anne could be placed in a convent, especially if the Boleyns were granted a generous settlement. But George will hear none of it, threatening to make “short work” of Cromwell should his plan fail. Then, before any agreement can be reached, George storms out, even though his father tries to convince him that they are powerless against Henry’s change of heart.
Active
Themes
When the meeting is done, Wriothesley shuffles his papers, recalling a play at court done soon after Wolsey’s death. In the play, one of the court jesters had played Wolsey, and four courtiers had dressed as a giant demon, pretending to drag Wolsey to Hell. Now, Wriothesley wonders if George Boleyn had been one of the courtiers in this pantomime. “Right forepaw,” Cromwell replies.
Wriothesley also recalls that someone in the audience, horrified by the play’s cruel joke, had shouted “shame on you.” Everyone had assumed the person shouting was Wriothesley—but now, Wriothesley reveals that it was Thomas Wyatt.
Active
Themes
Cromwell goes to Henry to report on the meeting: Wiltshire will go along with Henry’s plan, but George is dragging his feet. Henry is frustrated that Cromwell cannot make this issue go away—after all, Henry is busy trying to compose a song for Jane.
Active
Themes
Cromwell meets with Mary Shelton, another one of Anne’s ladies. Mary Shelton confesses that she has been sleeping with Harry Norris, but he refuses to marry her—because he is in love with Anne. One time, in Mary Shelton’s presence, Harry and Anne joked about what would happen were Henry to die, leaving them free to be together. But when Anne realized that others could overhear, she panicked, sending for a priest and swearing her fidelity to Henry.
Active
Themes
Cromwell realizes that Mary Shelton does not understand the weight of what she has just reported: “it is treason […] to envisage the death of the king.” Mary Shelton sees Cromwell writing down her testimony, and she panics, worried that Anne will be harshly punished. After all, Anne is Mary’s cousin, and Mary does not want anything bad to happen to her. Mary says goodbye, and Cromwell reflects on how much Anne has “entranced” all the men and women around her.
Active
Themes
The next day, a Sunday, Lady Rochford tells Cromwell about the fight Henry and Anne had earlier this morning. Henry has heard about Anne’s quarrel with Harry Norris, and he is now “purple” with rage, questioning even whether baby Elizabeth is really his daughter. Cromwell wonders if Lady Rochford went to comfort Anne, and she explains that she instead went to find Cromwell. All Anne’s ladies, Lady Rochford explains, want to save themselves.
Active
Themes
At 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 used to have sex in “the French fashion” (meaning oral or anal sex). “Seed gone to waste,” Cromwell thinks, a lost opportunity for an heir.
Active
Themes
Lady Rochford presses on, reminding Cromwell how fond George Boleyn is of his sister. Cromwell feels bad for Lady Rochford: her husband has always been inattentive, and as a young married gentlewoman, she is given “no more power than a donkey.” On their wedding night, Lady Rochford says, George told her that he was only marrying her because his father was making him. And because Lady Rochford appears to be barren, George rarely has sex with her at all, instead seeking out more “forbidden” sexual practices.
Active
Themes
Finally, Lady Rochford gets to her point: she has seen George and Anne kiss, “his tongue in her mouth. And her tongue in his.” Cromwell warns Lady Rochford about the weight of such a scandalous claim—if this goes to trial, she will have to testify against her husband. But Lady Rochford is calm: everyone will blame Cromwell, not her. After all, she is considered “a woman of no great wit or penetration.”
Active
Themes
Lady Rochford leaves, and Cromwell tries to act out the trial with his men: Rafe plays the lawyer, and Wriothesley plays the various ladies-in-waiting. But this only further depresses Cromwell, who cannot stop thinking about the idea of Anne with her brother. Before marrying Henry, Anne had always seemed cold and withholding. But after sleeping with Henry and then being abandoned by him, who could blame Anne for feeling lonely?
Cromwell invites Mark Smeaton over for dinner. The young musician is clearly nervous—but Cromwell promises Mark that he has come as a friend, asking Mark for help understanding Anne’s present state of unhappiness. “She is in love,” Mark explains. When Cromwell wonders who Anne might love, Mark is quick to answer—“me.”
Active
Themes
Cromwell is amazed, not at Mark’s confession but at the ease with which he is finding information to incriminate Anne. Mark goes on, telling 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 cannot wait to use Mark’s confession in court and demands that Mark list the names of all of Anne’s lovers. Mark, dismayed, realizes that Cromwell plans to jail him.
Active
Themes
Cromwell notices that it is chilly, and asks for a fire to be lit. It is “just an ordinary household request,” yet Mark thinks Cromwell and his men plan to burn him, and he leaps up in fear. Cromwell tells Mark that if he is direct and honest, it is possible that Henry will show mercy. Mark begins to tremble, but he still does not confess, so Cromwell summons Christophe. Cromwell tells Mark that if he doesn’t talk soon, he will have to spend 10 minutes alone with Christophe, a threat that only makes Mark cry even harder.
Active
Themes
Even though he is experienced in such matters, Cromwell still always hates this part of the process. For a second, he recalls the first time he was badly burned in Walter’s blacksmith shop. Walter had helped him salve the pain, explaining “it’s happened to us all. It’s how you learn.” Now, Cromwell repeats those words to Mark, asking if the boy believes he will be able to learn from pain. As Mark shudders, Cromwell assures his prisoner that he is not interested in the screams of torture. Instead, Cromwell says, “I want words that make sense. Words I can transcribe.”
Active
Themes
Cromwell pictures what Mark will experience if he is tortured: time and space will warp, the iron hissing as it is lifted from the fire. Mark will not be able to speak—his tongue will have swelled, and he will feel too panicked to talk. Only when Mark is carried away from the torture machinery and laid down on a straw bed will he speak, the words suddenly overflowing from him. Now, Christophe takes Mark by the hand: Mark will spend the night. If he does not confess by the morning, the torture will begin.
Active
Themes
Tonight, Cromwell struggles to eat; the only thing he can stomach is a salad of purslane leaves. The simple meal always reminds him of when he was a boy, and his family could not afford anything else. After dinner, Cromwell heads to bed, but he can’t sleep, either, instead thinking of lawsuits he hasn’t recalled in years. Cromwell wishes he could separate his private self from his public one, as Thomas More used to advise, but he knows this is impossible. Distantly, Cromwell hears a scream, but he ignores it, instead rolling onto his side and praying.
Active
Themes
When the sun rises, Christophe explains that he locked Mark in overnight with the Christmas supplies, including the peacock wings (that once belonged to the Cromwell girls) and a star ornament. The screams Cromwell heard resulted when Mark bumped into the star’s point, hurting himself. Alone in the dark, Christophe says, Mark had become convinced that there was a “phantom” in the room with him.
Active
Themes
When Mark comes out of the Christmas closet, he is so terrified that he is incoherent. Christophe has to slap Mark before he can calm down enough to confess and name others as Anne’s lovers. Mark wonders what will happen to him, and Cromwell says it is up to the court.
Active
Themes
Mark leaves, and Wriothesley takes Cromwell aside. Wriothesley is firm that Cromwell needs to interview Thomas Wyatt, since Wyatt is the person who stands “first in suspicion” of sleeping with Anne. But Cromwell does not want to call Wyatt in, though he cannot explain to Wriothesley why Wyatt’s honor, intelligence, and optimism feels so rare. Instead, Cromwell just tells Wriothesley that he is loyal to Wyatt because Wyatt has never badmouthed him or tried to get between Cromwell and Henry.
Active
Themes
Wriothesley smiles. “It is not so much who is guilty,” Wriothesley observes, “as whose guilt is of service to you.” Still, Wriothesley encourages Cromwell to call in Wyatt for questioning, especially since Cromwell himself is in a precarious position now that he has gone against the Boleyns. Cromwell tries to shrug this off, but he knows Wriothesley is right—his new allies, the old families of England, “hold him cheap.”
Active
Themes
Cromwell orders Mark Smeaton to be sent to the Tower of London. Across the city, servants will be preparing for the royal jousts, where both Harry Norris and George Boleyn plan to participate. Whatever happens today, May 1st, 1536, Cromwell reflects that this will be “the last day of knighthood.” Though some rituals will persist, Cromwell feels that these “pageants” will now be “no more than a dead parade with banners, a contest of corpses.”
Active
Themes
That night, Norris is taken into custody (on evidence from Mark’s confession), and Cromwell goes to see Henry. Henry makes sure that Mark’s confession was given freely, and Cromwell assures him it was—though he thinks privately that he will need to burn the peacock wings. Henry then informs Cromwell that Norris, too, has confessed.
Active
Themes
Henry wonders aloud why Anne has chosen to sleep with so many different men. Henry is also mystified by the fact that Anne is rumored to have sex in unconventional positions, causing Henry to wonder where she learned these things. Cromwell does not say that Anne learned such techniques from Henry himself. Right now, Cromwell notes, Henry seems to picture himself as one of his most god-fearing subjects—as if the king were a lowly farmer who only has sex for procreation, and who, even then, always crosses himself before the act.
Active
Themes
Later, Cromwell will wonder if Anne knew what was coming. According to those closest to her, Anne sensed nothing wrong in her last morning as a free woman; instead, she just watched the palace tennis matches as usual. At midday, a lawyer came to Anne’s rooms to tell her that she was to be tried for adultery. At first, she shrugged it off, insisting that a queen could not be put on trial. But when she learned that Mark and Harry Norris had confessed, Anne burst into tears.
Active
Themes
Now, Norfolk rushes up to Cromwell, anxious that Anne’s sins will not reflect poorly on him and his descendants. Norfolk is anxious to speak to Anne himself, so he goes with Cromwell to her chamber. Though Anne’s voice is small, she begins as haughtily as ever, telling Cromwell that she “created” him. “And he created you,” Norfolk replies.
Active
Themes
It is time to bring Anne to the Tower, but she does not want to go, instead asking politely to speak with Henry. Cromwell explains that this will not be possible—Henry never says goodbye. Anne then asks if her ladies-in-waiting can accompany her. Cromwell and Norfolk exchange glances; is it possible that Anne does not know these ladies were the first people to give evidence against her? Finally, Anne wonders where her father is, asking why he has not come to “resolve” this.
Active
Themes
Outside Anne’s chambers, William Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, waits to take the Queen away. Cromwell, Norfolk, Fitzwilliam, and a few others board the barge to the Tower alongside Anne. Cromwell catches Fitz’s eye: now Anne knows what Wolsey felt when she forced him out of his house.
Active
Themes
The conversation turns to Thomas Wyatt, whom many of the courtiers suspect is the next to be arrested. Cromwell continues to defend Wyatt, even when one lord suggests that Wyatt has written incriminating poetry to Anne. Cromwell knows that Wyatt is too crafty to be caught, even in his love letters; “there are codes so subtle,” Cromwell muses, “that they change their whole meaning in half a line, or in a syllable.”
Active
Themes
Cromwell flashes back on an early conversation with Jane Rochford, in which she speculated about the first time Anne ever slept with Henry. Cromwell does not like this kind of conversation, and he thinks about how often women’s talk “trespasses” in Henry’s body, which is “borderless, fluent, like his realm.” Women like to dissect the secrets of this body, talking openly about who Henry has slept with and how it went.
The barge lands, and Anne steps off, demanding to know where Harry Norris is and whether he has cleared her name. When Kingston informs Anne that Harry has in fact incriminated them both, Anne collapses, weeping on the cobblestone ground. While his niece weeps, Norfolk turns to Cromwell, demanding to see Henry. Cromwell refuses, explaining that Henry has asked to be alone.
Active
Themes
At this, Norfolk explodes, yelling at Cromwell that “if I say I need to see the Tudor, no blacksmith’s boy will say me nay.” Fortunately, Richard Riche intervenes, having slipped on board the barge without Cromwell noticing. Cromwell “may weld you,” Riche warns Norfolk. “He may take upon him to beat and reshape your head.” Fitzwilliam and the other courtiers pile on to Riche’s joke, and Norfolk turns away, humiliated.
That evening, Cromwell gets a message (sent by the dutiful Kingston) that Anne has thrown herself on the floor of her room in the Tower, weeping that even this jail cell is “too good” for her. Wriothesley sees this as Anne’s admission of guilt, but Cromwell knows better. Anne does not feel guilt so much as a sense of failure: her goal was to get Henry and keep him, but she has lost him to Jane Seymour. “Anne is dead to herself,” Cromwell thinks. She will be easy to handle now.
Active
Themes
Now, Cromwell goes to see Henry, who is anxious to communicate with Jane. Cromwell warns that it is a bad idea to bring Jane to the palace until Anne has been dealt with, so Henry sends Cromwell with a gift for Jane instead, a bejeweled chain. “It was my wife’s,” Henry tells Cromwell. Then he checks himself, ashamed: “I mean to say, it was Katherine’s.”
Active
Themes
Cromwell goes to Nicholas Carew’s house, where Jane and the rest of the Seymour family have recently been staying. Now that it is clear that Jane will become Henry’s wife, Bess and the rest of the Seymour family are trying to train her in queenly etiquette. Bess is insistent that Jane must dress in the old style of clothes, the kind that haven’t been popular since Anne rose to power. After all, Anne will soon be sent to the convent, out of sight and out of mind.
Active
Themes
Quietly, Jane joins the conversation, opining that she does not think sending Anne to a convent will get rid of her for good. Cromwell wonders what Jane would do to “ruin” Anne. But Jane is firm that Anne has “ruined herself”; “you cannot do what Anne Boleyn did,” Jane says, “and live to be old.” Unlike Anne, Cromwell reflects, Jane keeps her face hidden, like one of the virgins in old paintings. That way, Jane can keep her calculations secret from the world.
Active
Themes
Jane smiles at Cromwell, recalling that he was kind to her when no one else was. Jane promises that when she is married to Henry, she will “remember” Cromwell’s service. Then Carew arrives, huffing about the ballads that Londoners are singing to defame Jane. Carew is furious that anyone would compare Jane’s ascension to Anne’s similar rise just a few years ago, but even Henry sees the similarities. Lately, Cromwell notes, the king has been rewriting his old poems, replacing references to a “dark lady” with references to a fair one.
Active
Themes
Jane unwraps the present Henry has given her, which is embossed with rubies, intertwined to form an ‘H’ and an ‘A.’ Beneath the letter ‘A,’ one can still see the ‘K,’ from when the jewelry belonged to Katherine. Privately, Cromwell admires Henry’s economy. Out loud, however, Cromwell promises Jane that the jewels can be replaced to reflect her initials.
Active
Themes
Cromwell goes to leave, but before he does, Carew stops him. Carew wants Mary’s sentence to be lessened—if she herself is not allowed out of house arrest, maybe she can at least have visitors. Cromwell assents, knowing that Henry, too, hopes for reconciliation with his daughter now that Anne is out of the picture. “One more thing,” Carew adds, as Cromwell starts to go. “You must pull Wyatt in.”
Active
Themes
Cromwell begins gathering witnesses, finding more courtiers who will testify that both Harry Norris and George Boleyn had sexual relationships with Anne. He also agrees to interview Thomas Wyatt—though he has a messenger warn Carew that he will not act as the old families’ “waiting boy.”
Active
Themes
Cromwell goes to visit Henry, accompanied by Archbishop Cranmer. Today, Henry is mournful, opining that marriage is inherently sinful. Now Henry can even lament Wolsey’s death, fuming that Anne used her “ingenuity” to get the cardinal executed. Henry wonders aloud how he was ever able to love Anne, and he surmises that it must be because she bewitched him. Henry declares that all men “should be warned” about “what women are”; “their appetites,” he notes, “are unbounded.”
Henry’s bastard son, the Duke of Richmond, knocks. When Henry sees his child, now a teenager, he bursts into tears, horrified at the thought that Anne might have poisoned both Richmond and Mary so that baby Elizabeth could take the throne. Henry announces that his marriage to Anne was illicit, prompting his son to respond with confusion (“this one as well?”). At this, Henry sobs again, and he asks to be left alone. Tonight, Henry tells Cranmer, he is too tired to confess.
Active
Themes
Outside Henry’s chambers, Richmond tells Cromwell that he recently lost his virginity. Therefore, Richmond argues, he wants to be allowed to live with Norfolk’s daughter, whom he has been betrothed to for years. Cromwell knows that Anne’s fall from grace is good for Richmond: if Mary and baby Elizabeth are also illegitimate, isn’t Richmond now the closest thing Henry has to a successor?
Active
Themes
Then, Richmond softens, asking Cromwell if he ever thinks about Wolsey. When Cromwell says he does, Richmond confesses that for the first few years of his life, he thought Wolsey, his godfather, was his real father; whenever Henry would come, bearing presents, Richmond could never recognize the king as his dad. Richmond sighs, acknowledging that once Henry marries Jane Seymour, he will probably have another son. Richmond wonders how any man can navigate marriage and romance if all “married ladies are false.”
Active
Themes
Richmond yawns, and his servants hurry him home, away from Cromwell. Cromwell knows that he is terrifying to most of the people in his ecosystem. Sometimes, Cromwell’s fearsomeness is mysterious even to him. The next day, Cromwell decides, he will go to the Tower to interrogate Harry Norris.
Active
Themes
As Cromwell approaches Norris’s cell, he thinks about this “spider of spiders,” this poised, calm man who serves as “chief bottom-wiper to the king.” But when Cromwell arrives, Norris is weeping. Cromwell keeps his tone light as he asks Norris about a masque several months ago, where he and William Brereton joked about exposing themselves to Anne. Norris had scoffed that the queen had seen a naked man “many a time,” a comment Cromwell now holds up as evidence of Anne’s frequent adultery.
Active
Themes
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 other. Norris also points out that his family has been serving Henry’s family for generations, even when Henry’s father was forced into exile.
Active
Themes
Cromwell levels with Norris, explaining that Henry will be rid of Anne somehow—why can’t Norris just confess and speed up the process? But Norris still insists on his innocence, instead asking Cromwell why he and not Wyatt is being charged. Cromwell ignores this, reminding Norris that he discussed having lustful thoughts for Anne. Norris protests that “intentions” are not a crime, though he knows Cromwell is determined to prove him guilty of something.
Active
Themes
Cromwell admires Norris’s clear-eyed assessment of the situation, and he muses aloud that the two men have known each other for 20 years. Cromwell then asks Norris if he recalls a certain pageant, the one in which he and other courtiers played demons dragging a caricatured Wolsey to hell. Cromwell watches Norris’s eyes widen as he remembers the play—and how Cromwell looked watching it, his face drawn, wrapped in black for mourning. Norris insists that “it was a play,” but Cromwell sees Norris’s expression change from indignation to “blank terror.”
Active
Themes
Norris asks Cromwell why he is going after Mark Smeaton, if Mark was not one of the actors in this long-ago play. Cromwell just replies that he doesn’t like the way Mark looks at him. Cromwell wonders if he will have to spell it out for Norris: “he needs guilty men” to get rid of Anne, so he has found them. “Though perhaps not guilty as charged.”
Norris asks if there will be a trial, or if he will be executed straight away. If he has to wait too long, Norris thinks, he might die from grief. Cromwell is certain, however, that Norris will make it—after all, if Cromwell could survive losing his wife and two daughters, Norris can survive this. Norris confesses that he is in unbearable pain, and Cromwell reminds Norris just how much Wolsey suffered as he, too, sat in the Tower, awaiting execution. As Cromwell takes his leave, he checks off a mental list: “left forepaw.”
Active
Themes
Now, Cromwell heads to see William Brereton. Cromwell presents Brereton with a list 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 returns to his list—“William Brereton,” he thinks, “left hindpaw.”
Active
Themes
Cromwell goes to visit George Boleyn. At first, Boleyn is confident, convinced that Cromwell is merely accusing him of some collusion with Anne. But when Cromwell hints that he is charging Boleyn with incest, he folds into himself, unsure of what to do next. Privately, Cromwell reflects that Boleyn should have given up long ago, like his father Wiltshire did; instead of insisting on his dignity, he should have bowed to Cromwell’s will. Instead, George will end up dead: “right forepaw,” eliminated.
Active
Themes
At last, Cromwell goes to visit Francis Weston (“right hindpaw,” as he puts it). The Weston family anticipates Cromwell’s accusations, and they have already approached him, offering him a great deal of money if he will spare their son. And by the time Cromwell meets Weston, the haughty courtier is ready with an apology, saying he is sorry for “belittling” Cromwell.
Active
Themes
Cromwell points out the evidence: Anne gave Weston money to pay off his debts, a sign (at least in the future jury’s mind) that the two were having an affair. Weston slumps, promising that if Cromwell does not sentence him to die, he will make good, giving to charity until he is “old, forty-five or fifty.” Privately, Cromwell reflects that Weston, a courtier from a family of courtiers, has never had to doubt his place in the world.
Active
Themes
Cromwell continues to question Weston, and Weston appears to be on the edge of incriminating Norris. But before he can do so, Cromwell gets nauseous and excuses himself. Something about Weston’s manner—perhaps the childlike way he referenced growing to be “forty-five or fifty”—has touched him. Cromwell rushes out of the Tower. As Cromwell tries to stave off panic, he reflects that “the lambs have butchered and eaten themselves. They have brought knives to the table […] and picked their own bones clean.”
Active
Themes
It is now May, and everything is in bloom. When Cromwell goes to visit Anne in the Tower, he brings some flowers with him. Cromwell wonders if this is the last time he will see Anne before she goes to court. He notes that she looks older now, the stress wrinkling her face. At first, Anne is as haughty as ever, insisting that she will be released and punish Cromwell for going against her. But even Anne’s ladies find this laughable.
Active
Themes
Anne asks Cromwell what is taking so long, and he explains that they are gathering confessions from the accused men; soon, Cromwell says, they make take a statement from Anne. At this, Anne breaks down, pleading to not testify. Cromwell feels guilty until Anne clasps her hands at her chest, a gesture she always uses to win men over. “She is not innocent,” Cromwell thinks, “she can only mimic innocence.”
Active
Themes
Kingston follows Cromwell out of Anne’s cell, reporting on Anne’s behavior. Recently, Anne has grown more and more erratic, alternating between praying, laughing, and wrapping her hands around her throat. Sometimes, Kingston tells Cromwell, Anne calls out for Thomas Wyatt, wondering when he will join her in the Tower.
Active
Themes
Cromwell heads to the castle, and he is surprised to see Wyatt bickering with Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Cromwell pulls Wyatt aside, angry that he went to the castle instead of going straight to Cromwell’s house. Wyatt confesses his fear that he will be arrested, especially since Cromwell’s “new friends” want him dead. Cromwell assures Wyatt that he will protect him, even against these prominent courtiers. Still, for now, Cromwell will have to bring Wyatt to the Tower.
Active
Themes
Wyatt leaves, and Cromwell debriefs the day with Wriothesley. Again, Cromwell reflects that Wyatt is “the cleverest man in England”: he can write verses and messages that have different meanings to different people and encode things so slyly that one can never find him guilty of anything. Instead, Wyatt claims that he only speaks “the poet’s truth,” constrained not by Henry’s laws but by “meter.” In this way, Cromwell thinks, Wyatt is almost a modern-day angel, a messenger using a feathered quill instead the wings of “falcons, crows, peacocks.”
When Cromwell receives the indictments, he can tell that Henry has written them—the legal documents are not neutral but filled with rage and scandalous detail. There are also discrepancies in the facts as laid out by the indictment (for example, the document places Brereton in two places at once). But the old families of England do not mind. Instead, they are eager to declare both Anne and her brother George “heretics,” and they hope that Henry will learn hard lessons from this—maybe he will even reconcile with the Pope.
Active
Themes
At one point, Rafe asks Cromwell if there is not an easier (and less bloody) way to get rid of Anne. Cromwell only replies that once he has decided to destroy someone, he must move swiftly, without error. “Before you even glance” at an enemy, Cromwell instructs, “you should have the axe in your hand.”
Active
Themes
Cromwell goes to visit Wyatt in his cell. Wyatt wonders why Henry panicked about Anne’s affairs—isn’t that just how marriage works? Cromwell says that Henry wants to “rework the past,” to make it as though he has never seen Anne, much less married her. Cromwell presses Wyatt on a claim he made long ago, that Anne will sometimes lead men on, then refuse them, then give in. Indeed, Wyatt used to mimic Anne, flirtatiously telling her suitors “yes, yes, yes, no, yes.”
Active
Themes
Wyatt insists that he had made this comment to Cromwell in confidence, but Cromwell reminds Wyatt of his role as Henry’s aide, saying that no can have ever have an “inconsequential conversation” with him. Bitterly, Wyatt reflects that if he ever felt any tenderness for Anne, he does not feel it now.
Active
Themes
Cromwell heads to interview Harry Percy. Four years ago, Cromwell had threatened to destroy Percy if the young man refused to get out of Henry’s way. A few days after that initial meeting, Percy had arrived in court, smelling of alcohol and vomit, to swear that he had never had any claim on Anne Boleyn, and that no marriage contract had ever existed between them.
Active
Themes
When Cromwell arrives at Percy’s country house, Percy is sickly, appearing almost on the verge of death. Cromwell eases into his message: he has come to ask Percy to once more claim Anne as his wife, swearing in court that they had been secretly married in 1523. Though Percy is ill, he tells Cromwell “no” with a flash of energy that reminds Cromwell of Percy’s “ancestral spirit.” Percy refuses to perjure himself, even when Cromwell reminds Percy how drunk he was on that day in court five years ago.
Active
Themes
Percy stands firm, recalling that he swore on a bible and wondering why Cromwell needs him at all—if Henry plans to execute Anne, then an annulment is beside the point. Cromwell, angry at this comment, stands to go. Before he leaves, he warns Percy that if he does not testify to his marriage with Anne, he will be forced to sit on the jury that tries her.
Active
Themes
Chapuys comes to visit Cromwell. Chapuys is in a good mood, eager to hear details of Anne’s downfall. Chapuys also urges Cromwell to visit the Princess Mary, so that Cromwell can earn her favor once she has returned to the line of succession. Chapuys looks forward to the “new world” that will exist in Anne’s absence, and he hopes that he and Cromwell can become closer friends.
Active
Themes
Now that news of Anne’s arrest is rippling through Europe, royals from many different countries are offering their daughters as potential matches for Henry. Jane Seymour, sensing this, is stashing money in a trunk, trying to prepare for the eventuality that Henry changes his mind. Meanwhile, Edward and Thomas Seymour are out in the London streets, trying to win Jane favor with the common people. Cromwell now sees “portents” everywhere; nature seems to turn against itself. But Cromwell also notices that for the first time, Jane has some color in her cheeks.
Active
Themes
At the Tower, the order comes in 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 commoners think Weston’s family wealth will preserve him, but nobody thinks Mark Smeaton will get out alive.
Active
Themes
As is usual in treason trials, the accused men are not given lawyers. Norfolk presides over the court. Only Mark confesses aloud, weeping and crying for mercy. The other three prisoners are succinct in their statements. Cromwell ensures that the charges go by so quickly that none of the men can defend themselves. All four prisoners are found guilty.
Active
Themes
Once the trial is done and the crowds have scattered, Cromwell heads home, where he pictures the news of Anne’s fall spreading all over the world—from Europe to the Levant all the way to India, where no one has ever heard the name “Anne Boleyn.” Cromwell now sees himself as “the overlord of the spaces and the silences, the gaps and the erasures, what is missed or misconstrued or simply mistranslated.” These thoughts are interrupted by Gregory, who has returned from the country, surprising his father.
While Thurston and Anthony joke about the executions, Gregory wonders if there is any way his father could stop the bloodshed. Cromwell says he is just carrying out Henry’s wishes and urges Gregory to ignore anyone who says that Cromwell is acting on his own grudges. When Gregory wonders why so many men had to be accused, Cromwell explains that if it were just one man, he would seem too special in comparison with Henry. This way, the men blur together, and Anne just appears “indiscriminate.”
Active
Themes
Gregory continues to press his father, asking Cromwell if the men are truly “guilty.” Cromwell says they are, though he knows he and Gregory mean different things—Gregory is asking whether the men committed any crime, and Cromwell is merely talking about the court’s ruling. Cromwell is proud that he has won such a clean victory, that he has been able to take that “mass of heaving flesh and smooth it on to white paper.” Already, Cromwell thinks, he has heard that the Pope is eager to reconcile with Henry soon.
Gregory wonders if his father will bear witness to the executions. Cromwell answers honestly that he has not decided yet. When he tries to picture the accused men on the scaffold, Cromwell finds that he can only think of Thomas More. Cromwell feels no guilt about More, he decides—More created his own destiny, talking and writing so much that he sealed his own grisly fate.
Active
Themes
On the day of her trial, Anne wears scarlet and black, and a little cap instead of the customary hood. A makeshift court has been built in the Tower, and Cromwell sees courtiers and ambassadors who have gathered for the trial. Cromwell asks Anne questions, and Anne answers “no” over and over 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 feel “routine.”
Active
Themes
After some deliberation, Norfolk reads the guilty verdict (prompting the crowd to cry out that even Anne’s own uncle has turned against her). Norfolk announces that Anne will be killed in the manner of Henry’s choosing—and Henry wants his wife to be beheaded. Then, Anne is shuffled away, as the lawyers and jurors prepare for George Boleyn to be tried. Cromwell notes that even as she is hurried out of the room, Anne remains composed.
Active
Themes
George is more eloquent than the other accused men have been—after all, Cromwell reflects, he has nothing to lose, since both his wife Lady Rochford and his father Wiltshire have betrayed him. But Cromwell stays calm, eventually getting George to repeat his earlier comment that Henry “cannot copulate with a woman, he has neither skill nor vigor.” This earns George boos, and Cromwell doubles down, reminding George that he has spread the rumor that baby Elizabeth is not really Henry’s daughter.
Active
Themes
Cromwell knows that the charges against George are relatively flimsy, but it is clear that the jurors are ready to declare George guilty. Before they can do so, however, Harry Percy stands up, as if to speak. Suddenly, Percy falls down, and someone proclaims in a panic that he is dead. Finally, George begins to weep.
Active
Themes
The next day, May 16th, the French ambassador meets Cromwell at the Tower. When 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 annoyance, that the Weston family has managed to bribe even King Francis. The French ambassador also hopes that Wiltshire will be spared in the carnage, which he thinks is far more extreme than it needs to be.
Active
Themes
Cromwell invites the French ambassador to dine with him once things 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.” Cromwell reflects that Anne was a “book left open on a desk for anyone to write on the pages, where only her husband should inscribe.”
Active
Themes
That evening, Archbishop Cranmer reports to Cromwell that Anne is still refusing to confess. However, Anne says that she is willing to admit to anything, as long as Henry will send her to a convent rather than killing her. Lately, she has been wondering if she will go to Heaven, telling Cranmer that she has committed many “good deeds” in her life. More than anything, Anne is anxious to know if her marriage will be annulled after her death. When Cranmer says it will be, she asks only if she will retain her title as queen.
Active
Themes
Cromwell takes the death warrants to Henry to be signed. Henry is in a foul mood, speculating that Anne lost her virginity not to Harry Percy but to King Francis in France. Cromwell asks if Henry blames Wyatt for Anne’s fall from grace, and Henry opines that he thinks Wyatt is innocent. Cromwell delivers a request from Anne: she wants to have her old ladies-in-waiting back, not the new women who have been assigned in the Tower. Henry agrees to this request as he signs the death warrants in neat, big block letters.
Active
Themes
“On paper it is done”: George Boleyn, Smeaton, Weston, Brereton and Norris have all been executed with an axe. George made an eloquent speech, but the rest merely declared themselves sinners—though they would not name a particular sin. Shortly after these executions are completed, Cromwell, Norfolk, Cranmer and Suffolk discuss on what grounds they should annul the marriage. When they cannot decide on something satisfactory—should they blame Mary Boleyn or witchcraft?—they agree that they will keep the record of the annulment a secret.
Active
Themes
Anne is scheduled to be executed on May 19th, but she gets confused and wakes early on May 18th to pray. When Anne realizes her mistake, she bursts into tears. Cromwell asks Gregory if he feels strong enough to attend the execution, noting that it will be painful to witness. But if Gregory can go through with it without falling apart, Cromwell knows it will be great for the family’s reputation.
Active
Themes
When Cromwell arrives at the scaffold, the executioner is already there, talking to Christophe about the logistics of the beheading. The executioner emphasizes that Anne must stay still if she wants the execution to be painless; otherwise, her death will be bloody and prolonged. Christophe adds that Anne must keep her skirts tied, in case she falls and “shows off to the world what so many fine gentlemen have already seen.”
Active
Themes
The next day, the procession begins. Anne is wrapped in furs, and after a moment, Cromwell realizes that this outfit used to belong to Katherine. Every so often, Anne stops in her tracks, as if she thinks there is still hope. Next to him, Cromwell can feel Gregory trembling in fear. Cromwell puts a hand on his son’s arm to steady him.
Active
Themes
When Anne takes off her cape at the scaffold, she looks tiny, nothing but “a bundle of bones.” Quietly, Anne prays for Henry and the country, then removes her cap. She has practiced, Cromwell thinks; her curls flow gracefully as she shakes out her hair. Cromwell reflects that if Anne could have brought Katherine or Princess Mary to the scaffold, she would have done so.
Active
Themes
Anne kneels, and somebody blindfolds her. And then Cromwell hears the sound like a whistle through a “keyhole,” the sound of Anne’s blood leaving her body. As Anne bleeds out, her ladies-in-waiting surround her on the scaffold. One of them announces, with ferocity, that “we do not want men to handle her.”
That night, Cromwell writes letters to France, informing Bishop Gardiner (who is the ambassador there) that the execution is complete. With a start, Cromwell finds that he misses Rafe—he cannot get used to this new way of life, where Rafe is off in the castle as one of Henry’s grooms.
Active
Themes
Wriothesley commends Cromwell on his work: all the actors in that horrible play about Wolsey are dead, joined by the balladeer (Mark) who played the show’s music. But Wriothesley hints that “a gentleman”—whom Cromwell knows is Stephen Gardiner—is skeptical of Cromwell’s manipulation. “If this is what Cromwell does to his lesser enemies,” Gardiner had asked, “what will he do by and by to the king himself?”
Active
Themes
