Rafe Sadler Character Analysis in Wolf Hall

Rafe Sadler is Cromwell’s chief clerk, who came to the Cromwell household to train under Cromwell when he was just a boy of seven. His father, Henry Sadler, sends him to Cromwell because he wants his son to learn everything Cromwell knows. Cromwell is very attached to Rafe, and he loves him like his own son. When Cromwell’s daughter, Anne Cromwell, tells her father that she would like to marry Rafe when she grows up, Cromwell is excited at the prospect and feels that his life could be happy again despite his wife Liz’s death. Rafe grows into a sensible young man and a capable assistant. Even King Henry notices this and asks that Rafe stay with him to advise him when Cromwell has to be elsewhere. Cromwell relies heavily on Rafe’s assistance, and at times, Rafe seems even more level-headed than Cromwell. Rafe ends up marrying Helen Barre, a poor woman with two children whose husband abandoned her, and Cromwell is unpleasantly shocked when he hears this because he fears that Henry Sadler will hold Cromwell responsible for this poor match. Still, since Cromwell has just been promoted to Master Secretary when he hears this news, he promises Rafe’s father that he will use his own position to ensure the success of Rafe’s career. He is pleased to be able to help Rafe in this way.

Rafe Sadler Quotes in Wolf Hall

The Wolf Hall quotes below are all either spoken by Rafe Sadler or refer to Rafe Sadler. 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:

Power, Ambition, and Deception Theme Icon

“Why do people marry?”

[…]

“Most people,” he says, “feel it increases their happiness.”

“Oh, yes, that,” Anne says. “May I choose my husband?”

“Of course,” he says; meaning, up to a point.

“Then I choose Rafe.”

For a minute, for two minutes together, he feels his life might mend. Then he thinks, how could I ask Rafe to wait? He needs to set up his own household. Even five years from now, Anne would be a very young bride.

“I know,” she says. “And time goes by so slowly.”

It’s true; one always seems to be waiting for something.

Related Characters: Thomas Cromwell (speaker), Anne Cromwell (speaker), Rafe Sadler, Liz Wykys

Page Number and Citation: 118

Explanation and Analysis:

He stops to have a word with some of the benchers: how was this allowed to go forward? The Cardinal of York is a sick man, he may die, how will you and your students stand then before God? What sort of young men are you breeding here, who are so brave as to assail a great man who has fallen on evil times—whose favor, a few short weeks ago, they would have begged for?

The benchers follow him, apologizing; but their voices are lost in the roars of laughter that billow out from the hall. His young household are lingering, casting glances back. […]

Rafe touches his shoulder. Richard walks on his left, sticking close. “You don’t have to hold me up,” he says mildly. “I’m not like the cardinal.” He stops. He laughs. He says, “I suppose it was…”

“Yes, it was quite entertaining,” Richard says.

Related Characters: Thomas Cromwell (speaker), Richard Williams/Richard Cromwell (speaker), Cardinal Wolsey , Rafe Sadler

Page Number and Citation: 162

Explanation and Analysis:

Rafe Sadler Character Timeline in Wolf Hall

The timeline below shows where the character Rafe Sadler appears in Wolf Hall. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Cromwell gets set to leave Wolsey and go home with his clerk Rafe Sadler, who has lived in the Cromwell household ever since he was a little boy... (full context)

...the dead.” She had taken ill earlier that day with the sweating sickness and sent Rafe out to find him, but Cromwell couldn’t be found. (full context)

...family must stay inside their house for 40 days. Cromwell reads and plays chess with Rafe, who is always by his side. When he sleeps, he dreams of Liz, so he... (full context)

...says Grace isn’t slow, just young. Anne then tells him she would like to marry Rafe when she is older. As Cromwell considers this, he thinks “his life might mend” after... (full context)

...tip of her forefinger and touches it to his lips” and leaves. When Cromwell tells Rafe about all this later, Rafe is incredulous, saying that Cromwell certainly must have imagined the... (full context)

The court is packed, and Cromwell and Rafe are on the far edges of the crowd. The king speaks in his “full, echoing... (full context)

...night, while others recall him saying “it is a good pastime to have a wife.” Rafe says that no 15-year-old groom would ever admit that he didn’t do anything on his... (full context)

Cromwell tells Cavendish that he’s sent Rafe to Westminster to try and get a seat for him in Parliament, and that he... (full context)

Rafe succeeds in getting Cromwell a seat in the House of Commons from Taunton, which is... (full context)

...mock “a great man who has fallen on evil times.” However, while walking home with Rafe and Richard, Cromwell calms down and admits that the play was entertaining. (full context)

...dilute venom like the uncolored blood of a snake.” When he gets home, he tells Rafe that he wants to “become perfectly calm.” (full context)

...6, he wonders why he isn’t with the cardinal and worries about the travel arrangements. Rafe says he will go to ensure that everything is perfect. Richard tells Cromwell that “it... (full context)

...“that he has come to the end of his credit with the Emperor.” He sends Rafe to Wolsey with messages “too secret to put into letters.” (full context)

...A young man named Thomas Wriothesley is the newest addition to the household. Richard and Rafe laugh at him for his complicated last name and call him “Call-Me-Risley,” because Wriothesley keeps... (full context)

...and Gardiner whispering together. Wriothesley diligently helps Cromwell and is a better assistant than even Rafe. Johane’s daughter sews an “awkward backstitch” that would be hard to imitate, and Cromwell has... (full context)

...night by someone knocking at the gate. Cromwell comes down to find Johane, Richard, and Rafe facing William Brereton of the privy chamber, who has come there with an armed escort.... (full context)

Cromwell, accompanied by Richard, Rafe, and Gregory, boards Brereton’s barge, and they begin the journey down the Thames. Henry Norris... (full context)

Rafe, Gregory, and Richard rush to Cromwell when he heads outside, asking what happened. Rafe is... (full context)

Outside, Wriothesely, Rafe, and Gregory are waiting for Cromwell. He tells them that he told Katherine that Henry... (full context)

Rafe worries that Wriothesley can’t be trusted, but Cromwell says that he understands “unprincipled men” like... (full context)

...dinner. With the household, he speaks “pleasantly of verse [and] portraiture,” and he talks to Rafe about falconry. When he hears that Cromwell is interested in it, too, Chapuys says that... (full context)

...up on all the information he has on Eliza Barton, the Maid, and he tells Rafe that the Maid has visions of the saints and can tell if someone’s dead relatives... (full context)

Rafe wakes Cromwell from uneasy dreams, saying that the king has already gone to Mass but... (full context)

However, Richard tells Rafe about it right away, and Rafe looks disapproving as he walks into Cromwell’s room. Cromwell... (full context)

...surprises at the court convened to dissolve the marriage. He also asks Cromwell to leave Rafe with him when he is gone, since Rafe can tell Henry what Cromwell might have... (full context)

...get agitated and lose the baby, Henry would have no mercy on Cromwell. Cromwell tells Rafe that last week he was the king’s “brother-in-arms,” and this week Henry is threatening to... (full context)

...his “features are true enough,” but that the expression on his face is unlike him. Rafe says Cromwell saves that expression for men. Chapuys comes in to look at it and... (full context)

...is strange. He seems a little afraid of his father as he tells him that Rafe said Cromwell will be “the second man in the kingdom soon.” Cromwell tells him not... (full context)

...barge that now belongs to him and has been painted with his coat of arms. Rafe is with him, and he tells Cromwell he has some news. He says he has... (full context)

...finally be a home again. However, he realizes that no one will be left there. Rafe and Helen are moving to a new house in Hackney, Richard is building another house... (full context)

...More’s trial, he is executed. That evening, Cromwell walks in the garden with Richard and Rafe, discussing the trial. More had seemed very calm, so everyone, including the jury, was surprised... (full context)

...are riding west in the summer, and Cromwell hopes that Anne Boleyn will return pregnant. Rafe wonders at how “the king can stand the hope each time,” adding that “[i]t would... (full context)

Rafe Sadler Character Analysis

Rafe Sadler Quotes in Wolf Hall

Part 2: Chapter 2 Quotes

Part 3: Chapter 1 Quotes

Rafe Sadler Character Timeline in Wolf Hall