Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Wolf Hall, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power, Ambition, and Deception
Poor Leadership and Violence
Children and Human Connection
Dogmatism vs. Open-Mindedness
Myth and Storytelling
Summary
Analysis
Rafe succeeds in getting Cromwell a seat in the House of Commons from Taunton, which is “Wolsey terrain.” He couldn’t have gotten the seat without the approval of the king and the Duke of Norfolk. Cromwell wonders what Norfolk’s intentions were in approving him for the seat, and Rafe tells him Norfolk thinks that the “lord cardinal has buried treasure” and that Cromwell knows its location. Rafe tells Cromwell that Norfolk will want Cromwell to work for him.
Rafe seems to be a capable assistant to Cromwell, and he is also very perceptive and helpful when they discuss problems. He seems to have Cromwell’s talent for looking beyond the obvious, which is what will make Rafe an able courtier, just like Cromwell. Meanwhile, Norfolk’s ludicrous reason for wanting to ally himself with Cromwell shows just how irrational and chaotic the workings of the court often are.
Themes
Norfolk rattles as he walks since “his clothes conceal relics: in tiny jeweled cases he has shavings of skin and snippets of hair, and set into medallions he wears splinters of martyrs’ bones.” He thinks that “book-reading” is “an affectation” and doesn’t think the Bible needs to be read by laypeople. He tells Cromwell that he is happy to have him be a burgess in the Parliament, and that he is to take orders from Norfolk and the king. Cromwell wants to know if their orders will be the same, to which the Duke frustratedly asks why he has to be such a “person,” since he can’t exactly afford to be one. Cromwell smiles, acknowledging to himself that he has become “a presence” and that his days of merging into the shadows of a room are perhaps over.
Norfolk seems to be a superstitious man (he suspected that Wolsey must have made a pact with the devil and stuck pins into a wax figure representing Norfolk), which is why he carries numerous holy relics around, probably believing that they will grant him protection from evil. However, these relics seem grisly—they are composed of the skin and bones of dead people, which points to Norfolk’s rough and violent side. He accuses Cromwell of being a “person,” using the word like an insult. Norfolk means that Cromwell is being unnecessarily difficult, but Cromwell takes it as proof that he has come into his own. He is no longer the “butcher’s dog” who followed his master Wolsey around, or “an eel” who quaked at Walter’s blows. Now, Cromwell has become a force in himself—a person rather than an animal.
Themes
Norfolk tells Cromwell that the king hasn’t forgotten that Cromwell argued against his war with France years ago, and that “he is preparing to quarrel” with Cromwell about this. The duke says that though they could never win over France, they must “fight as if [they] can.” He says Wolsey and Cromwell wouldn’t understand the glory of war since they are not royalty. Cromwell advises him to “negotiate” rather than fight, saying, “It’s cheaper.”
One of Cromwell’s tricks is that even though he conceals a lot about himself, he always seems to be forthright. Here, he doesn’t defend his birth and doesn’t even pretend to understand the “royal” argument about the glories of war. His advice is always practical, which ultimately makes him popular because he seems to be speaking his mind and grounding his guidance in reality.
Themes
The king’s advisers are preparing 44 charges against the cardinal, which include “buying beef for his household at the same price as the king” and violation of the statutes of praemunire, or “the upholding of a foreign jurisdiction with the king’s realm,” a law which no one quite understands and which “seems to mean what the king says it means.”
The charges against Wolsey are numerous, and some of them are transparently arbitrary. The courtiers seem set on getting rid of Wolsey, but without Wolsey himself to aid them, they seem to be floundering a little. However, the charge of praemunire shifts in meaning and scope, depending on Henry’s whims, which emphasizes that essentially, all laws and punishments depend on the king’s whims.
Themes
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The cardinal’s biggest fear is that the king might shut down the colleges he started. He worries about all this at his house in Esher, and he waits anxiously for Cromwell to bring him news from London. One night, Cromwell arrives at Esher when a boy named Mark Smeaton is playing the lute for the cardinal. The cardinal wonders if he should send the boy to Anne Boleyn as a present. After Mark leaves the room, Cromwell discloses his plan to bribe everyone who can help the cardinal’s case. The cardinal hopes that the king doesn’t mean to charge him with treason.
The cardinal is helpless to do any work to help his own case, and he is completely dependent on Cromwell, who proves to be a loyal friend and employee. Since the cardinal has no real power, he seems to be resorting to desperate gifts, like sending his lute-player to Anne Boleyn.
Themes
Cromwell has tried several times—unsuccessfully—to see the king and talk to him about Wolsey. He tells Wolsey that the king looks like he does not sleep, and Wolsey laughs as he says that it is probably because it is so cold and he cannot hunt—“It is lack of fresh air […]. It is not his conscience.”
Wolsey laughs at Cromwell’s suggestion that Henry might be feeling guilty, which indicates that Wolsey’s earlier defenses of Henry’s character were not quite honest. He called Henry “the kindest soul in Christendom” in Henry Norris’s earshot, but privately, Wolsey seems to know that the king is only concerned with his own pleasure.
Themes
As Cromwell is leaving, he overhears Mark Smeaton chatting with another servant. Mark is saying he is glad that he will be given to Anne Boleyn since “any day the king may behead” the cardinal. He says that the cardinal deserves it because he is “so proud,” and that Cromwell is sure to be executed, too, since he is probably a murderer and certainly looks like one. Mark says that Lady Anne might look on him “with favor” while “she is still refusing the king.” He also says that she is “no maid” and that “everybody knows” that “Tom Wyatt has had her.” Cromwell thinks this information is worth remembering.
Mark Smeaton’s conversation with the other servant gives Cromwell insight into how normal people feel about the goings on at court. Cromwell values all information, including gossip—he has seen that Wolsey’s fall was caused by ignoring it. Meanwhile, Smeaton’s assertion that Anne isn’t a virgin reinforces the idea that she’s just manipulating Henry to gain power for herself.
Themes
At Christmas, the cardinal is very ill and takes to bed, and he sends Cromwell home. While the house at Austin Friars is decorated for the season and “the kitchen is busy, feeding the living,” they are not putting on their usual songs and Christmas plays. “No year has brought such devastation,” and they are in mourning. Kat and her husband, Morgan Williams, died this year too. Their children, Richard and Walter, come to live in the Cromwell household.
While Cromwell’s public life is flourishing, his private life is steeped in grief with the deaths of more family members. Even so, he takes in his nephews without hesitation, again displaying his commitment to caring for vulnerable young people.
Themes
On New Year’s Day, Cromwell is writing letters for the cardinal. In “return for a formal guilty plea to the praemunire charges, the king will allow the cardinal his life,” but he will take away most of his income. Gregory comes in, bringing Cromwell some more lights. Gregory begins to neaten up documents on the table, and Cromwell realizes that he is using “a system of holy simplicity: big papers on the bottom, small ones on top.” After Cromwell writes the letters, he and Gregory discuss the Christmases of the past when Liz, Anne Cromwell, and Grace were alive. When Gregory kisses him goodnight, “his son leans against him, as if he were a child.” Cromwell then returns to work and has “the endorsement out, ready for filing.”
Cromwell seems to have successfully worked out a way for the cardinal to keep his life, even though it will mean pleading guilty to the vague crime of praemunire. As Cromwell deals with these complicated bureaucratic matters, he sees that his son, Gregory, is incapable of handling complexities like these. Still, Cromwell loves him without resentment and appreciates Gregory’s simplistic approach to life, even calling it “holy.”
Themes
As 1530 begins, Cromwell does not hold an Epiphany feast since he is aware that many guests will refuse his invitation, because the cardinal is in disgrace. He takes the young men in the household to watch a play put on by law students at Gray’s Inn, which turns out to be a satire that mocks the cardinal’s fall from grace. Cromwell leaves in anger, and he asks the benchers how the law students are being allowed to 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.
While Cromwell is angry at first when he sees Wolsey being mocked in a play, he soon comes to see the humor in it. This highlights Cromwell’s willingness to look at a thing from different angles and to accommodate viewpoints that are different from his own. The novel often uses plays and elements of theater to highlight the idea that there are many possible interpretations of any event, and that it is difficult—if not impossible—to excavate the total truth. With this play that mocks Wolsey, the novel admits another interpretation of Wolsey’s character that contradicts Cromwell’s version, which again points out the to reader that all histories are essentially fictions.
Themes
Later, Cromwell works on the cardinal’s letters again. Wolsey is appealing to the rulers of Europe to ask for their support. Cromwell wishes that he wouldn’t, or that he’d at least phrase his appeal more subtly. He knows Henry would deem it treasonous that Wolsey is “asking them to withdraw their approval of a king who very much likes to be liked.”
Wolsey seems to be growing careless in his desperation. He’s becoming a contrast with Cromwell, who never lets his emotions dictate his official actions.
Themes
Cromwell’s nephew Richard comes in and he asks if he and his brother Walter Williams can now take on Cromwell’s name, since he is like a father to them. Cromwell says he is surprised that they want to since the Cromwell name is in disgrace, but Richard insists that he will “never disown it.”
This incident is proof of Cromwell’s generosity and affection to his wards. Richard is very grateful for the care that Cromwell has given him and his brother after their parents’ death. The name is “in disgrace” due to Cromwell’s associations with Wolsey, but here Richard recognizes that Cromwell himself is still honorable and worthy of respect.
Themes
Later, Cromwell goes to the Duke of Norfolk, “who is always ready to see him,” to ask for his help in managing the cardinal’s household. Norfolk immediately offers to take on the cardinal’s servants as his own, and then he directs “a searching look at Cromwell,” who “[k]nows himself coveted” and “[w]ears an expression like an heiress: sly, coy, cold.” The Duke of Suffolk, too, is happy to take on some of the cardinal’s men.
Cromwell has slowly made his way into the orbits of Norfolk and Suffolk, and they seem ready to help the cardinal when Cromwell requests it, though they despise the cardinal himself. This is one of Cromwell’s first successes at court. Cromwell knows that Norfolk is desperate to hire him to be his man of business, and Cromwell therefore has sway over Norfolk that he can use to get what he wants from him.
Themes
Meanwhile, Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor, “has put his signature first on all the articles against Wolsey.” Cromwell hears that an extra allegation has been added at More’s request—the cardinal “is accused of whispering in the king’s ear and breathing into his face.” Since he has “the French pox,” More says, he intended to infect the king. Cromwell tries to imagine what it might be like “living inside the Lord Chancellor’s head,” to imagine an accusation like that and “[put] it out there to where people will believe anything.”
Thomas More seems vindictive—and rather silly—in the charges he brings against Wolsey. Cromwell wonders what it’s like to be More, which is exactly what makes him different from More; More never stops to consider perspectives other than his own.
Themes
One cloudy morning, Cromwell finally gets the chance to speak with Henry as he is getting ready to leave on a hunt. Henry says there are 44 charges against the cardinal, and Cromwell says they will be able to defend against each charge if given a hearing. The king asks if Cromwell can defend them right now, and Cromwell says he could, if the king would take a seat. The king says he has heard that Cromwell is “a ready man,” and Cromwell, almost without thinking, says he would not come here “unprepared.” This amuses the king, who says he will listen to him another day since Suffolk is waiting for him now.
When Cromwell finally gets his long-awaited appointment with Henry, Cromwell speaks to him without any anxiety. He has a ready answer for each of the king’s questions, and it’s this unfailing confidence—even when he’s less certain under the surface—that will make Cromwell such a valued advisor to the king later on.
Themes
Cromwell tells the king that he thinks the clouds will clear and that it will be “[a] good day to be chasing something.” Henry is surprised that Cromwell doesn’t think hunting is “barbaric,” like Thomas More does. Cromwell says he likes “any sport that’s cheaper than battle.” Henry says that this brings them to “a sticky point,” and reminds Cromwell that six years ago, he said in Parliament that the king “could not afford a war.” Cromwell thinks that it was actually seven years ago, in 1523, and notes that they are already talking about this even though his conversation with the king has lasted for only seven minutes.
While More objects to hunting on ethical grounds, Cromwell has no such worries; he’s only concerned about the practical consequences of whatever the king does. Norfolk warned Cromwell that the king hasn’t forgotten about his objections to the French war, and sure enough, Henry seems eager to discuss them. This shows Henry’s dislike of being opposed, and it shows that he remembers slights for years—all of which make him a dangerous king.
Themes
Cromwell understands that Henry will “chase [him] down” if he tries to back off, but that he “may just falter” if Cromwell pushes forward. So, he says that “[n]o ruler in the history of the world has ever been able to afford a war.” Henry says he captured the town of Thérouanne in 1513, and he demands to know how Cromwell could have called it a “doghole.” Cromwell says he’s been there. The king is angry and says that a country must “support a prince in his enterprise.” Cromwell says that he’d said the country didn’t “have the gold to see [the king] through a year’s campaign.” The king is shouting now and asks if Cromwell would prefer a king who “doesn’t fight” and “huddle[s] indoors like a sick girl.” Cromwell replies that this “would be ideal, for fiscal purposes.” Henry starts to laugh.
Cromwell understands that he disagreed with the king years before, and as a result, he is in a difficult situation now. But he realizes that Henry will not let the matter go if Cromwell seems afraid or apologetic; rather, he might give up if Cromwell insists that he himself was right all along. This strategy will serve Cromwell well in his dealings with the king going forward.
Themes
Henry says that Cromwell advocates prudence, but that princes have other virtues. Cromwell suggests that fortitude is one virtue, and Henry agrees, challenging Cromwell to put a cost on it. Cromwell tells him fortitude doesn’t mean “courage in battle,” but that it “means fixity of purpose. […] It means having the strength to live with what constrains you.” The king wants to know what constrains him, and Cromwell says that France’s distance, terrain, people, and weather are all constraints. He says that England only holds Calais and will not be able to support and provision an inland army. The king grows thoughtful at this and then says that the next time they fight France, they will need to take a seacoast. He says that Cromwell’s ideas are “[w]ell reasoned.”
Again, Cromwell is unafraid of opposing Henry’s ideas; in fact, he suspects that putting up a strong fight will actually make the king like him more. It seems to work: Henry sees that Cromwell’s arguments against the war were not made haphazardly, and—like Norfolk—the king seems to be becoming aware of Cromwell’s worth.
Themes
Henry says that Cromwell said in his speech in Parliament that “there was one million pounds of gold in the realm,” and Henry wants to know how he reached that figure. Cromwell says he trained in the Florentine banks and in Venice. The king is surprised and says that Suffolk said Cromwell was “a common soldier,” and Cromwell admits that he was that, too. Henry asks him if he was anything else, and Cromwell asks him what he’d like him to be. Henry says that he has a bad reputation and asks him if he’d like to defend himself. Cromwell says, “Your Majesty is able to form his own opinion,” and Henry says he will.
Cromwell is often looked down upon by many courtiers because he doesn’t come from nobility, but here, he portrays his hodgepodge background as a strength. The various jobs he’s held and the numerous countries he has lived in have given him a range of ideas and experiences which make him a good planner and careful thinker. Even as a young boy, Cromwell was likeable and made friends easily, and he has spent years honing this quality into an art. As a result, he seems to know the right things to say to please Henry.
Themes
Suffolk accosts Cromwell on his way out and asks him how his “fat priest” is. The king “flushes with displeasure” but Suffolk doesn’t notice. Afterward, Cromwell runs into Stephen Gardiner, who is now the king’s Master Secretary. Gardiner wants to know if Cromwell’s meeting with the king was unpleasant, and Cromwell says it was the opposite. Cromwell feels a “dull bruise inside his chest” as he leaves Gardiner, and he asks Gardiner if they could “drop this.” Gardiner refuses to. Cromwell walks on and thinks Gardiner might have to “wait a year or two,” but that he will get him.
Suffolk doesn’t even seem to notice the king’s annoyance when he mocks Wolsey—but Cromwell does, and he tucks this bit of information away so he can use it later to modulate his own behavior with the king. Cromwell and Gardiner began their careers together under Cardinal Wolsey, and despite their rivalry, Cromwell seems to retain a degree of attachment to him—perhaps because Cromwell, Gardiner, and Wolsey used to be like a family unit. Gardiner, however, doesn’t reciprocate this lingering affection, and Cromwell never forgives him for it.
Themes
Two days later, at Esher, Cavendish is amazed as he tells Cromwell that the king has sent them “four cartloads of furnishings.” The quality of the items is below the cardinal’s high standards, but he admits that they will make life more comfortable. Cavendish says they need to move to be truly comfortable, and he tells Cromwell to ask the “king’s council” about it. Cromwell says he will ask the king himself, to which the cardinal “smiles [a] fat paternal beam.”
Cromwell says he’s confident that he can once again get an audience with Henry, which again shows how he puts on a show of power as a means to actually gaining that power. Despite his own troubles, Wolsey is proud and happy to see his protégé rising up in the world, which highlights the warm relationship that Cromwell and Wolsey share.
Themes
The cardinal then moves to a “little lodge at Richmond.” Cromwell runs into Suffolk, who tells him that they “need no cardinals in this realm.” When the cardinal hears about this, he is upset and says that when Suffolk married the king’s widowed sister, the king would have beheaded him if the cardinal hadn’t spoke on his behalf. Wolsey says he has known “horses with more wit” than Suffolk, and he asks Cromwell to go to court and bring him better news. Cromwell meets the cardinal at Richmond every day, and then he rides out to see the king. He “thinks of the king as a terrain into which he must advance, with no seacoast to supply him.”
After Wolsey’s fall from grace, his old supporters have abandoned him. However, Cromwell sticks by his side, which shows his admirable loyalty. Cromwell now meets with Henry often, but he has feelings of trepidation about these meetings, not knowing when he might make a mistake and incur the king’s wrath. His nervousness shows that he’s not really as confident as he seems to be, but that the important thing is really that he appear to be confident.
Themes
Since Cromwell meets the king so often, rumors have started circulating that the king will reinstate the cardinal in return for his wealth, and that he no longer likes the company of Norfolk and Suffolk. Norfolk tells Cromwell that the cardinal must go north, away from the king—if not, Norfolk will “tear him with [his] teeth.” He repeatedly stabs his forefinger into Cromwell’s shoulder, calling him a “person,” and a “nobody from Hell.” Cromwell’s “flesh is firm, dense and impermeable. The ducal finger just bounces off.”
In order to reestablish the hierarchy and underline his own position of power, Norfolk once again calls Cromwell a “person,” and this time, he means that Cromwell is just a person—he is not nobility. Cromwell, however, is still glad to be seen as a formidable presence, and Mantel hints that Norfolk, with his threat to bite Cromwell like an animal would, is just casting about in desperation.
Themes
In the spring of 1530, a wealthy merchant named Antonio Bonvisi invites Cromwell for dinner. He is surprised to find that Thomas More is at the dinner, too. As they are eating, More proclaims that the cardinal “has a greed that will never be appeased, for ruling over men.” Cromwell immediately feels “ready for this fight” and says that the cardinal has a public role just like More does. More answers that the cardinal should have a “little less evident appetite” and that he ignored his “real friends” who advised him to be humble. Cromwell says the cardinal will be glad to know that More thinks he is his friend, and that this thought will console him “as he sits in exile and wonders why [More has] slandered him to the king.”
More dislikes Wolsey’s plan to close down monasteries and channel that money into colleges. When he publicly criticizes Wolsey’s ambition, Cromwell doesn’t hold back. This shows that Cromwell has grown into a powerful person at court who isn’t afraid to take on the new Lord Chancellor in public, and who is no longer held back by his roots in poverty. Cromwell once again comes across as being very loyal to Wolsey to defend him so vocally.
Themes
Bonvisi tries to end the argument, but Cromwell refuses to back down. He says that More likes to say that he “would have been a simple monk” if his father had not forced him to study the law, and that he is “indifferent to wealth” and the “world’s esteem.” So, Cromwell wonders, “how did he become Lord Chancellor?”
Cromwell points out that More must be ambitious, too, since he now occupies the same position that Wolsey did. He means that it would be impossible to ascend into the role of Lord Chancellor if one were truly “a simple monk.” Here, Cromwell makes it clear that ruthlessness truly is the only path to power—even for people like More who pretend to take virtuous routes.
Themes
Just then, the Emperor’s ambassador, Eustache Chapuys, walks in, and he provides a distraction from the argument. Cromwell later asks Chapuys if he can explain why his “master’s troops plundered the Holy City.” Cromwell says that More thinks the Mohammedans and the Jews in the Emperor’s army “ran wild,” and that before that, the German Lutherans had wreaked havoc. More thinks that “the Emperor must blame himself.” Chapuys is shocked that More would speak about his master in such a manner.
Chapuys adds another element to the aligning of interests at the court. As Emperor Charles’s ambassador, Chapuys would have expected More to be his ally since More is a religious man who would likely align himself with the Pope, and Charles and the Pope have been reconciled. Cromwell understands this and aims to turn Chapuys against More, again showing his savvy understanding of subtle social and political dynamics.
Themes
More gets up to leave, but before he does, he declares that Cromwell is indefensible since he is friends with “the most corrupt [priest] in Christendom.” Chapuys seems disappointed by More, as if he expected him to be more of an ally. Cromwell notices that “[e]verything Chapuys does […] is like something an actor does.” He looks like “a man who has wandered inadvertently into a play, who has found it to be a comedy, and decided to stay and see it through.”
More’s declaration sounds hollow and immature since he hasn’t been able to contest any of Cromwell’s claims but instead keeps repeating his initial position. Cromwell doesn’t even pay much attention to More, focusing instead on Chapuys, whose exaggerated gestures make him seem like an actor. Despite the heated situation, Cromwell comes to see the whole dinner as being humorous since Chapuys looks like he has wandered into “a comedy.” His ability to separate himself from his circumstances and view them as a story allows him to see the dynamics that remain hidden to others.
Themes
After the dinner is over and the guests have left, Cromwell asks Bonvisi if he knows why Thomas Wyatt left “the English court in such haste” three years ago and went to Italy. Bonvisi says the story of “Wyatt and Lady Anne [Boleyn]” is an old one, which makes Cromwell wonder how the king hasn’t heard it. Bonvisi says that “part of the art of ruling […] is to know when to shut your ears.”
Thomas Cromwell hasn’t forgotten the conversation between the lute-player, Mark, and the other servant, and has been holding on to the information about Anne Boleyn and Thomas Wyatt until he can verify it. Cromwell demonstrates how gaining power requires using everything—even overheard gossip from a simple musician becomes a tool he can use in his schemes.
Themes
Bonvisi tells Cromwell that the cardinal “is finished,” and that soon Cromwell will be “a man without a master.” Cromwell says the king likes him, but Bonvisi warns that “the king is an inconstant lover.” He tells Cromwell to be cautious and to never meet with the Boleyns. Cromwell “understands that the whole purpose of the evening has been to […] warn him off.”
While Bonvisi seems to be concerned for Cromwell’s welfare, Cromwell deduces that Bonvisi has been put up to this task by More. More is probably threatened by Cromwell’s rise in court and wants to keep him away from the king and the Boleyns. More’s sympathies probably lie with Katherine since he would never oppose Catholic doctrine. But rather than being intimidated by More and the message he conveys through Bonvisi, Cromwell seems pleased to note that the whole evening is proof of his new power.
Themes
