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Part 3: Chapter 1
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
Cromwell arrives at York Place. Some children by the river greet him by name, and “[f]or their civility, he gives them each a coin, and they stop to talk.” They ask him if he is off to meet “the evil lady” who has “bewitched the king.” Inside, he runs into Mark Smeaton and asks him if he doesn’t miss the cardinal. Mark sulkily says he doesn’t, and that he is happy here. As he walks away, Cromwell thinks that he cannot help disliking the boy for saying that he looks like a murderer. Cromwell has confessed only to Wolsey that he once killed a man while he was a soldier in France, and he is sure that no one else knows this.
Cromwell is friendly and generous to the children he encounters by the river, and he also seems interested in their opinions of Anne Boleyn—Cromwell is always interested in information, no matter how inconsequential it might seem. His opinion of Mark Smeaton is in stark contrast to his warmth with the children. Cromwell doesn’t let go of his grudges, and he hasn’t forgotten Mark’s declaration that he looks like a murderer. While Cromwell had a rough youth, he has a deep antipathy to violence as an adult and seems unhappy about the murder that he has on his conscience.
Themes
In an interior room, “where the cardinal should be,” Cromwell finds Anne Boleyn. He thinks she looks “sallow and sharp.” Her fingers are “tugging and ripping at a sprig of rosemary,” but as soon as she sees Cromwell, “her hands dip back into her trailing sleeves.” In December, the king gave a banquet to celebrate Thomas Boleyn’s elevation to Earl of Wiltshire. Katherine was not present, and Anne sat in her seat. But the king has gone back to his wife since it is the end of Lent, and Cromwell thinks that Anne is now bored enough to send for Cromwell. She has three little dogs—Cromwell thinks of them as “Bellas” in reference to his old dog—that lick his face and look at him with affection, which seems to please her. She says she could never love “those apes that Katherine keeps.”
York Place used to be the cardinal’s London residence, and Cromwell resents that it is now Anne Boleyn’s. Anne seems nervous as she tugs at the rosemary, and her action of “ripping” it also points to her inherent violence. When she realizes she is being noticed, she immediately stops and hides her hands in her long sleeves, which shows that she, like Cromwell, understands the need to conceal her insecurities and vulnerabilities. When Cromwell first met Mary Boleyn at court, he noticed that she revealed too much—she hitched up her skirts and showed him her green stockings. In contrast, Anne is closed and hidden. In the novel, power is won through deception and subterfuge, which explains Anne’s rise to power—she is even taking Queen Katherine’s place at banquets and has wrangled a title for her father—while Mary Boleyn never gets to the top.
Themes
Cromwell thinks that Anne is so small that “two Annes make one Katherine.” She is surrounded by women sitting on low stools who are pretending to sew, among whom is Mary Boleyn. There is also Mary Shelton, a Boleyn cousin who looks at Cromwell disapprovingly—he thinks she must be thinking that Mary Boleyn has low standards to set her sights on him. He also notices a quiet girl he does not know, “who has her face turned away, trying to hide.”
Themes
Anne Boleyn tells Cromwell that he has suddenly become popular with the king, who “does not cease to quote” him and also says that Cromwell makes him laugh. Cromwell admits the king does laugh, but he asks Anne if she ever does, since she is in a difficult situation. She admits she seldom does. Cromwell asks if she has seen an improvement in her situation after Wolsey “was reduced,” and she says there has been no change. He tells her that Wolsey is an expert in “the workings of Christian countries” and is “intimate with kings.” He says Wolsey will be very grateful to Anne if she helps to “restor[e] him to the king’s grace.”
Themes
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Anne Boleyn listens carefully as Cromwell makes his case for the cardinal. Then, she says, “if the king wants it, and the cardinal wants it, […] it is all taking a marvelous long while to come to pass!” Mary Boleyn says under her breath that Anne, too, is “not getting any younger.” Anne says that they asked “one simple thing” of the cardinal, and he would not deliver. Cromwell tells her that she knows it wasn’t simple. Anne says that perhaps Cromwell thinks she is “a simple person,” to which he replies that she might be, since he doesn’t know her. His reply irritates her, and she dismisses him.
Themes
After Cromwell leaves the room, Mary Boleyn follows him out. She tells Cromwell that she and Mary Shelton can’t wait for him to come again because they thought Anne Boleyn might “run up and slap [him].” Cromwell says that she “can stand it,” and Mary admits that Anne “likes a skirmish with someone on her own level.” She shows Cromwell Anne’s new coat of arms that she is having her ladies embroider onto all her garments since she is so pleased to have it.
Themes
Mary Boleyn tells Cromwell how the king quarreled with Katherine during Christmas and came to Anne Boleyn for comfort, but that Anne scolded him, saying that she’d told him not to pick an argument with Katherine since he always loses. Mary says “with relish” that if Henry wasn’t the king, “one could pity him. For the dog’s life they lead him.”
Themes
Cromwell asks Mary Boleyn if the rumors that Anne Boleyn is pregnant are true, and she says that Anne “can’t [be], because they don’t. They haven’t.” When Anne and the king, “are alone, she lets him unlace her bodice” and “kiss her breasts,” but they don’t do anything more. Cromwell comments that he’s impressed the king can even find Anne’s breasts, which Mary laughs uproariously at. Right after, Anne sends “the small hiding girl” to bring Mary back inside. As Mary heads back inside in a huff, “the small pale girl” catches Cromwell’s eye and “raises her own eyes to Heaven.”
Themes
As Cromwell walks out, he thinks of Anne Boleyn’s “speed, intelligence, and rigor.” He didn’t think she would help the cardinal, but he thought there was nothing lost in asking. He thinks of Anne’s “skewering dark glance” and finds it similar to how the king looks when he is focused on something, and he almost understands their attraction for each other. Cromwell thinks that this relationship opens up many possibilities, since a “world where Anne can be queen is a world where Cromwell can be Cromwell.”
In the kitchen at Austin Friars, Cromwell picks up a knife and asks his cook, Thurston, if he looks like a murderer. Thurston hesitates to admit it, so Cromwell asks him to picture him carrying “a folio of papers and an inkhorn” instead. Thurston says he would then look like a lawyer, but that he always looks “like a man who knows how to cut up a carcass.”
Themes
The women in the household have heard that Cromwell has been to see Anne Boleyn and they are very curious about her. They ask him what she looks like and how she was dressed, which Cromwell answers the best he can. When Mercy asks him if she has good teeth, Cromwell says he’ll let her know after “she sinks them into [him].”
Themes
Norfolk threatens that he will go to Richmond “to tear [the cardinal] with his teeth,” and when Wolsey hears this, he decides it’s time for him to leave and go north. However, he needs funds for the move, and the king’s council argue about whether they should give him the money. Cromwell hopes to meet with the king to discuss this, but instead he gets his Master Secretary, Stephen Gardiner. Gardiner has a menacing attitude as he tells Cromwell that he will “put [him] straight on a few matters.” Cromwell notices Gardiner’s “great hairy hands, and knuckles which crack when he folds his right fist into his left palm.”
Themes
Cromwell “takes away the menace conveyed, and the message” as he mildly tells Gardiner that his cousin Richard Williams “sends greetings.” Gardiner’s “eyebrows bristle, like a dog’s hackles,” and he says that he doesn’t believe the “old tale” and that he “will do nothing” for this “young person.” He tells Cromwell that his family has no grasp of “propriety.” Cromwell tells him nothing is expected as the boy has already changed his name to Richard Cromwell. Cromwell smiles as he talks to Gardiner, but “[i]nside, he is beside himself with rage, […] as if his blood were thin and full of dilute venom like the uncolored blood of a snake.” When he gets home, he tells Rafe that he wants to “become perfectly calm.”
Themes
Later, Cromwell returns to Norfolk and tells him that if he wants the cardinal gone, he must go with Cromwell to the king to ask for the funds. Norfolk agrees, and as they walk in the garden, Norfolk talks of the Duke of Buckingham, who was an avid gardener. Cromwell recalls that he was executed for treason less than 10 years ago. As they head to the interview with the king, Cromwell notices that Norfolk’s hand is trembling. He understands that “it rattles the old duke to be in a room with Henry Tudor.”
Themes
Henry is in a cheerful mood and “will talk about anything except the cardinal.” After Cromwell and Norfolk are dismissed, the king calls Cromwell back into the room to talk to him alone, which annoys Norfolk. Henry offers the cardinal 1,000 pounds, and Cromwell wants to say that it will be a good start to the 10,000 pounds that the king owes that cardinal. Instead, he falls to his knees in gratitude, knowing that this is what the king expects.
The king comments that the “Duke of Norfolk shows [Cromwell] many marks of friendship and favor.” Cromwell knows that the king is surprised that the duke had his hand on Cromwell’s shoulder, and he tells the king that “the duke is careful to preserve all distinctions of rank.” Henry seems relieved at this. Cromwell wonders to himself: if Henry were to get sick and fall, would Cromwell “be allowed to pick [him] up,” or would he have to “send for an earl to do it”?
Themes
The king then admits in a whisper that he misses Wolsey. He tells Cromwell to take the money and not tell anyone about it. Cromwell leaves, “face composed, fighting the impulse to smile broadly.” When Norfolk asks him what the king said, Cromwell tells him he had “some special hard words […] to convey to the cardinal.”
Themes
Soon, the cardinal’s itinerary is drawn up, and his possessions are put on coastal barges, which he will take to Hull and then travel over land with his 160 servants. Cromwell tells his nephew Richard that “a thousand pounds isn’t much when you have a cardinal to move,” but he refuses to disclose how much of his own money he is putting into the enterprise—he says he owes the cardinal so much that the money he is spending on him is irrelevant.
Themes
On the night before his departure, the cardinal gives Cromwell a small package that seems to contain a ring, and he asks him to open it after he leaves. The cardinal asks him if he will come north, and Cromwell says he will come “to fetch [him], the minute the king summons [him] back.” He kneels for a blessing and notices that the cardinal’s turquoise ring is missing from his hand. Cromwell feels it is time for him to leave since “[s]o much has been said between them that it is useless to add a marginal note.”
Themes
The cardinal turns his chair towards the fire and covers his face with a hand as Cromwell leaves. On his way to the courtyard, Cromwell stops and leans against the wall in a dark recess and finds himself crying. He hopes that Cavendish will not come by and see him, and then “write it down and make it into a play.” When Cromwell gets home, he dreams of Liz and wonders if she will recognize “the man he vows he soon will be: adamant, mild, keeper of the king’s peace.”
Themes
When Cromwell wakes up on the morning of April 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 is time to let the cardinal go.” During Holy Week, they get reports that a large number of people have gathered in Peterborough to “look at Wolsey” as he makes his way slowly to his first stop at Southwell, which he reaches on April 28.
Themes
At court, the ambassador Chapuys tells Cromwell that he hears from Cromwell’s “old master” every week, and that Wolsey has become “solicitous about [Katherine’s] health.” Wolsey asks Katherine to stay hopeful that she will soon “be restored to the king’s bosom” and “bed.” Chapuys says they know that “he turns back to the queen” since the “concubine will not help him.” The queen, however, has vowed to never forgive the cardinal. Chapuys says there will be a “tangle of wreckage” if a divorce is “somehow extorted” from the Pope—the “Emperor, in defense of his aunt, may make war on England.” Cromwell knows he is meant to convey this message to the cardinal to let him know “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.”
Themes
One evening, Henry is melancholy that he cannot be married to Anne, and he indicates to Cromwell that he would like to own the land that produces income for the cardinal’s college at Oxford and the school at Ipswich. The “wealth of twenty-nine monasteries has gone into those foundations,” and by the Pope’s orders, this money can only be used for the colleges. But Henry says he “is beginning to care very little about the Pope and his permissions.”
Themes
Henry wants to know if Cromwell comes from some landed people and says he will send “the heralds to look into it.” Cromwell says they will not have any success, and Henry is upset that he “is failing to take advantage of what is on offer: a pedigree, however meager.” Henry says the cardinal told him that Cromwell was an orphan who was brought up in a monastery, which is why he “had a loathing of those in the religious life.” Cromwell says that this was “one of his little stories.” Henry is surprised that the cardinal told him stories, and his face is a mixture of “annoyance, amusement, [and] a wish to call back times past.”
Themes
Cromwell realizes that, with the cardinal gone, Henry has no one to really converse with—a conversation that has “nothing to do with love, or hunting, or war.” He tells the king that in his experience, monks are very corrupt and lead lives of hypocrisy and idleness. He says monasteries are not houses of learning or invention, and that monks are writing the history of their country to make it “favorable to Rome.” The king tells him that he, too, is interested in an accurate history of their country, and he asks Cromwell to consult with the “learned gentlemen” who are working on it, led by Dr. Cranmer.
Themes
Henry says that he would like to save the money he sends to Rome. He says that he is not as rich as King Francois, who has more subjects and “taxes them as he pleases,” while Henry must answer to Parliament. Cromwell says that Francois “likes war too much, and trade too little,” and that there is “more tax to be raised when trade is good.” Henry agrees and asks Cromwell to sit with his lawyers and “[b]egin with the colleges.” As Henry Norris escorts Cromwell out, he warns him against being Henry’s tax collector since he had his father’s best tax men killed.
Themes
That summer, Cromwell’s son Gregory turns 15, and he is excellent at horse-riding and swordsmanship, though his Greek isn’t very good. He has two black greyhounds at Cambridge but wants to get rid of them because people say only criminals who hunt illegally at night have black dogs. Cromwell says he will take the dogs, and when Gregory worries that people might laugh at him, too, Johane says that no one will “dare laugh” at Cromwell.
Themes
Gregory likes reading about the lives of saints in The Golden Legend. He has the newest edition of Le Morte d’Arthur, and the family crowds around it to admire it. Gregory says that King Henry himself is descended from King Arthur, the book’s main character. He says that, “[s]ome of these things are true and some of them lies,” but “they are all good stories.”
Themes
The next time the king calls Cromwell to court, he wants him to ask the cardinal about a Breton merchant whose ship was seized eight years ago and who is now demanding compensation for it. The king says Wolsey handled it back then. Cromwell offers to take care of the matter, and Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, tells the king that Cromwell can surely handle it.
Themes
Earlier, Cromwell had been to Suffolk’s kennels to admire his hounds, and he had given him a useful tip on how to cure his favorite dog, who was going blind. Following this, Suffolk had told Cromwell that he was “a useful sort of man.” Then, he told Cromwell that he had no problem with Henry getting what he wanted, but that Suffolk’s wife was Katherine’s friend. Also, his wife couldn’t bear the idea of “Norfolk’s niece” having precedence over her, since she herself used to be Queen of France. Suffolk wondered if he should tell Henry that Thomas Wyatt would soon be back, and Cromwell advised him to “leave it alone.”
Themes
That summer, Henry hunts often, and he is sometimes accompanied by Katherine. Anne sometimes accompanies Henry when Katherine doesn’t. Henry Norris tells Cromwell that it will soon be his turn to accompany Henry on hunts “if he continues to favor [Cromwell] as he does.” Cromwell thinks that Norris was with the cardinal at Putney “when he fell on his knees in the dirt.” He thinks that Norris is the one who must have told “the court, […] the world, [and] the students of Gray’s Inn” about this.
Themes
At Austin Friars, there are so many people that it is impossible to be alone. 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 explaining the pronunciation of his name. They also say Wriothesley is Gardiner’s spy since he works with Gardiner, too. Cromwell would like to ask these young men if they think he looks like a murderer, since he knows a boy who says he does.
Themes
That summer, there is no plague, and to celebrate this, Londoners hang garlands of white lilies outside their doors on St. John’s Eve. The flowers remind Cromwell of the quiet girl who was with Anne Boleyn. He wants to write to Gregory and say, “I have seen such a sweet girl, […] and, if I steer our family adroitly in the next few years, perhaps you can marry her.” However, he knows that she must be from some noble family while he is in a “precarious situation,” and so he’s in no position to be making promises.
Themes
Thomas More invites Cromwell to his house so they can discuss Wolsey’s colleges and so he can show Cromwell his new carpet. Cromwell finds Stephen Gardiner there when he arrives at the house in Chelsea. Gardiner is trying to bait More in an argument about his son-in-law Will Roper, who has apparently changed his religion from Lutheranism to Catholicism. The men are followed by More’s fool, Henry Pattinson, who Cromwell suspects isn’t as simple as he seems because More “enjoys embarrassing people” and uses Pattinson to do so.
Themes
Cromwell inspects the new Turkish carpet that More shows them and isn’t impressed by its quality or weave. However, he tells More that it is beautiful, “not wanting to spoil his pleasure,” and he thinks that the “flaw in the weave hardly matters” since a “carpet is not an oath.” Cromwell thinks that “some people in this world […] like everything squared up” while others “will allow some drift at the margins.” Cromwell “is both these kinds of person.” He tells More to use the carpet to walk on—rather than hanging it up—and More laughs at his expensive tastes, as though “they were friends.” Later, More tells Cromwell that Gardiner has spoken on behalf of the cardinal’s colleges to the king, and that the king “may refound Cardinal College in his name,” but that there is no hope for Ipswich.
Themes
When they go in for supper, they speak in Latin even though More’s wife, Alice, does not understand it. More has his favorite daughter, Meg, read the scripture in Greek. When the food is brought in, More speaks in Latin, telling everyone to eat, “except Alice, who will burst out of her corset.” He explains to his guests that her “expression of painful surprise” is caused by “scraping back her hair and driving in great ivory pins, to the peril of her skull.” Cromwell feels awkward at his uncivility, and he thinks that he prefers the Thomas More in the family portrait that hangs on the wall because “you can see that he’s thinking, but not what he’s thinking, and that’s the way it should be.”
Themes
Then, Thomas More and his elderly father John More tell stories of “foolish women,” while Alice scowls and Gardiner, “who has heard all these stories before, is grinding his teeth.” More points to his daughter-in-law, Anne Cresacre, and says the girl wanted a pearl necklace, so he’d tricked her by giving her “a box that rattled,” which he’d filled with dried peas.
Themes
After dinner, Thomas More talks about wicked King Richard III, about whom he has started writing books in both Latin and English. While some say that Norfolk’s grandfather was involved in the deaths of two royal children in the Tower, More thinks Constable Brakenbury had given the keys to the killers. Cromwell realizes that he is trying to defend Norfolk’s ancestor with this version of the story because Norfolk is his ally.
Themes
When Gardiner gets a chance to talk to Cromwell alone, he asks him if he knows which one of them Wriothesley is working for. Cromwell says he thought he was working for Gardiner since he is Clerk of the Signet and is supposed to assist the Master Secretary. Gardiner wants to know why Wriothesley is always at Cromwell’s house, and Cromwell says he’s “not a bound apprentice,” and he is free to come and go. Gardiner says the boy “has his eye on advantage,” to which Cromwell answers that he hopes everyone has that.
Themes
When Cromwell takes his leave of Alice More, she asks him why he isn’t marrying again, since he is rich and she hears that he has “got everything in good working order,” which makes Gardiner laugh. Cromwell and Gardiner then head to Gardiner’s barge, and Cromwell says that More “daren’t make himself plain.” Gardiner replies that though he doesn’t, everyone knows his opinions, “which are fixed and impervious to argument.” He says More promised not to meddle with the divorce when he took office, but Gardiner wonders how long the king will accept that. Cromwell clarifies that he wasn’t talking about More being honest with the king, but rather with Alice. Gardiner laughs and agrees, saying that she would “have him plucked and roasted” if she understood what he said.
Themes
Cromwell then talks about Anne Cresacre, who was an orphan heiress whose neighbors had kidnapped and raped her in Yorkshire. The cardinal was furious when he’d heard of this, and he had her placed under More’s care where he thought she’d be safe. Gardiner says she is safe, but Cromwell thinks she isn’t safe “from humiliation.” He tells Gardiner that after More’s son married her, he lives off her money, and that it seems reasonable for her to have a string of pearls if she would like to. Gardiner says that More’s son “shows no talent for affairs,” and that he hears that Cromwell, too, has a son like that. Cromwell thinks that this is true, but that he and More can’t be blamed for turning their sons into “idle young gentlemen” and for “wanting for them the ease [they] didn’t have.”
Themes
Gardiner tells Cromwell he may still have other sons, since Alice is determined to find him a wife. Cromwell feels afraid, thinking that it is “like Mark, the lute player: people imagining what they cannot know,” since he is sure that he and Johane have been very secretive. He asks Gardiner if he thinks of marrying, to which Gardiner coldly responds that he is “in holy orders.” Cromwell presses him, insisting that he must have women, but Gardiner calls this a “Putney inquiry” and stops talking to him.
Themes
When Cromwell disembarks in Westminster, he tells Gardiner that the trip wasn’t too bad since “neither of them has thrown the other in the river.” Gardiner says he was only waiting for the water to be colder and to tie weights to Cromwell. He asks Cromwell what he is going to do in Westminster, and he is surprised when Cromwell says he has an appointment with Anne Boleyn.
Themes
Cromwell finds Anne Boleyn in a silk nightgown and slippers, and he thinks that “Anne lets him treat her fairly normally, except when she has a sudden, savage seizure of I-who-will-be-Queen, and slaps him down.” She asks him if they spoke of her at dinner, and he tells her they do not mention her in More’s house. Cromwell says he knows that Norfolk and her father are busy meeting ambassadors from France, Venice, and the Emperor—he suspects that they are plotting against the cardinal. Anne says she didn’t think he could afford such information, and Cromwell says that “[s]ometimes people just tell [him] things.” Anne says her father told her not to trust Cromwell because “one can never tell who he’s working for,” but to her “it is perfectly obvious” that he is working for himself. Cromwell thinks they are alike in this way.
Themes
In August, the cardinal sends the king a letter in which he complains about his debts and his creditors hounding him, but rumors reach the court that he is leading a lavish, extravagant life. Wriothesley goes up to Southwell to get a petition signed by the cardinal, and he reports that the cardinal looks well and is popular with the people. The petition, one of Norfolk’s ideas, has the bishops and peers put their signatures on a letter asking the Pope to “let the king have his freedom,” and it “contains certain murky, unspecified threats.”
Themes
Cromwell is worried by the news of the cardinal’s popularity, thinking that the king can “be offended again” and bring back the charges against him. He notices Norfolk 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 her sew up his letters to the north so no one would be able to read them and sew them back up in the same way.
Themes
In September 1530, the cardinal leaves Southwell and heads to York. People in the countryside flock to him, begging him to lay his “magical hands” on their children, and “he prays for them all.” Gardiner tells Cromwell that the “council has the cardinal under observation,” while Norfolk says he will “chew him up, bones, flesh, and gristle.” On October 2, the cardinal reaches his palace at Cawood, and his enthronement at York is planned for November 7. The court hears that the cardinal has planned a “convocation of the northern church” on the day after his enthronement. He hasn’t informed the king or Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, so it is viewed as a sign of revolt.
Themes
Norfolk is furious when he meets Cromwell. He says that a “[c]ardinal’s hat [is] not enough for [Wolsey], [and that] only a crown will do” for him. Cromwell thinks that Wolsey “would have made such an excellent king; so benign, so sure and suave in his dealings, so equitable, so swift and discerning.” To his surprise, the duke says he understands that Cromwell has been left without a master, and that he, the king, and even Chapuys admire Cromwell’s loyalty to a “disgraced and fallen” man.
Themes
Norfolk says it’s a pity that Cromwell works for Wolsey and not for Norfolk. Cromwell says that they do both want the same thing—for Anne Boleyn to be queen—and that they should work together. Norfolk doesn’t like his usage of the word “together,” and he asks him not to forget his place, which Cromwell says he is always mindful of. Norfolk says that Anne is “out for bloody murder” and “wants the cardinal’s guts in a dish to feed her spaniels, and his limbs nailed over the city gates of York.”
Themes
Cromwell goes to meet Anne Boleyn early one morning and finds that Cranmer is with her, just returned from Rome “with no good news.” Cromwell knows Cranmer from when he used to work for the cardinal, and they “embrace cautiously” since Cranmer is a Cambridge scholar while Cromwell is a “person from Putney.” Cromwell asks him why he didn’t come to Cardinal College when he was invited, and Anne sneeringly says it was probably because he was seeking something more permanent. Cromwell tells her the king might soon take over the college at Oxford, and that it could perhaps be named after her. Anne has a habit of “tuck[ing] her hands back in her sleeves,” so some people say “she has something to hide, a deformity; but [Cromwell] thinks she is a woman who doesn’t like to show her hand.”
Themes
Anne Boleyn tells them that she hears that “Rome will issue a decree telling the king to separate” from her, and Cranmer says that doing so “would be a clear mistake on Rome’s part.” Anne agrees. She says she is reading Tyndale’s The Obedience of a Christian Man, in which he argues that a “subject must obey his king as he would his God.” She says she has shared passages from the book with the king. Cranmer looks at her as if she were a child “who dazzles [him] by sudden aptitude.”
Themes
Anne Boleyn shows them a drawing which was found in her bed by the “sickly milk-faced creeper” who “cries if you look at her sideways.” The drawing shows three figures—the king with a crown on his head, Katherine on one side, and a headless Anne on the other. Cranmer offers to destroy it, but Anne says she can destroy it herself. She says that there “is a prophecy that a queen of England will be burned,” and even if it is true, she “mean[s] to have him.”
Themes
As Cromwell and Cranmer are leaving, they see the pale girl heading toward them, and Cromwell asks her if she has been spying. She nods and says she is spying for her brothers, but that she isn’t very good at it. Since she doesn’t know French, she asks Cromwell not to speak in French at his next meeting with Anne Boleyn, and she introduces herself as John Seymour’s daughter from Wolf Hall. Cromwell is surprised because he thought the Seymour girls were with Katherine. The girl says she goes where she’s sent, but Cromwell says she is “not where [she is] appreciated.” She says she is appreciated, in a way, since Anne would never refuse any of Katherine’s ladies. As she leaves them, a “small suspicion enters [Cromwell’s] mind, about the paper in the bed,” but he ends up thinking it is impossible.
Themes
Cromwell asks Cranmer if he is heading back to Cambridge, but Cranmer says that the Boleyns want him at hand. He tells Cromwell that Anne Boleyn “has formed a good opinion” of Cromwell, and that he owes more to her than he realizes, even though she has no interest in being his sister-in-law. He also tells Cromwell that the reason he didn’t come to the cardinal’s college years ago was because of the students who had died in the fish cellar. Cromwell says that the cardinal “was never a man to ride down another for his opinions,” and that Cranmer would have been safe there. Cranmer says that the cardinal “would have found no heresy” in him.
Themes
Later, Cromwell asks Wriothesley if Cranmer is as orthodox as he claims to be. Wriothesley says that Cranmer doesn’t like monks, so he should get along with Cromwell. Cromwell says he seems like a solitary kind of person, and Wriothesley is surprised that Cromwell doesn’t know about Cranmer and the barmaid.
Themes
Cromwell invites Cranmer to supper at his house. He discovers that he is the son of a gentleman who came from a tiny village called Aslockton. He suffered at school with a harsh schoolmaster and was glad to leave and go to Cambridge when he was 14. Cranmer says the cardinal told one of his acquaintances that Cromwell was “stolen by pirates.” Cromwell “smiles in slow delight” and says he misses Wolsey because now “there is no one to invent [Cromwell].” Cranmer seems concerned that if this story were true, it would mean that Cromwell has not been baptized. Cromwell thinks that Cranmer will always believe that Cromwell is a bit of a heathen.
Themes
Cranmer says that he, too, is a widower just like Cromwell. He married an orphan called Joan, and as a result, he lost his fellowship at Cambridge. He kept Joan, who was pregnant, at the Dolphin, an inn that some relatives ran. He says she was never a barmaid, as people like to say. Joan died in labor, along with the child, and Jesus College took Cranmer back. He took holy orders, but he thinks of Joan every day. Cromwell thinks that he has his whole family, and the cardinal, “if the cardinal still thinks well of him,” but that Cranmer has nothing. Cromwell says he hopes he can bring the cardinal back, but Cranmer says that won’t be possible. He suggests that Cromwell go visit him and explain the situation, but Cromwell says that the “snare has been set” for Wolsey, so Cromwell doesn’t dare to move.
Themes
Cromwell begins to go hunting with the king in autumn, and the king likes to talk to him as he takes aim with his arrows, saying that they can be alone here. Cromwell thinks that “the population of a small village […] is circulating around them,” and he wonders if the king even knows what “alone” means. The king says that many tell him that he can “consider [his] marriage dissolved in the eyes of Christian Europe,” but Cromwell disagrees. He hesitates to tell Henry that he and Katherine still share a roof and a court. Cromwell also thinks that Henry can admit any “weakness or failure” to Katherine, but he can’t do the same to Anne Boleyn. The king tells him that Anne has threatened to leave him, saying “that there are other men and she is wasting her youth.”
Themes
It is November again—a year since the cardinal was ousted—and Norfolk tells an audience of gentlemen that they will be in a difficult situation if Henry dies, since he doesn’t have an heir. His bastard, Henry Fitzroy, seems like “a fine boy,” and Anne Boleyn thinks Norfolk should get him married to Norfolk’s daughter Mary Howard, so the king will be surrounded by Howards, but Norfolk doesn’t think a bastard can reign.
Themes
Cromwell, “who is increasingly where he shouldn’t be,” says that Henry does have a child born in wedlock who can reign. Norfolk is incredulous that “[t]hat talking shrimp” Mary Tudor might ever rule, but Gardiner seems interested in the idea. Cromwell says it would “depend [on] who advises her,” and “who she marries.” Norfolk says they have to act soon to get the divorce since “Katherine has half the lawyers of Europe pushing paper for her.”
Themes
On November 1, 1530, “a commission for the cardinal’s arrest is given to Harry Percy, the young Earl of Northumberland.” The earl arrests Wolsey at Cawood, two days before his planned investiture. As Wolsey is being transported south, he falls sick and dies. Cromwell thinks that before Wolsey, England was a “little offshore island, poor and cold.” Cavendish brings news of how Harry Percy arrived to arrest the cardinal for high treason as he was eating his dinner. Cromwell suspects that Anne Boleyn orchestrated the whole thing—that it was “vengeance deferred” since “her old lover, once berated by the cardinal and sent packing from the court,” was the one to arrest him. Cavendish says the cardinal spent some time alone in his room, and when he came out, he said, “I am not afraid of any man alive.”
Themes
Cavendish describes how the townspeople “knelt in the road and wept” as the cardinal was taken away, and that they “asked God to send vengeance on Harry Percy.” Cromwell thinks that God need not bother, as he himself will handle it. Cavendish says that the cardinal did not eat for a week as they traveled south, and that “[s]ome say he meant to destroy himself.” Cavendish insisted he eat some pears, after which the cardinal put his hand to his chest, saying there was “something cold inside [him], like a whetstone.” When Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, arrived, the cardinal was convinced he was being sent to his death. He became very ill, and Cromwell suspects that he might have poisoned himself since Wolsey was always good at finding his way out of difficulties.
Themes
Later, some courtiers perform an interlude named “The Cardinal’s Descent into Hell,” in which “a vast scarlet figure, supine, is dragged across the floor, howling, by actors dressed as devils.” Anne Boleyn laughs uproariously at the performance, while Henry “sits frozen by her side.” It reminds Cromwell of the performance last year at Gray’s Inn. The devils tell the figure in red that Beelzebub is expecting him for supper, and when he asks, “What wines does he serve?” Cromwell “almost forgets himself and laughs.” After the play, he goes behind the screens where he sees that the actors who played the devils include George Boleyn and Henry Norris. They are so preoccupied with themselves that they do not notice when a page who is trying to help them clean up “gets an elbow in the eye” and drops his bowl of water.
Themes
Cromwell wants to know who played the part of the cardinal, and he sees that it is Patch, the cardinal’s old fool who had protested so violently when the cardinal sent him to the king as a present. Cromwell asks him how he could have agreed to play this part, and Patch answers that he “act[s] what part [he’s] paid to act.” Laughing, he says that Cromwell, “the retired mercenary,” is in a bad temper because no one is paying him.
Themes
Cromwell hears a child crying nearby and wonders if it is the page who got elbowed; he thinks he was probably slapped for dropping the bowl, or for “just crying.” He thinks that “[c]hildhood was like that; you are punished, then punished again for protesting. So, one learns not to complain; it is a hard lesson, but one never lost.”
Themes
Patch is sticking out his tongue from behind the screen in the direction of the king sitting on the other side of it. He says, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no Pope,” and he tells Cromwell that fools can say anything. Cromwell replies they cannot, “where [his] writ runs,” and Patch says his power doesn’t even extend to “the backyard where he was christened in a puddle.” Cromwell says he could crack Patch’s skull right then and that no one would miss him. Patch agrees, saying, they “would roll [him] out in the morning and lay [him] on a dunghill.” He says that no one would miss one fool, because “England is full of them.”
Themes
