Wolf Hall: Part 5: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

At Austin Friars, a woman named Helen Barre has come to ask Cromwell for help since her husband has abandoned her. She says she did laundry at a nearby convent, but though the nuns liked her work, they said she could not bring her two children there—Cromwell thinks this is evidence of the church’s limited charity. He tells her she can stay and work at Austin Friars. Her children watch a German painter painting Cromwell’s new coat of arms on a wall, and as he translates between them, he thinks that he is “always translating,” “if not language to language, then person to person.” It has become his job to mediate between Henry and Anne Boleyn when they quarrel—he thinks he is like “a public poet.”

Cromwell recalls how the entourage was stuck in Calais for 10 days due to storms. Henry refused to see Cromwell for business, sending him a message that he and Anne Boleyn were too busy “composing some music for the harp.” On the day they were finally about to depart, Christophe, a boy Cromwell had met at an inn in Calais, showed up and said he would like to go with Cromwell since he was in trouble with the French law for sticking a knife in someone. He reminded Cromwell of himself, so Cromwell brought him to Austin Friars.

On January 25, 1533, Anne Boleyn and Henry take their vows at a chapel in Whitehall in a small ceremony, with no celebration. Mary Boleyn signals to Cromwell that Anne is pregnant, and Cromwell guesses that the king doesn’t know yet. Cromwell works all night drafting a law which would make it illegal to overrule the king and appeal to the Pope. In the morning, he goes to visit Cranmer, who is to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury since Warham has died. Pope Clement needs to approve of Cranmer’s appointment so he can be confirmed. Cromwell tells him the news that Anne is pregnant, and Cranmer says that he officially isn’t supposed to know about the secret marriage or the pregnancy. Cranmer still hasn’t told him what the secret was that he mentioned in his letter from Germany, and Cromwell assumes it was unimportant and has been forgotten.

Meanwhile, rumors float around of Anne Boleyn’s pregnancy, and Chapuys immediately lets the rest of Europe know about it. Cromwell would have preferred it “if the old marriage were out, the new marriage in” before the news spread, but he thinks that “life is never perfect for the servant of a prince.”

Cromwell goes to visit Anne Boleyn, who tells him she is tired of her sister Mary Boleyn and wants her gone. She suggests Cromwell’s nephew Richard, who has some Tudor blood, as a potential husband for Mary, saying they can “make [their] own household arrangements” about who will father Mary’s children. Cromwell asks Anne if she is happy, and she says she is—while she was “always desired,” she is now “valued,” and she likes it.

Cromwell later visits a prisoner, John Frith, at the Tower. When Cromwell takes Frith’s hands, “he finds them all bones, cold and dry and with telltale traces of ink.” Cromwell thinks that “he cannot be so delicate, if he has lived so long.” Frith was one of the scholars at Wolsey’s college, and while Cromwell was in Calais, Thomas More arrested him for translating Luther into English.

Cromwell asks Frith if he can “soften his answers” if Cromwell is able to get him an audience with the king. Frith says that More “means to dine on [him].” He asks Cromwell not to “injure [his] credit by asking for mercy.” He also refuses to “unbelieve what [he] believe[s].” Cromwell says he will try to organize Frith’s escape, but Frith says it will be impossible for him to remain in hiding forever.

A French envoy comes to England, and he asks Cromwell if they would postpone Anne Boleyn’s coronation. He says Francois didn’t expect Henry “to be flaunting his supposed wife and her big belly.” Cromwell says delaying is impossible—Henry is determined to have the coronation to prove that he has the support of all England. The next day, the papal nuncio arrives from Rome, and Henry “takes him by the hand” and tells him how “his ungodly councilors torment him” and that he longs for “perfect amity with Pope Clement.” Cromwell is filled with admiration for how Henry shifts his behavior in different situations. He thinks that if he weren’t a king, he might have been “a traveling player, and leader of his troupe.”

At Anne Boleyn’s command, Cromwell presents Richard and Gregory at court, and Henry receives them graciously. That evening, Cromwell tells Richard that Anne has suggested he marry Mary Boleyn, but that they would have to get the king’s approval. Richard asks if he has a choice, and Cromwell feels offended that he might think he’d be forced. Richard says that Cromwell is “practiced at persuading” and sometimes it is like “being knocked down in the street and stamped on.” Cromwell tells him that Mary is very beautiful, “not as witless as everyone thinks,” and has none of her “sister’s malice.” They would “all profit” from the marriage since Richard would be the king’s brother-in-law. Richard’s “voice is flat” as he acknowledges that the whole family would gain from it.  Cromwell asks him to think about it, and to tell no one.

However, Richard tells Rafe about it right away, and Rafe looks disapproving as he walks into Cromwell’s room. Cromwell asks Rafe not to tell Richard that Mary Boleyn had flirted with Cromwell once, since there’s nothing between them. Their household won’t become like Wolf Hall. Rafe wonders if the bride has different ideas about this. He tells Cromwell that Richard hesitates because “all [their] lives and fortunes depend now on [Anne Boleyn],” who is “mutable” and “mortal.” Rafe reminds Cromwell that “the whole history of the king’s marriage [shows that] a child in the womb is not an heir in the cradle.”

Anne Boleyn is hoping for a son, and she tells her ladies-in-waiting that “it is a boy, and no one is to say or think otherwise.” Cromwell tells her that in Italy, people believe that pregnant mothers have to stay warm to have sons. Jane Seymour, the pale, quiet girl, says she would like a baby too, and Jane Rochford tells her to be careful because they would have her “bricked up alive” if her belly shows. Anne says that the Seymour family in Wolf Hall would “give her a bouquet,” causing Jane Seymour great embarrassment. Anne tells the other ladies to leave Jane Seymour alone, because teasing her is like “baiting a field mouse.”

Anne Boleyn says she has heard that a book of the Maid’s prophecies is being printed, and Cromwell says he will make sure that no one reads it. Anne is distraught thinking about all her enemies—the Emperor, Katherine, Katherine’s daughter Mary Tudor, Henry’s cousin Lord Exeter, who has a claim to the throne—and she wants Cromwell’s bill that will “forbid appeals to Rome” to be passed quickly. She says that her enemies want her dead, but that after her son is born, he will unquestionably be the heir to Henry’s throne.  

Cranmer has been named archbishop, at great expense to the king. Chapuys tells Henry he does not agree with the archbishop’s claim that his marriage to Katherine is void, and Henry says the “Pope has no power to make incest licit.” He says if that were the case, “God would not have punished [Henry] with the loss of [his] children.” He asks Chapuys if he thinks he is going through all this trouble just because he’s lustful. He adds that Chapuys should tell the Emperor that Henry took “a wife in a union blessed by God” in order to have an heir. Chapuys says there is “no guarantee” that he will have a son or “any living children,” which drives Henry to tears of rage.

A day after Cromwell’s bill is passed in Parliament, Anne Boleyn appears with Henry at Mass and is prayed for as queen. As a reward, Henry makes Cromwell Chancellor of the Exchequer. Henry tells Cromwell to go see Katherine in order to make sure that she will spring no 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 said in a particular situation. Henry adds that he has thought it over and doesn’t think that Mary Boleyn should marry Richard—“at least, not at this time.” Cromwell understands him perfectly, and he thinks that Anne will “spit nails” when she finds out. Henry says “it is a solace […] not to have to talk and talk” since Cromwell understands him so well.

Cromwell goes to Katherine’s manor and she seems to have been expecting him, though no one has been sent to inform her. She tells him she will not attend the court at Dunstable since she does not recognize it as legitimate, and that she will wait for the Pope to get back to her about her case. Cromwell advises her to agree to the king’s terms so Mary Tudor might be “confirm[ed] as his heir” and Katherine will get “a great estate.” He tells her that if she is “found out in treason the law will take its course with [her], as if [she] were any other subject.” He says Chapuys “urges war” in every letter he sends to Emperor Charles, and Katherine says she knows nothing of this. Cromwell admires her astonishing lie. He tells her Cranmer will annul the marriage, whether she attends the court or not.

Cromwell visits Thomas More in Chelsea, who tells him that the day of Anne Boleyn’s coronation will be “a day of shame for the women of England.” Cromwell wants to know if the Maid has come to see More, and More says he sent her away since he thinks she is an impostor. The Maid is popular with Bishop Fisher and she has been received by Lady Exeter, who More says is “a foolish and ambitious woman.” More says he wrote to the Maid to tell her “to cease to trouble the king with her prophecies,” and Cromwell asks him for a copy of this letter.

Cromwell tells More that he has been to see “[More’s] queen,” Katherine, and More, “unblinking,” says that he isn’t in touch with her. Cromwell says that he has been watching two friars carry her letters aboard, and he suspects that all Franciscan monks are working against the king. He says he might have to “hang them up by their wrists” in order to get a confession from them. While Cromwell’s inclination is “to take them home, feed them and ply them with strong drink,” he says he will look up to More to be “[his] master in these proceedings.”

Cromwell then tells More to ask Henry to meet with Frith. He says More might think Frith is a heretic, but that More must see that he is “a pure soul, [and] a fine scholar.” Cromwell wants More to tell Henry this. Cromwell says that even if Frith’s “doctrine is false,” More is “an eloquent man” and More can convince Frith of the error of his ways. But if Frith dies, More can never save his soul. Cromwell takes More’s hand and holds “its shifting sinews in his own palm.” Cromwell notices that “now his own hand is white, a gentleman’s hand, flesh running easily over the joints, though once he thought the burn marks, the stripes that any smith picks up in the course of business, would never fade.”

Anne Boleyn’s coronation is to be a grand affair, with petals on the streets and wine flowing in the fountains. Cromwell goes home to Austin Friars on the evening before the coronation and calls on his neighbor Chapuys, who has closed his shutters to the celebrations. Chapuys says that Cromwell has succeeded where the cardinal had failed. Chapuys says that when the cardinal came to a closed door, “he would flatter it, […] [and then] try tricking it open.” Cromwell is the same way, but “in the last resort, [Cromwell] just kick[s] it in.”

At the coronation, Anne Boleyn is “mantled in purple velvet, edged in ermine,” and “her face is entranced.” Cromwell wills Anne not to stumble, and he finds himself praying that the child she is carrying should be “hard, alert, watchful of opportunity, wringing use from the smallest turn of fortune.” Cromwell thinks that Henry is Wolsey’s creation, but that his child can be Cromwell’s “own prince.” He thinks that he wouldn’t be too old to be advisor to the child. He wouldn’t be like Henry Wyatt and retire from affairs because “what is there, but affairs?”  King Henry is very pleased after the coronation, and he tells Cromwell that Anne looked well and beautiful. Henry says this is his “best day.” Later, he tells Cromwell that he is sending Gardiner to France, and that Cromwell can perhaps be the new Master Secretary.

Christophe brings Cromwell the message that he is to go in secret to meet Cranmer at his old lodgings as soon as the feast is done. There is a young, pregnant German woman with Cranmer, reading a book by Luther. Cranmer introduces her as Margarete, his wife, and Cromwell is shocked. He says that if Henry finds out Cranmer is married, he will torture and burn him as a heretic. Cranmer says he could not help himself, and that this was the secret he mentioned in his letter. Cranmer holds out his hands to Cromwell—“fine hands, long fingers, the pale rectangles of his palms crossed and recrossed by news of sea voyages and alliances”—and tells him Cromwell is his “chief friend […] in this world.” Cromwell sees no other way than to help him keep his wife secret, and so he takes Helen Barre to attend to her.

When Frith is burned, Cromwell is away on a hunt with Henry. He later hears that Frith suffered greatly since the winds kept blowing the flames away from him. Cromwell thinks that “Death is a japester; call him and he will not come.” Meanwhile, the Pope has declared Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn void and says he will excommunicate the king if he does not return to Katherine. The Pope says that when Henry dies, “his corpse will be dug with animal bones into a common pit.” Rumors circulate in the city that Cromwell has a secret foreign woman who has borne him a daughter, and Cromwell does nothing to dispel these rumors. Anne retires to sealed rooms at Greenwich to give birth, and she looks “very pale, very grand” as she leaves.