Wolf Hall: Part 6: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Cromwell is reading a book by Marsiglio of Padua who writes that “Christ did not give his followers the power to make laws or levy taxes, both of which churchmen have claimed as their right.” Cromwell tells Henry that “all priests are subjects” and it is the prince’s duty “to govern the bodies of his citizens,” using the power that he gets through a legislative body. Cromwell says the legislative body should “provide for the maintenance of priests and bishops” and “use the church’s wealth for the public good.” Cromwell and Henry know that the church owns a third of England’s wealth, and Henry would be rich if he could repossess it. At home, Cromwell has a vision of Wolsey, who asks him to be careful because Henry will take credit for all the good ideas and blame Cromwell for all the failures. 

The Cromwell household is now teeming with the sons of gentlemen who have been sent there to get an education. Cromwell takes this duty seriously and really “talks to them,” asking them “what they value and would value under duress.” He knows that one can “learn nothing about men by snubbing them and crushing their pride.” He asks them what “they alone can do” in this world. The boys are “astonished by the question, [and] their souls pour out,” since no one has really talked to them before, “[c]ertainly not their fathers.”

Wriothesley brings news that Gardiner is back from France, and that he is threatening to ruin Wriothesley for working to further Cromwell’s interests when he was away. Cromwell says that if he is confirmed as Master Secretary, he will make Wriothesley chief clerk. He then tells him to hurry to Gardiner to see if he can make a better counteroffer. Wriothesley is “alarmed” at his directness and then rushes off. Cromwell thinks that people like himself and Wriothesley are “[i]nveterate scrappers,” like “wolves snapping over a carcass.”

Later, the king calls in Cromwell and Gardiner to look through the bill he wants to put to Parliament that will “secure the succession of Anne Boleyn’s children.” Anne is present at the meeting too, and she caresses Henry as she reads the bill, as if they were alone. Gardiner is shocked at the spectacle and can’t help staring. Anne gets upset at the bill because Cromwell has stated that on the event of her death, the king can marry again. Henry consoles her that the clause is only “notional” and that he would never replace her. The bill says that if Henry doesn’t have a lawful male heir, Anne’s daughter will inherit the throne.

Gardiner declares that this bill is too personal. Cromwell says he means “to seal this act with an oath,” which Gardiner finds ridiculous since all the king’s subjects cannot be made to swear it. Cromwell says he will swear “whoever is necessary to make the succession safe, and unite the country.” Anne Boleyn says the bishops can take the oath, and that they need some new bishops. She names her friends Hugh Latimer and Rowland Lee as candidates. Gardiner disagrees, hinting that they are in “the religious life only for ambition.” Henry dismisses Gardiner, asking him to go attend to his flock, and Cromwell feels there is “a feral stink” in the room, like “the hide of a dog about to fight.”

After Gardiner leaves, the king says Gardiner might be “a resolute ambassador,” but that he is disloyal, which the king hates. He says that this is why he values Cromwell, who proved his loyalty by sticking by Wolsey’s side through his troubles. Cromwell thinks he “speaks as if [Henry], personally, hadn’t caused the trouble; as if Wolsey’s fall were caused by a thunderbolt.” Henry says that another who has disappointed him is Thomas More, and Anne Boleyn asks Cromwell to include More’s name next to Fisher’s in the bill against Eliza Barton, the Maid. Cromwell protests, saying More is innocent of this, but Anne says she wants to scare him and that “[f]ear can unmake a man.”

Bishop Fisher comes to see Cromwell that afternoon. Cromwell walks into the room demanding how Fisher could be so gullible and he asks Fisher to beg the king’s pardon. Fisher says he didn’t commit a crime and that he is not in his “second childhood.” Cromwell says he certainly seems to be, since he believed that a “puppet show” was real. Fisher says many believed in the Maid, including Warham. Cromwell says that the Maid “threatened the king,” but Fisher says that “[f]oreseeing is not the same as desiring, still less plotting it.” He says that Cromwell is hounding him about the divorce rather than the prophetess. Cromwell asks him to recognize that “this is a war and [he is] in the enemy camp.” Fisher calls him “a ruffian” and an “evil councilor.” Cromwell advises him to “[f]all ill” and “[t]ake to [his] bed.”

When the bill against the Maid and her allies is brought before the House of Lords in February, Fisher’s name is on it, as is More’s, at Henry’s command. Parliament is “indignant over More’s inclusion.” Cromwell goes to see the Maid in the Tower, where she asks him if she will be burned. Cromwell says he “hope[s] [she] can be spared that,” but that it is for the king to decide. As he leaves the Tower where “the king’s beasts” are kept, he feels “slightly nauseous, he can smell stale blood and from the direction of their cages hear their truffling grunts and smothered roars.”

Next, Cromwell goes to meet Audley and Norfolk, who say they should all go down on their knees and beg the king to remove More’s name from the bill against the Maid. Audley says that if the bill is not passed, the king plans to come before the houses and insist. Norfolk says that might result in public embarrassment for the king, and he asks Cromwell to prevent him from doing it. Norfolk says he is sure More and Fisher will be put to death since they will refuse to swear the oath to uphold the succession of Anne Boleyn’s children. Audley says they will “use efficacious persuasions.”

On the king’s orders, Cromwell goes with Gregory to Hatfield to check on the baby Princess Elizabeth and Mary Tudor. When Cromwell was a boy, he used to help his uncle, who was a cook in the same estate, which then belonged to Cardinal Morton. Lady Bryan is in charge of the baby princess, and she is very talkative. She calls Gregory “a lovely tall young man” and says he must surely take after his mother. About the baby, she says that “you could show her at a fair as a pig-baby.” Gregory says she “could be anybody’s,” meaning that all babies look alike, and Cromwell warns him that people have been sent to the Tower for saying similar things.

Lady Shelton is in charge of Mary Tudor, and she tells Cromwell that her niece Anne Boleyn has instructed her to “beat [Mary] and buffet her like the bastard she is.” Cromwell says that he doesn’t understand how Mary could be a bastard since her “parents were in good faith” when she was born. Lady Shelton asks him what Anne said when he voiced this opinion, and he says that “if she had an ax to hand, she would have essayed to cut off [his] head.” Lady Shelton says that even if Mary were indeed a bastard, she would treat her gently because “she is a good young woman.” She says Mary does not come down to eat with them since she doesn’t want to sit below Princess Elizabeth, and that Anne has forbidden them to send any food up to her room other than some bread for breakfast.

Cromwell finds Mary Tudor huddled by a dying fire in a bare room, and her face brightens when she sees him. He thinks that she is “mak[ing] life as hard as possible” for herself. He says that to solve the “dinner difficulty,” he will send her a physician who will say that for her health, she is to be sent a large breakfast in her room, which makes her happy. She asks Cromwell how it could be “lawful” that she is “put out of the succession,” and Cromwell says that it is “lawful if Parliament says so.” Mary says that she doesn’t see how he could be her friend when he is also Anne Boleyn’s friend. Cromwell says Anne doesn’t need friends since she has enough servants.

Cromwell tells Mary Tudor that Anne Boleyn will be coming to visit Princess Elizabeth soon, and that if Mary “greet[s] her respectfully,” the king might take Mary back to court. He tells her that “the queen does not expect [her] friendship, only an outward show.” He asks her to “bite [her] tongue and bob her a curtsy,” because this could change everything for Mary. However, Mary says that Anne is frightened of her and always will be, since Mary might grow up to have her own sons. She seems determined to wait out her suffering.

As Cromwell leaves, Gregory tells him that Mary Tudor likes Cromwell, and that this 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 to talk about Mary to anyone, including Rafe. He tells Gregory that if the king were to die tomorrow, Mary would rule, since Anne Boleyn’s unborn child and the baby Elizabeth cannot.

Soon after, Bishop Fisher asks the king to pardon him, asking him to consider that Fisher is “ill and infirm.” The Maid is going to be hanged. The king’s councilors beg him on their knees to remove More’s name from the bill, and the king relents. That same month, the Pope finally gives his verdict on Queen Katherine’s marriage, saying that “the marriage is sound.” The Emperor’s supporters “let off fireworks in the streets of Rome,” while the king is “contemptuous.” Anne Boleyn’s belly has begun to show, and in the absence of Mary Boleyn, the king has started showering his attention on Mary Shelton.

In the summer, Thomas More asks to see a copy of the Act of Succession, and after looking it over, he says he will not swear to it though he will not speak against it or try to dissuade anyone else from it. Audley says that will not be enough, and that More knows it. More acknowledges this and leaves. Audley says that it was for nothing that they all begged the king to spare More. Cromwell “wants to strangle somebody.” He says that More is against the divorce and does not believe that the king can be head of the church, but that he will not openly say that. Cromwell says he “hate[s] to be part of this play, which is entirely devised by [More].” He says, “Master More sits in the audience and sniggers when [Cromwell] trip[s] over [his] lines, for he has written all the parts.”

They call More back into the room, and More explains that taking the oath would be against his conscience. He knows he will be damned to Hell if he does it. Cranmer reminds him that when he entered the king’s council, he took an oath to obey the king. More replies that when Cranmer was made archbishop, he swore an oath to Rome though he had a paper in his hand that stated he took the oath under protest. More says that they say they have the majority in Parliament to support them, but he has the true majority behind him—“all the angels and saints,” all of Christendom, and the undivided church.

Cromwell says that “[a] lie is no less a lie just because it is a thousand years old,” and that the church has persecuted its members when they stood by their beliefs, “burning them and hacking them apart.” He says that More calls on history because he sees history as a mirror that flatters himself. However, Cromwell holds up another mirror to More that shows “a vain and dangerous man, […] a killer [who] will drag down” many to their deaths. These people “will have only the suffering, and not [More’s] martyr’s gratification.” Cromwell says he would rather see his own son beheaded than see More refuse this oath and “give comfort to every enemy of England.” He says More will open the door to the Emperor invading England.

Cromwell says they can’t let More go home, and he places him under the custody of the Abbot of Westminster. After he is taken away, Cromwell says that More will go write down all that just transpired and send it out into the kingdom to be printed. Cromwell is sure that in the eyes of Europe, he and his allies will be “the fools and the oppressors” while More will be seen as “the poor victim with the better turn of phrase.”

The next day, the king calls Cromwell to court and gives him the official title of Master Secretary. Cromwell heads home in the 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 been married to Helen Barre for half a year, and that no one else knows. Cromwell is upset to hear it because Helen is “a lovely nobody,” and he knows that Rafe’s father will be outraged because he expects Rafe to marry an heiress. In order to appease him, Cromwell suggests they tell him that Cromwell’s “promotion in the world will ensure [Rafe’s]” as well, and that Rafe will attend on Henry whenever Cromwell cannot. That night, Cromwell dreams of his daughter Anne Cromwell, who once said she would marry Rafe.

At Austin Friars, Cromwell first goes to the kitchen to tell Thurston the news that he is now the Master Secretary. Thurston is happy to hear it, but he says that Cromwell is already doing the work anyway. He laughs to think that “Gardiner will be burning up inside.” Cromwell says that he plans to host the council at Austin Friars sometimes, and that they can give them dinner. He tells Thurston that he doesn’t need to get his hands dirty anymore since he has a big staff—he can “put on a gold chain, and strut about.” Thurston says that he likes to keep working, “in case things take a downturn,” and he asks Cromwell to remember the cardinal. Cromwell recalls how Norfolk had said he’d “tear” Wolsey with his teeth, and he thinks that “man is wolf to man.”

In midsummer, Anne Boleyn has a miscarriage. That night, Henry tells Cromwell he blames Katherine for it since she wishes him ill. He says that when he lies with Anne, he can feel Katherine’s cold presence between them.