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
Pope Clement has died, and Cardinal Farnese is the new pope, just as Cromwell had predicted. In England, Cardinal Farnese is called the “Bishop of Rome” since under Henry, the country no longer recognizes the position of the Pope. Henry offers Cromwell the post of Lord Chancellor, but Cromwell says he doesn’t want to disturb Audley, who currently fills the post. Henry asks him if he wants any other post, and Cromwell says he would like to be Master of Rolls.
Henry has grown more powerful in England, and Cromwell’s power grows with his. Cromwell is now able to pick and choose the posts he would like.
Themes
Cromwell takes over the house that belongs to the Master of Rolls. He thinks that he will move his “clerks and papers” from Austin Friars to this house, and that Austin Friars can finally be a home again. However, he realizes that no one will be left there. Rafe and Helen are moving to a new house in Hackney, Richard is building another house in the same neighborhood and will move there with his wife Frances, and Alice is marrying his ward Thomas Rotherham. Alice’s brother Christopher is ordained, and Jo is marrying the scholar John ap Rice. Cromwell thinks that he has done well for his family—“not one of them [is] poor, or unhappy, or uncertain of their place in this uncertain world.”
The warm house at Austin Friars seems to be breaking up, with the young people grown and marrying, scattering to their own homes. Cromwell is pleased that his successes at court have helped him provide for his extended family and settle all of them comfortably, but at the same time, there’s a clear sense of loss as he realizes that his success has also subtly pulled apart the home he loves so much.
Themes
Cromwell finds his situation satisfactory. He owns a lot of property, and he is putting some in a trust for Gregory. However, “his outgoings would frighten a lesser man” since he spends a lot when the king wants something done, but he knows this is a good way to secure his future. The word around town is that he is a helpful, useful, intelligent man to know—though many haven’t forgotten that he came from nothing.
Cromwell has reached a place of success and security. He seems to be at peace, unlike the scrambling ambition of his early years in court.
Themes
Meanwhile, the king is growing worried about his health—mainly about his leg, which causes him a great deal of pain sometimes. He is also anxious that many of his subjects haven’t accepted his divorce from Katherine. When he is out riding, they shout at him to take her back. He worries that “she will escape and raise an army” against him. He has come to distrust his own guards and carries a big iron lock around to put on his chamber door. He is afraid that he will be poisoned or murdered in his sleep.
While Cromwell’s life has settled down, the king, on the other hand, is growing increasingly anxious as he advances in years and still hasn’t achieved the one thing he has yearned for all his life—a male heir. He seems to be growing paranoid and somewhat unstable, which doesn’t bode well for people like Cromwell who rely on him.
Themes
Get the entire Wolf Hall LitChart as a printable PDF.
Thomas More is wasting away in prison, so Cromwell lets More’s friend Antonio Bonvisi bring him food. When Bonvisi asks Cromwell not to hurt More, Cromwell says he has no intention of doing so, and he believes More’s own family will convince him to swear the oath so he can be released. However, More tells his daughter Meg that he will never do so, and that if they hear that he has, they must assume that he has been tortured into it. More is supposed to swear to the Act of Supremacy, which declares that the king has always been head of the church. Cromwell is preparing a second enactment which will make it a treasonable offense to deny Henry’s titles or call him a heretic. More insists he won’t sign it, so he is no longer allowed to see his friends and family.
More refuses to acknowledge Henry as the head of the church, and he sticks to this despite the threat of torture and death. Again, his single-minded choices contrast with Cromwell’s much more practical ones.
Themes
At court, Cromwell hears Anne Boleyn in the next room shouting at Henry, and the king indignantly saying that it wasn’t him who did it. Cromwell asks the gathered Boleyns why Anne is upset, and Weston says that Mary Boleyn is pregnant. Mary claims the child is William Stafford’s, and that she has married him. Cromwell dismisses Mark, who is hanging around, and goes into the room. Inside, Henry Norris and Jane Rochford are with the king and queen. Anne is livid and says that Mary wants to flaunt her belly because Anne lost her child. She says that Mary and Stafford are not to be admitted to court. Cromwell thinks she looks “haggard” and like one “wouldn’t trust her near a knife.”
Anne Boleyn, too, seems to be slowly unraveling due to the stress of not yet having had a son. Her outbursts of anger against Henry seem to be getting more intense and more frequent—and since Henry is used to always having his way, this argument foreshadows the much more serious conflicts to come.
Themes
Jane Rochford follows Cromwell as he heads to Mary Boleyn’s rooms. Mary is packing up her things. Jane Seymour comes in, bringing in an armful of folded laundry, and Mark brings a chest. Cromwell tells Jane Seymour that he did not think she was friends with Mary, and the girl replies that “[n]o one else will help her.” Jane Rochford tells Mary that she has “disgraced all [her] kin,” and Mary says that she pities Jane Rochford because her husband doesn’t love her, and she also pities Anne Boleyn, who is “afraid of every woman at court.” Mary gives Jane Seymour a pair of sleeves and tells her she has “the only kind heart at court.” As Cromwell watches Jane Seymour, he asks his dead wife Liz not to “grudge [him] this one little girl, so small, so thin, so plain.”
The Boleyns found it convenient to have Mary around so Henry could use her for his amusement whenever Anne Boleyn was indisposed, but they all ruthlessly turn against her now that Mary is pregnant and Anne is angry with her. Cromwell has noticed Jane Seymour’s kind heart, and it’s clear here that he’s starting to give into his romantic feelings for her. But it will later become clear, when Henry’s affections turn to Jane, that Cromwell is doing the one thing he’s always warned others not to do: loving the same woman that the king does.
Themes
Jane Rochford leaves the room, slamming the door on her way out, and Jane Seymour quietly tells Mary Boleyn to let her go and forget her. When Mary leaves the room to collect a book, Cromwell asks Jane Seymour if it is true that Anne Boleyn is always afraid and she tells him that Anne is now jealous of Mary Shelton because Henry has expressed an interest in her. She says that Anne wanted to send Mary Shelton away, but Thomas Boleyn wouldn’t allow it since Mary Shelton is Anne’s cousin and they wanted to keep Henry’s dalliances in the family since “Incest is so popular these days.” Cromwell notices that Jane Seymour’s hand is like “a child’s hand, with tiny gleaming nails.” She tells him she will serve another season in court and then head home to Wolf Hall since Anne Boleyn dislikes her.
Jane Seymour has a sweetness and innocence that Cromwell finds very attractive. These qualities are reflected in her hands, which seem like a child’s to Cromwell. It’s clear from what she tells Cromwell that all Anne Boleyn’s schemes haven’t gotten her the security she wants; since Henry is so impulsive and fickle, she still can’t be sure of keeping his attention, despite all he did to marry her. Meanwhile, Jane's offhand mention of Wolf Hall—and the fact that Wolf Hall is the title of the book, once again foreshadows Jane Seymour's own eventual rise to become queen, and Anne's associated demise.
Themes
At the end of the year, Cromwell gets a letter from Mary Boleyn asking for money. She says she was too hasty when she married and that “love overcame reason.” She cannot ask her family for money since they are so cruel to her, and she has nowhere else to turn. Richard is present, and he says he hardly remembers how he almost married her. He seems pleased that they have found their happiness without the Boleyns’ interference. Cromwell tells him that those were different times. He worries that “Henry is sated” and that Cromwell’s struggle to “overturn Christendom” will be for nothing if the entire “enterprise [is] cursed.”
Cromwell recognizes that the days when Henry was obsessed with Anne Boleyn are now over; Richard was right all along that it was better not to ally too closely with the Boleyns. Despite all Cromwell’s work to please Henry, this turn of events indicates that it’s never entirely possible to satisfy someone so irrational and devoted to his own pleasure.
Themes
On Christmas Eve, Alice More comes to see Cromwell at the Rolls. He takes her to a cozy room he has had redone, and she is impressed with it. She says Thomas More used to say that if Cromwell were “lock[ed] […] in a deep dungeon in the morning, […] when you come back in the night he’ll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks’ tongues, and all the jailers will owe him money.” She asks Cromwell if she can see Henry to appeal to him on her husband’s behalf, but Cromwell says that won’t be possible since Henry is busy with the French envoys. He knows that Alice will surely upset the king, who no longer thinks about More. Cromwell asks her to convince More to give up his position, but she says she has no power over him.
It is interesting to know Thomas More’s opinion on Cromwell, which readers find out through his wife Alice. More probably wouldn’t want Cromwell to know that he thinks Cromwell is so persuasive and resilient, but here it becomes clear that even More admires Cromwell’s skill. Meanwhile, Henry doesn’t even think about More anymore, which shows how fickle his support can be.
Themes
In the new year, Henry gives Cromwell a title that no one has ever held before: “Viceregent in Spirituals, his deputy in church affairs.” Cromwell now has the power to reform monasteries and close them down if he chooses to. While Cromwell and Chapuys are officially enemies, they in fact visit each other often for dinner and discussions. Chapuys tells Cromwell that the Emperor will be pleased to take on Cromwell’s services since there are rumors that Henry has a new woman at court. Cromwell tells Chapuys that Henry is so busy preparing for war with the Emperor that he has no time for love. Cromwell thinks that the “fate of peoples is made like this, [with] two men in small rooms.”
While Henry and the Emperor Charles appear to be rulers, Cromwell recognizes that they aren’t truly the ones in charge of their respective people. It is people like himself and Chapuys—“two men in small rooms”—who determine policy and politics. These words again suggest that the way history is recorded doesn’t generally provide an objective account of what really happened.
Themes
In the beginning of spring, Cromwell falls very sick with a fever. Someone asks him if he wants to confess, and Cromwell thinks “[his] sins are [his] strength,” since he has committed sins that “others have not even found the opportunity of committing.” Dr. Butts comes in and gives him some medicine, after which Cromwell tries to add up his ledgers, but the numbers swim before his eyes. He feels “tired out from the effort of deciphering the world” and “the effort of smiling at the foe.”
When Cromwell thinks he is about to die, he has no guilt about anything he has done. In fact, he thinks that when he broke rules and committed a “sin,” he managed to forge a new path. He has broken out of his station as a blacksmith’s son and become the king’s most trusted advisor, and in the process, he has flouted social conventions. He has also broken England’s association with the Catholic Church in Rome, thus increasing Henry’s powers.
Themes
A week after Cromwell has fallen sick, he gets word that Henry will come to visit him. Cromwell calls Thurston in to give him instructions for the feast. The women of the household are dressed to the nines and are excited to see the king, who is kind and gallant with them. After the king leaves, Johane sits by Cromwell and says that “the whole household did well.” She says she is glad to have seen the king, and that she understands now why Katherine doesn’t want to let him go—Henry “is a man very apt to be loved.” She also tells Cromwell that he might not believe her, but that “Henry is frightened of [Cromwell].”
Henry’s visit confirms Cromwell’s importance in Henry’s life—Henry seems to view him as a friend rather than just a courtier, and he wants to show Cromwell that he is valued and appreciated. When Henry is in good spirits, he is easy to love, as Johane observes, but of course, he has his dark and angry spells which can quickly make him dangerous. Johane points out that Henry seems “afraid” of Cromwell, and this is probably because he recognizes Cromwell’s intellectual superiority and knows how much he depends on Cromwell.
Themes
At the end of April, four monks who refuse to take the oath are put on trial. They belong to the Charterhouse of London, which is where More was before he joined public office. Cromwell has been there to try to cajole and then threaten them, but it has been of no use. It has been a year since the Maid was put to death, and the king no longer has any patience with those who oppose him. The law demands “a full traitor’s penalty,” which means they will be disemboweled in public. Henry wants his son Richmond to attend, but the boy doesn’t want to. Cromwell tells him he has to go, and he says that if he falls off his horse or vomits, his father-in-law Norfolk will never let him forget it. However, after the executions, Norfolk himself is shaken by the violence of what he witnessed.
More’s stance to refuse to take the oath seems to be spreading, which is what Cromwell predicted would happen. And, just like Cromwell said, the other people who suffer for this cause will not be remembered in history or glorified like More will be—they will be nameless and forgotten, like these four monks who endure a severe punishment that shakes even Norfolk, a violent man himself.
Themes
The king sends a commission to question More in the Tower. As soon as they enter, More says he has heard that Tyndale was arrested in Antwerp by the Emperor’s men, and Cromwell realizes that More orchestrated that arrest. More refuses to say anything about why he refuses to swear an oath to the Act of Supremacy, but Audley tells him he must speak. Cromwell tells More that when he interrogated so-called heretics, he tortured them if they refused to speak, and now, he should speak, too.
Even from his cell in the Tower, More is still busy rounding up and executing heretics. He has taunted Cromwell for years about Cromwell’s association with Tyndale, and by flaunting his knowledge of Tyndale’s arrest, More seems to be trying his best to irritate Cromwell with a final assertion of his power. However, More is also an intelligent man and refuses to speak to the commission because he doesn’t want to say anything that will incriminate him. He knows that they do not have enough evidence to try him.
Themes
More says that back then, he had the whole force of the law behind him, but that this commission only has one law to back them up. Cromwell says that the end result is the same, which is death, and Brandon says the king might not grant More a merciful death. Cromwell notes that this unnerves More. Riche says that at least Fisher dissents openly, while More stays silent since he knows he will be a traitor if he speaks. Audley says they have noted his obstinacy, though they will not use the same methods on him that he used on others. He says they will move to indictment and trial. More protests, saying he has done no harm, but Cromwell reminds him of the so-called heretics he has tortured and killed.
More thinks he can trick the system by refusing to speak and therefore not giving the commission legal cause for a trial. He seems to be hopeful that he might be able to secure his release in this way, but he gets nervous when Brandon mentions that he could be executed as a traitor. While More resorted to torture in order to get information from people he accused of heresy, the commission doesn’t employ these cruel means and decides to move to a trial.
Themes
When Anne Boleyn hears of More’s refusal to talk, she says that the root of the problem is that he doesn’t want to “bend his knee to [her] queenship.” She says she will have no peace until Fisher and More are dead. She circles the room agitatedly and pauses to touch Henry now and then, and Cromwell notices that he brushes her hands away. Cromwell says that Fisher’s case is clear and gives him no anxiety. More’s case, however, is morally clear but legally complex. Henry angrily tells him that the only reason he keeps Cromwell around—despite his low origins—is because he is “cunning as a bag of serpents.” He demands that Cromwell execute his decision.
Cromwell notices that Anne Boleyn is anxious and nervous, and that Henry seems to be irritated by her. Previously, she would caress him during meetings, but now, he brushes her hands away, which symbolizing the fraying connection between them. When Cromwell tries to explain that they do not yet have a legal cause to convict Thomas More of treason, Henry turns on him angrily, demonstrating his tendency to swing from affection to rage. When Henry went to Cromwell’s house to see him when he was sick, Cromwell almost believed that they were friends, but now, he is once again reminded that his only role is to please the king by carrying out his orders without questions or objections. Cromwell is only valuable to Henry because he is ”cunning as a bag of serpents,” implying that Henry wants nothing to do with Cromwell the person, who might have opinions that differ from Henry’s; it’s his harsh animal nature that Henry really values.
Themes
Richard Riche comes to see Cromwell, and he seems excited about being in possession of information that might be helpful in the case against More. He tells Cromwell that he and More were chatting after the commission questioned him, and Riche asked him if More would accept Riche as his king if Parliament passed a law declaring Riche the king. More had laughed and said he would. Riche had asked him why he wouldn’t then accept Parliament’s law that Henry is head of the church, and More had said that it was because Parliament doesn’t have spiritual jurisdiction. Riche and Cromwell say that this is proof that More still upholds papal law.
Riche and Cromwell have managed to trap More in admitting that he still believes the Pope’s law to be superior the Parliament’s when it comes to religious matters. Cromwell previously passed a bill that made it illegal to appeal to Rome since Henry is head of the church in England, so More’s words here are treasonous.
Themes
On the day of More’s trial, Cromwell is at court in Westminster early, making sure that there are no last-minute hitches. When More is brought in, he looks haggard and old, and Cromwell comments that it is a good trick to win sympathy. Cromwell’s staff seems prepared and confident.
Cromwell has no sympathy at all for More, and he believes that his haggard appearance is trick to appeal to his audience’s emotions.
Themes
