The novel opens in the year 1500 in the small town of Putney, England, where young Thomas Cromwell is being cruelly beaten up by his father, Walter, who is a drunk and the town’s blacksmith. The beatings take place often, and this time, Walter almost kills him. Thomas decides leave home and be a soldier, and he goes off looking for a war to fight in.
Years later, in 1527, Thomas Cromwell is employed by Cardinal Wolsey, who is the Cardinal of York and advisor to King Henry VIII. Cromwell has been a soldier in France and then a banker in Florence, and he has now returned to England, where he practices law. Wolsey and Cromwell share a relationship of camaraderie and respect. The cardinal tells Cromwell that Henry wants to annul his marriage to Queen Katherine, who hasn’t been able to give him a son, and Wolsey suspects that Katherine will put up a fight.
After his meeting with Wolsey, Cromwell heads home. His wife, Liz, is waiting up for him though it is late, and she chats with him about their children. She tells him that a mysterious package arrived for him from Germany, and Cromwell knows that it is one of the banned books he had ordered. While he keeps himself abreast of the ideas of the controversial theologist Luther and even has a copy of Tyndale’s English Bible at home, others, like the king’s Lord Chancellor Thomas More, declare that the authors and readers of these banned books are heretics and must be burned. Liz also tells him that she heard rumors that the king has ordered a beautiful emerald ring for a woman who isn’t his wife.
The cardinal opens a court of inquiry into Henry’s marriage. Henry claims that the marriage is incestuous because he married his brother’s wife (Katherine was married to Henry’s brother Arthur before Arthur’s untimely death), and that it is therefore invalid. Katherine, however, claims that she and Arthur never consummated their marriage, so her marriage to Henry is valid. Wolsey warns Henry that even if this court does rule in Henry’s favor, Katherine is sure to appeal to the Pope, who would overrule the court. Henry is furious that Wolsey cannot give him what he wants. At the time, the Pope has been taken prisoner by Emperor Charles, Katherine’s nephew, so Wolsey has no hope that the Pope would consider an appeal from Henry. Wolsey tries to gather a delegation of cardinals in France to pass the resolution while the Pope is imprisoned, but he fails to do this, too. While the cardinal is away in France, the sweating sickness strikes in London, and Cromwell’s wife Liz dies from it.
In January of 1529, Wolsey comes up with a new plan to prove in court that Katherine wasn’t a virgin when she married Henry, and that the marriage is therefore not valid. The court’s proceedings turn into bawdy entertainment, and Stephen Gardiner, the king’s Master Secretary, tells Cromwell that if this court fails to annul the marriage, it will be the end for Wolsey. He is proven right. Soon after, Cardinal Wolsey is dismissed from his position. Wolsey is required to vacate his London house, and all of his fine possessions are taken away by the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, and it upsets Cromwell to witness his disgrace.
Cromwell succeeds in getting a seat in Parliament, and he plans to use this platform to help the cardinal’s case. Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor, has added his name first in the bill against the cardinal. When Cromwell finally gets a chance to talk to King Henry, he makes a good impression on the king, and soon after, the king sends the cardinal’s household some basic necessities like curtains and plates. Cromwell starts spending more time with Henry, but Norfolk and Suffolk dislike this because they think it might improve Wolsey’s chances. They want Wolsey’s household to move north to York, away from the king. The king gives Cromwell some money for this move and admits that he misses Wolsey, which makes Cromwell hopeful. On the eve of the cardinal’s departure, Wolsey gives Cromwell his turquoise ring, and both men are in tears.
A year after the cardinal is ousted, there has been no progress in getting the king’s marriage annulled. Cromwell has become something of a fixture at court and has even been able to make his way into meetings of the king’s council. In November 1530, days before Wolsey’s investiture ceremony at York, the cardinal is arrested by Harry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland. He dies on his way back to London, and Cromwell suspects that he poisoned himself. The king gradually comes to confide in Cromwell more and more, and he values Cromwell’s loyalty to Wolsey, who used to be Henry’s advisor and friend. Soon, Cromwell is sworn in as part of the king’s council and becomes the only one of the king’s councilors who isn’t from nobility.
In 1531, the king sends Cromwell to see Katherine to tell her she is being moved to a different residence. The king also plans to separate his daughter Mary from Katherine. Lady Anne Boleyn is increasingly at the king’s side. One of her attendants, a quiet girl named Jane Seymour, is frequently mocked by Anne because her father has been caught having an incestuous relationship with his daughter-in-law at his residence, Wolf Hall. Cromwell feels sorry for the pale, quiet girl, and he buys her a present.
Meanwhile, Thomas More is becoming increasingly active in rounding up “heretics,” by which he means anyone who reads or says anything against the Catholic Church. He tortures them in the Tower of London and gets them to disclose the names of anyone else who helps them bring their books—usually books by Tyndale and Luther—into England, and then he burns them to death. Cromwell tries to use his influence with Anne and Henry to help some of these people, but the king tells him that the Lord Chancellor knows how to do his work and that he will not interfere.
When Parliament meets in 1532, the members want to pass a bill that will cut the revenue that England sends to the Pope and make Henry head of the church. They want to convince the English bishops to join their cause, and leading the opposition to the bill is Stephen Gardiner, who is now the Bishop of Winchester. Henry is furious, but Cromwell helps him see that he must not come across as a tyrant who kills anyone who opposes him, since this would result in him losing face in all of Europe. Thomas More threatens Cromwell for working against the Catholic Church, and Cromwell says that neither he nor the king are heretics. Despite More’s and Gardiner’s efforts, the bill passes in Parliament, which is a huge win for Cromwell. The king names him Keeper of the Jewel House, which will allow Cromwell to have control over the kingdom’s revenues. Thomas More is stripped of his title of Lord Chancellor, and Audley, the Speaker of the House, is made the new Lord Chancellor on Cromwell’s recommendation.
The king makes Anne the Marquess of Pembroke, and in the autumn, he and his court prepare to travel to France to win King Francois’s support for Henry’s marriage. On their way to France, they stop in Canterbury, where Henry runs into a prophetess named Eliza Barton who is becoming popular for her prophecies about Henry and Anne. She tells Henry that if he marries Anne, he will reign only for seven months and that lightning will strike him. Henry is upset by this, and it falls to Cromwell to calm him down. When they are in France, Cromwell hears that Henry and Anne said their vows in a small ceremony, and that Anne is finally sleeping with the king.
By 1533, Cromwell has become indispensable to the king, and he even mediates between him and Anne when they quarrel. Cromwell finds out that Anne is pregnant, and he begins drafting a bill that would make it illegal to go over Henry and appeal to the Pope, since he knows that Anne’s coronation must take place soon. He also has his friend Thomas Cranmer in place to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury, so he knows he can get the English church’s approval for Henry’s divorce. Cromwell’s bill is passed in Parliament, and Anne is crowned Queen soon after. Anne and Henry are hoping for a son, and she goes away to Greenwich to prepare to give birth.
To Henry’s great disappointment, Anne has a daughter, whom they name Elizabeth. Cromwell and Cranmer tell Henry that he and Anne are still young and can have more children, which cheers him up. Soon after, Anne becomes pregnant again. On her request, Cromwell drafts a bill called the Act of Succession that says that Anne’s daughter Elizabeth will inherit the throne if Henry doesn’t have a lawful male heir, and Henry’s subjects are supposed to swear an oath to uphold it.
Meanwhile, Cromwell has brought Eliza Barton to a house in London, where she is questioned by a delegation about her supposed prophetic powers. She breaks down and confesses that she was only pretending to have visions, and she names all the people who propped her up. When Cromwell is writing up the bill against Eliza Barton, Anne asks him to include More’s name in it, too, since she knows he doesn’t approve of her being queen and she wants to frighten him. Cromwell protests, since he knows More had nothing to do with Barton, but Henry insists on it, too. Later, the king’s councilors beg Henry on their knees to remove More’s name from the bill, and he gives in to them. Barton is hanged for treason soon after.
When Thomas More is asked to swear an oath on the Act of Succession, he refuses to do so, claiming it would be against his conscience and that his soul would be damned if he did it. Cromwell, Cranmer, and Audley try to persuade him, but they cannot, and More is imprisoned for treason. Cromwell is irritated that they all worked so hard to get More off the Barton bill, since he is insisting on martyring himself right after. He says that this is a calculated move by More to go down as a hero in history. He points out to More that his convictions on the beneficence of the Church are misplaced, and that More himself has committed many murders to uphold these ideas.
The king gives Cromwell the title of Master Secretary, and then he also makes him Master of Rolls. He gives Cromwell a title nobody has held before—the Viceregent in Spirituals—which gives him the power to close down monasteries and divert that money to the kingdom. Cromwell feels satisfied with his success, and he is pleased that he has managed to settle the young people in his household in happy marriages with enough money for all of them. He himself remains lonely after Liz’s death, and he finds himself developing tender feelings for Jane Seymour, though he discloses this to no one.
More refuses to take an oath on the Act of Succession or on the Act of Supremacy, which says that the king has always been head of the English church. Henry and Anne want More executed, and they demand that Cromwell find a legal way to do it. Cromwell and his delegation question More and write down a statement he makes that Parliament doesn’t have jurisdiction over spiritual matters, which they say is proof that he still believes in papal law. They use this to convict him, and he is beheaded.
Anne has had a miscarriage, to Henry’s disappointment. The court is preparing to travel west in the summer and Cromwell hopes Anne will be pregnant when she returns. Since Cromwell has a few days to himself, he decides to go visit the Seymours at Wolf Hall.
