Wolf Hall: Bring Up the Bodies

THOMAS BOLEYN, Earl of Wiltshire, the queen’s father: ‘Monseigneur’.

GEORGE BOLEYN, Lord Rochford, the queen’s brother.

JANE, Lady Rochford, George’s wife.

MARY SHELTON, the queen’s cousin.

And offstage: Mary Boleyn, the queen’s sister, now married and living in the country, but formerly the king’s mistress.

The Seymour Family of Wolf Hall

OLD SIR JOHN, notorious for having had an affair with his daughter-in-law.

LADY MARGERY, his wife.

EDWARD SEYMOUR, his eldest son.

THOMAS SEYMOUR, a younger son.

JANE SEYMOUR, his daughter, lady-in-waiting to both Henry’s queens.

BESS SEYMOUR, her sister, married to Sir Anthony Oughtred, Governor of Jersey: then widowed.

The Courtiers

CHARLES BRANDON, Duke of Suffolk: widower of Henry VIII’s sister Mary: a peer of limited intellect.

THOMAS WYATT, a gentleman of unlimited intellect: Cromwell’s friend: widely suspected of being a lover of Anne Boleyn.

HARRY PERCY, Earl of Northumberland: a sick and indebted young nobleman, once betrothed to Anne Boleyn.

FRANCIS BRYAN, ‘the Vicar of Hell’, related to both the Boleyns and the Seymours.

NICHOLAS CAREW, Master of the Horse: an enemy of the Boleyns.

WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, Master Treasurer, also an enemy of the Boleyns.

HENRY NORRIS, known as ‘gentle Norris’, chief of the king’s privy chamber.

FRANCIS WESTON, a reckless and extravagant young gentleman.

WILLIAM BRERETON, a hard-nosed and quarrelsome older gentleman.

MARK SMEATON, a suspiciously well-dressed musician.

ELIZABETH, Lady Worcester, a lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn.

HANS HOLBEIN, painter.

The Clerics

THOMAS CRANMER, Archbishop of Canterbury: Cromwell’s friend.

STEPHEN GARDINER, Bishop of Winchester: Cromwell’s enemy.

RICHARD SAMPSON, legal adviser to the king in his matrimonial affairs.

The Officers of State

THOMAS WRIOTHESLEY, known as Call-Me-Risley, Clerk of the Signet.

RICHARD RICHE, Solicitor General.

THOMAS AUDLEY, Lord Chancellor.

The Ambassadors

EUSTACHE CHAPUYS, ambassador of Emperor Charles V.

JEAN DE DINTEVILLE, a French envoy.

The Reformers

HUMPHREY MONMOUTH, wealthy merchant, friend of Cromwell and evangelical sympathiser: patron of William Tyndale, the Bible translator, now in prison in the Low Countries.

ROBERT PACKINGTON: a merchant of similar sympathies.

STEPHEN VAUGHAN, a merchant at Antwerp, friend and agent of Cromwell.

The ‘Old Families’ with Claims to the Throne

MARGARET POLE, niece of King Edward IV, supporter of Katherine of Aragon and the princess Mary.

HENRY, Lord Montague, her son.

HENRY COURTENAY, Marquis of Exeter.

GERTRUDE, his ambitious wife.

At the Tower of London

SIR WILLIAM KINGSTON, the constable.

LADY KINGSTON, his wife.