Thomas Boleyn
In Wolf Hall, Sir Thomas Boleyn ‘is the coldest, smoothest man he [Cromwell] has ever seen’, but that was a requirement, for he was not only a courtier, but one of the most celebrated, respected and revered ambassadors of Henry’s reign, and one of the few to carry out over 15 separate missions. Thomas was a protégé of Cardinal Wolsey and was recommended by Richard Fox, Henry VII’s most loyal adviser, confidant and chief architect of his government. Fox and Wolsey handpicked Thomas for his first diplomatic mission in 1512, alongside the most experienced of Henry VII’s and Henry VIII’s diplomats, and Thomas stood out as a new face in the line-up set by Fox and Wolsey. It is a relationship often overlooked because of Wolsey’s subsequent downfall and the role of the ‘Boleyn faction’ in it. In Mantel’s series, Cromwell dislikes having to deal with any of the Boleyns, but historically Cromwell and Thomas Boleyn knew each other as early as 1525, when Boleyn was already a seasoned diplomat and Cromwell new to his post.
While records and correspondence from either Cromwell or Boleyn are scarce, we do know that in 1527, Thomas’ sister, Alice, required legal assistance for a matter and wrote to her brother for some recommendations. He immediately put her in touch with Cromwell, and she wrote to him on her brother’s recommendation, asking for assistance. Cromwell accepted, and wrote to Thomas in December, informing him that he had agreed to counsel and advise her. Years later, when Anne was queen and Cromwell high in favour, he received a letter from his first cousin, Nicholas Glossop, asking for assistance, and who, by his own admission, was lame, impotent, suffering from gout and blind in one eye. Cromwell quietly sent Glossop to Thomas Boleyn, who took good care of his relative. Glossop later praised Thomas as the man to whom he owed his life.
In Mantel’s trilogy, Cromwell shifts from a prominent supporter of the Boleyns to a dangerous adversary. In Wolf Hall, Cromwell is scathing of Thomas’ rise, but historically his trajectory at court began long before Anne, and cannot be explained simply as a result of a liaison between his daughter and the king. Thomas served in many high-pressure and demanding positions that no mediocre individual would be granted, no matter who currently occupied Henry’s bed. These positions included Comptroller of the Household, Treasurer of the Household and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, with the last position requiring considerable work and effort. Thomas Boleyn was also a patron of the renowned scholar Desiderius Erasmus, commissioning several important works including Praeparatio ad mortem, which focused on how to live one’s life in preparation for death. As the Protestant writer John Strype would write centuries later, ‘The world is beholden to this noble peer [Boleyn] for some of the labours that proceeded from the pen of that most learned man [Erasmus].’
Contrary to popular belief, Thomas and his wife did not continue their lives at court following the execution of their children but returned to the peace of Hever Castle. It was Cromwell who continually pressured and bullied Thomas into returning to court. Cromwell replaced Thomas as Lord Privy Seal and, just prior to being admitted to the prestigious order of the Garter in 1537, Cromwell requested that Thomas loan him his best garter badge, a request Thomas was forced to comply with. As a member, Thomas should have been present for Cromwell’s admission, but he is conspicuously absent; the letter he sent to Cromwell with the badge made it clear that Thomas did not voluntarily give his collar to Cromwell and he would not leave Hever for the ceremony. It is also worth noting that Cromwell was particularly harsh on Thomas when it came to payment of legal subsidies and rents, insisting that all of Thomas’ payments be paid strictly on time, though he never pressured any other nobles, including Norfolk, all of whom were in arrears. Thomas Boleyn and his brother-in-law, Thomas Howard, would henceforth have a fractious relationship. In July of 1537, Norfolk complained to Cromwell that Thomas’ minstrel had sung derogatory songs about him and he was certain that Thomas had approved of it. Cromwell urged Thomas to punish the minstrel, but it seems that Thomas ignored him. Historically, Thomas had little interest in the machinations of court, and would rather have been left alone in the comfort of Hever Castle, where he cared for his aging mother, but Henry and Cromwell had other ideas.
George Boleyn
George Boleyn is commonly seen as a handsome but useless ornament of the court. Promiscuous, wild, cruel and arrogant, Mantel’s version insults Cromwell, belittles his wife, Jane, and smirks behind his hand at Henry. But there is more to George historically. George’s career blossomed during Anne’s rise, but he struggled to be seen as a man of skill and determination, with every mark of favour attributed to his sister. He was used as an almost glorified messenger between England and France, never assigned to a proper diplomatic mission, though he was more than capable. He was close to his sister and ultimately became a central member of the colourful circle of courtiers that surrounded her. The pair were similar in temperament, sharing the same intellectual and aesthetic interests and developing a passion for the New Learning of Renaissance humanism, with George dedicating translations of devotional texts to his sister. Surprisingly, George was a man capable of deep spirituality.
George haunts Cromwell in The Mirror And The Light, as we flash back to Cromwell visiting George in the Tower, where for the first time George is not depicted as a buffoon, but an innocent man who understands why he is to be destroyed. Historically George was concerned for those to whom
