T
HOMAS
C
ULPEPPER
Mantel’s Cromwell has little time for Thomas Culpepper, who crops up in The Mirror and the Light, but historically Culpepper, an ambitious young man who was also a cousin of both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, had several ties to the Cromwells – his older brother was a client of Cromwell and Culpepper had worked with Richard Cromwell.
Culpepper rose through the courtier ranks, becoming a favourite of Henry VIII’s, despite a shocking accusation that he had raped the wife of a park keeper and murdered her husband (though this may have been his older brother, also called Thomas). In any event, Culpepper was elevated to the coveted Privy Chamber. Mantel’s Cromwell would not be alive to witness the scandal which engulfed Henry’s fifth Queen, Catherine, who was executed for (alleged) adultery with Culpepper and another man, Francis Dereham, who she had known prior to her marriage to Henry. Culpepper met his end at Tyburn, suffering a traitor’s death.
F
RANCIS
W
ESTON
Sir Francis Weston was one of the younger members of Henry’s inner circle and came from a respectable family – his father, Sir Richard Weston, had served as Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer and his mother had served as one of Katherine of Aragon’s ladies-in-waiting.
Like Norris and George Boleyn, Weston began his career at court serving as a page, but his love of hunting, gambling and other sports quickly endeared him to a king who was beginning to age, and he was appointed as a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber. In 1533 he was knighted at Anne Boleyn’s coronation, and would likely have had a long career in Henry’s service, had he not been caught up in the violent events of 1536.
W
ILLIAM
B
RERETON
William Brereton was of a well-to-do family – his father, Sir Randle Brereton, had served as a knight under Henry VII. By 1521 he had become a Groom of the Chamber, and several years later, was promoted to the Privy Chamber. But Brereton had an unsavoury reputation according to George Cavendish, who accused him of persecuting innocent people – there was a story of one John ap Griffith Eyton who was hanged in 1534 because Brereton believed he killed one of his retainers. Eyton had been acquitted but Brereton persuaded Anne Boleyn to intervene, and the man was arrested once more and executed, despite Cromwell’s efforts on his behalf.
Indeed, it would seem that Cromwell had issues with almost every member of the Privy Chamber:
I have probably, he thinks, gone as far as I can to accommodate them. Now they must accommodate me, or be removed.
(Bring Up the Bodies)
THE CARDINAL’S DESCENT
At Hampton Court in the great hall they perform an interlude; its name is ‘The Cardinal’s Descent into Hell’. (Wolf Hall)
In this scene the ‘entertainment’ features men dressed as devils stabbing a scarlet-clad figure with tridents. This is a pivotal moment in Wolf Hall; Wolsey is dead. Weeks prior, on 1 November 1530, the commission for Wolsey’s arrest was given to Henry Percy, now Earl of Northumberland. Wolsey had not yet reached York when Percy visited him at Cawood in North Yorkshire, greeting him with the warrant. He was to return to London and to the Tower; Anne had got her way at last. But Wolsey’s enemies would be denied the pleasure of seeing the once-great Lord Chancellor executed – he fell ill on the journey south and died near Leicester Abbey where he was buried, metres from the grave of Richard III. We do not know how deeply Cromwell mourned his master, but we can speculate. Certainly Mantel’s Cromwell finds it unbearable to hear of Wolsey’s last days from an equally distraught George Cavendish, with feelings of guilt surging through him that he had been preoccupied with court matters, and was not there at such a time.
He cannot openly lament, but he goes to his drawer and opens a package the Cardinal had given him before he left for the north. In it is the Cardinal’s turquoise ring, which Cromwell had always admired, the very ring we see in Cromwell’s famous portrait. Eyes at court also recognize the ring, and though he doesn’t say it the meaning is clear: he will always be Wolsey’s man. Wolsey’s death weighing on him, Cromwell watches with the court as they shriek in amusement at the play.
Historically, however, the details of the farce are lost, and it is unclear just what it entailed, whether it was it a dance, a monologue or a play. Originally it was ambassador Chapuys who reported that Thomas Boleyn ‘caused a farce to be acted of the Cardinal going down to Hell’. But far from a public display, this was a private scene of entertainment for Boleyn’s guest – the French ambassador, Gabriel de Grammont, during a private dinner. It was, however, the Duke of Norfolk who then had the farce printed and publicized. In Wolf Hall, Cromwell quietly moves behind the curtains and takes note of the actors – George Boleyn, Henry Norris, Francis Weston and William Brereton. He will remember their positions in that play for years to come.
Despite his heartbreak at Wolsey’s demise and death, Cromwell smoothly made the transition from Wolsey’s service to that of the king, and by the beginning of 1531, when Cromwell was sworn in as a royal councillor, he must have felt he had reached the pinnacle of his career. In Wolf Hall, Thomas More warns, ‘Now you are a member of the council, I hope you will tell the king what he ought to do, not merely what he can do. If the lion knew his own strength, it would be hard to rule him.’
The years between 1530 and 1533 were fraught with difficulty as Henry battled two women – his queen, Katherine, who he was determined to be rid of, and his
