marvels, she is unyielding:

She may smile, but she doesn’t yield an inch. Julius Caesar would have had more compunction. Hannibal.

While Katherine stubbornly waited for a verdict from Rome, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in his new role pronounced Henry to be divorced from his queen of 24 years, in a small trial at Dunstable Priory in Bedfordshire in May. It was remarkably quick; Katherine was now relegated to the status of Princess Dowager. Anne’s coronation was planned for the last days of June.

In Wolf Hall, ‘he, Thomas Cromwell, is now running everything, including the weather’. London witnessed three days of glorious celebrations and the main event, the coronation on 1 June 1533, was magnificent – and likely exhausting for the six months pregnant Anne.

Mantel’s Cromwell visits Chapuys, who has secluded himself in defiance of the coronation. Historically, though Chapuys found the whole thing in poor taste, he was out on the Thames, a guest at a banquet held on the German ambassador’s barge where they drank a toast to the Emperor as the guns of the Tower fired. Not everyone approved, but no one was going to miss it.

PRINCE[ESS]

It was now a waiting game. The proclamations were carefully drawn up, ready to be sent to all the corners of Europe, to announce the birth of a prince, which would prove that God smiled on the King of England. The letters all confidently announced a prince, and in Wolf Hall, it is Cromwell who suggests the scribes leave a space at the end of ‘prince’: ‘so if need be you can squash in ... But they look at him as if he’s a traitor, so he leaves off.’

Of course, the baby Anne gave birth to on 7 September was not the long-awaited prince, but a princess. Henry and Anne rally and put on a brave face: they were still young, and surely sons would follow. Cromwell thinks very little of the newborn and in The Mirror and the Light even refers to her as the ginger pig, rather unkindly (not every child is Grace Cromwell). But Anne, seemingly softer, is infatuated with her daughter, longing to nurse her, which is not part of the royal custom: queens are there to breed, not feed.

PERSONAL SPHERES

Throughout the rest of 1533 and 1534 we see more of the Cromwell household, so different from our first introduction. Cromwell is wealthy, powerful and influential. Austin Friars and his house in Stepney continue to host friends and patrons. Though the ghosts linger, the living children we saw at the beginning of Wolf Hall are now grown up; they are adults with their own desires and ambitions.

R

AFE

S

ADLER

Cromwell would have known Sadler’s father, Henry, during their time serving the Grey family, and from the age of seven, Sadler was placed in Cromwell’s care as a ward. In the Cromwell household he was taught to read and write, not only in English but also in French, Latin and Greek. By the time he was 19, Sadler was one of Cromwell’s right-hand men and served as his secretary – who better to have as a mentor?

Sadler is a constant character throughout the trilogy, and we witness the transition from a young boy to a gentleman. Sadler married Ellen Barre, Cromwell’s young laundress, whose husband had run off to Ireland. Despite this minor issue, the couple married and Ellen bore him seven children. Historically, Sadler survived Cromwell’s fall and enjoyed a highly successful career at court as a Privy Councillor and diplomat, but he was dedicated to his mentor’s memory, much like Cromwell had been to Wolsey. He remained close to Richard and Gregory Cromwell throughout his life and actively worked against those he considered responsible for Cromwell’s death, in particular Gardiner and Norfolk. It was also most likely Sadler who took possession of Holbein’s famed portrait of Thomas Cromwell, ensuring its survival through the centuries.

G

REGORY

C

ROMWELL

Gregory is often dismissed as an unintelligent, naive young man who did not possess any of his father’s intellectual or political brilliance, but MacCulloch argues that this myth stems from a miscalculation of his age. Most likely born in 1520, he was a young boy when he struggled with his studies, not a teenager. Cromwell was close to his son and was determined to provide him with a fine education, sending him to a Benedictine nunnery run by the Prioress Margaret Vernon before he was sent to Cambridge, where he would be tutored by various scholars. Gregory also became accomplished in physical pursuits, including jousting and hawking.

As a young man at court, Gregory was well liked and respected, with the Duke of Norfolk praising him as a ‘wise quick piece’, and three humanist scholars dedicated their works and translations to him. Gregory had been moulded into the ideal courtier and he would prove to be a credit to his father, though he would not follow in his father’s political footsteps, preferring a quieter life away from court and its deadly politics.

RENAISSANCE INFLUENCES

Renaissance thought and cultural expression were inspired by the revival of classical learning and the flowering of cultural expression. From the 14th to the 17th century, following the culturally conservative Medieval period, the rich flourishing of philosophy, science and the arts spawned the Humanist Movement, an ethical system that advanced the concept of the dignity, freedom and the value of human beings; a shift of emphasis from religious to secular expression.

This was at the heart of the Renaissance, which spread throughout Europe, reaching England during Henry VIII’s reign. It was accompanied by an explosion of trade, exploration and diplomatic exchanges that reached from Europe to the Ottoman and Persian empires. The creation of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 revolutionized the dissemination of Renaissance ideals to educated Europeans. Monarchs strove to become a Renaissance Prince, accomplished in the arts and physical pursuits; popular literary themes centred on the art of being a Renaissance Man. The courts of Europe entertained some of the greatest names of

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