The day of reckoning came on 13 April, when More was summoned to appear before a commission, comprising Archbishop Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell, Lord Chancellor Audley and the Abbot of Westminster, William Benson, at Lambeth Palace, and swear his allegiance to the Act of Succession. While More was willing to accept Henry’s marriage to Anne, he could not abide the new law of succession, which declared Mary a bastard. He was immediately sent to the Tower – decades of friendship extinguished in a mere matter of minutes.
The year 1534 became an annus horribilis. Not only were Henry and Anne struggling to cope with events domestically, they were then dealt a major blow as news reached England of Charles V’s triumph over the Ottoman ruler, Suleiman the Magnificent, and his general Hayreddin Barbarossa, in the battle for Tunis as part of their constant struggle for supremacy in the region. As Francis I was Suleiman’s ally at the time, a victorious Charles took the opportunity to force France into another alliance. Cromwell, Chapuys reported, was scarcely able to breathe when he heard the news. France now cooled towards Henry.
Events were already taking a toll on the royal marriage; the new queen is frustrated and agitated, Henry seems darker too. His enemies are closer to home: he is determined to destroy Thomas More and Bishop Fisher, despite Cromwell’s reluctance. For the first time, Cromwell glimpses malice, a portent of things to come. Henry says:
‘I keep you, Master Cromwell, because you are as cunning as a bag of serpents. But do not be a viper in my bosom. You know my decision. Execute it.’
Bishop Fisher and Thomas More were sentenced to execution for refusing to swear the Oath of Succession. Like More, Fisher was willing to swear allegiance to Henry and Anne’s children, but they also refused to repudiate papal supremacy over the English church. The denial of the royal titles was, by 1535, treasonable, and Bishop Fisher was facing execution. In a clever attempt to protect Fisher, Pope Paul III, who had succeeded Clement VII in 1534, formally made Fisher a cardinal, wrongly assuming that Henry would hardly dare to execute him.
History tells us that Cromwell tried to save More by persuading him just to acquiesce and accept the oath: just say ‘Yes’. Wolf Hall conjures conversations within the recesses of the Tower, relating frank discussions in which Mantel gives us a glimpse of a very human and vulnerable More, even if, like Cromwell, we cannot fathom a principle strong enough to die for.
Fisher was executed on 22nd June followed by More on 6th July 1535. More’s last words were: ‘I died a servant of the King’s, but God’s first.’
Cromwell has no time for sentimentality – life must go on – and he is already planning Henry’s calendar for the last few weeks of summer, before the winter chill rolls in and Henry can no longer hunt:
‘Now here, before we go to Winchester, we have time to spare, and what I think is, Rafe, we shall visit the Seymours.’ He writes it down. Early September. Five days. Wolf Hall.
AROUND THE THRONE THE THUNDER ROLLS
In Bring Up the Bodies, the summer of 1535 sees a despondent and depressed Henry as he faces disappointment and broken promises. Three years on, his marriage to Anne Boleyn has not produced a male heir, and the marriage is met with skepticism, in England and throughout Europe. There are no royal houses seeking a union with England through a marriage to the young Princess Elizabeth, whose legitimacy remains in doubt. Henry has little enthusiasm for his summer progress and travels with only a small selection of gentlemen, Cromwell included. None of Henry’s visions have come to fruition; Katherine, rather than Anne, still held the hearts and minds of the English people, and the struggle to validate his second marriage was constant. There was hope – Anne was pregnant again, but by now Cromwell knew that a pregnancy guaranteed nothing.
The book opens with Henry’s visit to Wolf Hall in 1535, the home of Sir John Seymour of ‘Wulfhall’, Wiltshire. Henry knows the family well but now suddenly notices the young Jane Seymour as if for the first time, although he has seen her many times at court.
Bring Up the Bodies also gives us a sense of Henry’s advancing years:
... he looks bloated and puffy, and a vein is burst here and there, and even by candlelight you can see that his faded hair is greying.
Henry begins to cultivate the Seymours, his gracious hosts at Wolf Hall, Cromwell watching as Henry fawns over Jane. There is no one single moment when the reader can say with certainty that Cromwell’s allegiance has shifted, but there is something about his choices which suggest a turning point. Relations between Anne and Cromwell have soured, he resents George Boleyn who treats him as an inferior, and he has little time for Thomas Boleyn; but he has unravelled Anne, and is seeing her in a different light.
... they are uneasy now, each of them vigilant, watching each other for some slip that will betray real feeling, and so give advantage to the one or the other: as if only dissimulation will make them safe.
Anne Boleyn was now around now thirty-four years old, and Mantel’s Anne is still a skilful manipulator of men; it seems it is just Cromwell and now the king she is unable to please. Anne and Cromwell’s alliance had always been a marriage of convenience and upon their return to court Mantel’s Cromwell makes a snap decision: he tells Rafe to fetch Jane Seymour from Wolf Hall.
In the autumn of 1535, Mantel’s Anne orders Cromwell up north: she and Henry have heard that Katherine is ill, but they want confirmation. Cromwell takes his leave but is accosted by Lady Worcester, one of Anne’s ladies-in-waiting, who shares some tantalizing gossip. It is here Mantel plants some rather large seeds:
We all know where Harry Norris would
