Wolf Hall

Thomas finds Anne Boleyn in the cardinal’s house. He uses this opportunity to try to win Anne’s favor by pleading the cardinal’s case. It does not go well. He hears from Anne’s sister, Mary, that Anne and the king have not consummated their affair.

Thomas prepares for the cardinal’s removal to Yorkshire. In an audience with Henry, he secures a thousand pounds for the cardinal’s income. In private, Henry tells Thomas that he misses the cardinal dearly. Wolsey gives Thomas a small package to open after the cardinal dies. Thomas becomes more and more emotional as the departure approaches. He learns from Ambassador Chapuys that the cardinal “has come to the end of his credit with the emperor” (199).

Cardinal Wolsey’s health worsens. He retires to Yorkshire, and parliamentary business keeps Thomas in the south. He writes to Wolsey to reassure him. Wolsey replies that Thomas is “mine own, entirely beloved Cromwell” (200).

Henry begins to want the wealth and income of Wolsey’s university foundations, despite the fact the they are endowed by the pope. Thomas spends more and more time with Henry. The king feels isolated; it is hard for people to carry on a conversation with him due to fear and respect. He and Thomas discuss monasteries, taxes, and war.

That summer, there is no plague and the king is frequently off hunting. Courtier Harry Norris jokes that Thomas will be invited soon, based on how close he has become with the king.  

Thomas meets with Lord Chancellor More at his house in Chelsea to discuss the cardinal’s colleges. Stephen Gardiner is there. The king may re-establish Cardinal College, but not Ipswich College. At dinner, conversation turns to Richard III, the evil king who Henry VII deposed. Thomas and Stephen use a distraction in the conversation to discuss Thomas Wriothesley, who works for them both. Richard and Rafe think that Wriothesley is a spy for Gardiner.

Cardinal Wolsey is popular in the north. He begins to renovate his estate. He has been pardoned by the king. However, this causes Thomas some anxiety: more charges against him could be invented. Stephen and Norfolk seem to be plotting something. As the cardinal’s enthronement in York approaches, Norfolk becomes more vicious. He accuses Wolsey of being content with nothing but kingship. Thomas silently thinks that Wolsey would have made a good king. According to Norfolk, his niece Anne Boleyn, is “out for bloody murder. She wants the cardinal’s guts in a dish to feed his spaniels, and his limbs nailed over the city gates of York” (222).

Dr. Thomas Cranmer, a learned clergyman who Thomas knows through service to Cardinal Wolsey, begins to work on the king’s case. Anne Boleyn shows Cranmer and Thomas a drawing she found under her bed: Henry, Anne, and Katherine—but Anne’s image has been beheaded. She thinks it was drawn by a pale, young woman whom Thomas has previously noticed in Anne’s company.

Thomas and Cranmer run into this young woman in the hall. She is Jane Seymour, “John Seymour’s daughter, from Wolf Hall” (225). The Seymours live in a country estate. Jane is at court in the hopes of advancing her family; there is always the chance that Henry will pick someone other than Anne.

Cranmer visits for dinner at Austin Friars. They discuss the priest’s background, including his family estate and his Cambridge education. Cranmer reminds Thomas that they not only have to persuade Pope Clement of the king’s case, but also all of Europe. Thomas says that people have tried to persuade Cardinal Wolsey that Thomas is only working for himself. Cranmer suggests going to the cardinal to dispel doubt, but Thomas knows there is a trap set for the cardinal, and he is afraid to move.

Later, Thomas and Henry discuss the king’s marital status while they practice archery. The king compliments Thomas on his skills. He wants to go in disguise to shoot with Thomas and the common people.

In November, Norfolk rages about the times Henry nearly died in sport. If the king were to die now, the kingdom would likely go to his bastard son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond. This would probably result in war. Thomas reminds Norfolk that Mary, Henry and Katherine’s daughter, is alive and also a contender for the throne. Norfolk finds it preposterous to imagine a woman on the throne.  

Jo, the daughter of Lizzie’s sister, and Alice, Thomas’ niece, ask Thomas to get Liz out of purgatory by having the cardinal write to the pope. Thomas takes them to Johane and Mercy; it turns into a religious argument. His household has “been more like a battlefield than a household” (239).

A warrant for Cardinal Wolsey’s arrest is issued to Harry Percy to carry out. While in route to the Tower of London, the cardinal dies.

George Cavendish comes to Austin Friars and recounts the events of the cardinal’s arrest. Harry Percy was “shaking from head to foot” as he read the pronouncement (240). The townspeople are distraught as the cardinal is escorted out. The cardinal had not eaten for a week. He complained of pain, of something cold inside him. That night, the cardinal “voided black blood from his bowels” (242). He died two days later. He is laid to rest in a simple wood coffin, not the opulent tomb he constructed for himself.

Thomas and George discuss the cardinal’s and the kingdom’s finances for a time. Once alone, Thomas opens the package the cardinal had given him. Inside is Wolsey’s turquoise ring; it fits Thomas’ finger.

At Hampton Court, a play called “The Cardinal’s Descent into Hell” is performed. Norfolk and Anne are especially delighted. Henry “sits frozen” and occasionally “laughs, but [Thomas] thinks if you could get close you would see that his eyes are afraid” (246). When the grotesque scene is over, Thomas goes backstage. He sees that the devils were played by George and Harry Norris, George Boleyn, and other so-called gentlemen. The cardinal himself was played by Patch, Master Sexton, Wolsey’s old fool.

Outside, Thomas lingers on thoughts of Cardinal Wolsey. When he returns to Austin Friars, he looks at the wall where the cardinal’s coat of arms is painted. He requests that it be painted over and left blank.

At midnight there comes a knock at the door. It is William Brereton, a groom in the service of Henry VIII, and an armed escort. The king wants Thomas in Greenwich. Richard, Rafe, and Gregory go with him.

Thomas Cranmer is in the king’s chamber. Henry tells Thomas that his dead brother came to him in a dream. Arthur seemed to have accused Henry of taking his wife and ill-using her. Thomas reassures him. He says that the dream is Prince Arthur signaling to Henry that “he means [Henry] to become the king he would have been” (255). He “bites back the temptation” to tell the king that the dream happened “because you are forty and he is telling you to grow up” (255).

Thomas tells Henry that the dream signifies that it is now time for him to assume supremacy in his kingdom: no more should England bow to Rome. The king agrees. He dismisses Thomas and Cranmer.

Cranmer is impressed with the deftness with which Thomas handled the situation. Gregory and Richard are relieved that Thomas is all right.

The next day, Thomas returns to Greenwich for an impromptu council with the king and various advisors. He is to be made an official counselor to King Henry. Thomas More is there, distraught: his father has died.

More reads Thomas the oath of loyalty. Stephen Gardiner interrupts, but the procedure is soon concluded. Thomas can only think of the day that the king’s men despoiled Cardinal Wolsey’s possessions in York Place.