Wolf Hall: Bring Up the Bodies

Once again to Mary Robertson:
after my right harty commendacions,
and with spede.

“Am I not a man like other men? Am I not? Am I not?”

HENRY VIII
to Eustache Chapuys, Imperial Ambassador

The Cromwell Household

T
HOMAS
C
ROMWELL
, a blacksmith’s son: now Secretary to the King, Master of the Rolls, Chancellor of Cambridge University, and deputy to the king as head of the church in England.

G
REGORY
C
ROMWELL
, his son.

R
ICHARD
C
ROMWELL
, his nephew.

R
AFE
S
ADLER
, his chief clerk, brought up by Cromwell as his son.

H
ELEN
, R
AFE’S
beautiful wife.

T
HOMAS
A
VERY
, the household accountant.

T
HURSTON
, his master cook.

C
HRISTOPHE
, a servant.

D
ICK
P
URSER
, keeper of the watchdogs.

A
NTHONY
, a jester.

The Dead

T
HOMAS
W
OLSEY
, cardinal, papal legate, Lord Chancellor: dismissed from office, arrested and died, 1530.

J
OHN
F
ISHER
, Bishop of Rochester: executed 1535.

T
HOMAS
M
ORE
, Lord Chancellor after Wolsey: executed 1535.

E
LIZABETH
, A
NNE AND
G
RACE
C
ROMWELL
: Thomas Cromwell’s wife and daughters, died 1527–28: also Katherine Williams and Elizabeth Wellyfed, his sisters.

The King’s Family

H
ENRY
VIII.

A
NNE
B
OLEYN
, his second wife.

E
LIZABETH
, Anne’s infant daughter, heir to the throne.

H
ENRY
F
ITZROY
, Duke of Richmond, the king’s illegitimate son.

The King’s Other Family

K
ATHERINE OF
A
RAGON
, Henry’s first wife, divorced and under house arrest at Kimbolton.

M
ARY
, Henry’s daughter by Katherine and the alternative heir to the throne: also under house arrest.

M
ARIA DE
S
ALINAS
, a former lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon.

S
IR
E
DMUND
B
EDINGFIELD
, Katherine’s keeper.

G
RACE
, his wife.

The Howard & Boleyn Families

T
HOMAS
H
OWARD
, Duke of Norfolk, uncle to the queen: ferocious senior peer and an enemy of Cromwell.

H
ENRY
H
OWARD
, Earl of Surrey, his young son.

T
HOMAS
B
OLEYN
, Earl of Wiltshire, the queen’s father: ‘Monseigneur’.

G
EORGE
B
OLEYN
, Lord Rochford, the queen’s brother.

J
ANE
, Lady Rochford, George’s wife.

M
ARY
S
HELTON
, the queen’s cousin.

And offstage:
Mary Boleyn, the queen’s sister, now married and living in the country, but formerly the king’s mistress.

The Seymour Family of Wolf Hall

O
LD
S
IR
J
OHN
, notorious for having had an affair with his daughter-in-law.

L
ADY
M
ARGERY
, his wife.

E
DWARD
S
EYMOUR
, his eldest son.

T
HOMAS
S
EYMOUR
, a younger son.

J
ANE
S
EYMOUR
, his daughter, lady-in-waiting to both Henry’s queens.

B
ESS
S
EYMOUR
, her sister, married to Sir Anthony Oughtred, Governor of Jersey: then widowed.

The Courtiers

C
HARLES
B
RANDON
, Duke of Suffolk: widower of Henry VIII’s sister Mary: a peer of limited intellect.

T
HOMAS
W
YATT
, a gentleman of unlimited intellect: Cromwell’s friend: widely suspected of being a lover of Anne Boleyn.

H
ARRY
P
ERCY
, Earl of Northumberland: a sick and indebted young nobleman, once betrothed to Anne Boleyn.

F
RANCIS
B
RYAN
, ‘the Vicar of Hell’, related to both the Boleyns and the Seymours.

N
ICHOLAS
C
AREW
, Master of the Horse: an enemy of the Boleyns.

W
ILLIAM
F
ITZWILLIAM
, Master Treasurer, also an enemy of the Boleyns.

H
ENRY
N
ORRIS
, known as ‘gentle Norris’, chief of the king’s privy chamber.

F
RANCIS
W
ESTON
, a reckless and extravagant young gentleman.

W
ILLIAM
B
RERETON
, a hard-nosed and quarrelsome older gentleman.

M
ARK
S
MEATON
, a suspiciously well-dressed musician.

E
LIZABETH
, Lady Worcester, a lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn.

H
ANS
H
OLBEIN
, painter.

The Clerics

T
HOMAS
C
RANMER
, Archbishop of Canterbury: Cromwell’s friend.

S
TEPHEN
G
ARDINER
, Bishop of Winchester: Cromwell’s enemy.

R
ICHARD
S
AMPSON
, legal adviser to the king in his matrimonial affairs.

The Officers of State

T
HOMAS
W
RIOTHESLEY
, known as Call-Me-Risley, Clerk of the Signet.

R
ICHARD
R
ICHE
, Solicitor General.

T
HOMAS
A
UDLEY
, Lord Chancellor.

The Ambassadors

E
USTACHE
C
HAPUYS
, ambassador of Emperor Charles V.

J
EAN DE
D
INTEVILLE
, a French envoy.

The Reformers

H
UMPHREY
M
ONMOUTH
, wealthy merchant, friend of Cromwell and evangelical sympathiser: patron of William Tyndale, the Bible translator, now in prison in the Low Countries.

R
OBERT
P
ACKINGTON
: a merchant of similar sympathies.

S
TEPHEN
V
AUGHAN
, a merchant at Antwerp, friend and agent of Cromwell.

The ‘Old Families’ with Claims to the Throne

M
ARGARET
P
OLE
, niece of King Edward IV, supporter of Katherine of Aragon and the princess Mary.

H
ENRY
, Lord Montague, her son.

H
ENRY
C
OURTENAY
, Marquis of Exeter.

G
ERTRUDE
, his ambitious wife.

At the Tower of London

S
IR
W
ILLIAM
K
INGSTON
, the constable.

L
ADY
K
INGSTON
, his wife.

E
DMUND
W
ALSINGHAM
, his deputy.

L
ADY
S
HELTON
, aunt of Anne Boleyn.

A French executioner.