Hilary Mantel - 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

Contents

Cast of Characters

The Cromwell Household

T HOMAS C ROMWELL , a blacksmiths 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 AFES 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 Cromwells wife and daughters, died 152728: also Katherine Williams and Elizabeth Wellyfed, his sisters.

The Kings Family

H ENRY VIII.

A NNE B OLEYN , his second wife.

E LIZABETH , Annes infant daughter, heir to the throne.

H ENRY F ITZROY , Duke of Richmond, the kings illegitimate son.

The Kings Other Family

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

M ARY , Henrys 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 , Katherines 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 queens father: Monseigneur.

G EORGE B OLEYN , Lord Rochford, the queens brother.

J ANE , Lady Rochford, Georges wife.

M ARY S HELTON , the queens cousin.

And offstage: Mary Boleyn, the queens sister, now married and living in the country, but formerly the kings 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 Henrys 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 VIIIs sister Mary: a peer of limited intellect.

T HOMAS W YATT , a gentleman of unlimited intellect: Cromwells 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 kings 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: Cromwells friend.

S TEPHEN G ARDINER , Bishop of Winchester: Cromwells 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.

Part One

I

Falcons

WILTSHIRE, SEPTEMBER 1535

His children are falling from the sky. He watches from horseback, acres of England stretching behind him; they drop, gilt-winged, each with a blood-filled gaze. Grace Cromwell hovers in thin air. She is silent when she takes her prey, silent as she glides to his fist. But the sounds she makes then, the rustle of feathers and the creak, the sigh and riffle of pinion, the small cluck-cluck from her throat, these are sounds of recognition, intimate, daughterly, almost disapproving. Her breast is gore-streaked and flesh clings to her claws.

Later, Henry will say, Your girls flew well today. The hawk Anne Cromwell bounces on the glove of Rafe Sadler, who rides by the king in easy conversation. They are tired; the sun is declining, and they ride back to Wolf Hall with the reins slack on the necks of their mounts. Tomorrow his wife and two sisters will go out. These dead women, their bones long sunk in London clay, are now transmigrated. Weightless, they glide on the upper currents of the air. They pity no one. They answer to no one. Their lives are simple. When they look down they see nothing but their prey, and the borrowed plumes of the hunters: they see a flittering, flinching universe, a universe filled with their dinner.

All summer has been like this, a riot of dismemberment, fur and feather flying; the beating off and the whipping in of hounds, the coddling of tired horses, the nursing, by the gentlemen, of contusions, sprains and blisters. And for a few days at least, the sun has shone on Henry. Sometime before noon, clouds scudded in from the west and rain fell in big scented drops; but the sun re-emerged with a scorching heat, and now the sky is so clear you can see into Heaven and spy on what the saints are doing.

As they dismount, handing their horses to the grooms and waiting on the king, his mind is already moving to paperwork: to dispatches from Whitehall, galloped down by the post routes that are laid wherever the court shifts. At supper with the Seymours, he will defer to any stories his hosts wish to tell: to anything the king may venture, tousled and happy and amiable as he seems tonight. When the king has gone to bed, his working night will begin.

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