Angels

Wolf Crawl Week 21: Monday 20 May – Sunday 26 May

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Welcome to week 21 of Wolf Crawl

This week, we are reading a long chapter, ‘Angels, Stepney and Greenwich, Christmas 1535 – New Year 1536.’ Revels at Stepney and at court as Katherine dies at Kimbolton.

You will find everything you need for this read-along on the main Cromwell trilogy page of my website, including:

• The reading schedule

• Weekly updates, like this one

• Plot summaries for each character

• Online resources about Mantel’s writing and Thomas Cromwell

This is a long post and may get clipped by your email provider. It is best viewed online here.

Last week’s post:

Crows (Part 2)

A murder of crows

This week’s bonus post:

Death is your prince

This week’s story

It’s Christmas, 1535, and a festive mood descends on the Cromwell household and the Tudor court. But he, Cromwell, has never been busier: buried under an avalanche of paperwork. ‘Sometimes he would give a king’s ransom to see the sun.’

At court, he sits on the low table for functionaries like himself, and the king’s friends who are not of noble birth: Nicholas Carew, William Fitzwilliam, and William Paulet. He ‘is an easy man to get along with,’ so he eases into a more amicable relationship with Nicholas Carew, Katherine’s old partisan.

The queen’s dog Purkoy falls from a window. Why? No one knows. Cromwell offers words of comfort, but Anne’s knives are out for Katherine, Mary and Jane Seymour. She turns her wrath on Cromwell: ‘Those who are made can be unmade.’

Cromwell’s house at Stepney. The Christmas star goes up and he takes in a jester called Anthony. Anthony does impressions: his King Henry is rather good. Cromwell’s friends visit and ask what he will do for William Tyndale, in prison and likely to be killed. He can do nothing and the conversation leaves a sour taste in his mouth.

Chapuys comes to Stepney. Katherine is dying and the imperial ambassador wants permission to see her at Kimbolton. Cromwell and Chapuys go together to Greenwich to ask the king. The courtiers are dressing for a masque when Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk barges in, accusing Anne of adultery.

He, Cromwell, is needled by Brandon’s comments: ‘Get back to your abacus, Cromwell.’ In Stepney, he puts his man Vaughan on the road to keep an eye of Katherine’s people. In the new year, the old queen dies. Henry and Anne rejoice in yellow and the king parades Princess Elizabeth about court.

Anne makes a peace offering to Lady Mary, one she knows Henry’s bastard will refuse. She does. Cromwell commiserates with Chapuys, hopeful that Katherine’s death removes an obstacle preventing amicable relations with the Empire. And Christophe says the word on the street is that he, Cromwell, and the king murdered Katherine, once Queen of England, and no more.