Charles Brandon (1484 – ), one of the greatest noblemen in England and brother-in-law to the king through his wife Mary Tudor, Henry’s sister.
A blundering hearty, a big man with a big beard. Six of seven years older than Henry, you are one of the tiltyard stars he looks up to when he is a young lad just taking up dangerous sports. Your relationship with him is warm and brotherly.
Hilary Mantel, notes on character
The story so far…
Week 2: At Austin Friars / Visitation
We learn that Wolsey, the king and Charles Brandon are all giants among men. In 1529, he’s turning the cardinal out of York Place, temporarily obstructed and delayed by a sly lawyer called Cromwell.
Week 3: An Occult History of Britain (Part 1)
Wolsey hopefully considers the precedents set by other marriages set aside. Brandon is now married to the king’s sister. But he “had an earlier alliance put aside in circumstances that hardly bear inquiry.”
Week 4: An Occult History of Britain (Part 2)
The king’s best mate tends to want what the king wants. So when the tide turns against Wolsey in 1529, at the legatine court, he is yelling at the cardinal. And later in October, he comes with Norfolk for the Great Seal of England. We have returned to the events of Visitation.
Week 5: Make or Mar / Three-Card Trick
“I like a good fire”, Suffolk tells Cromwell, as he takes Wolsey’s chimney man into his household. Always helpful, that Charles Brandon. Later, when Brandon makes a joke about the cardinal in front of the king, Cromwell is there to remove the sting: “My lord, they tell that story all over Italy. Of this cardinal, or that.”
‘There are bad times for proud prelates,’' says Brandon, when next they meet. He sounds jaunty, a man whistling to keep his courage up. ‘We need no cardinals in this realm.’
That smarts. That riles the cardinal Wolsey. It was he, “a simple cardinal”, who kept Brandon’s head attached to his body when Suffolk married the king’s sister without the king’s permission.
Brandon, Cromwell says, “can’t fit my life together.” He thinks me some “Jewish peddler”.
Week 11: 'Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?' (Part 2) / Early Mass
Brandon is marries to the king’s sister and the king’s sister wants nothing to do with Lady Anne. “She will never appear, my wife, in the train of that harlot.” Henry sends him away: “Leave us now and come back when you are master of yourself.” It’s Cromwell’s job to make Charles master himself.
He agrees to say his wife is ill and go to Calais alone.
‘My lord, be guided by me.’
Brandon grunts. ‘We all are. We must be. You do everything, Cromwell. You are everythhing now. We say, hhow did it happen? We ask ourselves.’ The duke sniffs. ‘We ask ourselves, but by thhe steaming blood of Christ we have no bloody answer.’
Week 13: Anna Regina (Part 2)
Charles Brandon, Constable of England, mounted on his white horse and ready to ride into the hall among them. He is a huge, blazing presence, from which he withdraws his sight; Charles, he thinks, will not outlive me either.
Week 14: Devil's Spit / A Painter’s Eye
Brandon’s wife, the king’s sister, is dead. He has already re-married, an heiress of fourteen, who was “betrothed to his son, but Charles thought an experienced man like him could turn her to better use.”
Lady Rochford quips that he has her “every time he sees her… If I judge by the startled expression on her face.”
Later in the year, Brandon is sent up country to get Katherine to move house. He is miserable to be away from his bride in holiday time. He writes back to London. “When his letter is read out to the council, he, Cromwell, bursts out laughing. The sheer joy of it carries him into the new year.”
Week 17: The Map of Christendom (Part 2) / To Wolf Hall
Suffolk is keeping a low profile down in the country, chased by his debts. “It is bliss to think of: two dukes on the run from him.”
An unhappy Brandon forms part of the committee to put the oath one last time to Thomas More. He looks “as if he would as soon be fishing.” Drips are spoiling his hat. “Christ, what a place.”