Dorothea

Daughter of Thomas Wolsey

The illegitimate daughter of Thomas Wolsey.

The story so far…

Week 1: Across the Narrow Sea / Paternity

Rather pointedly, he has called her Dorothea, the gift of God; she is already placed in a convent, where she will pray for her parents.

Week 19: Crows (Part 1)

Autumn, 1535. Cromwell asks Gregory to make a memorandum to visit Wolsey’s daughter at the convent of Shaftsbury.

Gregory: “Is she pretty?”
Cromwell: “I don’t know. Her father kept her close.”

Week 37: The Five Wounds

Cromwell finally makes his appointment with Dorothea. He gives her a kerchief of fine linen made by Helen Salder. She rejects it. He makes her a marriage proposal. She rejects that too. She tells him that he betrayed her father to the Duke of Norfolk. ‘There is no faith or truth in Cromwell.’