Sir Francis Bryan (1490 – ) is an English courtier and diplomat.
Week 9: Arrange Your Face (Part 2)
Francis Bryan is Anne Boleyn’s cousin. He lost an eye in a joust and is known for his drinking. The Vicar of Hell, they call him. He is with Thomas Wyatt on New Year’s Day, 1532, when Cromwell comes to pay the turnkey and get them out of jail.
He jokes that Cromwell is sleeping with all the city’s wives.
“Wyatt, get him to cover himself, or his parts will be frostbitten. Bad enough to be without an eye.”
Week 10: 'Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?' (Part 1)
The one-eyed Vicar of Hell is having a hoot of a time riding with Cromwell to see a furious Anne Boleyn. “My lady is enraged,” he says. “She says Harry Percy will spoil everything for her. She cannot decide between striking him dead with one blow of a sword or teasing him apart over forty days of public torture, like they do in Italy.”
One blow of a sword? Hold that thought.