Sir Francis Weston (1511 – )
The story so far…
Week 7: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 2)
One of the foot-devils carrying Wolsey at the farce held at Hampton Court after the cardinal’s death. Cromwell makes a mental note.
Week 9: Arrange Your Face (Part 2)
The young Francis Weston is there that night when Thomas Cromwell holds up the weary king. “Weston, who is young and lightly built, is showing signs of buckling at the knees.”
At Advent, Cromwell eats with Anne Boleyn. Afterwards, Henry Norris says Weston is jealous of everyone Anne looks at it. Even the fat butcher, Thomas Cromwell. “To Francis, one tradesman’s the same as the next.”
Week 18: Falcons
The king favours Weston. He is at Wolf Hall and goads Thomas Cromwell, “the shearsman.” He says Cromwell’s daughters must have been “a shrewd hand with a poleaxe.”
He knows that in Henry’s presence I will not give him a check; he imagines what form that check may take, when he delivers it.
Weston says that Cromwell obtained More’s guilty verdict with a hatchet and a leg of mutton. Later, Gregory and Rafe take revenge in a play-act:
‘This is Francis Weston. You think he is helping put the king to bed, but in fact we have him here in ghostly form. We stood around a corner and waited for him with a magic net.’
Week 19: Crows (Part 1)
Stephen Gardiner calls Weston “that chattering coxcomb.” He is one of the new men “whom Henry has taken up because he thinks they keep him young.”
When Cromwell re-routes the court’s progress to Elvetham, Rafe asks why they don’t stay at the Westons.
Drown or hang the Westons, he thinks. The Westons are no part of this plan.