Henry Norris (1482 – 1536), Groom of the Stool in the privy chamber of King Henry VIII.
The story so far…
Week 2: At Austin Friars / Visitation
Henry Norris is the Groom of the Stool, “the man who hands the diaper cloth”, as Cromwell puts it. It sounds icky, and perhaps it is – he’s in charge of the king’s person and is privy to Henry’s closet secrets. He brings Wolsey a ring and “words of comfort”. But nothing in writing, notes Cromwell the lawyer.
Week 6: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 1)
Always close to the king, Harry Norris.
He thinks, are the most remarkable moments of my life to be spent under the scrutiny of Henry Norris.
Norris reminds Cromwell of what happened to past tax collectors. Empson and Dudley, the old king’s men. They lost their heads, and the cardinal got their house. He, Cromwell, has all the facts in his head. He doesn’t need Harry Norris to remind him.
When you go hunting with the king, pick a ditch, Norris tells Cromwell. The ditch you want to lie in when you grow weary of the chase that never ends. Norris, Cromwell thinks, saw the cardinal in a ditch in Putney. Did Norris tell the law students?
Week 7: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 2)
A hand-devil carrying Wolsey at the farce held at Hampton Court after the cardinal’s death. Cromwell makes a mental note.
Week 8: The Dead Complain of Their Burial / Arrange Your Face (Part 1)
Norris is with the king at Greenwich when Cromwell is called for. “How is he now?” Brereton says. Norris rolls his eyes. Harry Norris always seems to be there when something momentous is happening to Cromwell. But what could happen in the dead of night at Christmas at Greenwich? Norris tries to make sense of Cromwell’s family. It cannot be done.
Week 9: Arrange Your Face (Part 2)
Henry Norris, says Cromwell, is the bane of my life. He has his hand in the privy purse and maybe somewhere else as well. He is always with Anne when he needs to see her alone.
In Advent, he is there at Anne’s table when they eat with forks. He is one of her pets, and Cromwell thinks: “Norris, who is a witty man, and not young, stultifies himself by keeping such company: and why? Proximity to Anne makes him tremble. It is almost a joke, but a joke that nobody tells.”
He’s not the only one in love with Anne, he tells Cromwell afterwards. He puts his arm around Crumb, “almost as if they were equals, as if they were friends.” He mops his brow with Cromwell’s handkerchief, and he wonders if “Henry’s gentlemanly features will be imprinted on the cloth” when he gets home.
Week 10: 'Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?' (Part 1)
Henry Norris provides a brief comic moment this week, when he suggests that Wolsey’s pride should be a lesson to us all. Cromwell and Anne, neither of them humble, turn together.
Anne says, ‘Really, should we?’ and he says, ‘What lesson would that be?’
Norris is at a loss.
‘None of us are likely to be cardinals,’ Anne says.
Norris “slouches off, as only a silken gentleman can slouch.”
Week 12: Anna Regina (Part 1)
Still in Calais: “Thomas Wyatt and Henry Norris get drunk together in a low tavern. They swear eternal friendship. But their followers have a fight in the inn yard and roll each other in mud.”
Cromwell is made chancellor of the exchequer. He can now penetrate “Henry Norri’s ground”, the chambers of state in the king’s own rooms, “free of ambassadors and spies.” Norris gently congratulates him and moves away, soft-footed.
Week 21: Angels
Gentle Norris. ‘He never sees Norris but he remembers Wolsey stumbling from his own home before the king’s men, fleeing to a cold empty house at Esher: the cardinal kneeling in the mud and gibbering his thanks, because the king by way of Norris had sent him a token of goodwill. Wolsey was kneeling to thank God, but it looked as if he were kneeling to Norris. It doesn’t matter how Norris oils around him now; he can never wipe that scene from his mind’s eye.’
At Christmas, Greenwich, they are preparing for a masque. Norris is a Moor: ‘he is playful, smiling, but still vigilant. Prime Christmas game: let’s fuck about with Cromwell.’
When Norris says Weston is off to ‘beg for sweetmeats’ at the queen’s apartments, Cromwell says, ‘You sound bitter, Harry Norris.’
Week 22: The Black Book (Part 1)
What is Norris doing when Henry is unconscious? ‘Now Gentle Norris is on his knees by the bier, praying, tears cascading down his cheeks.’
Week 25: The Book of Phantoms (Part 1/5)
Mary Shelton thought she was marrying Harry Norris. But she has seen Harry Norris quarrelling with other gentlemen of the privy chamber over Anne. They all love her and she loves them, or so it appears according to Shelton and Lady Rochford and the other ladies-in-waiting.
They witness Anne accusing Norris of spilling her secrets. The king learns of this row and orders Cromwell to investigate.
Week 26: The Book of Phantoms (Part 2/5)
Mark Smeaton implicates Norris, who is arrested after the jousts on May Day. The king confronts him with the allegations, and he claims he is innocent. He offers Norris mercy if he confesses and names the others.
Week 27: Master of Phantoms (Part 3/5)
Gentle Norris: chief bottom-wiper to the king, spinner of silk threads, spider of spiders, black centre of the vast dripping web of court patronage: what a spry and amiable man he is, past forty but wearing it lightly.
In the Tower, Cromwell presents Norris with the charges against him. He will implicate none of his fellow prisoners but he now understands what this is about: revenge for the cardinal. ‘None of you behaved like Christians. You behaved like savages, instead, falling on his estates and possessions.’
Norris says he will die of grief before his execution. Cromwell thinks, he knows about grief. ‘You’ll live,’ he says, to die on the block.
Week 28: Master of Phantoms (Part 4/5)
The order goes to the Tower, ‘Bring up the bodies.’
Weston, Brereton, Smeaton and Norris are tried to together in Westminster Hall on 12 May. The three gentlemen try to keep apart from Mark, but this brings them too close together for their liking. They know their fate now, and all express contrition, ‘thought none but Mark has said for what.’
Week 29: The Book of Phantoms (Part 5/5) / Spoils
He is executed on 17 May 1536 at Tower Hill. With the others, he said he was a sinner and deserved to die. Afterwards, his body is stripped, and the headless bodies become anonymous corpses. This creates a problem when it comes to burying Rochford in the chapel.