Master of Phantoms (Part 4/5)

Wolf Crawl Week 28: Monday 8 July – Sunday 14 July

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Welcome to week 28 of Wolf Crawl

This week, we are reading the fourth of five parts of ‘Master of Phantoms, London, April–May 1536’. This section runs from pages 406 to 441 of the Fourth Estate paperback edition. It starts with the line, ‘May is blossoming even in the city streets.’ It ends: ‘If ever a man came close to beheading himself, Thomas More was that man.’

You will find everything you need for this read-along on the main Cromwell trilogy page of my website, including:

• The reading schedule

• Weekly updates, like this one

• Plot summaries for each character

• Online resources about Mantel’s writing and Thomas Cromwell

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Last week’s post:

Master of Phantoms (Part 3/5)

This week’s story

Cromwell brings May flowers for the women in the Tower and meets Anne in her coronation rooms. Her father, her bishops, her king; all England has abandoned her. She unnerves him, but a gesture to her heart tells him she is not innocent. ‘She can only mimic innocence.’

All ask him, where is Wyatt in this? So he, Cromwell, puts Wyatt in the Tower. ‘It is the only place you are safe.’ He assures Wyatt that his friends will not suffer. But Wyatt notes Cromwell has ‘strange and sudden friends’ this month.

When the indictments are drawn up, the King embellishes them with his lurid imagination. Cromwell checks the documents to ensure there is no way out while his new friends tell him this is the road back from heresy to Rome.

Wyatt in the Tower, playing dice with himself. ‘Who’s winning?’ he says. He wants evidence against Anne’s character but no admission of guilt. And after it is accomplished, he promises that everything will be destroyed.

Harry Percy at Stoke Newington. The Earl of Northumberland is dying, and he and the king will take everything owing after the earl is gone. For now, he wants Harry to swear he is married to Anne and take back his oath of four years back. Harry Percy will not do it. So he will instead sit in judgment at the trial.

Chapuys in high spirits and his Christmas hat. He thinks Mark was tortured, but then, all of London thinks so too. He looks forward to more meals with Master Secretary in a world where Anne is not queen and England is at ease.

The king calls for Jane, and Jane is back in London: still hidden and often moved around. “The order goes to the Tower, ‘Bring up the bodies.’” Brereton, Weston, Norris and Smeaton are tried first. Bets are placed, but there is no doubt as to the verdict. The only uncertainties are the means and the date of their deaths.

On the day of trial, Gregory comes to see him. His whole household is there. He gives them all the Cromwell line: This was not his doing. It was the king’s. This was ‘beyond grudge’, he says. ‘And I could not save them if I tried.’