Rafe Sadler

Thomas Cromwell's protégé

Possible portrait of Sadler from the workshop of Hans Holbein. Source.

Ralph Sadler (1507 – ) was born in Hackney, Middlesex. He is the son of Henry Sadler, a minor official in the service of the Marquess of Dorset and Sir Edward Belknap.

You are twenty-one when this story begins, and as seasoned and steady as a man twice your age. You are brought up by Thomas Cromwell, but by the time you are in your late twenties you have become his father, and tell him off when you think he’s being frivilous. You are a quietly admirable character, and you manage to do something very difficult: you last the distance in politics, and keep your integrity.

Hilary Mantel, notes on characters

The story so far…

Week 1: Across the Narrow Sea / Paternity

Here he is, in 1527, “a slight young man with pale eyes”. He entered Cromwell’s household aged seven and “has grown up with a tidy mind” and rational night-time worries: thieves, loose dogs, sudden holes in the road.

Week 2: At Austin Friars / Visitation

The next day, Rafe is again at his side as they return to York Place.

Week 3: An Occult History of Britain (Part 1)

Cromwell trusts Rafe like a son. But he will not take Rafe to see the scholars and gospellers of London. He will not endanger his household to accusations of heresy. Rafe goes looking for him when Liz falls ill.

Rafe is a slight boy, and the game with Richard and the others is to pretend not to see him, and say, ‘I wonder where Rafe is?’ They are as pleased with this joke as a bunch of three-year-olds might be. Rafe’s eyes are blue, his hair is sandy-brown, and you couldn’t take him for a Cromwell. But still he is a tribute to the man who brought him up: dogged, sardonic, quick on the uptake.

Cromwell and Rafe play chess. Stalemate. They will play others, but only later. “When we can wipe out all-comers.”

Week 4: An Occult History of Britain (Part 2)

In 1528, Anne Cromwell says she would like to marry Rafe. Cromwell thinks he is too old, although “for a minute, for two minutes together, he feels his life might mend”.

We learn here of Rafe’s backstory. His father was a steward with connections to the Grey family. When his son was seven, he told Cromwell to “teach him all you know”. Cromwell picked him up in Essex, and his mother cried as they parted. He took Rafe home to London through a terrible storm. “Shall we see how far we get?”

Rafe is always at Cromwell’s side these days. 1527. 1528. 1529. The last days of Wolsey. He is the only one who knows of Lady Carey’s proposal to Cromwell. And when he writes his will, he leaves Rafe his books. “We drowned men will stick together.”

Week 5: Make or Mar / Three-Card Trick

In “Make or Mar”, we learn that Cromwell has sent Rafe to Westminster. Parliament is about to sit, and there will be an attempt to bring treason charges against Wolsey. Rafe Sadler gets Cromwell a seat in Parliament and tells him that Thomas Howard will expect Cromwell to work for him.

On Twelfth Night, he joins Cromwell with the other men of the household to see the law students make fun of the cardinal. That evening Cromwell thinks: “I wish Anne were here and promised to Rafe Sadler. If Anne were older. If Rafe were younger. If Anne were still alive.”

Week 11: 'Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?' (Part 2) / Early Mass

At Canterbury, Rafe goes to see Becket’s shrine.

‘They show you a skull, they say it’s Becket’s, it’s smashed up by the knights but it’s held together with a silver plate. For ready money, you can kiss it. They have a tray of his finger bones. They have his snotty handkerchief. And a bit of his boot. And a vial they shake up for you, they say it’s his blood.’

Week 12: Anna Regina (Part 1)

Cromwell to Helen Barre: “If anyone is too forward, you must tell me, or tell Rafe Sadler. He is the boy with the little red beard. Though I should not say boy.”

Cromwell tells Richard that he can be married to Mary Boleyn, if he wants. “Don’t tell anybody,” he says. So Richard tells Rafe and Rafe comes in, eyebrows raised. “I’m going, before you find a Boleyn for me.” Before he goes, he says:

‘Only this, sir, and I think it is what gives Richard pause … all our lives and fortunes depend now on that laddy, and as well as being mutable she is mortal, and the whole history of the king’s marriage tells us a child in the womb is not an heir in the cradle.’

When the king sends Cromwell to Katherine, he tells him “Leave Rafe with me while you are gone… I can rely on him to say what Cromwell would say. You have a good boy there.” But he should not say boy.

Week 13: Anna Regina (Part 2)

At Austin Friars, Cromwell disturbs Helen with Rafe Sadler. They both look a little ruffled. Cromwell sends Helen Barre to look after Cranmer’s secret wife.

“You can’t just drag her off into the night,” says Rafe.
”Oh, I can,” Cromwell says mildly.

Week 14: Devil's Spit / A Painter’s Eye

Rafe Sadler as Austin Friars: “Conversation is in various tongues and Rafe Sadler translates adroitly, smoothly, his head turning from side to side.”

When the king shouts at Cromwell, he says: “God in Heaven, no wonder the cardinal was old before his time.” Rafe says: “It is a good thing you are not like the cardinal.”

Week 15: Supremacy

Gregory: “Rafe says you will be the second man in the kingdom soon. He says you already are, except in title. He says the king will put you over the Lord Chancellor, and everybody. Over Norfolk, even.”

The day Cromwell is made Master Secretary, Rafe discloses his secret marriage to Helen Barre. Cromwell tells him “she is a lovely nobody, a poor woman with no advantage to bring to you, you could have married an heiress.”

Rafe: “I did not look for this to happen. I did not plan it. I know I can never take Helen with me to court.”

Cromwell: “Not as the world is now. And I do not think it will change in our lifetimes. But look, you have made your choice. You must never repent it.”

Cromwell assures Rafe that this is a mistake he can afford to make. His fortunes are rising with Cromwell, and Rafe will be his other-self at court. Together, “two nursemaids” to serve the king at all times.

Week 16: The Map of Christendom (Part 1)

1535, and Rafe is moving out of Austin Friars to Hackney with his wife, Helen Barre.

Gregory: “Rafe says I am being brought up like a prince.”

Week 17: The Map of Christendom (Part 2) / To Wolf Hall

Everyone has followed the king’s close-cropped haircut. Rafe looks “more determined and alert.”

“What have I forgotten, Rafe?” Cromwell shares the closing pages with Rafe Sadler, considering a map of England. Planning the king’s summer progress.

    He looks up. ‘Rafe, are you happy?’
    ‘With Helen?’ Rafe blushes. ‘Yes, sir. No man was ever happier.’

Week 18: Falcons

Rafe is with the Master Secretary at Wolf Hall. Holbein draws him, and he complains about how the painter has made his nose too flat. When Francis Weston accuses Cromwell of fixing More’s jury, Rafe asks, “Where is it written down?” Later, he and Gregory kick Weston’s ghost and throw it out the window. “Careful,” says Cromwell. The king favours Weston.”

Week 19: Crows (Part 1)

When Cromwell summons Jane Seymour to Elvetham, he sees Rafe thinking: “So my master is going to ask for Jane Seymour after all. For himself or for Gregory.”

Week 21: Angels

At Christmas, Rafe’s stepdaughter is wearing Grace’s peacock wings.

Rafe is with Cromwell when Maria de Salinas visits and asks permission to see Katherine. ‘The boy is as immune to Spanish passion as he might be to a wet dog buffeting the door.’

Cromwell lets her go. Rafe would not have done so. ‘I would have been afraid to cross the king.’

    'That's why you will thrive and live to be old.'

Rafe’s daughter wants to know whether she can wear the wings every year. ‘I don’t see why not. Till Gregory has a daughter big enough.’

At New Year, Cromwell goes to Rafe’s new house in Hackney. ‘Helen has put off the poverty of her early life’, but because she is ‘lowly born’ Rafe cannot bring her to court.

Week 22: The Black Book (Part 1)

Rafe brings the news from the jousts. For a moment, Cromwell thinks it must be Gregory who has fallen.

Later, Rafe enjoys passing on the rumour to Cromwell that Katherine was poisoned by ‘some strong Welsh beer.’

Week 23: The Black Book (Part 2)

Rafe Sadler becomes a gentleman of the privy chamber. He says, ‘You need a steady nerve to be always with Henry.’ Cromwell replies: ‘You have a steady nerve, Rafe.’

Rafe does not need The Book Called Henry. ‘All his life Rafe has been training for this. A scrap of a boy, he is no athlete, he could never exercise himself in tilt or tournament, a stray breeze would whisk him out of the saddle. But he has the heft for this. he knows how to watch. He knows how to listen. He knows how to send a message encrypted, or a message so secret that no message appears to be there; a piece of information so solid that its meaning seems to be stamped out in the earth, yet its form so fragile that it seems to be conveyed by angels. Rafe knows his master; Henry is his master. But Cromwell is his father and his friend.’

Week 24: The Black Book (Part 3)

Rafe, in the privy chamber, hears all the gossip. Weston calls him ‘Cromwell’s spy.’ The other gentlemen talk about which one of them is going to sire Henry’s son, because it is clear Henry cannot do it.

   'I ask you again, did they come to any conclusion?'
   'I think it's every man for himself.' 

Week 25: Master of Phantoms (Part 1/5)

When Anne and Norris fight, Call-Me comes with Rafe to tell Cromwell that the king wishes discreet inquiries to begin. To test the case, Cromwell gets Call-Me to play at being a lady of the queen’s bedchamber. Rafe interrogates.

Week 28: Master of Phantoms (Part 4/5)

Rafe wants to know if ‘the king’s freedom’ could be obtained with ‘less bloodshed’. Cromwell says, no. Destruction of one’s enemies ‘must be swift, and it must be perfect.’

Week 30: Wreckage (I)

After Anne’s execution, Rafe Sadler is waiting for Thomas Cromwell at home at Austin Friars. He is there to take a message to Henry, but what message do you send to a man who has just killed his wife? Rafe talks about his own wife Helen, who is perturbed about the future of true religion now that Anne is gone. The Sadlers also ask about Elizabeth's future, and Rafe prays that Mistress Seymour will give England an heir.

Week 31: Salvage (Part 1/3)

Rafe Sadler tells Cromwell the king wants him: ‘The king is not as sanguine as he appears. He is not sure now of what he believed yesterday.’

Cromwell sends Call-Me and Rafe Sadler to talk sense into Mary so that she may be reconciled with her father.

Week 32: Salvage (Part 2/3)

Sadler and Call-Me return from Mary. He says ‘her stubborn pride’ has incensed the king. She asked them how Anne died, and Rafe said calmly, ‘An example of Christian resignation.’ He wasn’t even there.

When Wriothesley says Cromwell tortured friars, Rafe corrects him: ‘There was talk of hanging him up. But it only happened in your imagination.’

Week 33: Salvage (Part 3/3)

Rafe Sadler takes Cromwell’s letter to Hundson, telling Mary to submit to her father.

Rafe had told him, I swear to you, sir – so that I got out of that house, I would have slung a hammock. I would have lain in a manger, or slumbered on the sward. As it was, I passed a pleasant night, and dreamt of my wife Helen. And I woke with the birdsong, with Helen in my arms.

After the reconciliation in Hackney, Cromwell’s party retires to the Sadler house. ‘Rafe’s goblets are decorated with pictures of Christ’s disciples.’ They hear his first son, called Thomas, crying at the window. After Rafe hears Cromwell’s promise to the dead queen Katherine, he sees that Rafe needs to arrange his face before the ambassador gets here.

Week 35: Wreckage (II) (Part 2/2)

Rafe believes someone betrayed Cromwell by smuggling out papers relating to him and Lady Mary. ‘It would not have occurred when I oversaw your desk.’

Rafe threatens to slap Call-Me when he brings up the topic of Richmond being poisoned. Call-Me: ‘And so you could, little man, if you stood on a box.’

In the privy chamber, he finds Rafe. ‘You are on the rota, Master Sadler?’ Someone answers: ‘Master Sadler has his own rota. He is always here.’

Week 36: Augmentation

Cromwell signs off on paperwork, transferring Essex manors from the dead William Brereton to the living Rafe Sadler.

Week 37: The Five Wounds

Rafe consoles his master on his return from Shaftesbury. He also urges Cromwell to be more discreet. ‘As if he is not safe in his own house. But then, Sadler is a more cautious man than he will ever be.’

Sadler comes with Cromwell to Lambeth to see Norfolk. When the issue of Norfolk’s wife is raised, Sadler becomes animated: ‘Sir, it is shameful… Forgive me, but I cannot fail to speak, when I hear of a woman misused.’ Norfolk calls Helen an ex-whore and Rafe says, ‘If you were not an old man, I would strike you.’

Later on the barge:

‘I have only done one foolish thing in my life,’ Rafe says. ‘I mean, in marrying Helen. And since those who have seen her know I was truly wise, I have not even that to set in my account. Therefore while I am still young enough, I am looking to run into danger. So I know how it feels.’

Week 38: Vile Blood (1/2)

When York falls, Cromwell finds Rafe with the king at St George’s Chapel.

The king is kneeling, back rigid, seemingly at prayer. Rafe Sadler is kneeling behind him, as far away as the space will allow. Rafe turns up his face, imploring; as he, Lord Cromwell, passes him, he flips his cap over his eyes.

Later, Cromwell sends Rafe to the king to apologise for his absence.

Week 39: Vile Blood (Part 2/2)

At Windsor, we come across a sleepy Rafe who ‘pinches the bridge of his nose.’ He has ‘tomorrow’s agenda swimming in his eyes.’ He misses Helen. He notes that Lord Latimer has apparently joined the rebels. ‘Perhaps the king will hang him, and you can marry Kate Parr. In furtherance of your vow.’

Week 40: The Bleach Fields

Rafe goes north on the king’s business, dodging revolting Yorkshiremen as he goes. ‘So Rafe is having a dangerous time after all,’ says Cromwell. ‘He thought his life was too quiet.’

Week 42: The Image of the King (Part 2/2) / Broken on the Body

As Queen Jane dies, Helen safely delivers a new son.

Week 43: Nonsuch

Rafe Salder cautions against Cromwell attended Humphrey Monmouth’s funeral. ‘Monmouth was Tyndale’s protector once: do not antagonise the king, do not take a risk for the sake of a dead man.’

Week 44: Corpus Christi (Part 1/2)

After Cromwell has spoken to Philip Hoby, Rafe says, ‘Sir, now I have heard how these things are managed, I am surprised you have no wife yourself. I am surprised you have not a thousand wives.’

Week 45: Corpus Christi (Part 2/2) / Inheritance

At Westminster, Rafe is pious and loyal. ‘Pray God the king does not get a fall … Lambert is a student of languages. He can cite the scriptures in tongues ancient and modern.’

Afterwards, when Cromwell is angry, Rafe says: ‘It is too late now for a speech.’ He notes that Robert Barnes ‘has done himself no harm today’. He leaves the rest unsaid: Cromwell has harmed himself in more ways than one. ‘Never fear,’ says Cromwell. ‘We shall prosper, son.’

The cold stings their faces.

Week 46: Ascension Day (Part 1/2)

When Call-Me gets into trouble in Europe, Rafe says ‘perhaps it will be a lesson to him.’

Rafe is with Cromwell when Call-Me returns from Europe:

‘When you were dissolved – neither here, nor there, nor in Heaven nor on earth.’ He crosses the room, and kisses the hero’s cheek. ‘Welcome home, Call-Me.’

Week 48: Twelfth Night

Rafe Sadler is part of the delegation tasked with convincing Mary to meet and marry the Duke of Bavaria.