Richard Williams
Thomas Cromwell's nephew
Richard Williams (1510 – ), son of Morgan Williams and Kat, Thomas Cromwell’s sister.
The story so far…
Week 3: An Occult History of Britain (Part 1)
“Richard William, Kat’s boy, is sharp, keen and forward.” This is 1527.
Week 4: An Occult History of Britain (Part 2)
Here he is again, at the family gathering for Liz Cromwell. Cromwell wonders about Richard’s brother, Walter. ‘Why did they call that child Walter? Did they need a reminder of their father, lurking around after his death, to remind them not to get too happy?’
Week 5: Make or Mar / Three-Card Trick
Richard has lost his parents, Thomas Cromwell has lost his children. “Our father is dead, and you are our father now.” Cromwell explains to Richard how he is descended from a Tudor: Uncle Jasper Tudor, and his bastard daughters. Joan was Richard’s grandmother. Helen was Stephen Gardiner’s mother.
Week 6: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 1)
Richard Williams tells his uncle that it is time to let the cardinal go. When he thinks Cromwell can’t hear him, he says, “His heart is leading him.”
Week 7: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 2)
In the battle of religion at Austin Friars, Richard is of the new brethren. He denies the sacrament. Mercy: “Richard is right. When the good Lord said, this is my body, he meant, this signifies my body. He did not license priests to be conjurers.”
Week 8: The Dead Complain of Their Burial / Arrange Your Face (Part 1)
When Will Brereton comes for his uncle, you can tell “he wants to give this lordling a smack in the mouth.” Cromwell thinks that was once him, “but now I am as sweet as a May morning.”
Week 11: 'Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?' (Part 2) / Early Mass
Cromwell’s lively apprentice takes advice from his master: Get the price down by reading their faces. Measure the bricks, and if they panic, you’ll know they are trying to trick you.
Week 12: Anna Regina (Part 1)
“Your grandfather ap Evan the archer was a great servant to the king my father. You have a fine build. I should like to see you in the tilt yard. I should like to see you carry your colours in the joust.”
That’s the king, who now calls Richard his cousin. But despite Anne’s machinations, Richard will not be Henry’s brother-in-law and will not marry Mary Boleyn. Even if everyone would have loved to have seen Uncle Norfolk’s face.
Week 15: Supremacy
When Thomas Cromwell can’t stop laughing about Stephen Gardiner, his nephew is on standby to say, “Arrange your face.”
When Thomas Cromwell takes his son to Hatfield to see the king’s children, Gregory says: “Already you are wishing you had brought Richard.”
Cromwell explains to Rafe how the future will work: Sadler is his fellow “nursemaid” to the king, Wriothesley teases the diplomats, and Richard heads the household.
Week 16: The Map of Christendom (Part 1)
Richard is building near his uncle’s house. He is married to Frances.
“Perhaps we should go to Ireland, sir… I would like to be in arms. Every man should be a soldier once in his life.”
“That is your grandfather speaking through you. Ap Evans the archer. Concentrate for now on making a show in the tournaments.”
“He carries the Cromwell colours, and the king loves him for it.” When the king comes to visit his sick councillor, he calls Richard his cousin.
Week 17: The Map of Christendom (Part 2) / To Wolf Hall
His new haircut makes “no change in Richard’s aspect; committed to the tilting ground, he keeps his hair cropped to fit under a helmet.”
Week 19: Crows (Part 1)
Reunited at Austin Friars.
Richard is a solid boy with the Cromwell eye, direct and brutal, and the Cromwell voice that can caress or contradict. He is afraid of nothing that walks the earth, and nothing that walks below it; if a demon turned up at Austin Friars, Richard would kick it downstairs on its hairy arse.
Cromwell has confided in Richard about what happened at Elvetham and knows something of the conversation he, Cromwell, had with the king about Anne.
Richard tells his uncle about the scrapping between Nicholas Carew and George Boleyn.
Week 22: The Black Book (Part 1)
The king: ‘You turn your boy out beautifully, and your nephew Richard too. No nobleman could do more. They are a credit to your house.’
After Henry’s accident, he tells Richard how isolated he is. ‘Richard sees the helpless truth of it, “Yes.” What else can he say?’
Week 26: Master of Phantoms (Part 2/5)
Cromwell tasks Richard with sending news of Smeaton’s confession to the king in the jousts. Later, Richard tells his uncle that Gregory has written and wants to come to London. Richard says, ‘perhaps you should let him. You cannot keep him a child.’
It is a warm evvening, and he sits by an open window, his nephew Richard for company. Richard knows when to keep silence and when to talk; it is a family trait, he supposes. Rafe Sadler is the only other company he would have liked, and Rafe is with the king.
Week 28: Master of Phantoms (Part 4/5)
Richard Cromwell escorts Wyatt to the Tower. Cromwell tells Gregory that Richard will attend the execution in his stead if he cannot be there himself.
Week 29: The Book of Phantoms (Part 5/5) / Spoils
Richard Cromwell takes his uncle’s place at the execution of Anne’s lovers. He gives Cromwell his account. He saw Wyatt looking down and wanted to give him hope, but did not know how.
Week 30: Wreckage (I)
Richard goes with his uncle to the Tower to see Thomas Wyatt. He is ruthless with the prisoner, pointing out his baldness and telling him plainly: ‘My uncle has walked a knife-edge for you.’ On the way out, he asks his uncle whether it is all over. ‘Over? Oh, no.’
At Austin Friars, he delivered a letter from Nicholas Carew. He drinks to the confusion of their enemies and his uncle’s health.
Week 31: Salvage (Part 1/3)
At home at Austin Friars, Richard sees his uncle remove the knife concealed in his coat. He tells him he cannot imagine a circumstance in which he could use it.
Week 32: Salvage (Part 2/3)
Richard goes to the Tower to free Wyatt. He comes back saying Kingston wants to know whether he should expect new guests soon.
Week 33: Salvage (Part 3/3)
Richard helps his uncle draft the letter from Mary to her father. Later, Richard is with them at Hackney, drinking from the apostle cups in summer dusk. He defends his uncle’s promise to Katherine to protect Mary: ‘Don’t try and make it a dirty little secret, Riche. It was an act of kindness. No more.’
Week 35: Wreckage (II) (Part 2/2)
Richard Cromwell is at Austin Friars when his uncle learns of the rumours that he is going to wed Lady Mary. He defends Cromwell against Riche who talks of ‘treasonable light.’
'Yes,' Richard Cromwell says. 'You need not go on spelling it out and spelling it out, Riche. This is my uncle's reward for his goodness. He saved her, and now they say he did it to serve himself.'
They advise he marry someone, anyone, and soon. He even offers to knife a man if there is already a husband in the way.
Richard brings him Wyatt’s verses from Kent. Richard offers himself as Reginald’s assassin, but Cromwell says, ‘I need you here, Richard.’ He presents his uncle with more verses from Wyatt. This time about Anne.
Week 36: Augmentation
Anthony asks for bells. ‘Good idea,’ Richard Cromwell says. ‘You can ring them to let us know when you make a joke.’
Week 37: The Five Wounds
At Austin Friars, Richard walks in to tell him about a turf way between them, the Cromwells, and their neighbour, Stow. He, Cromwell, is thinking about what to do to Reginald Pole. Richard is alarmed: he thinks Master Secretary is talking of Stow.
In these times of rebellion, Henry calls Richard his cousin and says, ‘come in… I need my family. No one else rallies to me in my need.’ Richard will represent the Cromwells, going north with cannon.
Week 38: Vile Blood (1/2)
Uncle and nephew correspond. Cromwell warns Richard that Norfolk and Surrey are coming north, and he is to stay out of their way. Lincoln is regained without a fight. ‘Richard feels cheated himself, it is clear. The work he does, doorkeeper to his uncle, is not warlike enough for his nature.’
Week 39: Vile Blood (Part 2/2)
Cromwells are looking forward to the feast. Richard returns from the north; he comes with the plaudits of his senior commanders, Suffolk and Fitzwilliam.
Week 42: The Image of the King (Part 2/2) / Broken on the Body
Richard Cromwell is with them at court, when the Early of Surrey confronts Edward Seymour and Gregory over the marriage alliance between the two families.
Week 43: Nonsuch
Richard Cromwell acquires abbies in Huntingdon. He rides between Rafe and Cromwell, ‘with letters and messages better not trusted to paper.’ He brings news to Cromwell that the king is spending time with the French ambassadors and the Duke of Norfolk.
Week 44: Corpus Christi (Part 1/2)
Richard interrogates Geoffrey Pole in the Tower.
Week 45: Corpus Christi (Part 2/2) / Inheritance
In November, he defends his uncle’s decision to imprison the Pole and Courtenay children. ‘We cannot risk Exeter’s heir being taken out of the country, to gather supporters abroad.’
Week 46: Ascension Day (Part 1/2)
Richard asks his uncle whether they would rescue Call-Me if he landed in prison. ‘They glance at each other, turn away again. Probably not.’
But when Wriothesley makes it home, ‘Richard Cromwell comes bounding in, hallooing like a houndmaster, and pounds him with his fist.’
Week 47: Ascension Day (Part 2/2)
Richard Cromwell and Gregory lead the family military procession in London, ‘faces intent, armour blazing, the Cromwell flag rippling.’
Week 48: Twelfth Night
Cromwell visits his nephew at his new house at Hinchingbrooke. They have dug up two old sets of bones. They bury them again under the floor. ‘I will not let them alter my building plans.’