This is a list of all 146 characters who appear in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light. Names have been assembled roughly in accordance with Mantel’s own groupings at the front of each book.
When characters appear in the novels, you can click through to their profile page with a summary of their story so far.
At Putney
Walter Cromwell, a blacksmith and brewer.
Bet, his daughter.
Kat, his daughter.
Morgan Williams, Kat’s husband.
The Cromwell household
Thomas Cromwell, lawyer.
Liz Wykys, his wife.
Gregory Cromwell, their son.
Anne Cromwell, their daughter.
Grace Cromwell, their daughter.
Henry Wykys, Liz’s father, a wool trader.
Mercy, his wife.
Johane Williamson, Liz’s sister.
John Williamson, her husband.
Johane (Jo), their daughter.
Alice Wellyfed, Cromwell’s niece, daughter of Bet Cromwell.
Richard Williams, later called Richard Cromwell, son of Kat and Morgan.
Frances Murfyn, Richard’s wife.
Rafe Sadler, Cromwell’s chief clerk.
Thomas Avery, the household accountant.
Helen Barre, a poor woman taken in by the household.
Thurston, the cook.
Christophe, a servant.
Dick Purser, keeper of the guard dogs.
Anthony, a jester.
Matthew, servant.
Bastings, bargemaster.
Jenneke.
Thomas More’s household
Thomas More, lawyer and scholar.
Alice, his wife.
Sir John More, his aged father.
Margaret Roper, his eldest daughter, married to Will Roper.
Anne Cresacre, his daughter-in-law.
Henry Pattinson, servant
At Westminster
Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York.
George Cavendish, Wolsey’s gentleman usher.
William Gascoigne, Wolsey’s treasurer.
Stephen Gardiner, lawyer.
Thomas Wriothesley, diplomat.
Richard Riche, lawyer.
Thomas Audley, lawyer.
In the city
Humphrey Monmouth, merchant.
John Petyt, merchant.
Lucy, his wife.
John Parnell, merchant.
Thomas Little Bilney, scholar.
John Frith, scholar.
Antonio Bonvisi, merchant from Lucca.
Stephen Vaughan, merchant at Antwerp.
Robert Packington, merchant.
At court
Henry VIII.
Catherine of Aragon, his first wife.
Mary, their daughter.
Maria de Salinas, a former lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon.
Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife.
Elizabeth, their daughter.
Mary, Anne’s sister.
Jane Seymour, lady-in-waiting, later Henry’s third wife.
Edward, their son.
Elizabeth, Lady Worcester, lady-in-waiting.
Mary Mounteagle, lady-in-waiting.
Nan Zouche, lady-in-waiting.
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
Mary, his wife and the king’s sister
Henry Norris, courtier.
Francis Bryan, courtier.
Francis Weston, courtier.
William Brereton, courter.
Thomas Culpeper, courtier.
Philip Hoby, courtier.
Nicholas Carew, courtier.
Eliza Carew, his wife and sister to Francis Bryan.
Mark Smeaton, a musician.
Henry Wyatt, courtier.
Thomas Wyatt, his son, poet.
Bess Darrell, former lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon.
Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, the king’s illegitimate son by Elizabeth Blount
Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland.
Henry Percy, his father.
William Fitzwilliam, courtier.
Hans Holbien, an artist.
Anna, sister of Duke Wilhelm of Cleves.
Margaret Douglas, Henry VIII’s niece.
William Butts, physician.
Walter Cromer, physician.
Sexton, Wolsey’s fool and later court jester, known as ‘Patch’.
Katherine, Lady Latimer, born Katherine Parr.
Henry Bouchier, Earl of Essex.
Mary Talbot
George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury
The Howard and Boleyn families
Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, Anne Boleyn’s uncle.
Elizabeth, his wife.
Henry Howard, Early of Surrey, his young son.
Mary Howard, his daughter.
Thomas Howard, his half-brother.
Katherine Howard, his niece.
Thomas Boleyn, Anne’s father, later Earl of Wilshire, ‘Monseigneur’.
George Boleyn, her brother, later Lord Rochford.
Jane, Lady Rochford, George’s wife.
Mary Shelton, lady-in-waiting, Anne’s cousin.
Elizabeth Boleyn, Sir Thomas Boleyn’s father and Anne’s mother
The Seymour family of Wolf Hall
Old Sir John.
Lady Margery, his wife.
Edward Seymour, his eldest son.
Thomas Seymour, a younger son.
Lizzie, his daughter, married to the Governor of Jersey.
Clergy and Clerics
William Warham, aged Archbishop of Canterbury.
Cardinal Campeggio, papal envoy.
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, legal adviser to Katherine of Aragon.
Thomas Cranmer, reforming Archbishop of Canterbury.
Hugh Latimer, reformed priest, later Bishop of Worcester.
Rowland Lee, friend of Cromwell, later Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.
Richard Sampson, Bishop of Chichester.
Robert Barnes, a Lutheran cleric.
Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London, later Bishop of Durham.
John Stokesley, Bishop of London.
Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London after Stokesley.
John Lambert, reformist priest.
John Bale, renegade priest
Margaret Vernon, an abbess.
William Tyndale, translator of the bible into English.
Thomas Winter, illegitimate son of Cardinal Wolsey.
Pope Clement VII.
In Calais
Lord Berners, governor.
Lord Lisle, governor.
Honor, his wife.
Anne Bassett, a daughter of Honor.
William Stafford, attached to the garrison.
John Husee, member of the garrison.
At Hatfield
John Shelton, governor of the king’s daughters.
Lady Anne Shelton, his wife and Anne Boleyn’s aunt.
Lady Bryan, mother of Francis Bryan.
At Kimbolton
Sir Edmund Bedingfield, Katherine’s keeper.
Grace, his wife.
At the convent in Shaftesbury
Elizabeth Zouche, the abess.
Dorothea Wolsey, illegitimate daughter of Thomas Wolsey.
The diplomats
Eustache Chapuys, ambassador to the emperor.
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, envoy from the Emperor.
Jean de Dinteville, French ambassador.
Louis de Perrau, Sieur de Castillon, French ambassador.
Charles de Marillac, French ambassador.
Hochsteden, envoy from Cleves.
Olisleger, envoy from Cleves.
Harst, envoy from Cleves.
The Yorkist claimants to the throne
Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter.
Gertrude, his wife.
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury.
Henry, Lord Montague, her son.
Reginald Pole, her son.
Geoffrey Pole, her son.
Constance, Geoffrey’s wife.
At the Tower of London
Sir William Kingson, the constable.
Lady Kingston, his wife.
Edmund Walsingham, his deputy.
Martin, a gaoler.
Rulers, kings and princes
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain
Francis I, King of France
Other Characters
Nikolaus Kratzer, an astronomer.
Elizabeth Barton, a prophetess.
Anselma.
The Dead
Henry VII
Elizabeth of York, his wife
Edward IV, the king’s grandfather
Richard III, the last Plantagenet king.
Henry VI, the Lancastrian king
Cesare Borgia, an Italian ruler
Cardinal John Morton, former Archbishop of Canterbury