Thomas Audley, (1488 – ), Speaker of the House of Commons and Thomas More’s successor as Lord Chancellor.
Week 10: 'Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?' (Part 1)
When Thomas More resigns, Cromwell suggests Audley for the job as Lord Chancellor. “Audley is a good lawyer, and he is his own man, but he understands how to be useful. And he understands me, I think.” What a great introduction!
Later, he is at the king’s council, taking Henry Percy through his list of denials.
Week 12: Anna Regina (Part 1)
Audley is a prudent lawyer who can sift a sentence like a cook sifting a sack of rice for grit. An eloquent speaker, he is tenacious of a point, and devoted to his career; now that he’s Chancellor he aims to make an income to go with the office. As for what he believes, it’s up for negotiation; he believes in Parliament, in the king’s power exercised in Parliament, and in matters of faith … let’s say his convictions are flexible.
Week 13: Anna Regina (Part 2)
Lord Chancellor Audley looks like he is enjoying the pomp of Anne’s coronation.
Week 14: Devil's Spit / A Painter’s Eye
Audley brings in Richard Riche to help with the interrogation of Elizabeth Barton. Audley is smooth and hearty, Riche is young and lacks imagination. When the nun talks of hunting and falling down a bottomless pit to Hell, Audely says: “I wish I were going hunting.”
When he is not interrogating, Audley is polishing his chain of office, in Cromwell’s imagination. When Riche is frisked for mushrooms at the gates of Austin Friars, he complains: “I don’t think they would have asked the Lord Chancellor for mushrooms.”
“Oh, they would, Richard. But in an hour you will eat them with eggs baked in cream, and the Lord Chancellor will not.”
Week 15: Supremacy
Norfolk accuses Audley of being Cromwell’s parrot, having no opinion of his own. Audley cannot understand a man like Thomas More, who would risk everything on a matter of conscience. He lets Cromwell do the shouting and Cranmer do the persuading, while he sits back and opens a window to let the birdsong in.
Week 17: The Map of Christendom (Part 2) / To Wolf Hall
The committee to the Tower to put the oath to Thomas More. “Riche to make notes; Audley to make jokes.” But there are few jokes to make. More will not be tortured, but he will be tried for treason.