Thomas Wriothesley (1505 – ), a politician sometimes in the employ of Stephen Gardiner, often at Austin Friars, always out for his own advantage.
The story so far…
Week 6: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 1)
He’s the son of York Herald, nephew to Garter King-at-Arms. His name is Wriothesley, but you can call him Risley. Gardiner calls him ‘you’. He went to work for Gardiner after working under Cromwell in the cardinal’s household. So Richard and Rafe say he must be Stephen’s spy.
At Chelsea, over dinner with the More family, Gardiner asks Cromwell who Call-Me is working for, me or you? Call-Me is now Clerk of the Signet, assistant to Master Secretary, so it would appear he is rising under Gardiner. But he spends a lot of time at Cromwell’s house. “Master Wriosthesley has his eye on his advantage,” says Gardiner. “I hope we all have that. Or why did God give us eyes?” says Cromwell.
Week 7: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 2)
Wriothesley, we learn, has married. A relation, of some sort, to Gardiner. He asks Cromwell whether Cramner has mentioned “the barmaid."
Week 8: The Dead Complain of Their Burial / Arrange Your Face (Part 1)
Wriothesley is useful. He gives away secrets without knowing he is doing so. Secrets from Master Secretary Gardiner. But he is scared of Cromwell, says Gregory. “He thinks you would do anything.”
Week 9: Arrange Your Face (Part 2)
Rafe says: we cannot trust Wriothesley.
“I know where I am with Call-Me.” He was in Wolsey’s household, and Gardiner was his master at Trinity Hall. He cannot decide who to put his money on: Gardiner or Cromwell. “Two fighting dogs,” who have put on muscle since their Wolsey days.
“He has no fear of Wriosthesley, or anyone like him. You can calculate the actions of unprincipled men.”
Week 10: 'Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?' (Part 1)
Call-Me has been keeping tabs on Harry Percy’s men. So he can take Cromwell to where the young Earl is drinking, in the Mark and the Lion.
Week 13: Anna Regina (Part 2)
Call-Me is from a family of heralds, so coronation day is a big day for him. “Fat fees coming their way,” says Cromwell. “Fat fees coming your way,” Call-Me replies. He confirms the news that Gardiner is out and Cromwell is in as Master Secretary. Christophe waits in the wings. “One tells me to impart nothing of confidence in the hearing of Call-Me, as Rafe says he go trit-trot to Gardineur with anything he can get.”
Week 14: Devil's Spit / A Painter’s Eye
Call-Me Risley is at Austin Friars when they talk about Cranmer’s wife. It is a little secret that everyone seems to know, except the king. Call-Me has a habit of passing information on to Stephen Gardiner, so we may be uneasy to see him laughing here at Cromwell’s table.
Week 15: Supremacy
Stephen Gardiner is back from France. Which means Call-Me has two masters again and looks flustered running between the two. Cromwell offers him Clerk of the Signet when he, Cromwell, is Master Secretary. He ends Call-Me off to Gardiner to make a better offer. “Hedge your bets,” he says. “Run, boy.”
Week 17: The Map of Christendom (Part 2) / To Wolf Hall
Everyone has copied the king’s cropped hair. Wriothesley: By God, sir, if I wasn’t frightened of you before, I would be now.”
“But Call-Me,” he says, “you were frightened of me before.”
Week 19: Crows (Part 1)
Gregory admires Call-Me, so doesn’t hear the note of condescension.
Like everyone else, he seems happy to see Gardiner on the road and out of the realm. Cromwell tells him to keep a watch on him.
‘I should not laugh. You have the right of it, Gregory. All our labours, our sophistry, all our learning both acquired or pretended; the stratagems of state, the lawyer’s decrees, the churchmen’s curses, and the grave resolutions of judges, sacred and secular: all and each can be defeated by a woman’s body, can they not? God should have made their bellies transparent, and saved us the hope and fear. But perhaps what grows in there has to grow in the dark.’
Has he no self - knowledge? He is like most politicians today, pledging their loyalty in untenable ways. He is uncomfortably like most of us too, not sure where we should put our foot next.