William Brereton (1487 – 1536)
The story so far…
Week 7: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 2)
One of the foot-devils carrying Wolsey at the farce held at Hampton Court after the cardinal’s death. Cromwell notes that, like Harry Norris, Brereton is “old enough to know better.”
Week 8: The Dead Complain of Their Burial / Arrange Your Face (Part 1)
He comes at Christmas to order Cromwell to Greenwich to see the king. He has “ordinary ways” of showing his impatience: slapping his glove and tapping his foot. The Breretons are up in the Welsh borders, “a quarrelsome crew, great disturbers of the peace”, that Walter would have got on with.
Week 9: Arrange Your Face (Part 2)
Brereton is an expert at bilocation. “Why are you not at court?” Cromwell asks him when he has been arrested in the New Year revels. “I am. I am at Greenwich.”
Earlier in the year, he is hunting in his own country of Cheshire while simultaneously with the king down south.
He is also with Anne at Advent, one of her pets, paying her compliments. God knows where he is supposed to be on that occasion.
Week 12: Anna Regina (Part 1)
William Brereton is a witness at the king’s marriage to Anne. “Are you truly here?” Cromwell asks. “Or are you somewhere else?”
Brereton threatens Cromwell. He, Cromwell, calls him back, politely. That, William, was a mistake.
Week 21: Angels
At Greenwich, he is dressed as an antique huntsman, naked under his leopard skin. Norris jokes that he won’t be showing Anne anything she hasn’t seen. A raised eyebrow. ‘Not William’s. The king’s,’ Norris clarifies.
Last year, Brereton said that the king beats Cromwell. ‘You’ll be knocked, he had said to himself. Something in this man makes him feel he is a boy again, a sullen, belligerent little ruffian fighting on the riverbank at Putney.’
Week 25: Master of Phantoms (Part 1/5)
Lady Rochford drops Brereton’s name into her story as a possible father of any Boleyn bastard.
Week 26: Master of Phantoms (Part 2/5)
Mark Smeaton names Brereton as one of Anne’s lovers.
Week 27: Master of Phantoms (Part 3/5)
In the Tower, Cromwell accuses Brereton of treating the law with contempt in his own country, killing a man called John ap Eyton. Brereton cannot understand why Thomas Wyatt is not here, but he is.
Week 28: Master of Phantoms (Part 4/5)
The order goes to the Tower, ‘Bring up the bodies.’
Weston, Brereton, Smeaton and Norris are tried to together in Westminster Hall on 12 May. The three gentlemen try to keep apart from Mark, but this brings them too close together for their liking. They know their fate now, and all express contrition, ‘thought none but Mark has said for what.’
Week 29: The Book of Phantoms (Part 5/5) / Spoils
He is executed on 17 May 1536 at Tower Hill. With the others, he said he was a sinner and deserved to die. Afterwards, his body is stripped, and the headless bodies become anonymous corpses. This creates a problem when it comes to burying Rochford in the chapel.