Wolf Hall

WOLSEY: Thomas Cromwell-- a man of many talents.

I might find a use for you.

18 years of marriage with no heir.

CROMWELL: The queen won't go quietly.

She has to be pushed.

ANNOUNCER: It was a time of tested loyalties.

HENRY: I trust in your discretion and your skill.

Be very secret.

ANNOUNCER: Desperate ambitions.

ANNE: I'll give the king a son, and I won't die.

MARY BOLEYN: He swears he'll marry her and crown her queen.

ANNOUNCER: Fatal betrayals.

HENRY: You have gone too far.

I keep you because you are a serpent.

You know my decision-- execute it.

(grunts) CROMWELL: You just be grateful, sir, that we have spared you the methods you use on others.

You traitor!

ANNOUNCER: It was a time when the fate of a kingdom... CROMWELL: This is war.

ANNOUNCER: ...lay in the hands of a commoner.

CROMWELL: Now is the time to become the king you should be.

You think you no longer need me, but those who've been made can be unmade.

ANNOUNCER: "Wolf Hall" starts now.

(horse hooves clomping) (pounding on door) (footsteps approaching) Wolsey, you're out!

My Lords Norfolk and Suffolk.

Cardinal Wolsey, you're dismissed as lord chancellor.

By the king's orders.

You're to return to us the Great Seal.

You'll have supper?

You wanted all to rule yourself, didn't you?

(faintly): And you'd have the lords, like schoolboys, creeping in here for a whipping?

Well, I am here now, and I will chew you up, bones, flesh and gristle!

You're to hand over the Great Seal.

(laughs lightly) Apparently, a written request from the king is necessary.

Do you have one?

No?

Oh, that's careless.

My lawyer, Thomas Cromwell.

You want us to ride back to Windsor for a piece of paper?

In this weather?

(whispering) (sighs) I see!

Actually, my lawyer tells me I can't give you the seal, written request or no.

He tells me that properly speaking, I should hand it only to the master of the rolls.

So... you better come back with him.

Am obliged, master.

(footsteps receding) (sighs) Did you know that, or did you make it up?

They'll be back in a day.

These days, 24 hours feels like a victory.

Do we have refreshments for our guests?

Served on what?

They've taken the plate.

What's this?

It's borrowed.

They've confiscated my wardrobe, and you know how I feel the cold.

Thank you, Peter.

This is to be Anne Boleyn's, I think.

The king wants her to have a London residence.

This palace belongs to the Archdiocese of York.

When did Lady Anne become an archbishop?

Now, now, Thomas.

Everything I have, I have from the king.

If he wants to take York Place fully furnished, then I'm sure we'll find some other roof to shelter under.

So I forbid you to hit anyone.

What it is to serve a prince.

The gentlest, wisest prince in Christendom.

I'll not hear a word against Henry from any man.

Do you think it's something about the English?

They cannot see a great man set up, but they have to pull him down?

CROMWELL: It's not the English, George.

It's just people.

CARDINAL WOLSEY: We brought your daughter, Lady Anne, back from France to marry into Ireland.

Now I hear she danced at the court masque with young Harry Percy.

Connived in dark corners with him.

And I won't have that.

Your grace can't think that I'm party to any... Oh, Sir Thomas Boleyn, you would be amazed at what I can think.

THOMAS BOLEYN: Anne knows things can't proceed with young Harry Percy.

But he believes he is free to choose his own wife.

Free?

Choose his own?!

He's not some ploughboy!

He's the man who'll have to hold the north for us some day.

Who is that?

Stephen Gardiner, my secretary.

Send him out.

Stephen.

And who is that?

CARDINAL WOLSEY: Never mind who that is.

He's nobody.

The problem is, my daughter and Harry Percy...

I think they may have gone a little far in the matter.

It seems they have pledged themselves before witnesses.

CARDINAL WOLSEY: Well, you can forget all talk of pledges and witnesses.

I'll get his father down from the borders, and if the prodigal defies his father, he'll be tossed out of his heirdom on his prodigal snout.

Now, get your daughter married into Ireland before her intended hears any rumors of spoilt goods.

Finished, my lord cardinal?

Finished.

Butcher's boy!

Butcher's dog!

(chuckling) (whistles) Come out, dog.

He's talking to you.

So, Master Cromwell.

William Popely tells me I might find a use for you.

A man of many talents, he says.

A remarkable memory?

There's a technique, my lord.

I learnt it in Italy.

How long were you abroad?

12 years.

Where are you from?

Putney.

I left when I was a boy.

Your father?

A blacksmith.

Ah!

At last, a man born in a more lowly state than myself.

(laughs) (dog barking) Bella!

Eaten?

Mm-hmm.

Wine?

Why not?

Hey, hey, hey...

I'm going to work for him.

The cardinal.

You know what they say in Italy.

Il principe bisogna sceglierlo.

You have to pick your prince.

Doing what?

Whatever he wants.

We have enough.

I don't want to spend my life dealing in conveyances, Liz-- whether this man's fence should be here or here... You know what you're doing, I suppose.

At least you always look as if you do.

Yeah, I do, don't I?

You're sweeter to look at than the cardinal.

(laughs) That's the smallest compliment a woman ever received.

(laughing) What does our son say?

He hopes you are well.

Hopes I am well.

Hopes his lovely little sisters Anne and Grace are well.

He is well.

"And now no more, for lack of time, your dutiful son, Gregory."

Terrible Latin.

Anne's the better scholar.

Anne, go and get your breakfast.

After I've Latin, I'd like to learn Greek.

Gregory has hardly any Greek.

(chuckling) What will London be like when that one's lord mayor?

It came packaged as something else.

I almost sent the boy away.

If you want to know...?

I don't want to know.

It's Tyndale's New Testament, Liz.

You should read it for yourself.

It's in English, that's the point.

Not Latin.

How can that be heresy?

Read it and you'll see how you're misled.

No mention of nuns, monks, relics.

No mention of popes.

My prayer book's good reading for me.

(chuckling) Your prayer book.

Grace, look at this.

Rafe!

Richard!

Where first?

The cardinal?

Where else?

Gardiner.

Late.

Me, or your good self?

You-- he's waiting.

The boatmen were drunk.

I'm surprised you didn't take an oar yourself.

You grew up at the river, didn't you?

God bless you.

Thanks.

(chuckling) (laughs) The king sent for me this morning, exceptionally early.

What did he want?

Pity.

A son.

The king wants a son.

18 years of marriage, with no heir.

He's decided some sin must have been committed to cause this curse.

(sighs) (sighs) Where did you learn this?

At the docks, a little after I left home.

I earned a living from it for a while.

Everyone thought they could beat a child.

What else should I know about you, monstrous servant?

Once, in Italy, I held a snake for a bet.

Was it poisonous?

We didn't know.

That was the point of the bet.

(laughs) The sin?

Ah, yes, the sin.

I remember when they brought the queen over from Spain to marry Henry's brother, Prince Arthur.

Sixteen.

Barely a word of English.

God, when she danced, her red hair slid over her shoulder... (chuckles) God forgive you?

(laughs) God forgive us all.

Then Arthur dies, Henry decides he'll have his brother's widow for himself.

Katherine declares that she's still a virgin, poor Arthur never having touched her.

Rome issues the dispensation, and any doubts anyone has...

But now?

But now the queen can't give the king a son.

So now, the queen must not have been a virgin after all.

Henry says that he's lived all these years in an unlawful marriage.

Hence the sin.

So it's back to Rome for an annulment.

She's blaming me, of course.

Katherine.

She can't blame the king, so it's all my doing.

No matter that I've begged him not to proceed.

When she defeated the Scots, I heard she wanted to send the Scottish king's head in a bag to Henry, to cheer him up.

What?

Well, she's a fighter.

(laughs) Perhaps you should teach me your three-card trick, hmm?

In case we both end up on the streets.

(laughing) (thunder rumbling) (groans) CROMWELL: Unpack everything, masters.

I want kindling, dry kindling.

Get the fires lit.

Stephen, find the kitchen.

Actually, see him in first.

I need the bedding.

What are you... who is that?

Michael?

Down, off.

The horses later.

We want the cardinal in bed and warm.

Come on, come on, we're not done yet.

I asked if they had nutmeg or saffron.

They looked at me as if I was speaking Greek.

I'll have to find a local supplier.

I shall pray for it.

Thank you.

Currently, I pray for the king and all his counselors.

I pray for Queen Katherine and Lady Anne.

I pray for Thomas More, who hates me so.

I pray for a better harvest and that the rains might stop.

I pray for everyone and everything.

It's only when I say to the Lord, "Now, about Thomas Cromwell," does God say to me, "Wolsey, don't you know when to give up?"

(laughing half-heartedly) (coughing) Here, let me bless you.

This is what they've waited for.

Suffolk, Norfolk, Boleyn.

They won't rest until they have my head.

You should leave me, Thomas.

Gardiner has.

Gardiner would.

Tom.

Safe journey home.

Mark?

Go play for him.

It might help him rest.

Who will be chancellor now?

His Grace of Canterbury?

Warham's too old.

It'll be Thomas More.

But More is opposed to the king's marriage suit.

Even if the king offers it, surely More wouldn't accept?

He will.

MAN: I'm going to leave.

He says he'll send me to the Lady Anne.

I think she'll like me well enough, don't you?

(laughs) What's the point of staying here?

They're going to be rid of the old man.

It serves him right.

MAN: And Cromwell?

The lawyer?

He'll go down with him.

Well, I say lawyer.

Who knows what he is?

He comes from nothing, the old man brings him in, and in a few years, it's as if he's the one in charge.

As if he has some hold over the cardinal.

I heard he killed a man abroad and never made confession.

But that kind, they always weep when they see the hangman.

(laughs) (speaking Italian): I did, but... with things the way they are with Wolsey, I thought... Thomas More is here.

Hm.

Well, I expect you invited him too.

Grazie.

Prego.

CROMWELL: Did you want to talk about me, Master More?

You can speak while I'm here.

I have a thick skin.

No one was talking of you.

Of the cardinal, then?

Thomas, this is Monsieur Chapuys, the emperor's new ambassador here in London.

Monsieur Chapuys, my friend Thomas Cromwell.

Enchanted.

I hardly know where I come from myself.

If you want to speak half-secretly, try Greek, Monsieur Chapuys.

My friend, you are looking at your herring as if you hate it.

There's nothing wrong with the herring.

But of Cardinal Wolsey, I'll say only this: he has brought his fall on himself.

He has drawn all to himself-- land, money and titles.

He's always had a greed for ruling over other men.

The cardinal's a public man.

Would you have him shrink from a public role?

Well, I think it's a little late to read the cardinal a lesson in humility.

His real friends have read it long ago and been ignored.

And you count yourself a real friend, do you?

I'll tell him.

And by the blood of Christ, Lord Chancellor, he'll find it a consolation as he sits in exile and wonders why you slander him to the king.

Gentlemen, please.

No, let's have this straight.

Thomas here says, "I'd spend my life in the church, "if I had a choice.

"I'm devoted to things of the Spirit.

"I care nothing for wealth.

The world's esteem is nothing to me."

So how is it I come back to London and find you've become lord chancellor?

Lord chancellor.

What's that?

An accident?

You're no friend to the church, Thomas.

You're a friend to one priest only, and he's the most corrupt in Christendom.

You must give me the recipe for this sauce.

Thomas More is my old friend.

You shouldn't come here to bait him.

Am I not your friend too, Bonvisi?

You know you are.

And that's why I give you this advice.

The cardinal is finished.

He'll go.

And then you will be without a master to protect you.

Leave him now.

Thomas!

News from Rome.

The emperor's troops have run wild in the city.

They're killing, raping.

Thomas More says they're roasting babies on spits.

Soldiers don't have time to eat babies.

They're too busy stealing.

If the Emperor Charles had paid them once in a while...

They've taken the pope prisoner.

What?

The emperor is the queen's nephew.

If he has the pope, then the king's divorce petition is... Yeah, yeah.

In every emergency, look to see if there is some advantage for your prince, Thomas.

Ah, cherries.

How did I do that, I wonder?

Here, take.

Now, in this current emergency, it will be to me that Pope Clement looks to keep Christendom together.

So suppose if I were to travel to France and gather together the cardinals in a council to conduct the business of the church in the pope's absence.

Now, if this business happened to include the king's annulment, might we not rule on it?

And voil, the king of England will be a bachelor.

What?

Not more gossip from the silk merchants?

The rumor is the king has moved from Mary Boleyn to her flat-chested sister.

(laughs) Anne?

She hasn't forgiven you for that business with Harry Percy.

Cavendish tells me she's sworn vengeance on you.

The poor chit of a girl.

The king will have her in his bed by summer.

By autumn, he'll tire of her and pension her off.

What are you doing?

For Gregory.

It's the same design Queen Katherine uses for the king's shirts.

Well, if I were her, I'd leave the needle in.

I know you would.

Your sister was here today.

She asked again if you'd go and see him.

She says you'd hardly know him now.

He's stopped drinking, settled down.

(chuckling) Grace, sweetheart, will you keep away from the fire with those, eh?

They're your angel wings.

They're just supposed to be for Christmas.

I know.

All right, off you go.

Your own father, Thomas.

And he's never seen the children.

Well, let's keep it that way.

Can I choose who I want to marry?

What?

Can I choose who I want to marry?

Within reason.

Then I choose Rafe.

(chuckling) Grace says I can't marry him because he's my cousin.

Well, Richard's your cousin, not Rafe.

Rafe is my ward.

That means Rafe's father asked me to take him in and bring him up in business.

Do you understand?

So I can choose Rafe?

If he'll wait for you.

Rafe?

She could do worse.

I'm too warm.

Oh, go back to bed, Grace, sweetheart.

Are you going to wear those angel wings all night?

Till I say my prayers.

(birds chirping) Tell me when you're going.

Liz, I'm not going.

I'm not going to France with Wolsey, remember?

Go back to bed, Liz.

Hello, Frances.

If anyone asks for me, I'm not here.

Yes, Master Cromwell.

The words of scripture are as honey to me.

I am drunk on the word of God.

I have read Tyndale's gospel.

Masses, fasting, vigils, pardons out of purgatory, all useless.

This is revealed to me.

For Christ's sake, man, do you think you can crawl out of your hole because Cardinal Wolsey is away?

All that means is that More has a free hand to pursue us, to brand us heretics.

Wolsey protects us.

Wolsey?

Wolsey burns Bibles.

More will burn men.

I met with Tyndale in Germany, and... (sighs) Oh, g...

I don't want to know where Tyndale is.

Gentlemen.

I'm going to go to Rome and see His Holiness.

I know I can bring him over to our way of thinking.

(church bell ringing) What is it?

Say it.

JOHANE: She... She said she was tired this morning.

After you left.

She wouldn't eat anything.

Then she started shaking.

We called for the priest around 2: 00.

She said she held a snake in Italy, but the priest said that was just the fever talking.

He couldn't wait to get away.

Did she... did she leave any message?

For me?

Just kept saying she was thirsty.

(footsteps approaching quickly) It's the girls.

Come on, come on!

Stay with me.

Come on, wake up, darling.

Can you hear me, darling?

Can you hear me?

Come on, please, please.

Wake up.

Open your eyes.

Please, darling, please.

Come on, come on.

Please, please... Open your eyes, darling, come on.

Don't, don't.

Please, please, come on... Don't.

Mercy.

Mercy, don't.

(sobbing) (whispering) Oh...

It's all right.

It's all right.

Go.

Go now.

Everybody said it was back.

This, uh... sweating sickness.

I should have sent them to the country.

Liz wouldn't have let them go.

Anne cried every time you were away.

Did she?

Anne did?

John and I can stay with you for a while.

Look after the household.

Until you're... She wanted to learn Greek.

(crying) There.

(crying) CARDINAL WOLSEY: You'll hear the king's reception of me was cool.

That's only partly true.

Still, my mission could not be described as an overwhelming success.

The cardinals wouldn't meet me.

They said it was too hot to travel south.

So, what next?

A new plan.

A Legatine Court.

We ask the pope to send his envoy to act in his name, and rule here in England on the validity of the king's marriage to Katherine.

Hmm?

Uh...

When you were in France, my wife and daughters died.

Oh, Tom.

Whom the Lord loveth... (hammering) (groaning) Now, get up!

Get up!

Come on, boy!

Let me see you stand on your feet!

Get up!

Get up!

Get up!

Where have you been?

You look like a foreigner.

I am a foreigner.

Where'd you go?

Here and there.

Working for Wolsey now, I hear.

I'm a lawyer.

Lawyer.

You were always a talker.

Slap in the mouth couldn't cure you.

God knows you tried.

Law.

If it wasn't for the law, I'd be a lord.

Cromwells had money.

We had estates.

Thieved off us by lawyers.

Suppose you don't admit to me, now, do you?

Suppose you hoped I'd be dead.

Why are you here?

My wife told me I should come see you.

Well, now you have.

Yeah.

(footsteps approaching) What is it?

Uncle, I have a question to put to you.

My father is dead, and you... You are my father now.

So, shall I change my name to yours?

Your father?

Every day, I light a candle for him.

Does that comfort you?

I don't know.

Well, this...

This comforts me.

Richard Cromwell.

Thank you.

If... Go, go on, get out.

Get out.

For 20 years, I have been your true wife.

And by me, you have had many children, although it pleased God to call them from this world, which was no fault of mine.

And when you had me first, as God is my witness, I was a true maid, without touch of man.

(crowd murmuring) And whether this is true or no, I put to your conscience.

(murmuring continues) MAN: On Prince Arthur's wedding night, myself and the Earl of Oxford took the prince to Queen Katherine's chambers, and we were there when he climbed into bed beside her.

The next morning, he comes out again, says he's thirsty and asks for some ale because, he said, "Last night, I was in Spain."

The queen was Spanish, you see?

(murmuring) It would be a poor sort of bridegroom who'd come out in the morning and say, "Good day, masters.

Nothing done!"

Mm.

He was 15.

He was boasting.

I believe Katherine.

Believe nobody.

You're late, Stephen.

They're almost done for the day.

STEPHEN: It doesn't matter.

Why doesn't it matter?

News from one of my men in Rome.

Pope Clement is preparing to sign a treaty with the emperor.

Oh, your boy doesn't understand.

The emperor won't take kindly to the pope helping to have his aunt cast off the throne.

I don't think your papal envoy in there is likely to give the king what he wants, do you?

And when he doesn't, Wolsey will be finished.

And then I'll feel sorry for you.

Except you won't.

Except I won't.

Do you think it's true?

The mistake was being too proud?

I remember when he used to say, "The king will do such-and-such."

Then it was, "We will do such and such."

Now it's, "This is what I will do."

No, no.

The mistake was making an enemy of Anne Boleyn.

But then, who knew how far she'd rise?

Hello, Mark.

You're hard at study.

How are you?

It must feel strange being back at York Place, with the world so altered.

No.

You don't miss my lord cardinal?

No.

Well, you might not think of us, Mark, but we think of you.

WOMAN: Purkoy!

Don't let him out!

Lady Anne.

Vous tes gentil.

Hello, Master... Cremuel?

You have your inventories?

Thank you for this.

Since my lord cardinal's reduction, have you seen much progress in your cause?

He is the only man in England who can obtain for you what you need.

Very well.

Make his case.

You have five minutes.

Otherwise, I can see you're really busy.

(speaking French): The cardinal is the only man who can deliver an annulment from the pope.

He's the only man who can deliver the king's conscience and deliver it clean.

If the king wants it, and according to you, the cardinal, formerly the chief subject of the kingdom, wants it... then I must say, Master Cremuel, it's all taking a marvelous long while to come to pass.

And she's not getting any younger.

No one is more distressed than the cardinal that the king cannot have his heart's desire, which is ever the cardinal's desire too.

He knows that all the king's subjects repose their hopes in you for an heir to the throne.

Very nice.

Very nice, Master Cremuel.

But try again.

One thing.

One simple thing we asked of the cardinal, and he would not.

You know it wasn't simple.

Well, perhaps I am a simple person.

Do you feel I am?

You may be.

I hardly know you.

You may go.

Lady Mary.

God, I thought she would slap you.

My sister likes a good fight.

Come again.

I can't wait.

Your sister can, I think.

Oh, she knows how to wait.

So I hear.

They say she and the king...

Still haven't.

It's true.

She lets him pull down her shift and kiss her breasts.

Good man if he can find them.

(laughing) Lady Mary, Lady Anne wants you.

Oh, by the saints!

I need a seat in Parliament again.

Why?

Because if I'm not there to speak for the cardinal, they'll kill him.

Cromwell, I am content you are a burgess in the Parliament.

My Lord...

I spoke to the king for you, and he is also content.

You will take his instructions in the Commons.

And mine.

Will they be the same, My Lord?

Damn it, Cromwell, why are you such a... person?

It's not as if you can afford to be.

Smile away.

The king will grant you an audience, but he is preparing a quarrel against you, master.

Oh, yes!

He has a long memory and well remembers when you were a burgess in the Parliament before this and how you spoke against his war.

I hope he doesn't think still of invading France.

What Englishman doesn't?!

We own France!

We have the right to take back our own!

(sighs) Mind you, you're right.

We can't win.

But we have to fight anyway.

That was what was wrong with Wolsey.

Always at the treaty table.

How can a butcher's son understand...?

La gloire?

Are you a butcher's son?

Blacksmith's.

Are you really?

Shoe a horse?

If I were put to it.

I was a soldier myself.

Were you?

Were you?

Not with any English army, I'll be bound.

I knew there was something about you that I didn't like, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Where were you?

Garigliano.

With?

The French.

Wrong side, lad.

I noticed.

Longbow-man?

Now and then.

Bit on the short side.

Me too.

But the king can draw a bow.

Very nice.

Got the arm.

My lord, Esher is not suitable for my lord cardinal.

He is willing to travel to his palace at Winchester.

(laughs) Oh, yeah, I bet he is.

Nice and close to the king.

Don't take us for fools!

Tell your cardinal that he had his last chance with his court, here in this very building.

Tell him to go north.

He's not ready to go north.

I want him north.

Tell him Norfolk wants him on the road and away from here.

And tell him...

If he doesn't, I'll come to him and I'll tear him with my teeth!

My Lord, may I substitute the word "bite" for "tear"?

Substitute nothing, you... ...you nobody!

Cromwell.

How's your fat priest?

How is...?

He cannot be well until he has Your Majesty's favor.

The list of charges against him grows every day.

Saving Your Majesty, there's an answer to each one, and given a hearing, we'd make them.

Not today.

Suffolk wants to go hunting.

We usually say, we gentlemen, that the hunt prepares us for war.

Which brings us to a sticky point, Master Cromwell.

It does indeed.

You said in Parliament in a speech some six years ago that I could not afford a war.

Wars are not affordable things.

When I went into France, I captured the town of Therouanne, which you called... A dog-hole, Your Majesty.

How could you say so?

I've been there.

So have I!

At the head of an army!

You told me I could not lead my own troops!

You told me if I was taken prisoner, the ransom would bankrupt the country!

So what do you want?

You want a king to huddle indoors like a sick girl?

That would be ideal, for fiscal purposes.

A strong man acts within that which constrains him.

What constrains me?

Distance.

When Your Majesty's ancestors fought in France, they held whole provinces.

From there they could supply, they could provision.

Now we have only Calais.

How can we support an army in the interior?

So next time we go into France, we'll need a sea coast.

Of course.

Normandy, Brittany... Master Cromwell, your reputation is bad.

You don't defend yourself?

Your Majesty can form your own opinions.

I can.

I will.

Are we to paint out the cardinal's coat of arms?

No.

Paint it again.

Paint it brighter.

WOLSEY: Lady Anne is the key to winning back Henry.

ANNE: This will happen.

I mean to have him.

Some say that I should consider my marriage dissolved, but there are others who say...

I'm one of the others.

CRANMER: The king was offended once.

He can be offended again.

(pounding at door) JOHANE: Is it an arrest?

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