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It’s almost a decade since Wolf Hall aired on the BBC. Back then, the wonderful actor Bernard Hill, who played the foul-mouthed Duke of Norfolk in the 2015 series, was still with us. Tom Holland, who played Thomas Cromwell’s young son Gregory, had yet to put on his Spider-Man suit. So much time has passed since then that anybody would be forgiven for needing a reminder of who the characters are and where they fit in to this Hilary Mantel adaptation.
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light concludes Mantel’s retelling of Thomas Cromwell’s 16th century rise to power under Henry VIII, against a backdrop of an England in religious turmoil after the king broke with Catholicism and named himself head of the Church of England. It picks up exactly where the first series left off, with the 1536 execution of Henry’s second wife Anne Boleyn (Claire Foy), following trumped-up charges of adultery and treason.
Here’s a run-down of who everybody is and where they stand.
Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance)
Wolf Hall ended with Cromwell (Bridge of Spies and The BFG’s Mark Rylance) being drawn into an embrace by a smiling Henry, who was celebrating Cromwell’s successful concoction of treason charges against Anne Boleyn, her execution, and the king’s immediate marriage to wife number three: Jane Seymour. Cromwell, however does not smile in Henry’s arms. He recognises that his survival lives and dies with this dangerous, unforgiving king, and that he’ll have to walk an extremely careful path not to go the way of Anne, or his predecessor Cardinal Wolsey (see below).
For now though, Henry is pleased with Lord Cromwell, and has elevated him further, to the position of “Lord Privy Seal, Secretary to the king and Viceregent in Spirituals” aka the king’s deputy in the English church. Not bad for the low-born Putney son of a blacksmith. Cromwell is extremely powerful and wealthy, but his common birth undermines him with the nobles in Henry’s court. Without Henry’s protection, the enemies who see him as an interloper would act against him.
Cromwell also made enemies due to the imprisonment and execution of former Lord Chancellor Thomas More, a steadfast Catholic who refused to swear an oath recognising Henry’s supremacy in the newly Protestant church of England. As the architect of Anne Boleyn and her brother George Boleyn’s downfall, Cromwell is also disliked by Anne’s wealthy uncle the Duke of Norfolk (now played by Timothy Spall), who enjoyed the connection to the throne while she was queen. Himself a Protestant believer, Cromwell nonetheless used alliances with (now, secretly) Catholic aristocrats the Pole family to bring about Anne’s demise. The Poles hope to restore Catholicism to England by marrying Mary – Henry’s daughter with his first wife Catherine of Aragon – into their family and having her succeed the king on the throne.
Henry VIII (Damian Lewis)
A brief bit of background: Henry’s older brother Arthur had been heir to the throne of England, and as a teenager was married to 16-year-old Catholic Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon. Six months into the (unconsummated, according to Catherine) marriage, Arthur died of an illness and so to maintain the Spanish alliance, Catherine was married to Henry and they had a daughter – Princess Mary. Henry and Catherine failed to produce a son who could inherit the English throne, which Henry (conveniently) interpreted as a divine judgement on his incestuous and unholy marriage to his brother’s widow, and so sought to have the marriage annulled so that he could remarry and try again for an heir.
The annulment wasn’t granted by Rome, so Henry (Billions and A Spy Among Friends’ Damian Lewis) broke with Catholicism, imposed Protestantism on England and sent his first wife and daughter away so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. Anne gave birth to a daughter – who would go on to be crowned Elizabeth I after Henry eventually restored his daughters to the line of succession just before his death – but had no surviving sons. Henry had Cromwell frame Anne for treason, and had her executed so that he could marry his third wife Jane Seymour. That’s where we find him in The Mirror and the Light: married to Jane, rid of Anne, and frustrated that his Catholic daughter Mary refuses to swear an oath of obedience recognising his supremacy in the church.
Cardinal Wolsey (Jonathan Pryce)
In Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, we see Cromwell having discussions with Wolsey (Slow Horses and Game of Thrones’ Jonathan Pryce) in his private rooms. These are figments of Cromwell’s imagination, as Wolsey died six years before the events of the series. In his lifetime, Wolsey was a father figure to Cromwell, whose own father had been an abusive drunk. The two shared similarly low-born backgrounds (Wolsey’s father was a butcher) and made similarly impressive careers. Cromwell remained steadfastly loyal to Wolsey, and used the trial of Anne Boleyn to avenge him against the men responsible for Wolsey’s downfall. Well, all but one of them…
Wolsey had been the Lord Chancellor and the king’s closest advisor, as well as Archbishop of York, but none of those titles protected him from Henry’s wrath. When Wolsey failed to secure the annulment of Henry’s first marriage, Henry turned on him, taking away his property and positions, and accusing him of treason. Wolsey died humiliated and stripped of his reputation, something that his loyal protégée Cromwell could never forgive. When Cromwell needed men to accuse of having committed adultery with Anne Boleyn, he targeted the four who had acted in a cruel farce at court which had shown Wolsey being welcomed into hell, as well as a musician who had mocked the Cardinal’s downfall.
Cromwell now needs to avoid suffering Wolsey’s same fate, and fears that his intense loyalty to the Cardinal will work against him. Henry knows that Cromwell took vengeance against the men who worked against Wolsey, and chief of those was the king himself.
Lady Mary (Lilit Lesser)
Formerly Princess Mary but declared illegitimate after Henry’s break with Rome, the 20-year-old daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon is currently being held by the crown. She has so far refused to swear an oath of obedience to her father as the head of the Church of England, choosing to remain loyal to her dead mother and to her faith. A Catholic that many believers still see as Henry’s true heir, Mary is the centre of various plots to put her on the throne and restore Catholicism to England. She sees Cromwell as a particular friend, a position that could prove dangerous if Henry suspects Cromwell of working against him in favour of Mary.
Mary is played by Lilit Lesser, the actor daughter of renowned actor Anton Lesser, who played Catholic martyr Thomas More in the first series of Wolf Hall.
Jane Seymour (Kate Phillips)
Peaky Blinders actor Kate Phillips once again takes up her role as the king’s third wife Jane Seymour, a former lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn and part of the Seymour family who own Wolf Hall – from which Hilary Mantel’s trilogy and this series takes its name. Unlike sexually experienced Anne Boleyn’s negotiations with Henry (she was reported to have allowed him access to her body inch by progressive inch), Jane presented to Henry as shy, pious and virginal.
Rafe Sadler (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) & Gregory Cromwell (Charlie Rowe)
Though Thomas Cromwell had only one surviving son – Gregory – after the death of his wife and two daughters from illness, Rafe Sadler is also like a son to him. Rafe was raised and educated as part of Cromwell’s household from the age of seven, and worked for Cromwell as his chief clerk. In The Mirror and the Light, Rafe has become a part of the king’s retinue and so now serves two masters – Henry and Cromwell. He’s played by Game of Thrones and The Queen’s Gambit’s Thomas Brodie-Sangster.
Young Gregory Cromwell was played by the MCU’s Tom Holland in the 2015 series, but now is played by Slow Horses and Vanity Fair’s Charlie Rowe. Scenes of Rowe as Gregory standing next to his father at Anne Boleyn’s execution have been digitally added to the opening scenes of The Mirror and the Light, which starts where Wolf Hall left off.
Thomas “Call-Me-Risley” Wriothesley (Harry Melling)
Harry Melling (His Dark Materials, The Queen’s Gambit, Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films) replaces Joel McCormack in the role of “Call-Me” for The Mirror and the Light. Risley’s a case of ‘keep your friends close but your enemies closer’ for Cromwell. In the first series, the clerk was a protégée of Stephen Gardiner, the former Secretary to the king displaced by Cromwell, and no fan of our lead. Risley remains in contact with Gardiner, who is currently in France serving as the king’s ambassador.
Stephen Gardiner (Alex Jennings)
Cromwell’s former sparring partner and political rival was played by Mark Gatiss in Wolf Hall’s first series, and now the role goes to The Crown and This is Going to Hurt’s Alex Jennings. Gardiner is the Bishop of Winchester and the king’s ambassador to France (though according to Mantel’s novels, he’d rather not be). He was pushed out by Cromwell and so resents him, and his continued alliance with new member of Cromwell’s team Risley represents another threat.
Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk (Timothy Spall)
Played by Bernard Hill in the 2015 series and now taken on by The Sixth Commandment and Mr. Turner’s Timothy Spall, the Duke of Norfolk is a brute of a politician, and also no fan of Thomas Cromwell. The uncle of both Anne Boleyn and Henry’s future wife Catherine Howard, he’s closely embedded in Henry’s court.
Countess of Salisbury, Margaret Pole (Dame Harriet Walter)
A powerful noblewoman and niece to King Edward IV, the Countess of Salisbury is the matriarch of the Catholic Pole family. Her son Reginald was the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, and in The Mirror and the Light, is in Europe forging alliances with Emperor Charles V and planning to lead a crusade to bring England back under papal control. To Henry’s horror, his cousin Reginald has written a book urging the people of England to rebel against their king and restore the country to Rome. The Poles wish Princess Mary restored to the succession.
Margaret is played by Succession, Silo and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Dame Harriet Walter.
Eustache Chapuys (Karim Kadjar)
The London ambassador of Emperor Charles V, Chapuys is a Catholic loyal to Princess Mary and a useful but dangerous man for Cromwell to know. He’s played by Leave to Remain’s Karim Kadjar.
Richard Cromwell (Joss Porter)
Thomas Cromwell’s nephew Richard is played by The Undeclared War‘s Joss Porter.
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light airs on Sundays at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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