'Wolf Hall' Recap: Episode 1

Wolf Hall airs Sundays at 9:00 pm on WTTW is available to stream. Recap the following episode.
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The Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk march through the candlelit stone halls of York Place, stopping before the scarlet-clad Cardinal Wolsey at his desk and demanding the Great Seal from him; Wolsey is being removed as King Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor. A man appears from the shadows and whispers to Wolsey, who tells the disappointed dukes that the law requires a written request from the King as well as the presence of the Master of the Rolls. So says his lawyer, Thomas Cromwell.

The tactic only delays the removal by a day. Soon the cardinal’s sumptuous belongings are being tossed into chests. The king is giving York Place to Anne Boleyn.

Anne first came to court years earlier, playing the part of Perseverance in a masque. She danced then with a nobleman’s son from the north, Harry Percy. The young couple seems to have pledged themselves to each other, as Anne’s father Thomas relates to Wolsey years before the cardinal’s downfall. Wolsey demands that Anne do as she is supposed to and marry into Ireland instead of Harry Percy.

Fuming, Thomas Boleyn leaves the cardinal. He passes Thomas Cromwell and Stephen Gardiner, soon to be a rival of Cromwell, on the way out. Gardiner is already in the service of Wolsey; Cromwell has just been recommended to the cardinal.

Cromwell was born in Putney to an alcoholic blacksmith who often beat him to within an inch of his life. Wolsey appreciates the lower class background; he himself is a butcher’s son. Cromwell spent 12 years abroad learning a variety of trades and engaging in various adventures, including making money with a card trick and fighting as a mercenary for France, England’s enemy, in Italy. He has found success as a lawyer and general businessman back in London, but he wants more than that in his life, as he tells his wife Liz.

One aspect that rises above his career is his belief in burgeoning Protestant reforms at a time when such beliefs can get a man executed. He receives an English language version of the New Testament at his home, disguised as something else. The Catholic church only accepts Latin versions of the Bible; the translator William Tyndale is hiding abroad for his heresy. Liz does not support any of this. Cromwell tells fellow reformers that Wolsey is not their enemy but their protector; it’s Thomas More they have to be wary of.

Liz makes Cromwell’s home at Austin Friars, where his daughters Grace and Anne are growing up; Cromwell’s son Gregory is away for his education. Even though girls are permitted little learning, Anne is already a better scholar than the older Gregory. She wants to learn Greek, and marry Rafe Sadler, a young man who lives in Cromwell’s house as his ward. Rafe sometimes accompanies Cromwell on his business, along with Cromwell’s nephew, Richard, who takes the Cromwell name after his own father dies.

King Henry would like a son, but his wife Katherine has failed to produce one. This failure has convinced Henry that some sin must have cursed the marriage. He has found it in the fact that Katherine was first married to his brother, Arthur, until he died young. A Spanish princess, Katherine came to England at age 16 for the marriage. She claimed to still be a virgin at the time of Arthur’s death, so a dispensation was granted by the pope in Rome to allow her to marry Henry. Now Henry believes she must not have been a virgin after all. It is Wolsey’s task to get Henry’s marriage annulled, so that he may marry anew: specifically, Anne Boleyn. This is what led to the cardinal’s downfall – especially since the cunning Anne has never forgiven Wolsey for his meddling in her relationship with Harry Percy.

Anne first drew Henry’s attention away from her sister Mary around the time that the pope was taken prisoner by the emperor, who happens to be Katherine’s nephew. Wolsey used the chaos of that moment to go to France to try to convene cardinals in favor of Henry’s cause, but failed.

While he is away, Liz, Grace, and Anne all die of sickness, devastating Cromwell’s household. This leads Cromwell to visit his father, Walter; Liz wanted him to try to reconcile with him. The reception is unkind.

The tragedy does not prevent Cromwell’s work for Wolsey. A papal envoy arrives in England to convene a legatine court to rule on the validity of Henry’s marriage; Katherine’s virginity at the time of the marriage is crudely debated in public. Rumors swirl that the pope is due to sign a treaty with the emperor; given the emperor’s relation to Katherine, this would array the pope against Henry’s suit.

Wolsey has failed Henry, and is thus out of favor. He and his household decamp to his ill-supplied property at Esher. Cromwell refuses to leave his service, despite advice from the cardinal and a friendly Italian merchant, Antonio Bonvisi. Bonvisi invites Cromwell to dinner, where he meets the emperor’s ambassador, Eustache Chapuys. Also attendant is Thomas More, who has replaced Wolsey as Lord Chancellor and argues that Wolsey’s greed was his downfall. Cromwell defends the cardinal, baiting More. More leaves angry.

Many people have turned on Wolsey, even in his household. Cromwell overhears Mark, a young musician, disparaging both the cardinal and Cromwell, whom Mark says rumors call a murderer. Mark is being sent from the cardinal’s service to Anne Boleyn.

Cromwell meets Anne for the first time and argues on behalf of the cardinal, to unforgiving ears. As he leaves, Anne’s sister Mary follows and gossips with Cromwell, telling him that Anne has yet to consummate her relationship with Henry (unlike Mary herself). Mary is called back to Anne by the shrinking Jane Seymour, who catches Cromwell’s eye.

With the cardinal out of power, Cromwell wants a seat again in Parliament in order to advocate for his patron. The Duke of Norfolk grants him the position, as long as Cromwell acts as an agent of Norfolk and the king. Norfolk refuses to help the cardinal when Cromwell asks, saying that Wolsey should go north to his cardinal’s seat – far from the king and seat of power.

Norfolk warns Cromwell that the king remembers Cromwell speaking out against the king’s desire to aid France when he was in Parliament before. Indeed, when Cromwell meets the king for the first time, Henry brings it up. Cromwell defends his position despite flares of anger from the king, who eventually finds himself impressed. Cromwell also once again asks for help for the cardinal. When he returns to Austin Friars, he tells his servants to redo Wolsey’s coat of arms in the entryway with new paint.