'Wolf Hall' Recap: Episode 4

Wolf Hall airs Sundays at 9:00 pm on WTTW is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes.
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Anne Boleyn gives birth to a healthy child – but it’s not a cause for celebration. King Henry VIII was hoping to have a son who could be his heir, but the child is a girl. He disappointedly names her Elizabeth.

Anne wants to ensure that Elizabeth is given precedence over Henry’s daughter from his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, which has been determined to be null thanks in large part to Thomas Cromwell. Anne is already planning to have Katherine’s daughter Mary be a part of Elizabeth’s household, demonstrating her inferiority, and wants a marriage arranged between Elizabeth and the French court.

Cromwell is working on consolidating Elizabeth’s position in law. He is pushing a bill of succession through Parliament that declares Anne as Henry’s lawful wife and their children as his heirs. Anne is upset that the bill mentions her death and allows Henry to take another queen upon that circumstance. But Henry praises Cromwell’s work, complaining that other once-trusted advisers such as Stephen Gardiner and Thomas More have failed him.

Indeed, More is proving difficult – in part because Anne considers him an enemy. The nun Elizabeth Barton has been arrested for her prophecies against Henry and her meetings with rival claimants to the throne, as well as clergy who oppose Henry’s new position as head of the church of England over the pope. Under questioning by Cromwell and other of the King’s advisers, Barton has admitted these things, while also saying that a plague will take them all, including Henry, who she says is not king in the eyes of God.

So Cromwell has put together a bill against Barton and also browbeaten the rival nobles and clergy who schemed with her. Anne insists that Thomas More be put in the bill against Barton, even though More has made a point of rejecting Barton. When Barton is displayed chained to a post in public as a traitor, More meets Cromwell there and asks – with some panic – whether he is in the clear. Cromwell can’t answer.

But he joins with More’s successor as Lord Chancellor, Thomas Audley, to ask the Duke of Norfolk to plead with them for More to the king. Norfolk reluctantly agrees, and they, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, kneel before the king. Henry agrees to remove More from the bill against Barton.

But that’s not the only issue with More. Cromwell’s bill of succession regarding Anne and her heirs also requires that citizens swear an oath to Henry as head of the church – and Henry insists that More swear it. But the theologian refuses – and refuses to give his reasons, although everyone suspects he is still loyal to the pope.

More tells Cromwell, Cranmer, Audley, and the Solicitor General Richard Riche that he won’t speak against the oath, but that’s the best the men can get from him despite all their powers of persuasion. So More is sent to a cell in the Tower of London, where he is still allowed to read and write, but continues to refuse the entreaties of Henry’s advisors.

Cromwell points out to More that they are not resorting to torturing him, as he did against heretics who support the translation of the gospel into English – heretics who were Cromwell’s friends. Indeed, More gloats that Tyndale, the translator of the gospel into English, has been arrested in Antwerp. Cromwell also recalls once serving More while working for his uncle at Lambeth Palace as a boy, but More says he doesn’t remember.

Meanwhile, Henry has joyously hugged Cromwell to tell him that Anne is pregnant again. But she miscarries. With her sister Mary Boleyn sent to the country, Cromwell has a new informer within Anne’s chambers, of whom he is less fond: Anne’s sister-in-law, the miserable Jane Rochford. She tells Cromwell that Anne continues to enjoy the company of charming young men, including the social-climbing musician Mark, whom Cromwell knows from his time in Cardinal Wolsey’s household.

Cromwell is increasingly becoming as prominent as the Cardinal, if not more so. He has commissioned a portrait from the painter Hans Holbein, who questions Cromwell about future marriage plans. Hans recognizes the woman in a tapestry given to Cromwell by Henry as a woman Cromwell once loved abroad, and tells him to marry her – but Cromwell says she is herself married. While Cromwell and his sister-in-law Johane have ended their clandestine relationship, he finds himself fascinated by Jane Seymour, a member of Anne’s chamber.

Anne continues to want More punished, and insists that he be killed for treason against Henry. Henry is less committed to such punishment, but when Cromwell tells him that there isn’t much of a legal case against More, Henry takes his wife’s side and demands that Cromwell find one.

But Cromwell is inclined to be merciful to More, and has More’s wife Alice pleading on More’s behalf. You’ve always been good to us, she tells Cromwell. He tries again to convince More to sign the oath: even More’s beloved daughter Meg has signed it. More still refuses, so Cromwell advises him to throw himself upon the king’s mercy when he comes before a court. Cromwell tells him that if he were king, he would let More live.

Nevertheless, in obedience to the king, Cromwell takes More’s writing and reading away from him. He sends Riche, whom More has always despised for his dissolute youth, to do it.

Riche returns with a possible admission of treason, even though he was the only one to witness it. More obliquely denied the king’s title as head of the church in England while engaging in thought experiments. The court accepts it as evidence and finds More guilty.

The frail theologian then finally breaks his silence to declare that the bill placing Henry as head of the church is faulty, that Henry’s authority in that role is baseless, and that all of Christendom is on More’s side. He has followed his conscience – and it leads to his execution.

As More kneels before the block, he and Cromwell make eye contact. Cromwell recalls a similar moment when he waved to More years ago while they were both boys at Lambeth Palace – and More closed the window on him.

After the execution, Rafe gives Cromwell the prayer book More had with him when he was killed, and assures Cromwell that he had no choice.

Cromwell takes to bed with a fever that causes him to hallucinate his dead wife and daughter. It is unclear if he will survive.

But he recovers, and immediately begins to plan the king’s summer progress outside of London. He decides to include a lengthy stop at the home of Jane Seymour and her family: Wolf Hall.