'Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light' Recap: Episode 6

Wolf Hall is available to stream. Recap the previous episode.
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Cromwell is sent to the Tower of London after being arrested by his enemies in the king’s council. His rooms there are well-appointed: they’re the rooms that future queens stay in before being crowned – but also the rooms they stay in before being beheaded, as Anne Boleyn was, thanks in large part to legal arguments concocted by Cromwell.

Now Cromwell himself is the one against whom charges have to be made. His rival Stephen Gardiner, his former proteges Richard Riche and Thomas Wriothesley, and the Duke of Norfolk visit him to question him over charges of treason against the king. Wriothesley, who has worked closely alongside Cromwell up until his arrest and benefited greatly from his position and mentorship, avoids eye contact.

Cromwell wants to see the king, hoping a personal appeal will remind Henry of Cromwell’s service. He also tries to send him a ring, to no avail. Instead, he faces trivial accusations like dressing above his station and possessing jewelry with magical powers. Mostly cool-headed, he offers to run the meeting himself as his enemies prove disorganized, uncertain, and cowed. Wriothesley reluctantly confirms some of Cromwell’s defenses.

One of the stronger charges, thanks to widespread rumors, is that Cromwell wanted to marry the king’s daughter Mary and take power through her, perhaps even conspiring with the Holy Roman Ambassador Eustache Chapuys to do so. After all, Mary called Cromwell her only friend, and he tried to give her a ring with verses in praise of obedience. Norfolk is particularly incensed by these charges, since he resents Cromwell’s low birth and climb to high places – Cromwell sometimes said “If I were king…” Norfolk accuses Cromwell of sending away Mary’s suitors such as the Duke of Bavaria and immediately calling for Mary when the whole court thought Henry had died years ago. Cromwell points out that he did so because he feared for Mary’s life without the king to protect her from such enemies as Norfolk and his niece Anne Boleyn.

The councillors also accuse Cromwell of trying to keep the king’s niece for himself; Cromwell simply regrets that he couldn’t save her lover – Norfolk’s half-brother – from execution. It is alleged that Cromwell said he would take up his sword against the king to protect his religious reforms – true, as a hypothetical – but Cromwell denies it and asks Wriothesley why he did not raise such treasonable behavior earlier. He uses the same defense when Riche brings up Cromwell’s admission years ago of promising to the king’s first wife, Katherine, to protect Mary.

What promises have I not kept to you, Riche, Cromwell asks, reminding Riche what he has done for him. But the most damning charge, at least from the king’s viewpoint, is that Cromwell has failed to kill the king’s cousin Reginald Pole, who encourages rebellion from abroad.

Cromwell has done much else for the king, however – and still must do more. The king wants to divorce his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, and needs Cromwell to help him do it. So Cromwell includes an accounting of the marriage and any possible deficiencies in a letter pleading mercy to the king. Wriothesley has lingered to tell Cromwell that the king allows him to write, and to warn him that Norfolk wants him to die a painful death, whereas Wriothesley wants Cromwell treated with honor.

However, Wriothesley has moved into Cromwell’s home of Austin Friars and been charged by the king with breaking up the household. One of Cromwell’s only loyal friends, his protege Rafe Sadler, reports this – the king allows him to visit Cromwell. The best Cromwell’s other friends can do is meager in their fear of the king. Edward Seymour has spoken on behalf of Cromwell’s son Gregory, Edward’s brother-in-law. The Archbishop Cranmer, a partner to Cromwell in Protestant reforms, writes a letter to the king that Rafe shows to Cromwell: it praises Cromwell, but also allows Cranmer the opportunity to distance himself. Only Rafe spoke for Cromwell, but his pleas have gone unheard.

Cromwell warns Rafe to avoid any appearance of conspiracy with Gregory or Cromwell’s nephew Richard, who is enraged by his uncle’s downfall. Cromwell even forbids Gregory or Richard from visiting him in the Tower.

Cromwell is subjected to more questioning: he has built up both staff and an armory; he says it is so he can contribute more if there is another rebellion. What will you do without me, he asks his former colleagues. We’re all just instruments to the king, he warns them.

But, for now, Norfolk and Gardiner are on the up. Anne of Cleves has been sent away and Henry will wed Norfolk’s niece Katherine Howard. Gardiner now organizes these matters, where Cromwell once did.

Rafe brings Cromwell’s letter to the king, who has him read it aloud, more than once. Rafe subtly tries to push the king towards clemency, but Henry admits that Gardiner has told him Cromwell never forgave the king for the downfall of Cromwell’s mentor, Cardinal Wolsey. The melancholy king has tears in his eyes.

When Rafe visits Cromwell for the final time – he is to be executed – he and his master cry while Rafe recalls coming into Cromwell’s service. Cromwell tells him that Gregory must write a letter to the king repudiating his father, for his own protection. At judgment day, Henry will have to stand for what he did to me throughout my service to him, Cromwell says.

The Constable of the Tower of London tells Cromwell that the king has granted him mercy in that he is to be executed by ax, not by burning or worse. Cromwell often appealed for such mercy on behalf of others. The constable also relays, on behalf of Norfolk, that the king marries Katherine Howard tomorrow – the day when Cromwell will be executed.

That night, Wolsey finally reappears to Cromwell after a long absence of Cromwell conferring with his mentor’s ghost. I hope I did not betray you, Cromwell tells him – he has doubted this ever since Wolsey’s daughter accused him. When Cromwell makes a speech for forgiveness to the crowd of onlookers waiting to see him die, he makes eye contact with the specter of Wolsey.

He is wearing a medal given him by his faithful servant Christophe – more to comfort Christophe than himself. He has told the executioner not to be afraid while he gave him the customary payment for his own death.

As he places his head on the block, he thinks of the idyllic abbey to which he imagined retiring with his daughter. I’ll live here one day, when all my work is done, he had thought. The sun shines; the bees buzz.