Hilary Mantel Collection. Hilary Mantel

usher George Cavendish, after the death of Wolsey, retired to the country, and in 1554, when Mary came to the throne, began a book, ‘Thomas Wolsey, late Cardinal, his Life and Death.’ It has been published in many editions, and can be found online in an edition with original spelling. It is not always accurate, but it is a very touching, immediate and readable account of Wolsey's career and Thomas Cromwell's part in it. Its influence on Shakespeare is clear. Cavendish took four years to complete his book, and died just as Elizabeth came to the throne.

       ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      I should like to thank Delyth Neil for the Welsh, Leslie Wilson for the German, and a Norfolk lady for the Flemish. Guada Abale for lending me a song. Judith Flanders for helping me when I couldn't get to the British Library. Dr Christopher Haigh for inviting me to a splendid dinner in Wolsey's hall at Christ Church. Jan Rogers for sharing a pilgrimage to Canterbury and a drink at the Cranmer Arms at Aslockton. Gerald McEwen for driving me around and putting up with my preoccupations. My agent Bill Hamilton and my publishers for their support and encouragement. Above all, Dr Mary Robertson; her business as a scholar has been with the facts of Cromwell's life, but she has encouraged me and lent me her expertise through the production of this fiction, put up with my fumbling speculations and been kind enough to recognise the portrait I have produced. This book is dedicated to her, with my thanks and love.

       Copyright

      First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Fourth Estate

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.4thestate.co.uk

      Copyright © Hilary Mantel 2009

      Cover illustration by Andy Bridge

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

      Source ISBN: 9780007230181

      Ebook Edition © 2009 ISBN: 9780007322749

      Version: 2019-06-10

      HILARY MANTEL

      BRING UP

       THE BODIES

       Dedication

      Once again to Mary Robertson: after my right harty commendacions, and with spede.

       Epigraph

      ‘Am I not a man like other men? Am I not? Am I not?’

      HENRY VIII to Eustache Chapuys, Imperial ambassador

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Dedication

      Epigraph

      Cast of Characters

      Family Trees

      PART ONE

      Chapter I - Falcons. September 1535

       Chapter II - Crows. Autumn 1535

       Chapter III - Angels. Christmas 1535–New Year 1536

       PART TWO

       Chapter I - The Black Book. January–April 1536

       Chapter II - Master of Phantoms. April–May 1536

       Chapter III - Spoils. Summer 1536

       Author’s Note

       Acknowledgements

       Copyright

       Cast of Characters

      The Cromwell household

      Thomas Cromwell, a blacksmith’s son: now Secretary to the king, Master of the Rolls, Chancellor of Cambridge University, and deputy to the king as head of the church in England.

      Gregory Cromwell, his son.

      Richard Cromwell, his nephew.

      Rafe Sadler, his chief clerk, brought up by Cromwell as his son.

      Helen, Rafe’s beautiful wife.

      Thomas Avery, the household accountant.

      Thurston, his master cook.

      Christophe, a servant.

      Dick Purser, keeper of the watchdogs.

      Anthony, a jester.

      The dead

      Thomas Wolsey, cardinal, papal legate, Lord Chancellor: dismissed from office, arrested and died, 1530.

      John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester: executed 1535.

      Thomas More, Lord Chancellor after Wolsey: executed 1535.

      Elizabeth, Anne and Grace Cromwell, Thomas Cromwell’s wife and daughters, died 1527–28; also Katherine Williams and Elizabeth Wellyfed, his sisters.

      The king’s family

      Henry VIII.

      Anne Boleyn, his second wife.

      Elizabeth, Anne’s infant daughter, heir to the throne.

      Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, the king’s illegitimate son.

      The king’s other family

      Katherine of Aragon, Henry’s first wife, divorced and under house arrest at Kimbolton.

      Mary, Henry’s daughter by Katherine and the alternative heir to the throne: also under house arrest.

      Maria de Salinas, a former lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon.

      Sir Edmund Bedingfield, Katherine’s keeper.

      Grace, his wife.

      The Howard and Boleyn families

      Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, uncle to the queen: ferocious senior peer and an enemy of Cromwell.

      Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, his young son.

      Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, the queen’s father: ‘Monseigneur’.

      George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, the queen’s brother.

      Jane, Lady Rochford, George’s wife.

      Mary Shelton, the queen’s cousin.

      And offstage: Mary Boleyn, the queen’s sister,