The Mirror and the Light

Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, formerly Bishop of London.

John Stokesley, conservative Bishop of London, associate of the executed Thomas More.

Edmund Bonner, ambassador to France after Gardiner, Bishop of London after Stokesley.

John Lambert, reformist priest, convicted of heresy and burned 1538.

Courtiers and aristocrats

Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk.

Henry Howard, his son, Earl of Surrey.

Mary Howard, his daughter, married to Fitzroy, the king’s illegitimate son.

Thomas Howard, his half-brother, known as Tom Truth.

Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, old friend of Henry, widower of Henry’s sister Mary.

Thomas Wyatt, friend of Cromwell: poet, diplomat, supposed lover of Anne Boleyn.

Henry Wyatt, his aged father, an early supporter of the Tudor regime.

Bess Darrell, Wyatt’s mistress, formerly a lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon.

William Fitzwilliam, later Lord Admiral and Earl of Southampton: initially an ally of Cromwell.

Nicholas Carew, prominent courtier and supporter of Mary, the king’s daughter.

Eliza Carew, his wife, sister of Francis Bryan.

Francis Bryan, known as ‘the Vicar of Hell’, an inveterate gambler and undiplomatic diplomat: brother-in-law to Nicholas Carew.

Thomas Culpeper, gentleman attending the king.

Philip Hoby, gentleman attending the king.

Jane Rochford, lady-in-waiting, widow of the executed George Boleyn.

Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, father of Anne Boleyn and George Boleyn.

Mary Shelton, cousin of Anne Boleyn and former lady-in-waiting.

Mary Mounteagle, lady-in-waiting.

Nan Zouche, lady-in-waiting.

Katherine, Lady Latimer, born Katherine Parr.

Henry Bouchier, Earl of Essex.

The household of the king’s children

John Shelton, governor of the household of the king’s two daughters.

Anne Shelton, his wife, aunt of Anne Boleyn.

Lady Bryan, mother of Francis Bryan and Eliza Carew: brings up the king’s daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, and later the child Edward.

At the convent in Shaftesbury

Elizabeth Zouche, the abbess.

Dorothea Wolsey, known as Dorothea Clancey, illegitimate daughter of the cardinal.

Henry’s dynastic rivals

Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter, descended from a daughter of Edward IV.

Gertrude, his wife.

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, niece of Edward IV.

Henry Lord Montague, her eldest son.

Reginald Pole, her son, abroad: proposed leader of a crusade to bring England back to papal control.

Geoffrey Pole, her son.

Constance, Geoffrey’s wife.

Diplomats

Eustache Chapuys, London ambassador of Emperor Charles V: a French-speaker from Savoy.

Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, an envoy from the Emperor.

Jean de Dinteville, a French envoy.

Louis de Perreau, Sieur de Castillon, French ambassador.

Antoine de Castelnau, Bishop of Tarbes, French ambassador.

Charles de Marillac, French ambassador.

Hochsteden, envoy from Cleves.

Olisleger, envoy from Cleves.

Harst, envoy from Cleves.

In Calais

Lord Lisle, Lord Deputy, the governor, the king’s uncle.

Honor, his wife.

Anne Bassett, one of Honor’s daughters by her first marriage.

John Husee, member of the Calais garrison, the Lisles’ man of business.

At the Tower of London

Sir William Kingston, councillor to the king, Constable of the Tower.

Edmund Walsingham, Lieutenant of the Tower, Kingston’s deputy.

Martin, a gaoler. (Invented character)

Cromwell’s friends

Humphrey Monmouth, London merchant: formerly imprisoned for sheltering William Tyndale, the translator of the Bible into English.

Robert Packington, merchant and member of Parliament.

Stephen Vaughan, Antwerp-based merchant.

Margaret Vernon, an abbess, formerly Gregory’s tutor.

John Bale, a renegade monk and playwright.

Family Trees

Epigraph

Frères humains qui après nous vivez

N’ayez les cuers contre nous endurciz.

Brother men, you who live after us,

Do not harden your hearts against us.

FRANÇOIS VILLON

Look up and see the wind,

For we be ready to sail.

Noah’s Flood, A MIRACLE PLAY

PART ONE

I

Wreckage (I)

London, May 1536

Once the queen’s head is severed, he walks away. A sharp pang of appetite reminds him that it is time for a second breakfast, or perhaps an early dinner. The morning’s circumstances are new and there are no rules to guide us. The witnesses, who have knelt for the passing of the soul, stand up and put on their hats. Under the hats, their faces are stunned.

But then he turns back, to say a word of thanks to the executioner. The man has performed his office with style; and though the king is paying him well, it is important to reward good service with encouragement, as well as a purse. Having once been a poor man, he knows this from experience.