– The King Never Does an Unpleasant Thing –
by Damianista | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | November 18, 2024
“The King never does an unpleasant thing. Lord Cromwell does it for him.” — Queen Jane
Episode 2 Obedience opens with a refresher from the first series reminding us of Cardinal Wolsey’s fall. When Wolsey is forced to go to Yorkshire, Cromwell, Wolsey’s most trusted man, chooses to stay in London. Here is my detailed review of Wolf Hall Episode 2: Entirely Beloved focusing on Cromwell working his ass of to get under Henry’s skin. There are rumors about him that he is now serving himself, not the Cardinal; but Cromwell’s ultimate goal is to become the King’s most trusted servant and persuade him to have Wolsey reinstated as the Lord Chancellor.
Henry loves Wolsey. But he loves Anne Boleyn more. And he’s desperate to have a male heir with her. Anne and her uncle Norfolk, who is dying to have a Howard on the throne, conspire to get rid of Wolsey so they get their way. And they do. Anne is dead now, but Norfolk is very much alive and certainly aspires to have another Howard sit on the throne. Funny enough, Norfolk is nowhere to be seen in this episode but his name is written all over it.
Wolsey mentions to Cromwell that princes are not like other men.
“They have to hide from themselves so they’re not dazzled by their own light.”
Well, our prince, certainly not like any other man, hides himself behind a mask and performs a dance number in his Turkish costume! I wonder if Henry is jealous of the Turkish Sultan who can marry as many women as his heart desires. Should he have been a Turkish Sultan, as Queen Jane points out later in the episode, Henry would not have had to divorce Catherine or behead Anne. He would have married those two and Jane, and also anyone else he wanted from the Imperial Harem and had many sons. Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled the Ottoman Empire at the same time Henry ruled England, had at least eight sons five of whom grew up to be adults.
Henry is physically declining. As soon as the dance is over, he sits with his bad leg resting on an Ottoman. As Cromwell asks him about plans for Mary to return to the court, we find out that Henry is not willing to have his daughter back until the news that she pledged allegiance to her father reaches Europe. Besides, he wants to see some evidence of her obedience. So Cromwell should start making a list of suitors for Mary and also for Henry’s niece Lady Margaret ‘Meg’ Douglas who is at the party. The King’s pain shows as he stands up to go and chat with her and he has a subtle limp.
What the King does not know is that he has an obedience problem right there in the room. It turns out that Meg is involved with Norfolk’s half-brother Thomas the Lesser, a poet with the most ridiculous rhymes. The intelligence comes from Wriothesley whose eyes seem to be everywhere! When William ‘Fitz’ Fitzwilliam asks Cromwell whether he trusted Wriothesley, Gardiner’s pupil, the answer comes in the form of Cromwell returning the treasurer’s chain of office that he took from Fitzwilliam in the heated Privy Council meeting in Episode 1 Wreckage.
“We all need second chances, Fitz.”
Cromwell knows that Meg and Thomas the Lesser having the opportunity to be alone together means that they got help from somebody. And he probably remembers, because I do, what Lady Anne Shelton, Mary’s custodian, told him in Episode 1 Wreckage. Lady Shelton thought Norfolk coming to Hunsdon and threatening to give Mary a beating if she did not obey her father was all a show. She knew that Norfolk boasted about a Howard sitting on the throne when Anne Boleyn was married to Henry. And he needs to give it up if Mary becomes Henry’s heir. Meg got near the throne since Henry’s both daughters have been declared bastards. So could the Margaret Douglas – Thomas the Lesser marriage be one of Norfolk’s schemes to have a Howard sit on the throne?
Cromwell and Wriothesley interrogate Meg and her close friend Lady Richmond. While Meg is naive and arrogant about being married to Thomas the Lesser in every way, Lady Richmond is quick to understand things may quickly go south for Meg since she pledged herself to a man without the King’s permission.
Isn’t it fascinating that in 16th Century England, common people have greater freedom than those in the court when it comes to falling in love and marrying? I am not sure if we will see it in the TV drama but there is a scene in the book that Henry tells Jane about Rafe Sadler and his wife Helen’s love story. The king’s manner is easy and gracious, his eyes are lit, when he talks about Rafe as “a man who might have married to his advantage, to match with a lowly woman, only for the virtue he perceived in her.” But then he does not give a shit about true love when his own niece falls in love with a man without asking him!
It is hilarious when Margaret says that her uncle loves her like his own daughter. Has this lady been living under a rock for the last five years the King has kept Mary under some sort of house arrest at Hunsdon? And her claim that Cromwell cannot part what God has joined? He has already ended King’s two marriages for God’s sake!
Norfolk being the number one suspect in the incident, Wriothesley asserts that it is time to pull him down. However, Cromwell, who believes in second chances, does not want to have Henry get into another killing spree…
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