'Wolf Hall: The Mirror & the Light' History Defining Drama

Historical accuracy in historical dramas is always a delicate subject, and audiences can and will take offense at what they perceive as inaccuracies or anachronisms. Here is a short selection of what people have objected to so far (let the pearl-clutching commence) since Wolf Hall debuted in 2015: Kate Phillips as Jane Seymour being too pretty; the use of a house not built until the Elizabethan period. Also, the depiction of Thomas More was criticized, particularly by Roman Catholics (who still regard him as a saint and a martyr) for making him a villain and Cromwell the hero. 

(The last time More starred on the screen/stage was in Robert Bolt’s 1966 A Man For All Seasons, with Paul Scofield as More, still considered a masterpiece.)

Cromwell's current redemption must be attributed to Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall’s creator, who did her research, going back to original documentation as would any good historian. Mantel always argued that the novelist’s job was to take a leap of faith into her characters’ heads and advised other writers to handle historical fact with respect (quoted in The Conversation):

I report the outer world faithfully ... but my chief concern is the interior drama of my characters’ lives ... Don’t lie, don’t go against known facts. Historical truth cuts against the storyteller’s instinct. Your characters are never how or where you’d like them to be. 

Cromwell has long been regarded as a villain, the sort of person you love to hate, like Marmite, according to his direct descendant, actor Danny Dyer, who appeared on the BBC’s genealogy show (which inspired Henry Louis Gates Jr's Finding Your Roots), Who Do You Think You Are. 

Historian Dr. Tracey Borman, very much Team Cromwell (she named her dog after him, and his bed is called Woof Hall), believes some of the hatred the English have held for Cromwell for almost five centuries may have been because of the dissolution of the monasteries and its attendant cruelties in a cruel age. She’s not alone in thinking Holbein’s portrait of Cromwell, in which he appears jowly, malicious, and mean, doesn’t help his reputation. Cromwell kept it on his office wall, so clearly, he didn’t object to it. Sadly, it is the only existing depiction after a watercolor miniature, marginally more flattering, was stolen from Hever Castle in 2003. 

The most extraordinary feature of the painting, though, is the prayer book on the table, a Book of Hours, which was owned by Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and then Thomas Cromwell, identified only a couple of years ago. Loyal Ralph Sadler kept the book safe after Cromwell’s death. Then there's Rev. Professor Diarmid MacCulloch, author of the well-respected Thomas Cromwell: A Life, who has drawn his own conclusions about the “real” Thomas Cromwell. For one thing, we’re probably mispronouncing his name. 

For most of his life, he signed documents as Crummell (begging the question of why he later changed to the familiar spelling/pronunciation). His background may have been slightly more elevated than initially believed. Although Thomas grew up on the mean streets of Putney, his father Walter was from Ireland, of yeoman status, working as a miller and brewer, but constantly in trouble with the law. His mother, Katherine née Meverell, came from a minor gentry family in Staffordshire. If Cromwell seems an elusive and ambiguous character, very few of the letters he wrote survived. Tudor statesmen always made a copy of their replies, but few of Cromwell’s exist, probably destroyed by his family when he was arrested for treason.

You may find it hard to believe, but Henry VIII of the massive ego did not marry Jane Seymour on the same day that Anne Boleyn was executed! The decision to condense the events of May 1536 made for great drama. In reality, Anne was arrested on May 2, convicted on May 15, and executed on May 19. On May 20, Henry and Jane became secretly engaged, although everyone knew about it, and were married on May 30. (And as far as we know, the late Cardinal Wolsey did not drop by Cromwell’s study to chat six years after his death.) 

Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light was stewarded by historical advisers Dr. Owen Emmerson, Historian and Assistant Curator of Hever Castle, and Dr. Tracey Borman, Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust and joint Chief Curator for Historic Royal Palaces. Both also have extensive experience as advisors for TV productions. Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light is gripping viewing, with its emotional truth, impeccable production, and fantastic cast, led by Mark Rylance (Cromwell) and Damian Lewis (Henry). 

So, what was Henry doing in May? For this, we turn to potty-mouth Chapuys, Cromwell’s friend and ambassador to Emperor Charles V, who reported to his boss:

Already it sounds ill in the ears of the people, that the King, having received such ignominy, has shown himself more glad than ever since the arrest of the putain*; for he has been going about banqueting with ladies, sometimes remaining after midnight, and returning by the river. Most part of the time he was accompanied by various musical instruments, and, on the other hand, by the singers of his chamber, which many interpret as showing his delight at getting rid of a “maigre vieille et mechante bague,” ** with hope of change, which is a thing specially agreeable to this King.

* whore (his favorite nickname for Anne)

** according to my friend the Medievalist, the word bague (literally, ring) makes no sense in this context, unless it’s something so filthy we can’t recognize it, a misreading, or a typo. She suggests: a scrawny, wicked old baggage.

Chapuys was present at Anne’s execution, reporting 2,000 people were present (probably an exaggeration), and claimed that Anne’s head would be displayed on London Bridge, as was the custom. (It wasn’t.) Henry wanted to keep it quiet and avoid public riots; not that Anne was popular, but the execution of a queen was unprecedented and ominous. 

Cromwell and the members of the Privy Council attended as witnesses. It was not a public event, although some gatecrashers gained entrance. Much of this heartrending, horrific scene rings true, although contemporary accounts of what Anne wore vary (they were all men; what else would we expect?). The version we saw at the end of the first season included Anne’s speech, in which she praised the King, a convention of public execution, aware that her daughter Elizabeth could be in danger.

Eyewitness and lawyer Edward Hall included a transcript of Anne’s speech on the scaffold in his book Hall's Chronicle: Containing the History of England, During the Reign of Henry the Fourth, and the Succeeding Monarchs, to the End of the Reign of Henry the Eighth, in Which Are Particularly Described the Manners and Customs of Those Periods. But this was published in 1548, years after Anne’s death (excerpt from The Tudor Daily).

Lancelot de Carle, French scholar and poet, future archbishop, and at the time assistant to the Ambassador of France, was at the execution. His Épistre Contenant le Procès Criminel Faict à l'Encontre de la Royne Anne Boullant d'Angleterre, (A Letter Containing the Criminal Charges Laid Against Queen Anne Boleyn of England), written a couple of weeks later, was published in 1545. 

It was needless, she said, to relate why she was there, but she prayed the Judge of all the world to have compassion on those who had condemned her, and she begged them to pray for the King, in whom she had always found great kindness, fear of God, and love of his subjects. The spectators could not refrain from tears. 

Although it was an official dispatch, it was written in verse. It’s very emotional, as you’d expect from a poet, although I’m not sure about the audience bursting into tears since most of them were in collusion with Henry.

Antiquarian John Stowe (ca. 1524–1605) almost certainly didn’t see the execution but had access to people who had been there. He was also present when work was done years later on the Tower’s Chapel of St Peter at Vincula, revealing the remains of Anne, her brother, and other victims of Henry VIII. He’s the only one to provide the details of the swordsman in his brisk, efficient account.

... I beseech Jesu save my Sovereign and master the King, the most goodliest, and gentlest Prince that is, and long to reign over you, which words she spake with a smiling countenance: which done, she kneeled down on both her knees, and said, To Jesu Christ I commend my soul and with that word suddenly the hangman of Calais smote off her head at one stroke with a sword: her body with the head was buried in the choir of the Chapel in the Tower. 

Finally, if you thought the exchange between Cromwell and Princess Mary (Lilit Lesser) was over the top, the letters she wrote to him about her father’s demands absolutely express her fear and rage despite the formal, cadenced language. She wrote to Cromwell (note that he drafted her responses to her father):

Nevertheless, because you have exhorted me to write to His Grace again, and I cannot devise what I should write more but your own last copy, without adding or diminishing; therefore I do send you by this bearer, my servant, the same, word for word; and it is unsealed, because I cannot endure to write another copy. For the pain in my head and teeth hath troubled me so sore these two or three days and doth yet so continue, that I have very small rest, day or night.
Your assured bounded loving friend during my life, 
Mary

Her formal surrender to Henry’s demands was made in a document, The Confession of Me the Lady Mary, almost certainly written for her by Cromwell. This really seems like kicking her when she’s down, not Cromwell’s finest hour.

I do freely, frankly recognize and acknowledge that the marriage heretofore had between His Majesty and my mother (the late Princess Dowager) was by God’s law and Man’s law, incestuous and unlawful.

(Signed) MARY. 

How important is accuracy in historical drama? It's very subjective. Does one error or shortcut in the form of a directorial decision, a costume designer finding inspiration outside the period, or a too-modern hairstyle damn an entire production? Every audience member, whatever sort of show they prefer, will remember odd snippets of knowledge that may have sat in their heads since elementary school or picked up from another historical drama. As Shakespeare defined Richards II and III and Henrys IV, V, and VI, Mantel's series will define Cromwell and Henry VIII for future generations. Don't worry about the details, enjoy the big picture on the small screen.

Wolf Hall: The Mirror & the Light airs on most local PBS stations and streams on the PBS app weekly on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. All episodes are available for PBS Passport members and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel to binge before their on-air broadcast.