Wolf Hall Season 1 quotes

Thomas Cromwell: Once, in Italy, I held a snake for a bet.

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey: Was it poisonous?

Thomas Cromwell: We didn't know. That was the point of the bet.

Antonio Bonvisi: My friend, you are looking at your herring as if you hate it.

Thomas More: There's nothing wrong with the herring. But, of Cardinal Wolsey, I will say only this. He has brought his fall on himself. He has drawn it all on himself. Land, money and titles. He's always had a greed for ruling over other men.

Thomas Cromwell: The Cardinal's a public man. Would you have him shrink from a public role?

Thomas More: Oh, I think it's a little late to read the Cardinal a lesson in humility. His real friends have tried long ago and been ignored.

Thomas Cromwell: And you count yourself a real friend, do you? I'll tell him. And by the blood of Christ, Lord Chancellor, he'll find it a consolation as he sits in exile and wonders why you slander him to the King.

Antonio Bonvisi: Gentlemen, please...

Thomas Cromwell: No, let's have this straight. Thomas here says, "I'd spend my life in the church if I had a choice. I'm devoted to things of the spirit. I care nothing for wealth. The world's esteem is nothing to me." So, how is it I come back to London and find you've become Lord Chancellor? Lord Chancellor. What's that? A fucking accident?

Thomas More: You're no friend of the Church, Thomas. You're a friend to one priest only. And he's the most corrupt in Christendom.

Thomas Cromwell: The Cardinal is the only man who can deliver an annulment from the Pope. He's the only man who can deliver the King's conscience and deliver it clean.

Anne Boleyn: If the King wants it, and, according to you, the Cardinal, formerly the chief subject of the kingdom, wants it, then I must say, Master Cremuel, it's all taking a marvellous long while to come to pass.

Mary Boleyn: And she's not getting any younger.

Thomas Cromwell: No one is more distressed than the Cardinal that the King cannot have his heart's desire, which is ever the Cardinal's desire, too. He knows that all the King's subjects repose their hopes in you for an heir to the throne.

Anne Boleyn: Very nice, Master Cremuel. Very nice. But try again.

King Henry VIII: Master Cromwell, your reputation is bad. You don't defend yourself?

Thomas Cromwell: Your Majesty can form your own opinions.

King Henry VIII: I can. I will.

Mary Boleyn: If you're waiting for her, I should warn you. She's in a temper. Nothing happens quickly enough for Anne. You'd think she'd be happy. You know when the King first turned his attention to her, he thought, knowing how things are done in France, that she might accept a certain position at court? But that wasn't enough for Anne. You know what she said to me? She said, "This isn't France, and I'm not a fool like you, Mary." Because she... Because she knows I was Henry's mistress and she sees how I am left. And she takes a lesson from it. She's vowed that she'll marry him. And what Anne wants she'll have.

Thomas Cromwell: And you?

Mary Boleyn: Me? I am to be swept out after supper like the old rushes. My father says I'm a mouth to feed and my uncle Norfolk says I'm a whore. I need a husband. To stop them calling me names.

George Cavendish: I knelt by his body, and I wept. And I prayed to God to send vengeance upon them all.

Thomas Cromwell: There's no need to trouble God, George. I'll take it in hand.

Catherine of Aragon: [while meeting with Cromwell to discuss her and Mary Tudor's future] I expected this. But I did not expect he would send a man like you to tell me.

Harry Percy: I was pledged to Anne. She allowed me such freedom with herself as only a betrothed woman would allow. The Cardinal bullied me out of saying anything last time, but I'm not afraid to speak the truth now.

Thomas Cromwell: My lord, you've said what you have to say. Now listen to me. You're a man whose money is almost spent. I'm a man who knows how you've spent it. You're a man who has borrowed all over Europe. I'm a man who knows your creditors. One word from me and all your debts will be called in.

Henry Percy: What are they going to do? Bankers don't have armies.

Thomas Cromwell: Neither will you, without any money. My lord, you hold your earldom from the king. Your task is to secure the north, to defend us against Scotland. If you cannot ensure these things, the king will take your land and your titles and give them to someone who will do the job that you cannot do.

Henry Percy: No, he won't. He respects all ancient titles.

Thomas Cromwell: How can I explain this to you? The world is not run from where you think it is. From border fortresses. Even from Whitehall. The world is run from Antwerp, from Florence, from Lisbon. From wherever the merchant ships set sail off into the west. Not from castle walls, from counting houses. From the pens that scrape out your promissory notes. So believe me when I say that my banker friends and I will rip your life apart. And then, when you are without money and title, yes, I can picture you living in a hovel, wearing homespun, bringing home a rabbit for the pot. Your lawful wife, Anne Boleyn, skinning and jointing that rabbit. Yes, I wish you all happiness. You were never pre-contracted. Any understanding you think you have, you didn't have it. And if you think Lady Anne loves you, well, you couldn't be more mistaken. I've just come from her. She hates you. She despises you. She wants you gone. So if you say one more word about Lady Anne's freedom with you, I will come and drag you out of whatever hole you are cowering in, and the Duke of Norfolk will bite your bollocks off. I do hope that's clear, my lord.

Thomas Cromwell: Just sign the paper and the King will be happy. I'll send my barge to row you back to Chelsea, back to your garden, your children, back to Dame Alice who will be waiting to bear you up to your own bed. Don't you want that? Don't you want to be out of this place you're in?

Thomas More: When we meet again in Heaven, as I hope we will, all our differences will be forgot. But for now, we cannot wish them away. All I have, all I own is the ground I stand upon. That ground is Thomas More. If you want it, you must take it. I will not yield.

Catherine of Aragon: [after Cromwell comes to visit her] Well, how do I look? That's why he sent you, isn't it? To see if I really am dying? He used to call me his flower. When my first son was born, it was winter. There were no blooms to be had. He gave me six dozen roses made of the purest white silk. Over the years, I have given them to those who have done me some service. Will you let the Princess Mary visit me? What harm can it do the king?

Thomas Cromwell: Chapuys has written to the Lady Mary saying that he can get her out of the country.

Catherine of Aragon: Never. I answer for it with my life. What does Henry imagine? Mary returning with an army, turning him out of his kingdom? It's laughable. I answer for her intentions with my own person.

Thomas Cromwell: Your own person has a lot to do, madam. Guaranteeing this, answering for that. You can only die once.

Catherine of Aragon: And when I do, I will set Henry an example for when his own time comes.

Thomas Cromwell: Do you think about the king's death a lot?

Catherine of Aragon: I think about his afterlife.

Anne Boleyn: I'm told that when you thought the King was dead, your first action was to send for the bastard Mary. You did not think of me? Or my daughter? Or the child I was carrying then?

Thomas Cromwell: I cannot hold the throne for an infant in the cradle. I cannot hold the throne for an unborn baby.

Anne Boleyn: I promoted you. I am responsible for your rise. And at the first opportunity, you've betrayed me.

Thomas Cromwell: Madam, nothing here is personal.

Anne Boleyn: You think you've grown great. You think you no longer need me. But you've forgotten the most important thing, Cremuel. Those who've been made can be unmade.

Anne Boleyn: Didn't you swear you'd walk barefoot to China for me?

Henry Norris: I think it was barefoot to Walsingham, I offered.

Anne Boleyn: Perhaps you can repent your sins there.

Francis Weston: I don't blame you, Cromwell. It's just I thought I had another twenty years.

Thomas Cromwell: Well, we know not the hour, do we, Francis?

Handmaiden: [blocking an undertaker's way when he approaches Anne's headless corpse] We do not want men handling her.

Francis Bryan: [sotto voce, to Cromwell] It's a little late for that. [Cromwell glares at him] Right. I'm off to tell the Seymours it's done.

King Henry VIII: Today, there is only one matter. The matter of my daughter. To be defied by her, to know that my own kin and cousins urge her on, to be reviled in my own house by that monster of ingratitude, Pole. So, I warn you, if I hear so much as one voice raised in support of that errant creature, my daughter, I shall know I am hearing treason. I am taking advice. I have called in the judges to consider which is the best way to bring her to trial.

Master Treasurer FitzWilliam: Jesus save us. Your flesh and blood? I implore you. Think before you do this. You will make yourself a monster in the sight of all.

Edward Seymour: Pardon your old friend's plain speaking, Majesty. We are all overwrought.

King Henry VIII: Fitzwilliam! Take yourself out of the Council Chamber before I have you taken out! My patience is not infinite, neither with you nor my daughter!

Master Treasurer FitzWilliam: Some of us are trying to save you from yourself, Harry. You are flailing and injuring all about you because Pole has insulted you. You reckon with your enemies, not your friends. That you should consider bringing your own daughter before a court. Because what then? I'll tell you now, she is guilty. What needs a judge? She will not swear the oath. She will say she is not a bastard, but a princess of England, and that you are no more head of the Church than I am! And then what will you do? Cut off her head?