The Execution of Thomas Cromwell, July 28th 1540.
by David Holland
Today, exactly 483 years ago, Thomas Cromwell, one time Earl of Essex who rose from the lowly state of a blacksmith’s boy to the most powerful man during the reign of Henry VIII, was executed by order of the king he served so faithfully.
The late Dame Hilary Mantel captures this scene in the final pages of her Wolf Hall Trilogy in The Mirror and The Light. As a devoted fan of Hilary’s fictional, and yet extremely well researched rendition of the life of Thomas Cromwell, I confess to not having finished reading the full 2000 pages of the trilogy until today. I had not been able, until now, to bring myself to read the final seven pages of the last book. The reason was simple. I did not want Hilary’s Cromwell to die in my imagination.
I was so enraptured with the character Hilary has created in the Trilogy, I wanted his spirit to stay alive and could not bring myself to have him cruelly executed and stricken from the fantasy I was inhabiting, thanks to the magic of Hilary’s writing.
Today, I finished the book, and I am still sitting with the impact the final scene has made upon me as I write this short blog post. I’m not going to give a blow by blow account of the facts of his death – for the blow by blow of the blunt axe is an accurate enough description. What I will reflect on is how Hilary picked up the soul of the man she had spent so much time with over more than ten years of writing, and imagined how Cromwell gave up the ghost. Here are some lines I have selected:
“His father Walter is here, voice in the air.’So now get up’.”
“In his terror he tries to obey his father but his hands cannot get a purchase, nor can he crawl.”
“Between a pulse-beat and the next he shifts, going out on crimson with the tide of his inner sea.”
And finally:
“He feels for an opening, blinded, looking for a door: tracking the light along the wall.”
In an interview, shortly after the publication of The Mirror and the Light, Hilary was asked,
“Cromwell is dead, you have killed him finally, again, but have you laid the body out? Have you put pennies on his eyes? Is he ready to go down?”
To which she replied, “He’s as vigorous and lively as ever now on the page of the theatre adaptation and next year, God willing, in person on the stage; and in due course the TV adaptation which I will be involved in.
And then she says this, which also summarises my own feelings as a reader and fan:
“He, Thomas Cromwell, gets up and puts his head back on, and off we go!”
Listen to Ben Miles narrate the ‘The Mirror and the Light: The Wolf Hall Trilogy, Book 3′ by Hilary Mantel’ : https://amzn.to/3YaJoZ4
Join us next June in Devon, where Ben Miles will be speaking: limited seats and accommodation available so book as soon as possible to secure your place, we would love to see you there.
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