# Wolf Hall (TV series)

Wolf Hall (2015) is a British television serial airing on BBC Two based on the Hillary Mantell novels Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies.

## Season 1
### Three-Card Trick [1.01]

    Thomas Cromwell: [after confronting the Dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk] They'll be back in a day.
    Cardinal Thomas Wolsey: These days, twenty-four hours feels like a victory.
    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.
    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.
    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: 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. One thing. One simple thing we asked of the Cardinal, and he would not.
    Thomas Cromwell: You know it wasn't simple.
    Anne Boleyn: Well, perhaps I'm a simple person. Do you feel I am?
    Thomas Cromwell: You may be. I hardly know you.
    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.

### Entirely Beloved [1.02]

    Anne Boleyn: [introducing Cromwell to Dr. Cramner] Cremuel here is Wolsey's man. My uncle Norfolk describes him as "a useful sort to employ."
    Thomas Cromwell: I'm sure he describes me as other things, too.
    King Henry VIII: Some say I should consider my marriage dissolved and that I should remarry as I please. And soon. But there are others who say...
    Thomas Cromwell: I'm one of the others.
    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.

### Anna Regina [1.03]

    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, Earl of Northumberland: 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, Earl of Northumberland: 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, Earl of Northumberland: 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.

### The Devil's Spit [1.04]

    Thomas More: I have followed my conscience. You must follow yours. My conscience satisfies me (and now I will speak plainly) that your statute is faulty and your authority baseless. My conscience stands with the majority. Against Henry's kingdom, I have all the kingdoms of Christendom!
    Duke of Norfolk: Now we see your malice, sir!
    Thomas More: Against each one of your bishops, I have 100 saints!
    Duke of Norfolk: Now we see you choose Rome over England! You traitor!
    Thomas More: Against your Parliament, I have all the general councils of the church stretching back for 1,000 years!

### Crows [1.05]

    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, 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. How is Boleyn's daughter? She lost the child, I am told. I know how that is.
    Thomas Cromwell: She and the king have hopes of another child soon.
    Catherine of Aragon: Particular hope, or general hope? I thought she always confided in you. I do hope there is no rift.

### Master of Phantoms [1.06]

    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.

## Cast

* Mark Rylance - Thomas Cromwell
* Damian Lewis - King Henry VIII
* Claire Foy - Anne Boleyn
* Bernard Hill - Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk
* Anton Lesser - Thomas More
* Mark Gatiss - Stephen Gardiner
* Jonathan Pryce - Cardinal Thomas Wolsey
* Kate Phillips - Jane Seymour
* Thomas Brodie-Sangster - Ralph Sadler
* Mathieu Amalric - Eustace Chapuys
* Joanne Whalley - Catherine of Aragon
* Tom Holland - Gregory Cromwell

## External links

* Wolf Hall (TV series) quotes at the Internet Movie Database