Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel

Book Two of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy; Man Booker Award 2012

  Written, focusing from the end of Summer, or early Autumn of 1535 to the Summer of 1536, the period of Anne Bolyn's fall, her execution and the marriage of Henry Tudor to Jane Seymour. This historical novel exemplifies the role of Thomas Cromwell, in his services to the king, even better than the previous work, Wolf Hall. If Wolf Hall, discussed about the rise of Cromwell, and other notable historical figures like Thomas More and Wolsey, in this book Thomas Cromwell assumes the center stage even more so - depicting in doing so, his perseverance, his subtle revenge and the art of hypocrisy, which to be fair by him is what the monarchy expects of him. A modern man cannot fail to appreciate that for all the failings we have with our current set of world rulers, the laughable but yet fatal premises that were deemed sacred with respect to then monarchs, need to be deplored.

I will, but quote one extract from a dialogue between Cromwell, and his son Gregory, of how things were usually "formed", so that the king was never at fault, and his whims, and fancies are achieved irrespective of the price that was paid;

‘Are they really guilty?’ he (Gregory) asks, the moment they are alone. ‘Why so many
men? Would it not have stood better with the king’s honour if he named only one?’
He (Thomas Cromwell) says wryly, ‘That would distinguish him too much, the gentleman in question.’
‘Oh, you mean that people would say, Harry Norris has a bigger cock than the king, and he knows what to do with it?’
‘What a way with words you have indeed. The king is inclined to take it patiently, and where another man would strive to be secret, he knows he cannot be, because he is not a private man. He believes, or at least he wishes to show, that the queen has been indiscriminate, that she is impulsive, that her nature is bad and she cannot control it. And now that so many men are found to have erred with her, any possible defence is stripped away, do you see? That is why they have been tried first. As they are guilty, she must be.’

Yet, it is clear that Henry VIII had by that time become a laughing stock, in neighbouring France, and elsewhere - a cuckolded king, who advertised it across Europe.

From Cromwell's side too, he was almost always in an unenviable position, and it is his fine negotiation skills that made him succeed and survive. Below are the words he shares with a friend of his, the friend too finding himself in a not so comfortable position, due to his previous dealings with royalty.

"‘You know I am not a man with whom you can have inconsequential conversations. I cannot split myself into two, one your friend and the other the king’s servant.'"

 And he, Cromwell, was fully aware of the nature of his trade, the distance he's traveled and the progress he's made.

His whole career has been an education in hypocrisy. Eyes that once skewered him now kindle with simulated regard. Hands that would like to knock his hat off now reach out to take his hand, sometimes in a crushing grip. He has spun his enemies to face him, to join him: as in a dance. He means to spin them away again, so they look down the long cold vista of their years: so they feel the wind, the wind of exposed places, that cuts to the bone: so they bed down in ruins, and wake up cold.

 These 432 pages offer a close look at  what politics under a monarch was, what diplomacy was, and those who lived then lived through years until grievances could be set right; and how reports of certain actions were twisted to suit the purpose of the King. The main task set to Cromwell was to prove Anne's adultery. Certain careless words passed  and were overheard, and slightest, remotest suggestions were nurtured to impersonate what passed for proof. And what a mockery the whole court of law was ? What mockery justice was, as the main actors and scripts, acted out a play to achieve a few sacrificial deaths, so that the King achieved his ends.

"'We are lawyers. We want the truth little and only those parts of it we can use'",

Cromwell confesses to Wriothesey.

The novel captured the times, the mood and thin line that those who dealt with the king could tread.

“You can be merry with the king, you can share a joke with him. But as Thomas More used to say, it's like sporting with a tamed lion. You tousle its mane and pull its ears, but all the time you're thinking, those claws, those claws, those claws.”

A fine work of literature by a fine author. Highly readable, and equally recommended. I am looking forward to read part three, which was published last February.