Wolf Hall

“What is clear is his thought about Walter: I’ve had enough of this. If he gets after me again I’m going to kill him, and if I kill him they’ll hang me, and if they’re going to hang me I want a better reason.” 

Cruelty is Thomas’ impetus to leave Putney and forge his own destiny. It is necessary for him to become a much stronger man than his father in order to survive. Remembrance of Walter’s abuse will make Thomas a better father.

“Spies, he means. To see how she will take the news. To see what Queen Catalina will say, in private and unleashed, when she has slipped the noose of diplomatic Latin in which it will be broken to her that the king would like to marry another lady. Any lady. Any well-connected princess whom he thinks might give him a son.” 

Henry VIII married his deceased elder brother’s wife, Katherine of Aragon, partly to form an alliance with Spain, with which England had long been at odds. The cardinal has vested interest in both parties and consequently wants to know what will precipitate on both sides of the issue.

“It is said he knows by heart the entire New Testiment in Latin, and so as a servant of the cardinal is apt—ready with a text if abbots flounder. His speech is low and rapid, his manner assured; he is at home in courtroom or waterfront, bishop’s palace or inn yard. He can draft a contract, train a falcon, draw a map, stop a street fight, furnish a house and fix a jury. He will quote you a nice point in the old authors, from Plato to Plautus and back again. He knows poetry, and can say it in Italian. He works all hours, first up and last to bed. He makes money and he spends it. He will take a bet on anything.” 

This passage provides an incredibly succinct portrait of Thomas, now that he has grown up. Mantel presents her protagonist as a Renaissance man, educated in the Bible, Latin, poetry, and politics. He is ideally suited to the life he lives.