Original subtitles

This programme contains some strong language

THEY GRUNT

HE GRUNTS

BELL TOLLS

SHE GASPS

If I'd known...

..I would have come.

Then come with me now, Father.

To Antwerp that you were homesick for.

But you will not.

Come here.

I did not know myself what was happening.

If I had known, I w...

I would have got warning to you somehow.

As we were going in,

Wriothesley called me back for some footling piece of business.

And then as I approached the council chamber...

Sadler.

Your master is arrested.

I am going to Parliament House to announce it.

How did Parliament take it?

In silence.

No doubt astonished.

A man made earl in the morning and kicked out by afternoon.

Edward Seymour went at once to the King to speak for Gregory.

Did he speak for me?

No, sir. Did anyone speak for me?

Yes. But I was not heard.

Not Cranmer?

He is writing the King a letter.

Try and get me the contents.

Richard is enraged.

Mm.

He wanted to go straight to the King and break in on him.

Tell him he must not do that.

He must rest quiet, and he must keep away from Gregory.

Both of them must keep away from you.

You must do nothing that could be thought of as conspiracy.

I know how Henry's mind works.

Well, obviously that's not true, or I wouldn't be here, would I?

CROMWELL CHUCKLES

They will both wish to visit here if the King permits.

No.

They must not.

They must stay away.

You know, I never knew you two to be such great comrades till lately.

More likely to abuse each other roundly

than sit together as friends.

We might not always have seen eye to eye,

but one thing we have in common -

when we scent the truth, we stick on the trail.

So beware, Cromwell.

Whatever we suspect, we will have out of you...

..one way or the other.

It is as crude a threat as I've heard, my lord,

but you have no need for it.

I will tell you the truth as I know it and believe it,

and beyond that, there is nothing for you.

WRIOTHESLEY CLEARS THROAT

We might begin with the purple doublet.

You understand, sir, that it is my duty to put these questions to you,

and that I bear you no ill will in the doing of it.

I know a disclaimer when I hear it, Riche.

May I see the King?

No, by God! What on earth gave Your Lordship that idea?

The King of France once gave me this.

And when he did, I took it to our King,

who after a time was pleased to return it to me,

saying it might be a token between us, and if I sent it to him,

even if I did not have my seal, he would know it came from me.

So...I send it to him now...

..Master Secretary.

GARDINER: But what's the point? The King knows where you are.

He put you here. Yes, I know,

but it will remind him of how I've served him

to the best of my capacities, in the utmost of my strength,

as I hope to do for many years yet.

Yes, well, that is what we are here to determine -

whether you have served him or no,

whether you have abused his confidence, as he believes,

and plotted against his throne.

How plotted?

Letters have been discovered at Austin Friars.

Highly prejudicial to your claims to be a loyal and quiet subject.

Clear proof of treason.

I'm waiting for you to tell me what they are.

I cannot guess what you might forge, can I?

Letters from Martin Luther himself and his heretic brethren.

Melanchthon? Oh, dear. The King writes to him.

And also from German princes, urging on you a course most injurious

to King and Commonwealth.

There are no such letters. They never existed.

And even if they did... Lawyer's logic!

And even if they did, even if they contained seditious matter,

would I really leave them about the house for you to find?

Would I, Call-Me?

Did we do such things?

I, erm...

Shall we pass on?

Would you like me to set the agenda and run the meeting?

I believe you wanted to know about my wardrobe.

Yes, the doublet. In the Cardinal's day, you owned and were seen to wear

a doublet of purple satin.

What gave you the right to wear such a colour? Hmm?

It's the preserve of royal persons or high dignitaries of the church.

Yes, I saw it myself.

And moreover, you had sables.

I feel the cold.

Do you know? It was a gift.

A gift from a foreign client of mine who did not know our rules.

If your client did not know the rules, you knew them.

It was above your rank and station

to dress as if you were an earl already.

That's true.

But why would Your Lordship object if the King did not?

His Majesty would not like his ministers to go about

in homespun.

Christ, Riche, is this the best you can do?

The doublet is just a single example of your insensate and ungodly pride.

It's not just your attire that offends.

It's the way you talk, the way you put yourself forward,

interrupt the king's discourse.

Interrupt me, for Christ's sake!

Scorn ambassadors, the envoys of great princes.

Yes. And speaking of ambassadors,

you and Monsieur Chapuys are regularly... Not yet!

You have been entrusted with high office,

and you scant the procedures that are laid down.

You reach across and you put your signature to some scrap of paper,

and thousands are paid out without warrant.

There is no part of the King's business you do not meddle in.

You override the council.

You pull state policy out of your pocket.

You read other men's letters.

You corrupt their households to your own service.

You take their duties out of their hands.

I act when they should act but don't.

Sometimes government has to accelerate.

I cannot always wait for the slow grindings of your brain, my lord.

We have to move in anticipation of events.

I do not see how unless you consult sorcerers.

So are we done with the doublet, then?

The King of France congratulates our King on your putting down.

The French have much to tell us regarding your ambitions,

not to mention your methods of discharging our sovereign's trust.

I see. This is where it began, isn't it?

Your sojourn to France.

The French gave hints of an alliance between our kingdoms,

something you and Gardiner have long been urging on the King.

But there was a price.

The price was me, and the King baulked at it.

Until now.

The French prefer to deal with me, my lord. I'm sure they do.

Why would they not prefer a minister whom they can bewilder and trick

and, if need be, purchase?

I'd like to take us back...

Yes, I think you had better take us back.

You're in danger of proving what a bad minister I have been

for the King of France.

You made a great deal of money in the Cardinal's day.

Not so much from Wolsey, but from my legal practice, yes.

How did you do that? Long hours.

Wolsey commonly enriched his servants.

He did, as Stephen here can testify.

But the Cardinal fell from grace before his debts could be paid.

As you well know, my Lord, his enemies laid hold of his assets,

bless him. He cost me money in the end.

When you say his enemies, you mean the King.

HE CHUCKLES

Give me credit, Gardiner.

You don't think I'll gratify you by calling the King a thief?

Wolsey had enemies enough in this very room.

But you adhered to him even when he was a proven traitor.

What you call adherence, the King calls loyalty.

'Tis true. I have heard His Majesty say it.

The King regrets the Cardinal. He told me so.

He misses him to this very day.

You wear a ring the Cardinal gave you.

It possesses certain properties.

Do you covet it, Ricardo? I'll give it to you.

It will save you from drowning.

You see? He admits it.

It also preserves the wearer from wild beasts

and secures a Prince's favour.

It doesn't seem to be working very well, though, does it?

It also allegedly makes princesses fall in love with you.

I'm turning them away daily.

Well, you didn't turn away Lady Mary, did you?

You presumed, and the King knows it, to insinuate yourself with her,

to ingratiate yourself so that she referred

to you as "my only friend."

I WAS her only friend.

Mary would be dead if I hadn't persuaded her to obey her father.

And why were you so interested in saving her life?

Perhaps because I'm a Christian man.

Perhaps because you thought she would reward you.

She was a powerless girl. How would she reward me?

It was your dreadful presumption, offensive to Almighty God,

to attempt to marry her.

Yes. And, for instance, upon a certain occasion,

you were her Valentine, and you gave her a gift.

You know how this works, Riche. We draw lots for Valentines.

Yes, but you rigged the ballot.

You have often boasted of your ways to manipulate elections of any sort,

even the draw at a tournament.

I offer this, and my recollection is perfectly clear.

The day your son made his debut in the field,

you said, "Never fear. I can get you on the King's team,

"and then you will not have to run against His Majesty."

Gregory told you that?

He told me that very day.

You hurt his pride.

He spoke in innocence and he spoke to you, Call-Me,

whom he took to be his friend.

But I suppose you must use what you have.

Valentines, sorceries, purple doublets.

Any jury would laugh you out of court. But then...

..there won't be a jury, will there?

There'll be no trial.

You'll pass a bill to make an end of me.

And I cannot complain of the process. I have used it myself.

You gave Mary a ring in the summer of 1536.

It was not a lover's ring. It was...

It was a piece for her to wear around her neck.

Why? Why what?

Why did she wear it around her neck and not on her finger?

Because it was too heavy. There were too many words.

What words? Words enjoining obedience.

You thought she should obey you?

I thought she should obey her father.

And I showed it to His Majesty. He liked it so well.

he took it for himself to give to her.

WRIOTHESLEY: It's true, my lord. I was there.

Well, all the same, the volume of the correspondence with the lady,

your manifest influence with her, the nature of the information she

confided in you, information that relates to her bodily matters...

You mean she told me she had a toothache?

Yes. Headaches.

She confided information proper for a physician to know,

not a stranger. I was hardly a stranger.

"I do thank you with all my heart for the great pains

"you have had for me. I think myself very much bound to you.

"Your assured bounden loving friend throughout my life, Mary."

That's right. Friend.

And in fact, she gave you gifts, didn't she?

She gave you a pair of gloves. That signifies hand in glove.

That signifies alliance. That signifies matrimony.

The King of France gave me gloves. He didn't want to marry me.

It disgusts me that a woman of noble blood should lower herself.

Do not blame the lady.

Cromwell made her believe only his own person

stood between herself and death.

Ah! There you have it. My "person."

It was my purple doublet. She couldn't resist it.

Could a woman rule?

Do you remember the conversation?

Yes!

Yes, and you bursting in.

"It depends who she marries."

And since that time, you have ensured the Lady Mary

never makes a marriage. All of her suitors have been sent away.

And I remember when the king took his fall at the joust.

The 24th of January, 1536.

And he was carried to a tent and lay on a bier, either dead or dying,

and all your concern was, "Where is Mary?"

I wanted to protect her.

From whom? From you, my Lord Norfolk, and from your niece.

And if you had laid hands on her, what would you have done?

You tell me. What makes the best story?

Did I seduce her? Did I enforce her?

Come on, Stephen. I no more meant to marry her than you did.

Would you kindly address me as what I am?

I beg your pardon, my lord Bishop.

Leave aside marriage. There are other means of control.

The King believed you meant to place Mary on the throne

and rule through her.

And to this end, you cultivated your friendship

with Chapuys, the Emperor's man.

As he dined with you twice in the same week.

Well, you should know. You were at the table.

He was your confidant and your friend.

I don't have any confidants and few friends.

Till yesterday, I counted you amongst them.

At your house at Austin Friars,

you conferred with Chapuys in the tower.

You made him certain promises about Mary, her future estate.

I made no promises.

Chapuys thought you did.

Mary thought you did.

How would you know? You weren't even in the realm at the time.

Well, well, you strain my charity, Wriothesley.

When I am set at large, I'll try not to hold these things against you.

Let us pursue the matter of your marriage further.

The Lady Mary was not your only prospect.

You took care that Lady Margaret Douglas was preserved,

though guilty of wilful disobedience to the King.

Yes, I uncovered that whole affair,

and you talked it away as if it were nothing.

No, not nothing. Her sweetheart, "Tom Truth," was executed.

Your brother.

I'm sorry I could not save them both.

You put her under a debt of gratitude.

The King's niece,

and what was she to you but another path to the throne?

"If I were King" is a phrase often in your mouth.

You, a manifest traitor, who offered to meet the King in battle?

What? Let me remind you that you were heard by a witness here,

at the Tower, to utter certain treasonable words,

that you would maintain your own opinion in religion,

that you would never allow the King to return to Rome,

and - these are the words alleged - that "If he would turn,

"yet I would not turn, and I would take the field against him,

"my sword in my hand."

And you accompanied these words with certain...

..certain belligerent gestures.

Is this likely?

That I, even if I had such thoughts,

that I would speak this out in public?

And where has this witness been since last year?

If I spoke treason, is he not culpable for concealing it?

I look forward to seeing them in chains.

You admit it is treason?

Yes, my lord, but I do not admit to saying it.

How would I make good such a threat?

How could I possibly overthrow the King?

Perhaps with the help of the Emperor.

You still have contact with his man Chapuys, do you not?

I hear he plans to return.

Oh, dear. He'll have to find somewhere else to have his dinner.

Why do we concern ourselves with Chapuys?

It is much worse than that,

as all will attest who were in your garden at Austin Friars,

the day the King met his daughter.

You had secret dealings with Katherine.

Dealings to do with Mary.

And that evening, you confessed as much to all present.

Even if I did,

my, you've known about this a long time, Riche.

What stopped you from speaking out?

I'll tell you what - advantage.

Your own advantage kept you mute until advantage was greater

on the other side. What promise have I made...

Look at me!

What promise have I made to you, Riche, that I have not kept?

And what promises have you made to me?

You should not speak of promises!

The King hates a man who breaks his word.

You said you would kill the pretender Reginald Pole.

Yes, and not a drop of his blood is shed.

The King's so-called marriage.

His Majesty says you know more of the matter

than any man except himself.

You are to give a full account. Omit nothing.

From your first negotiations with Cleves

to the night of the supposed marriage.

You must set forth all you heard of the lady's pre-contract,

and record faithfully what you know of the King's dislike of

and unwillingness to the marriage.

You must write the truth on the damnation of your soul.

You will be required to take an oath.

I have a son and nephew.

My nephew has heirs, all of whom I wish to preserve.

Why would I refuse?

I would also take an oath that I am a true servant of the King.

It's strange, don't you think,

that my word should hold good in the one matter, but not in the other?

Well, you are a dying man.

They are generally known not to lie.

Leave it with me, my Lord Bishop.

Now kick yourself out.

Sir... Save your breath.

Norfolk wants to hang you at Tyburn like a common thief,

to pull your bowels out.

He wants you to suffer the most painful death the law affords.

He is set on it. You seem set on it yourself.

No, in no way, sir.

In no way.

I can do no other than I do...

..I assure you.

But I want to see you treated with honour.

If needs be, I shall petition the King...

Christ, Call-Me, stand up straight.

How do you think you'll fare with Henry these next few years

if you're cringing and whining in the presence of a man

whom you yourself say is doomed?

Well, I trust not, sir.

The King tells me that you could write to him.

Do it tonight.

WOLSEY: The King wants me gone.

Wants to humiliate me.

I feel cast off.

But still I love him.

THUNDER RUMBLES

HEAVY BREATHING

A porter l'epee!

HE PANTS

I have no new instructions, sir.

But yet he permits you to visit me still.

That's a hopeful sign.

It's Cranmer's letter to the King.

HE CLEARS THROAT

"He that was so advanced by Your Majesty,

"he who so loved Your Majesty, as I ever thought, no less than God,

"he that cared for no man's displeasure to serve Your Majesty,

"he that was such a servant in my judgment, in wisdom,

"diligence, faithfulness,

"and experience as no prince in this realm ever had.

"I loved him as my friend, for so I took him to be, but now..."

Here it comes, on the one hand, on the other.

"..but now, if he be a traitor,

"I am sorry that I ever loved or trusted him."

Huh.

"But yet again, I am very sorrowful.

"Who will Your Majesty trust hereafter if you cannot trust him?"

It was better than I expected.

He should have got himself to the King's presence.

If the Archbishop were in peril of his life, would you have stood by?

I don't think you would have.

The King has permitted me to write to him,

which is...another hopeful sign.

Will you make sure that gets to him?

Call-Me has moved into Austin Friars.

The King has ordered him to dissolve the household.

Don't give up, Rafe.

Don't give up. We do not yield.

We hold on. We hold on.

Hmm?

Your household falls a little short of 3,000 persons,

does it not?

It is the household of a prince.

3,000? With that number, I'd be bankrupt.

Every man in England has applied to me these last seven years

to take his son into my service.

I take who I can.

For the most part, their fathers pay their keep,

so you cannot say that I employ them.

You talk as if they were all meek scribblers,

but it is well known that you take in runaway apprentices,

roisterers, ruffians.

Roaring boys, such as Richard Riche here was once,

in days he would rather forget.

Yeah, I don't deny I give a second life to those

who have the enterprise to knock upon my gates.

Any chancer has a chance with me.

NORFOLK LAUGHS

You owned some, erm, some 300 handguns.

I have the inventories for Austin Friars here.

300 handguns, 400 pikes, near 800 bows.

It's... It's enough for an army.

And I have heard you say - and Wriothesley will bear me out -

that you had a bodyguard of 300 that would come to your whistle

day or night.

Wriothesley?

It is true. I have heard you say it.

When the northern rebels were up,

I felt ashamed that I could not turn out enough men of mine own.

So, like any loyal subject who has means,

I augmented my resources.

Oh, you prate of loyalty!

You, a manifest traitor who would have sold the King to heretics.

I, a traitor.

Look to the Poles and Courtenays for treason, my lord.

Not to me, who owe everything I have to the King.

Look to those who think it's their natural right

to sweep him aside.

To those who think that his family's rule is a mere interruption

to their own.

BELL TOLLS

You people.

What will you do without me?

You will read the lines as written,

but you will never read between them.

The French ambassador will make fools of you,

and Chapuys too, if he returns.

Within a year,

the King will be fighting the Scots, or the French, or likely both,

and he will bankrupt us.

None of you - none of you - can manage matters like I can.

And the King will quarrel with you, All of you.

You'll quarrel with each other.

In a year's time, if you sacrifice me,

you'll have neither honest coin or honest minister.

But when the hour strikes and the bell rings...

..you've had the best of it, haven't you?

What's left is like a sucked plum stone on the side of a plate.

Lord Cromwell is not well.

We should perhaps pause.

Oh, I think he's fit enough.

It's not as if he has endured any pains, which are spared him,

at the King's direction, even though he is not of noble blood

and deserves no such consideration.

What would we do without you?

What would we do without your wisdom?

Oh, wash your eyes clean, Cromwell.

Do you think the King ever loved you?

No.

To him, you were an instrument, a device.

We are no more to him than an engine of war or a dog.

A dog that has served him through the hunting season.

And what do you do with a dog at the end of the season?

You hang it.

What has happened to the Queen?

Er, the Lady of Cleves has already left the court.

The King has sent her to Richmond, and he's promised to join her there.

But, of course, he will not.

No. When he turns his face from you, he rarely turns back.

Hmm.

Getting the wife used to be one of my tasks.

It falls to you now, does it?

I suppose it would be Norfolk's niece.

Giddy little creature.

Very pleased with her great fortune.

Still, it's not for me to question the King's choice.

If you bear that in mind, you'll go far.

Of course she's giddy at that age.

You wouldn't want her to think too much.

History is against her.

I fear it's against us all.

I am a man of honour. I mean I am a man of my word.

So many words.

You do everything. You have everything.

You are everything.

So I beg you, Father,

grant me an inch of your broad earth and leave my wife to me.

Cromwell?

My Lord of Suffolk.

Is she behind there?

The other one?

Boleyn?

No, my lord. She lies at rest in the chapel nearby.

As for the painting, yes, I painted her out.

I changed the hair and the eyes.

Personally?

No, my lord.

I had a professional do it.

Look here, Crumb... this is my advice.

Confess you are a heretic. Say you were misled.

Ask Harry to see you face-to-face and reason with you,

bring you back to true religion.

He'd like that, wouldn't he?

You saw how he enjoyed himself at the trial of that fellow Lambert.

Lambert was burned.

SUFFOLK SIGHS

So he was.

Well, that was my idea, and now I've delivered it.

So I, er...

You're a good fellow, Charles.

I'd rob a house with you if I had to.

Have you robbed many houses?

In my wild days, you know.

Oh, we've all had those.

I wouldn't rob a house with the King.

You'd say to him, "Stand there.

"Whistle if the watch comes."

And at the first footfall, he'd scamper off and leave you to it,

your leg over the sill.

SUFFOLK LAUGHS

I don't think he'd go robbing, in all conscience.

He'd be breaching his own peace, wouldn't he?

And who would he rob?

He can take all our goods if he likes.

Pauperise the lot of us.

Your hand.

Read it again, Sadler.

The whole, sir?

No. You may omit the accounting of the Cleves marriage.

Read from where he begins his pleas.

"Most gracious and most merciful sovereign lord,

"beseeching Almighty God to counsel you, preserve you, maintain you,

"remedy you, and defend you as may be most of the comfort

"of your heart's desires.

"God so help me in this mine adversity,

"and confound me if ever I thought the contrary."

It takes but one word, sir.

Yes, I could free Cromwell, could I not?

I could restore him tomorrow.

The French would be amazed, sir.

But, you know, he never forgave me for Wolsey.

And I have long wondered to what extremity his sorrow will lead him.

Bishop Gardiner says...

..the Cardinal himself might forgive,

but the Cardinal's man never will.

The Earl is reconciled. He has let the cardinal go.

Read the part where he says he would make me live ever young.

"For if it were in my power, as it is in God's,

"to make Your Majesty to live ever young and prosperous,

"God knoweth I would."

But he cannot, can he?

Go on.

"Beseeching most humbly, Your Majesty, to pardon this,

"my rude writing, and to consider that I am a most woeful prisoner,

"ready to take the death when it shall please God and Your Majesty.

"Yet the frail flesh incites me continually to call to Your Majesty

"to pardon my offences.

"Written the Tower, this Wednesday the last of June.

"With the heavy heart and trembling hand of Your Highness's

"most miserable prisoner...

"..and poor slave, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy."

Thank you for your patience, Sadler.

I was well trained, sir...

..by a patient man.

And for a moment -

just a moment, I thought perhaps...

But then he just said...

You may leave me now.

You did well, Rafe.

You did more than I had any right to expect.

When I was a young child...

..you came for me.

Brought me on a journey.

You set me down by the fire.

You said, "This is where you live now, Rafe.

"We will be your family now.

"We will be good to you. Never fear."

I had just left my mother that day and I did not know where I was.

I'd never been to London, still less your house.

But I never cried.

Did I? I never cried.

It is time that Gregory wrote a letter repudiating me.

He should speak ill of me.

Say he doesn't know how he came to be related to such a traitor.

He should plead for a chance to redeem my errors and crimes...

..by serving His Majesty in the years to come.

I couldn't do it again, you know, Rafe. I couldn't.

The sleepless toil, the axe work.

When Henry dies and comes to judgment, he will answer for me.

Then he will have to account for what he did to Cromwell.

Now...it is time for you to go.

Sir, the King grants you mercy as to the manner of your death.

It's to be the axe, and may I say, I rejoiced when I...

HE CLEARS THROAT

I beg your Lordship's pardon.

I mean to say Your Lordship has often sought such mercy

for others and seldom failed.

Will it be tomorrow?

If Your Lordship were to say his prayers tonight, it would be well.

The Duke of Norfolk has asked Your Lordship be informed...

..the King marries Catherine Howard tomorrow.

Where have you been?

I don't know, Thomas.

I'd tell you if I could.

This is where I leave you, my lord.

Godspeed.

Master.

I have a medal.

It is a holy medal. My mother gave it to me.

Take it, for the love of Christ.

I do not need an image. I shall see God's face.

Sir, she's waiting for it.

Take it back to her.

Thank you, master.

Now follow on behind.

No fighting.

No fighting!

Your daughter thinks I betrayed you.

I did not.

I hope I did not.

Well, I dare say daughters sometimes get things wrong.

SHOUTING

SHOUTING

NO AUDIBLE DIALOGUE

You all right?

Don't be afraid to strike.

You won't help me or yourself by hesitating.

I come here to die...

..not to excuse myself.

I have lived a sinner and offended my Lord God...

..with which I heartily ask for his pardon.

Many of you will know that I have been a great traveller

in this world...

..and, being but of base degree, have been called to high estate.

Since that time...

Since that time, I have injured and offended my master...

..for the which I ask heartily for his forgiveness,

and beseech you all to pray to God with me...that he will forgive me.

Oh, Father, forgive me.

WHISPERING

BEE BUZZES

There is an abbey, Launde...

..in the heart of England.

The air is always sweet there.

And it's quiet.

A little heaven here on earth.

And I'd think to myself...

.."I'll live here one day...

"..when all my work is done."