Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2) in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 31, 2025 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it it was amazing

Shelves: relationships, historical-fiction, justice, england

Thomas Cromwell, Anne Boleyn, the king...you come away from book two of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall series and none of these folks look good.

Bring Up the Bodies continues the saga of Thomas Cromwell, poor boy who fought his way to the ear of the king. Cromwell uses all the usual tricks---lies, schemes, bribes, cajolery, tit-for-tat---in his service to those in power. We see the costs as heads (figuratively and literally) roll.

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Jun 07, 2015 marianne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bookclub, chez-moi

After three years of marriage, Anne Boleyn has failed to deliver a male heir to King Henry VIII, and her opinionated, haughty temperament is starting to wear thin on the monarch. With his succession deeply in peril, he begins to wonder if she cast a spell upon him when she seduced him and whether his marital union - his second - is legitimate. One night in the spring of 1536, not long after Anne miscarries a male fetus, one of the King’s close confidants approaches Thomas Cromwell, Henry’s infam After three years of marriage, Anne Boleyn has failed to deliver a male heir to King Henry VIII, and her opinionated, haughty temperament is starting to wear thin on the monarch. With his succession deeply in peril, he begins to wonder if she cast a spell upon him when she seduced him and whether his marital union - his second - is legitimate. One night in the spring of 1536, not long after Anne miscarries a male fetus, one of the King’s close confidants approaches Thomas Cromwell, Henry’s infamous right hand man. The orders come from the King and are simple: it’s time to bring Anne down and make way for Jane Seymour, the woman the King intends to marry next. For Cromwell, this task is not unwelcome. Anne and her relatives - the Boleyns and Howards - have lately become a thorn in his side and have threatened his good favor with the King. He will strike against them with agility, slyness and speed. In just a few weeks’ time, Anne, her brother George, and four other men are dead, having been convicted of various crimes and publicly beheaded.

This sequel to Wolf Hall is possibly the better book out of the two (both are excellent). While Wolf Hall sets up Cromwell’s path to ascension at Henry’s court, Bring Up the Bodies dives deep into his brilliant, strategic mind, which I found really fascinating this second time around. Mantel has written the trilogy using his inner narrative, as she interprets the real life historical figure (she’s said that she felt possessed by Cromwell in writing the first two books). So while his tactics are conniving, and sometimes cruel and self-serving, she still manages to make him a likeable character. We observe him in moments of tender generosity towards many, especially the poor and unfortunate. And while he’s undoubtedly ambitious, he’s also acting out of a strong instinct for self-preservation in the cutthroat environment that is the King’s court. He’s witty and self-deprecating in the exact moments he needs to be. He can be diplomatic or forceful depending on what the situation warrants. Above all, you can’t help but admire him for his boldness and brains. If he was anything like this in real life, he would be an excellent wingman for any king, including the increasingly moody and erratic Henry.

She’s a tricky one, that Mantel; at no point can I fault her Cromwell entirely for any of the less savory actions he takes. There’s always an angle that makes you feel his choices were limited or the pressure from the king was too great. To this end, Mantel finds a way to weave in many historical events into the novel in creative ways in order to maintain this nobler version of the man. Sometimes these facts show up as rumors, for example in the case of Mark Smeaton, a young musician who is said to have been tortured into confessing an affair with Anne Boleyn at Cromwell’s house. Since cruelly hurting someone is far outside of Mantel’s Cromwell, she has the musician boast about his relationship with Anne the way many a young man might exaggerate the extent of his romantic liasons. Later an ambassador approaches Cromwell saying he’s heard he tortured the musician; Cromwell angrily confronts him, quashing any notion that he would have allowed that to happen. Nice twist, Mantel!

So yes, the Thomas Cromwell depicted in these pages is highly fictional and far more generous in character than any history book makes him out to be. I’m completely fascinated both by this fictional character as Mantel has created him and the real man himself, whoever he was. Even though most of the details of his life are long gone - did he really have a terrible relationship with his father? Was he actually that bold in speaking to the King? - certain facts remain. He was the son of a blacksmith and yet somehow ended up in an incredibly powerful position in government. That is an extraordinary feat for a commoner. He orchestrated three of Henry’s six marital unions and navigated a mess of warring families and various people who wanted him dead. And throughout, he reformed many of England’s laws.

By the end of Bring Up the Bodies, it’s clear that Cromwell is increasingly enmeshed in the tenuous politics and factions swarming about Henry. He has to pick his friends and enemies carefully, and he has to know which bridges to burn and which he must maintain. Though he’s reached the apex of his career and power, there’s an unnerving sense that things are getting riskier with every one of his moves. I’ve waited many years to find out how Cromwell, at the peak of his power, will fall out of Henry’s favor, and with the release of The Mirror & the Light earlier this year, I'm about to find out.
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Mar 24, 2015 Georgia Carvalho rated it really liked it

Exquisite writing and very compelling historical period. Following through Henry and Cromwell's machinations made for absolutely fascinating reading.
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