Privy Seal · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Privy Seal by Ford Madox Ford.
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Margot Poins
major
Also known as Margot Poins, young Poins, the young Poins, Poins, Margot
Margot Poins waits on Lady Katharine Howard, yet when Magister Udal calls her his lady's maid she corrects him sharply: she is tirewoman to her own self alone. Warm, mocking, and entirely unsentimental, she lets the magister dote on her hand and her 'oh's' of pleasure while quietly dictating the terms of their marriage. It is she who orders him out of their Paris kitchen and onto the road to London, to make himself a great man or come crawling back to her fire. Her ambition quietly steers a scholar's fate.
Sir Throckmorton
major
Also known as Throckmorton, Sir Throckmorton, one Throckmorton
Sir Throckmorton has lied to Privy Seal on Katharine's behalf, worked for her for months without thanks, and now finds his safety knotted to hers. He warns her that a cavalcade to Windsor is folly, that the Queen is no friend, and that if she is not Queen soon, Cromwell's teeth will close on them all. He claims he cannot sleep for thinking of her fairness, yet his fear is as much for his own neck as for her honor. Every counsel he gives is half devotion, half self-preservation.
Thomas Cromwell
major
Also known as the Lord Cromwell, Cromwell, This Cromwell, Thomas Cromwell, Cur Crummock, Crummock
Cromwell rules England through terror and paperwork, knowing the opinion of every man with a vote from shire to burgh, burning his lamp while the kingdom sleeps. He believes Katharine Howard virtuous, and therefore plans to prove her unchaste: bring her cousin Culpepper raging from France, plant witnesses from Lincolnshire, catch the King and her together. He reasons justly, Throckmorton thinks bitterly, and that is the horror of him. His cold logic is the engine that drives the whole plot toward its crisis.
Thomas Culpepper
major
Also known as Goodman, Thomas Culpepper, Culpepper, Tom Culpepper, Thomas, Goodman Thomas Culpepper, Tom, Squahre Culpepper, Squahre, T. Culpepper, Sir Thomas Culpepper, Squahre Tom, Squahre Thomas, Squahre Tom of Lincoln
Thomas Culpepper sits his horse at Smithfield among the heads and gallows, watching a friar burn while Privy Seal's agents count the hours until he reaches Greenwich. He is the weapon Cromwell has chosen: a man whose mere renown for violence drove Cardinal Pole from Paris, and who can be filled with tales that his cousin plays the King's leman. His jealousy is being manufactured for him, and he does not yet know it. Where he rides, catastrophe follows.
Magister Udal
major
Also known as the magister, The Magister Udal, Magister, Udal, the Magister Udal, The magister, the Magister
Magister Udal was sent to Paris to Latinise letters between Wyatt and the French, a reward for a play he wrote for Cromwell, and he groans at leaving behind his many loves. Now he sits in the Widow Annot's kitchen, belly full of carp and ale, reading Lucretius, while his wife orders him to London to make himself Sir Chancellor. He protests, threatens a ladle, and surrenders, because she is the better man. Comic, cowardly, and useful to everyone, he is the novel's rueful witness to its intrigues.
Katharine Howard
major
Also known as the Lady Katharine Howard, Katharine Howard, the Lady Katharine, Katharine, Howard, the Lady Howard, The Lady Howard, Lady Katharine, Katharine Howard—her, Kat Howard, this Kat Howard, A Kat, Kat, Kat Howard Poins
Katharine Howard is the woman around whom every faction in the book coils: the King loves her, Cromwell plans to destroy her, Throckmorton has lied for her, and her cousin Culpepper is being fetched to ruin her. She refuses to be Queen if the Queen is truly the King's wife, and she takes shame that men have lied for her sake, pointing an accusing finger at Throckmorton rather than accept the debt. Her stubborn honesty is both her glory and her danger. In a court built on falsehood, she insists on truth, and the whole plot turns on whether that can survive.
Master Viridus
supporting
Also known as Viridus, Master Viridus, the Sieur Viridus
The Sieur Viridus moves through Hampton's privy stairways as Cromwell's trusted hand, the man who takes Thomas Culpepper in custody at the worst possible moment.
Lascelles
supporting
Also known as Lascelles
The Archbishop's confidential gentleman and informer, whose sharp eyes track Culpepper from Greenwich to Smithfield and earn him Privy Seal's own golden collar.
Wriothesley
supporting
Also known as Wriothesley
Cromwell's grave, bearded secretary, who urges the divorce of Anne of Cleves with a heart's-blood reluctance as Protestant hopes collapse across Europe.
Lord Privy Seal
major
Also known as Privy Seal, Lord Privy Seal, Privy
Thomas Cromwell, the Lord Privy Seal, whose lamp burns past midnight over notebooks of every elector in England and whose vengeance is the terror of the realm.
Cicely Elliott
supporting
Also known as Cicely, Elliott, Cicely Elliott, Cicely Rochford
A Howard kinswoman whose menfolk Cromwell executed, she laughs bitterly at Katharine's piety and warns that blood, once tasted, ensures a certain oblivion.
Nicholas Hogben
supporting
Also known as Nicholas Hogben, Hogben, old Hogben, II Nicholas Hogben, Art Nick Hogben, Nick Hogben
The gatewarden who rides beside Thomas Culpepper at Smithfield, wrestling his pikestaff through the press of heads while the friar burns.
Hal Poins
supporting
Also known as Hal Poins, Poins, Harry Poins, Henry
Hal Poins moves through the world of the novel as a persuasive young lover, wooing with elaborate invocations of Venus, Paphian doves, and the bower of Phyllis. His charm is his currency, and it binds him to a woman whose own mistress, the Lady Katharine Howard, sits near the dangerous center of court intrigue. Through his connection to the Poins household, he becomes a thread linking private seduction to the public machinery of power that the story's early arc begins to tighten.
Duke of Cleves
minor
Also known as the Duke of Cleves, Cleves
A foreign duke, father of Anne of Cleves, involved in diplomacy.
Lady Mary
minor
Also known as the Lady Mary of England—that, the Lady Mary, Mary
Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII, a figure at court.
Anne Boleyn
minor
Also known as Queen Anne Boleyn, Anne Boleyn, Queen, Anne, the Queen Anne
The executed queen, referenced as a past figure.
Cranmer
minor
Also known as Cranmer
Archbishop of Canterbury, a religious reformer.
Doctor Longstaffe
minor
Also known as Longstaffe, Doctor Longstaffe
A physician or scholar at court.
Cardinal Pole
minor
Also known as Cardinal Pole, Cardinal Pole that was moving the French King to war on us, King
A cardinal and enemy of Henry VIII, mentioned.
Master Printer Badge
minor
Also known as Master Printer Badge, Printer
A printer involved in disseminating texts.
Widow Annot
minor
Also known as the Widow Annot
A local woman, possibly a servant.
Old Rochford
minor
Also known as Old Rochford, old Rochford
An older courtier with a role in the background.
Madam Howard
minor
Also known as Madam Howard, Madam
An older female relative of Katharine Howard.
Lady Rochford
minor
Also known as Rochford, Lady Rochford, the Lady Rochford, The Lady Rochford
A noblewoman, possibly a relative of the Boleyns.
Bishop Hugh Latimer
minor
Also known as the Bishop Hugh Latimer of Worcester, Bishop Hugh Latimer, Worcester, the Bishop of Worcester, Latimer
A reformist bishop, appears in a scene.
Queen Katharine
minor
Also known as Queen Katharine, Katharine, the dead Queen Katharine
The deceased Queen Katharine of Aragon, referenced.
Emperor Charles
minor
Also known as the Emperor Charles, Charles
Holy Roman Emperor, referenced in diplomacy.
Norfolk
minor
Also known as Norfolk
The Duke of Norfolk, a powerful noble.
Fanshawe
minor
Also known as Fanshawe
A minor courtier or official.
Gardiner
minor
Also known as Gardiner
Bishop Gardiner, a conservative figure.
Rich
minor
Also known as Rich, Rich the Chancellor
Sir Richard Rich, a chancellor and political operator.
Lord Edmund Howard
minor
Also known as the Lord Edmund Howard, the Lord Edmund
Father of Katharine Howard, a minor noble.
