# Privy Seal — Character guide

> Key figures in Privy Seal by Ford Madox Ford.

- [Margot Poins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/margot_poins.md): 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 magi
- [Sir Throckmorton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/throckmorton.md): 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 f
- [Thomas Cromwell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/thomas_cromwell.md): 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
- [Thomas Culpepper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/thomas_culpepper.md): 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 mer
- [Magister Udal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/magister_udal.md): 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
- [Katharine Howard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/katharine_howard.md): 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 refu
- [Master Viridus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/viridus.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/lascelles.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/wriothesley.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/privy_seal.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/cicely_elliott.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/nicholas_hogben.md): The gatewarden who rides beside Thomas Culpepper at Smithfield, wrestling his pikestaff through the press of heads while the friar burns.
- [Hal Poins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/hal_poins.md): 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 whos
- [Duke of Cleves](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/duke_of_cleves.md): A foreign duke, father of Anne of Cleves, involved in diplomacy.
- [Lady Mary](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/lady_mary.md): Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII, a figure at court.
- [Anne Boleyn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/anne_boleyn.md): The executed queen, referenced as a past figure.
- [Cranmer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/cranmer.md): Archbishop of Canterbury, a religious reformer.
- [Doctor Longstaffe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/doctor_longstaffe.md): A physician or scholar at court.
- [Cardinal Pole](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/cardinal_pole.md): A cardinal and enemy of Henry VIII, mentioned.
- [Master Printer Badge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/master_printer_badge.md): A printer involved in disseminating texts.
- [Widow Annot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/widow_annot.md): A local woman, possibly a servant.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters