Character guide

Katharine Howard

major

Also known as Kate, Katharine, Howard, Kat Howard, Kat

Katharine Howard arrives at court as a poor relation, honest to a fault and utterly alone in a beehive of self-interested schemers. Throckmorton warns her that her simplicity is both her charm and her peril, while Cromwell sees her as a tool to spy on the Lady Mary. Her refusal to play the courtier's game makes her the story's moral center and its most endangered figure.

Thomas Cromwell

major

Also known as Cromwell, VI Cromwell, the Lord Cromwell, my Lord Cromwell, Lord Privy Seal, Privy Seal

Cromwell commands the machinery of state with cold precision, from his barge on the Thames to the eleven hundred dishes of his revels, yet he watches even his own agents for signs of drift. He takes Katharine Howard into his keeping, assigning her to spy on the Lady Mary's household, and his suspicion of everyone becomes the engine of the plot. His rivalry with Gardiner and his grip on the King define the political weather of the entire book.

Nicholas Throckmorton

supporting

Also known as Throckmorton, Nick Throckmorton

Throckmorton moves through the night world of the court, reading torchlights on the water and noting which informations Cromwell chooses to record. He warns Katharine that her simple nature will fail her in a throne-room, offering sardonic instruction in the arts of survival. His wavering loyalty and his strange tenderness toward Katharine make him the book's most ambiguous presence, a man who sees everything and commits to nothing.

Lady Mary

supporting

Also known as the Lady Mary, the Lady Mary of England, Mary

Lady Mary is reported to plot with the Emperor, sending maps and plans of new castles, and Cromwell wants her channels discovered and stopped. She is also a pawn in the marriage market, with Duke Philip of Wittelsbach as her newest suitor, kept from her own betrothal feast by protocol. Her devotion and her danger make her the axis of the book's espionage plot, the woman Katharine is ordered to betray.

Thomas Culpepper

supporting

Also known as Thomas Culpepper, Culpepper, Tom

Culpepper kneels beside Katharine's chair, muttering endearments and despair, oblivious to the King and the Duke of Norfolk standing over them. His fury and his devotion drive him to defy his uncle's orders and to ignore the King's presence entirely. His recklessness makes him both Katharine's most ardent protector and a liability, a man whose love threatens to undo every careful plan.

Nicholas Udal

supporting

Also known as Magister Nicholas Udal, Udal, Magister Udal, Master Udal

Udal swears to anyone who will listen that Katharine is the apple of the King's eye, and his loose talk reaches Bishop Gardiner's chaplain and ignites a counterplot. He is comic and contemptible, a man who sticks at nothing to gain a point, and his drunken hammering at Katharine's door is one of the book's most vivid scenes. His gossip is the spark that turns court intrigue into open conflict, making him a small man with large consequences.

Margot Poins

supporting

Also known as Margot, young Poins, Margot Poins, Poins

Margot Poins serves in Katharine Howard's chamber, a credulous girl of rising twenty who believes her mistress is the apple of the King's eye and that her own fortune is made by that service. Gruff-voiced and easily overcome by her own boldness, she covers her mouth as if to wipe away words she has dared to speak, and she moves on tiptoe around Katharine's letter-writing as though it were necromancy. Her usefulness is constantly checked by peril: she cannot carry Katharine's letter to Bishop Gardiner because Cromwell's men watch the bishop's quarters, so her devotion must find other, quieter outlets.

Hal Poins

supporting

Also known as Hal Poins, Henry, Harry, Poins, young Poins

Hal Poins moves among the hangers-on of the Earl of Surrey's household, trading talk with young Marten Pewtress about the new Howard wench come to Court and his sister's place in her service. He and the magister have sworn that Margot's fortune is made, and he shares the credulous excitement of a family suddenly lifted toward the King's bounty. His value to the story is as a conduit: through him the reader hears how the Court reads Katharine's arrival, and how quickly private loyalties become public speculation.

Stephen Gardiner

supporting

Also known as Bishop Gardiner, Gardiner, Winchester, Gardiner of Winchester

Gardiner shares the Privy Seal's night barge toward Greenwich, bleating his fear of being called Lutheran while Cromwell notes down eel-fishers as threats to the realm. He is a man of the old faith and the old caution, valuable to his cause yet never quite bold enough to seize the moment, and he watches Cromwell's arrogance with the calculation of a survivor. Katharine's desperate letter to him, warning that her cousin means to murder a Prince of the Church, makes him the pivot of her early scheme and the measure of how dangerous her meddling has become.

Cicely Elliott

supporting

Also known as Cicely, Elliott, V Cicely Elliott

Cicely Elliott flouts Katharine one week and helps her the next, laughing like a magpie at the ceiling while old Crummock's name passes through the room. She is promised in marriage to the aged Sir Nicholas Rochford, who takes pride in doing her services, and her mockery of Privy Seal carries the sharp edge of bereavement. Her unpredictable friendliness matters because Katharine, friendless in the Lady Mary's household and suspected as a spy, needs exactly this kind of ally: one whose loyalty is real but whose tongue cannot be trusted to stay civil.

Lady Rochford

supporting

Also known as the Lady Rochford, Rochford, old Rochford

Lady Rochford presides over seven ladies and seven dresses, wringing her hands when a gown cannot be found and recoiling in terror the moment Privy Seal is mentioned. Her woebegone, flaccid face turns drawn and she seems about to kneel at Katharine's feet, while she weakly excuses Cicely Elliott's dangerous talk as distraughtness. She embodies the court's nervous accommodation to power: a woman who would help Katharine if she dared, but whose first instinct is always to placate the man who could destroy them all.

Duke of Norfolk

supporting

Also known as Norfolk, The Duke

Norfolk won Flodden Field and now stalks the yew walks with his furs fluttering like a crow's wings, digging his golden staff into the ground while Cromwell stands bare-headed and smiling beside the King. He is the greatest captain of his day and the leader of all who long for the old England before New Learning came in, yet in his long duel with Privy Seal he has been driven from post to post, cursing himself for not urging Cromwell's arrest when the King was angry. His feud with Cromwell gives the early court its central fault line, and his kinship to Katharine Howard makes her arrival a move in a game far larger than she knows.

Madam Howard

supporting

She belongs to the Howard clan that half the court suspects of hiding a royal mistress, and she keeps Katharine locked behind bar and key while the palace roars over the new Queen's arrival. Her instinct is protective, but in a court where Gardiner's men and Privy Seal's spies trade rumours like blows, guarding a girl's reputation means choosing which faction to fear most. Her vigilance shapes Katharine's first weeks, making the girl's virtue a thing watched, bargained over, and dangerously visible.

Viridus

minor

Also known as The Master Viridus, a Master Viridus

A mysterious and learned man, possibly a scholar or alchemist at court.

Thomas Cranmer

minor

Also known as Cranmer, Archbishop Cranmer

The Archbishop of Canterbury, a reformer and cautious political figure.

Anne of Cleves

minor

Also known as Anne, Cleves

The king's fourth wife, a foreign princess navigating the English court.

Sir Nicholas Rochford

minor

Also known as old Sir Nicholas Rochford, Rochford, Sir Nicholas, old Rochford

An elderly knight and relative of the Rochford family, a minor court presence.

John Badge

minor

Also known as Badge, old Badge, John Badge the Younger, John

A servant or minor functionary in the Howard household.

Goodman Gilmaw

minor

Also known as poor Gilmaw, Gilmaw

A poor or unfortunate man, possibly a tenant or petitioner.

Baumbach

minor

A German or foreign envoy or merchant with dealings at court.

Flail Crummock

minor

Also known as Crummock, old Crummock

A rough or rustic character, possibly a servant or local figure.

Earl of Surrey

minor

Also known as Surrey

A nobleman and poet, son of the Duke of Norfolk, with a fiery temper.

Edward

minor

Also known as Edmund, Neighbour Ned, Ned

A young man, possibly a servant or local acquaintance of the Poins family.

Cardinal Pole

minor

Also known as Pole

A Catholic cardinal and political exile, a figure of opposition to the king.

Norroy

minor

A herald or officer of arms, involved in ceremonial matters.

Sir Thomas Wyatt

minor

Also known as Tom, poor Tom

A poet and courtier, a friend to Katharine and a figure from the past.

Dr. Barnes

minor

Also known as Barnes

A reformist clergyman, a figure in religious debates at court.

Sieur Chapuys

minor

Also known as Chapuys

The imperial ambassador, a shrewd observer of English politics.

Charles

minor

A minor courtier or servant, possibly a messenger.

Sadler

minor

A secretary or official working for Thomas Cromwell.

Paul

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or a name mentioned in passing.

Sir Anthony Ughtred

minor

Also known as Ughtred

A knight or minor nobleman with connections to the court.

Dr. Martinus

minor

A scholar or physician, possibly a foreigner at court.

Lord Cassilis

minor

Also known as Cassilis

A Scottish nobleman visiting or residing at the English court.

Sir Christopher Aske

minor

A knight or gentleman, possibly involved in the northern rebellions.

Martin Pewtress

minor

Also known as young Pewtress, Pewtress

A young man, possibly a servant or apprentice in the story.

Hanson

minor

A minor character, possibly a tradesman or servant.