Have You Brought Me Hope or Have You Paid My Fee
Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, book 1)
By Hilary Mantel
15 Dec, 2020
Special Requests
2009’s Wolf Hall is the first volume in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy.
Thomas Cromwell escaped a brutal childhood and rose by dint of great effort to be the highly educated right-hand man to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, King Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor. It’s a lofty position for such a low-born man and as long as nothing happens to Wolsey, Cromwell’s position is utterly secure.
Vexed at Wolsey’s failure to deliver a divorce, Henry withdraws his favour. Stripped of wealth and position, Wolsey escapes possible execution (Henry likes to accuse people of treason) by dying of natural causes first.
Without his patron, Cromwell’s position is manifestly hopeless.