"Supremacy" ...and Charles Brandon is in the fens shouting at a door: For one thing, this just makes me laugh. But as a reminder, the door Brandon is shouting at is Katherine's. She refuses to be moved from Buckden. "She will go nowhere, she says, unless he is prepared to break down the door and bind… Continue reading Mike’s Marginalia for Part VI
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Wolf Hall Behind the Scenes: The King’s Great Matter and the Jews
A look at Henry's attempt to get rabbis to sign off on his annulment, the Torah passages used, and if it worked. (It didn't.)
Mike’s Marginalia for Part V
Anna Regina Helen Barre: She actually existed, and her story has the pacing of a Victorian sensation novel. But I have to wait until Part 6 to tell it so I don't give anything away too early. ‘I never liked his haughty manners, you know, and his processions every day, the state he kept. And… Continue reading Mike’s Marginalia for Part V
Discussion Playback: Part V
Anne is ::finally:: crowned, so everything is going to go perfectly from here out. We wonder what kind of moral animal Cromwell is. And it's hard out there for a Holy Maid.
Mike’s Marginalia for Part IV
she [Mary] hints, in Castilian, that it is her women's disorder From about the age of 15 on, Mary Tudor (Katherine's daughter with Henry; later to be Bloody Mary or Mary I) suffered from irregular periods (and there are a LOT of factors that could have encouraged this, like stress, for example). She eventually dies… Continue reading Mike’s Marginalia for Part IV
Discussion Playback: Part IV
Joan Boughton breaks our heart. We see under Cromwell's mask a little. Henry Percy is a punk-ass. And what do we expect from a person born entirely into the most privileged family and place?
Mike’s Marginalia for Part III
As I've mentioned, my original copy of Wolf Hall, given to me by Zach who little understood what he had created in doing so, is filled with scribbles, underlines, footnotes, and margin notes. Here are some that I think you'll find useful. Three-Card Trick: That's the opening chapter of Part 3. Cromwell learned the three-card… Continue reading Mike’s Marginalia for Part III
Discussion Playback: Part III
Part 3 of Wolf Hall, which has: some sassy Anne, a VERY uncomfortable dinner party at Thomas More's house, and the key to the whole trilogy. Only we don't talk about any of those because we were too busy talking of other things.
Mike’s Marginalia for Part 2
The margins of my original copy of Wolf Hall are a mess of scribbles and the text is filled with underlines, squiggles, and asterisks. Here's what I noted in Part II.
Discussion Playback: Part II
Another look inside Wolf Hall with a bunch of people I just love the stuffing out of.