Wolf Hall: Women Talking
Dec. 4th, 2024 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessWolf Hall – The Mirror and the Light
2.2 Obedience
Started off with a montage about Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell’s relationship, and its continuation after Wolsey’s death. Then a Tudor dancing routine or two at court (it was always predictable that Henry was the main dancer in the second troupe), which was interesting because the style is so unfamiliar to us, and they were all dressed up and masked. We’d then be reminded of Henry’s gammy leg, a physical weakness at odds with all the talk about his power. He tasked Cromwell with marrying off daughter Mary, pointedly NOT properly returned to court and his niece Margaret.
This led to Cromwell talking to a lot of women (hence the title of this post. Hmm, I wonder if I can think of movie titles for posts about future episodes.) Margaret insisted she’d married (er, betrothed at best, it seemed like) the younger brother (?) of an enemy of Cromwell’s. Because she wasn’t lost in the feeling, her BFF was much quicker to cotton on to what Cromwell was saying on behalf of the King. Margaret had been of the belief that her doting uncle would support her love connection to a highborn but broke poet (Cromwell and aide would take apart said poetry.) That’s a special kind of sweet innocence.
Meanwhile Mary confided that she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to carry children like her mother, which was why she was against marrying any foreign princes, thank you. Jane Seymour had an excruciating discussion about her and the king’s sex life with Cromwell. Of course, the question of whether she got pregnant, preferably with a male, was of vital importance. (Cromwell would also hear second hand about Henry and Anne’s sex life from someone else.)
And then the new Lord Chancellor learned that the French had letters they’d present as suggesting he was planning to marry Mary in a total overreach. Which would not be taken well by Henry at all. Cromwell threatened the French ambassador right back.
We’d also seen some of the results of the dissolution of the monasteries – all their treasures in the Tudor version of a warehouse. Cromwell seemed to confide to his son why he was in favour of some of the Protestant Reformation basics, although more for the enlightenment of all classes than particularly spiritual reasons.
And then he went on a visit to one of the great houses (an absolutely gorgeous building), got past an adversarial Abbess and met…Wolsey’s bastard daughter, Dorothea. Cromwell offered her gifts, a way out from the convent (which as a Catholic of conviction she didn’t seem to want) and then…blundered into a proposal of marriage, which could be in name only if she liked, or not, because he’d like more children. The thrust of the show was that this was all about doing his best for his former mentor’s child, but I really couldn’t get past much older man gets money and power and proposes marriage to a girl who looks younger than his own son. (See also Henry VIII and a kajillion other men, especially sultans.) She looked disgusted, he backtracked, and realised that she had been seriously prejudiced against him (well, dude, she’s spending all her time in a convent, while you are definitely part of the attack on the power of the Roman Catholic church for starters.) His attendants found him overcome with emotion as he believed that it was Wolsey himself who had influenced her. (Bonus eyeroll at hypocrisy of celibate RC clergy over the years from my sofa.)
I couldn’t follow the very last scene, not because I was tired so much as the actors were mumbling.
2.2 Obedience
Started off with a montage about Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell’s relationship, and its continuation after Wolsey’s death. Then a Tudor dancing routine or two at court (it was always predictable that Henry was the main dancer in the second troupe), which was interesting because the style is so unfamiliar to us, and they were all dressed up and masked. We’d then be reminded of Henry’s gammy leg, a physical weakness at odds with all the talk about his power. He tasked Cromwell with marrying off daughter Mary, pointedly NOT properly returned to court and his niece Margaret.
This led to Cromwell talking to a lot of women (hence the title of this post. Hmm, I wonder if I can think of movie titles for posts about future episodes.) Margaret insisted she’d married (er, betrothed at best, it seemed like) the younger brother (?) of an enemy of Cromwell’s. Because she wasn’t lost in the feeling, her BFF was much quicker to cotton on to what Cromwell was saying on behalf of the King. Margaret had been of the belief that her doting uncle would support her love connection to a highborn but broke poet (Cromwell and aide would take apart said poetry.) That’s a special kind of sweet innocence.
Meanwhile Mary confided that she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to carry children like her mother, which was why she was against marrying any foreign princes, thank you. Jane Seymour had an excruciating discussion about her and the king’s sex life with Cromwell. Of course, the question of whether she got pregnant, preferably with a male, was of vital importance. (Cromwell would also hear second hand about Henry and Anne’s sex life from someone else.)
And then the new Lord Chancellor learned that the French had letters they’d present as suggesting he was planning to marry Mary in a total overreach. Which would not be taken well by Henry at all. Cromwell threatened the French ambassador right back.
We’d also seen some of the results of the dissolution of the monasteries – all their treasures in the Tudor version of a warehouse. Cromwell seemed to confide to his son why he was in favour of some of the Protestant Reformation basics, although more for the enlightenment of all classes than particularly spiritual reasons.
And then he went on a visit to one of the great houses (an absolutely gorgeous building), got past an adversarial Abbess and met…Wolsey’s bastard daughter, Dorothea. Cromwell offered her gifts, a way out from the convent (which as a Catholic of conviction she didn’t seem to want) and then…blundered into a proposal of marriage, which could be in name only if she liked, or not, because he’d like more children. The thrust of the show was that this was all about doing his best for his former mentor’s child, but I really couldn’t get past much older man gets money and power and proposes marriage to a girl who looks younger than his own son. (See also Henry VIII and a kajillion other men, especially sultans.) She looked disgusted, he backtracked, and realised that she had been seriously prejudiced against him (well, dude, she’s spending all her time in a convent, while you are definitely part of the attack on the power of the Roman Catholic church for starters.) His attendants found him overcome with emotion as he believed that it was Wolsey himself who had influenced her. (Bonus eyeroll at hypocrisy of celibate RC clergy over the years from my sofa.)
I couldn’t follow the very last scene, not because I was tired so much as the actors were mumbling.
