Friday, December 23, 2016
A masterpiece but with some muddy foundations
MARK
RYLANCE – DAMIAN LEWIS – WOLF HALL – BBC – 2015
The following summary is
far from being sufficient or satisfying:
“Mark Rylance and
Damian Lewis star in this miniseries adapted from Hilary Mantel's novels
"Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies." The story focuses on
Thomas Cromwell, consigliere to King Henry VIII, as he maneuvers his way
through Tudor court. Filmed on location in England, the story is told from Cromwell's perspective, and sheds light on the Tudor middle class and
the internal struggles England faces amid the Protestant Reformation. Claire
Foy, Bernard Hill, Anton Lesser and Mark Gatiss also star.” (http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tv/x/EP02123009,
accessed December 23, 2016)
In fact we could even consider it is
slightly warped about the “Protestant Reformation” in England. We are in what
the film shows far from such a change. So we better get into more details to
really assess the value of this mini-series which is definitely crucial in our
understanding of Henry VIII but also the tremendous turning point England is
being at the time for the whole Christian world and in fact what is to become
the West. A new concept of monarchy is being born then.
The very first element is the crucial
background that is clearly alluded to but not explained. Henry VII in 1485
defeated Richard III and established the new dynasty based on the coming to
terms of the two main noble families, the Lancaster to which Henry VII was
connected and the York that provided the support of the church through the
Cardinal of York. This coming to terms is fragile and brittle and Henry VIII is
supposed to use it and reinforce it. His first marriage is of course seen as a
denial of this competitive consensus since his first wife is related to the
German Emperor and the Crown of Spain since the German Emperor is also the King
of Spain. What’s more she is a fundamentalist Catholic in a country where Protestantism
and Reformation are spreading both from Germany and from France, both the
Lutherans and the Calvinists. It is alluded to with the burning of Tyndale.
Note the film cheats slightly since Tyndale was strangled first and then burnt
at the stake. At this moment the Catholics were dominant and Cromwell is
practically the only person who airs strong criticism of monastic orders in England
with sharp arguments like living in luxury, doing nothing productive and
practicing a luscious life full of lust, the older members of the communities
satisfying their erotic desires on the younger ones, particularly the novices.
There is nothing gay in that practice which is nothing but pedophile violation.
But in the whole series there must be three maybe four short instances of such
criticism which is far from being developed and emphasized.
In the same way the series alludes and
slightly states the change introduced by Henry VIII on the advice from Thomas
Cromwell to declare himself the supreme head of the English Church. And yet
that is only connected to the first wife Henry VIII who was divorced on very
light grounds considering that the marriage was not legal and thus did not have
to be broken since it never existed, an argument refused by her uncle the
German Emperor and by the Pope, and under that argument she only was a
concubine and her daughter, the infamous Mary I to be known as Bloody Mary, had
no right to the throne. To be able to divorce her and to remarry Henry VIII had
to be the head of the Church. Note this argument was so light that after his
death his son was king first, then his first daughter Mary was queen, and then
and only then the second daughter Elizabeth was queen.
This daughter Elizabeth is the center of
this series in a way though she is hardly seen since she was an infant at the
time. The second wife, her mother, Anne Boleyn was young and beautiful but she
was also a great power hungry woman. She got rid of many people by intrigue and
she more or less supported the appointment of Thomas Cromwell as the secretary
to the King because – and there she was mistaken – he defended the interests of
the king though she thought he defended her interests. That’s the most
interesting side of the series. Henry VIII is an impulsive and angry man and he
needs Thomas Cromwell to cool him down, to provide him with information he gets
from his “boys” who are like spies eavesdropping all the time and letting him
know about what they saw and heard. The main one is Rafe. This production makes
him young, which he is, but lean and unattractive with a general stance that
makes him look like a corpse hungry raven or buzzard. And that’s the power of
Thomas Cromwell who is not an aristocrat by birth and as such is looked down
upon by all aristocrats but he holds them by their private parts because he
knows things they don’t exactly like him knowing.
The next interest is that Henry VIII had
a real court with the nobility, the aristocracy being present there and
enjoying the easy life of doing nothing and being entertained and taken care of
by the king. Anne Boleyn follows in that line and has her own beaus and suiters
and her own musicians and ladies in attendance. The point that is levelled at
her later on is that she has a promiscuous relationship with these young men, a
lute player who is not noble by birth and several young nobles? The lute player
will be easy to break and he will “confess” under duress though under no physical
torture all the names Thomas Cromwell wants including her own brother and she
will easily be accused of incest and philandering which is supposed to be
permitted only to men. In other words she took advantage of the philandering of
the young nobles and that is probably true. The point is how far and there is
no real proof it was what was asserted against her. The series as for that
shows how justice is not the search for anything true, but only the devising of
tricks that can corner the accused in doing just what could be interpreted as
the crime he is accused of like “Read this and tell us if you said it.” The dumb
man reads “The king is in no way satisfying the queen because he has neither
the endowment nor the skill to do it.” And then says “I never said that.” And
Thomas Cromwell has it easy when the House of Lords stops laughing to say: “You
just did.” Daniel would be ashamed of such justice, and Solomon too.
We are in other words far from just
justice, true justice or the like. We are still in some kind of clownish fake
ersatz of justice. That’s why Henry VIII likes Thomas Cromwell though he is not
a noble by birth: he can more or less feel what the king’s desires are going to
be, i.e. the king’s desires that are not yet expressed but that are going to emerge,
and this requires a high level of intimacy with the king and psychology.
But what is shown or insinuated is that
the king has to maneuver all the time to satisfy the hunger for power of the various
noble families, marrying the daughters of these families being the tool to pacify
the families and then getting rid of the daughters is the best way to push the families
one after the other out of favor. It is all a power game, some game of thrones
that never ends. In other words, Thomas Cromwell did not make kings but he sure
made the legitimate king strong. And his first duty is to see the lust the king
feels for this or that daughter of this or that noble family and then to make
it possible for the girl to get the king on the proper ground, on the proper
footing, i.e. to titillate the king and yet never yield and never appear as if
she was trying to capture him; he must be the one who captures the girl though
it has to happen within the etiquette and protocol limits of a new monarchy
emerging. In the old days the king could take all the women he wanted who were
from his vassals but that has been changing for a while and Henry VIII
represents that change: the liege lord does not have this power any more: he
has to go through etiquette, protocol and decent procedures. Kings are no
longer what they used to be. But to be able to marry six wives he had to go
through a lot of effort and pain: divorced, executed, natural death, divorced,
executed and the last one survived. Catherine of Aragon was divorced. Anne
Boleyn was executed. Jane Seymour died after childbirth. Anne of Cleves was
divorced. Kathryn Howard was executed and Katherine Parr survived and was
widowed. Just note the pattern of the first names: Catherine – Anne – Jane –
Anne – Kathryn – Katherine. There is something obsessional in Henry VIII. The
series shows a man who follows his fancies, at times his crazes though he is
shown as afraid of death or of dying.
It is thus a realistic series about
Henry VIII the man as well as the king but it is visibly realistic as for the
society that is depicted but it is not exactly fair or faithful because it is
centered on the nobles that are arrogant and superior with anyone who is not
from their elite group, and the worst among them is Anne Boleyn. The way she
treats her lute player is absolutely gross and it deserves the execution she
got, though she dragged into her own death the lute player and three more young
nobles. Concerning the execution, it should have been fair to say that she was
not burnt at the stake because Henry VIII refused the accusation of witchcraft
though he alludes to it once when he pretends he has been charmed or bewitched
in some way. She was thus executed like a noble person, certainly not as a
traitor. It would have been nice if the executioner had been presented as a
skilled executioner called for the occasion from Calais so that the “show”
could be clean and she was beheaded upright on her knees with one single stroke
of a sword. It was not the case for Thomas Cromwell four years later in 1540
who was beheaded with an axe and it took several strokes to finally do the job.
A very good production
though slightly light on some facets of that period and this king. But it was
sure that people who got too close to him did not last very long.
“I am come hither to die, and not to
purge myself, as may happen, some think that I will, for if I should do so, I
were a very wretch and miser: I am by the Law condemned to die, and thank my Lord
God that hath appointed me this death, for mine offence: For sithence the time
that I have had years of discretion, I have lived a sinner, and offended my
Lord God, for the which I ask him heartily forgiveness. And it is not unknown
to many of you, that I have been a great traveler in this world, and being but
of a base degree, was called to high estate, and sithes the time I came
thereunto, I have offended my prince, for the which I ask him heartily forgiveness,
and beseech you all to pray to God with me, that he will forgive me.
“O father forgive me. O son forgive
me, O holy Ghost forgive me: O three persons in one God forgive me. And now I
pray you that be here, to bear me record, I die in the Catholic faith, not
doubting in any article of my faith, no nor doubting in any Sacrament of the
Church. Many hath slandered me, and reported that I have been a bearer, of such
as hath maintained evil opinions, which is untrue, but I confess that like as
God by his holy spirit, doth instruct us in the truth, so the devil is ready to
seduce us, and I have been seduced: but bear me witness that I die in the
Catholic faith of the holy Church. And I heartily desire you to pray for the King’s
grace, that he may long live with you, may long reign over you. And once again
I desire you to pray for me, that so long as life remains in this flesh, I
waver nothing in my faith.” (http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/28-july-1540-thomas-cromwells-final-speech/#ixzz4ThGkRBY5,
accessed December 23, 2016)
Was
Thomas Cromwell a Protestant as it has been asserted or then he referred to the
Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Nicene creed existing at the time of
Constantine, but to argue on a capital ‘C’ or a small ‘c’ in an oral “speech”
before dying and with no real record of it, except memory, is maybe slightly contrived
or fanciful. What we know is that he advocated the closing of all orders and at
the time that was very Protestant and this reform was carried out with the
appropriation of all their assets by the Crown. Then the rest is conjectures
and has to remain just that.
Dr.
Jacques COULARDEAU
# posted by Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU @ 2:25 PM 
