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Another bad night's sleep, been up since 3.30. It's partly R's coughing. I am concerned re his temperature. He laughs and says I'm just enjoying playing with the thermometer gun. While it's certainly a fun toy, if he hits 40 C I'm calling the NHS helpline, or even emergency services. This got bad fast.
Also, haunted by the Mirror and the Light ep 5. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0025x9t/wolf-hall-the-mirror-and-the-light-5-mirror) I love this version of Anne of Cleves, love the emphasis that there's nothing wrong with her. It's strange that Henry's version of the lady's flaws was taken seriously down through the ages. He derided her as fat, foul smelling, sexually experienced, flattered by her portrait. I swear this must have provoked quiet smiles somewhere in his court for there was certainly one person who fitted that description but it wasn't Anne of Cleves. Dana Herfurth's Anne has that ultra-fair Tilda Swinton look to her, delicate and surprisingly light. She's given dignity here, I'm pleased to see it.
But it was Cromwell's slow disintegration that held me throughout. Mantel was a genius to make us feel so much for this man. I am watching, dreading what's coming next.
He was arrested under Attainder, an act of parliament designed to help monarchs circumvent having to try a traitor before taking their stuff. It had been typically applied to stop rebels using assets to drum up money for actions against the king. In general, an attainted person had to be in open rebellion, but let's just say acts of attainder were becoming more loosely applied as demonstrated in 1539 when Margaret Pole, the last Plantagenet, was attainted, stripped of land, title, wealth, and sent to the tower all without trial. Cromwell was very involved in it. The next year he himself was attainted and the same done to him, made easier by the precedents he helped set. He whetted the blade for his own neck.
I wonder if he ever saw it that way.
Nearly 6am. Come on Boot, time to be doing.
Also, haunted by the Mirror and the Light ep 5. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0025x9t/wolf-hall-the-mirror-and-the-light-5-mirror) I love this version of Anne of Cleves, love the emphasis that there's nothing wrong with her. It's strange that Henry's version of the lady's flaws was taken seriously down through the ages. He derided her as fat, foul smelling, sexually experienced, flattered by her portrait. I swear this must have provoked quiet smiles somewhere in his court for there was certainly one person who fitted that description but it wasn't Anne of Cleves. Dana Herfurth's Anne has that ultra-fair Tilda Swinton look to her, delicate and surprisingly light. She's given dignity here, I'm pleased to see it.
But it was Cromwell's slow disintegration that held me throughout. Mantel was a genius to make us feel so much for this man. I am watching, dreading what's coming next.
He was arrested under Attainder, an act of parliament designed to help monarchs circumvent having to try a traitor before taking their stuff. It had been typically applied to stop rebels using assets to drum up money for actions against the king. In general, an attainted person had to be in open rebellion, but let's just say acts of attainder were becoming more loosely applied as demonstrated in 1539 when Margaret Pole, the last Plantagenet, was attainted, stripped of land, title, wealth, and sent to the tower all without trial. Cromwell was very involved in it. The next year he himself was attainted and the same done to him, made easier by the precedents he helped set. He whetted the blade for his own neck.
I wonder if he ever saw it that way.
Nearly 6am. Come on Boot, time to be doing.
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