47 pages • 1 hour read
Hilary MantelBring Up The Bodies
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Series Context: The Wolf Hall Trilogy
Bring Up the Bodies is the second novel in the Wolf Hall trilogy and resumes the plot that began in Wolf Hall. Wolf Hall tells the story of Thomas Cromwell’s childhood and rise to prominence, describing his working-class upbringing and his abuse at the hands of his father. After traveling through Europe and honing his political acumen, Cromwell ends up working for Cardinal Wolsey, a close advisor to King Henry VIII. Wolsey has been examining the validity of Henry’s marriage to his first wife, Katherine, because Henry wishes to dissolve the marriage and marry Anne Boleyn. He is enamored with Anne and is also frustrated that Katherine is unlikely to give him a male heir. Meanwhile, Cromwell suffers the sudden death of his wife and two daughters due to the plague.
Wolsey falls from favor despite his attempts to extricate Henry from his marriage; while Wolsey’s fate hangs in the balance, Cromwell becomes closer to the king. Cromwell is unable to prevent Henry from eventually issuing an arrest for Wolsey, and Wolsey dies while being transported to prison. As Henry grows more desperate to get out of his marriage, Cromwell urges him to break with the Church of Rome and declare himself the supreme head of the English church. Henry does so and eventually marries Anne; he also names Cromwell Master Secretary, a high-ranking position. However, Henry is disappointed when Anne gives birth to a daughter. Henry’s assertion that he is the supreme head of the church causes a crisis of conscience for Thomas More, a formerly trusted advisor. At the end of Wolf Hall, More is executed for treason. These events from the first novel in the series are important context for the plot of Bring Up the Bodies; the series concludes with the novel The Mirror and The Light. The Wolf Hall novels are based on historical fact though they embellish the characters’ lives with fictional details.
Sociohistorical Context: The Tudor Dynasty and the War of the Roses
Henry VIII became King of England and the second monarch in the Tudor dynasty in 1509 when his father, Henry VII, died. He was only 17 when he ascended to the throne. Henry VIII had not grown up expecting to inherit the throne; his elder brother, Arthur, died in 1502, leaving Henry as the heir. Arthur’s death at age 15 heightened Henry’s awareness that the smooth transition from one ruler to another could easily be destabilized. While power passed smoothly from Henry’s father to Henry VIII, Henry’s fear that he would not have a legitimate son to inherit his throne became the driving force in his life and the context for Bring Up the Bodies. This pressure to cement the Tudor dynasty was particularly strong, given the catastrophic period of civil war known as the War of the Roses, which continued for decades before Henry VII ascended to the throne in 1487. During this time, rivals from two competing families, the Houses of York and Lancaster, fought each other over who would occupy the English throne. Since many prominent aristocratic families took sides and became involved in the conflict, the war had high casualties and led to intergenerational feuds.
Henry VII was distantly related to the Lancaster family through his mother, Margaret Beaufort; his father’s family, the Tudors, were Welsh nobility. Part of his success in ending the civil war resulted from his marriage to Elizabeth of York, the mother of Henry VIII. Through this marriage, Henry VII united the two feuding sides into one new dynasty, the Tudors. By the time he came to the throne, Henry VIII was keenly aware of the pressure to secure the dynasty, ideally by having multiple legitimate male heirs. He was also aware of the possibility that the kingdom could return to a state of civil war if he died without a clear heir.
Henry VIII did eventually father three legitimate children, each of whom occupied the throne: Edward (who ruled as Edward VI), Mary, and Elizabeth (his daughter by Anne Boleyn). Elizabeth ruled as Queen Elizabeth I for more than 40 years, and the Elizabethan period, a particularly significant time in England’s history, originates from her reign. Despite Henry VIII’s obsession with having a son, his daughter was the one who came to symbolize the Tudor lineage. Elizabeth I never married or had children, and the Tudor dynasty ended with her.
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By Hilary Mantel
