Revisiting ‘Wolf Hall’ and the beheadings of Henry VIII

On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was beheaded. The official charge against her was treason. But the crime that sent her to the Tower of London was much less hers than it was her husband’s, even if it was made possible by another man’s machinations.

PBS’s 2015 Golden Globe Award-winning miniseries, “Wolf Hall,” chronicles the series of events leading up to Anne’s (Claire Foy) death from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance), the man who was, in a sense, hired to get her killed.

Born the son of a blacksmith, Cromwell’s strategic ability and wit – as well as his ruthlessness – would raise him in station far beyond what might otherwise have been expected.

He would become a lawyer, a member of Parliament, an adviser to Cardinal Wolsey, a royal favorite and finally – or fatally – Henry’s chief minister.

Adapted from Hilary Mantel’s fictionalized biographic novels, “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies,” the series follows Cromwell’s rise to prominence in the English court.

By 1529, after 20 years of marriage, Henry VIII (Damian Lewis) and Catherine of Aragon (Joanne Whalley) have failed to produce a male heir.

Henry’s petitions for annulment, delivered by Cardinal Wolsey (Jonathan Pryce) through Cromwell, are rejected by the Pope.

After failing to negotiate Henry’s annulment, Wolsey falls out of favor. But Cromwell is determined to escape the king’s wrath. And helping him to divorce Catherine and lawfully marry Anne seems the best way of doing so.

Ultimately, Cromwell was able to use his influence in Parliament and the declining reputation of the Catholic Church to ensure that Henry would be declared the sole head of the church in England. In other words, Henry now had the authority to annul his marriage, and he had Cromwell to thank for it.

Over the next few years, Cromwell solidified his position as Henry’s trusted adviser, prosecuting dissenters like Thomas More, who refused to recognize the marriage.

But the obstacles wouldn’t end there. And when Henry’s marriage to Anne also failed to produce a viable male heir, it became Cromwell’s task to rid him of Anne by any means necessary. Anne was not the first casualty of Henry’s reign, and she certainly would not be the last.

Despite many enemies made in Wolsey’s service and a litany of personal tragedies, Cromwell would go down in history as one of England’s finest statesmen.

But, in the end, he would face the same fate that so many of Henry’s other inconveniences had before him.

“Wolf Hall” is available on Amazon Prime Video.