Bring Up the Bodies starts shortly after the end of Wolf Hall. Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII are guests of the Seymours at their estate, Wolf Hall. In the previous book, Thomas had developed feelings for Jane Seymour and had considered asking the king for permission to wed. But now Henry has begun to spend time with Jane, at the not-so-subtle encouragement of her family, and to tire of his marriage to Anne Boleyn, which has not yielded the son he so desperately wants. Finally, Henry asks Thomas to free him from his marriage to Anne, and Thomas begins to build his case.
Just as in Wolf Hall, you are so in Thomas’ head that it’s easy to overlook the absolutely terrible things he does in service to the king. Oh, Henry wants to end his marriage to Anne? Well, Thomas will take the smallest rumors of gentlemen of the court wanting Anne’s favor and turn that into full-fledged affairs with numerous men, including her own brother and Henry’s Gentleman of the Privy. (The fact that many of these men participated in the downfall of Cromwell’s mentor Wolsey is just a coincidence, right? Right?) Thomas helped elevate Anne to her current position of power, but the moment she suggests she could turn on him he happily works to take her down instead. Even at her execution, he feels little pity for her, thinking that if he hadn’t arranged her fall it would be the Princess Mary with her head on the block, or even Thomas himself. Thomas’ goal, above all else, is peace for the realm. And while Henry is capricious and becoming despotic, the Tudors have at least brought peace after a long period of civil war. And so Thomas does terrible things, and doesn’t feel the least bit bad about doing them.
Bring Up the Bodies is the second installment in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, and ends with Thomas at the top of the world. Many of his political enemies are dead or neutralized, and he has been granted a barony and thus entered the nobility. But as we all know, what goes up must come down, and Thomas is poised for a fall.