Chapter summaries Boleyn Traitor Philippa Gregory

Chapter 42: Hampton Court, January 1541 – Summary & Analysis

[![Spoiler Notice] This page reveals key events from Chapter 42 of Boleyn Traitor. Proceed only if you have read to this point.]

Summary

The New Year celebrations at Hampton Court welcome a visiting Anne of Cleves. She defers to Queen Katheryn with deep curtsies and takes a place among the duchesses, a quiet demotion from her former royal status. The king watches his current and former wives dance together, tapping his hand to the music, and the court treats Anne not as the rejected ugly bride but as a stylish guest lavishly dressed in French fashions. Her generous gifts—two caparisoned horses—earn a rich repayment from Henry, while Katheryn casually hands over unwanted puppies and a gold ring that Anne seizes with delight. When Anne departs, Jane Boleyn walks her to the clock-tower yard. Speaking cautiously in German, Anne admits she is content, free from the performance and peril of queenship. She looks forward to a simple dinner and a solitary bed. Their talk darkens to the king’s mortality; Anne notes his decline and believes her own settlement as “sister” is safe. She then muses that Katheryn will outlive Henry by decades and might be named regent, placing the Howards—and Jane—behind the throne. Jane, her ambition kindled, confesses she has already considered this.

The chapter pivots abruptly when Sir Thomas Wyatt is arrested and lodged in the Tower, a place he knows from the Boleyn purge. This time, Sir John Wallop is recalled from Paris and imprisoned alongside him. Searches produce no evidence, and no charges are filed. The inquiry stalls because, as Jane’s father once warned, nobody can pack a jury or craft a bill of attainder as Thomas Cromwell did. Jane loiters near the privy council chamber but learns nothing from the anxious old lords. Her uncle grouses that Wyatt’s real crime is intellectual arrogance—mocking the peers, implying England cannot be governed without a Wolsey or a Cromwell, and criticising the king’s versifying. Jane, confident in her own secured wealth and indispensable position beside the queen, contemplates a future where an untutored Katheryn Howard rules as regent and she herself governs England through her.

Key Events

  • Anne of Cleves arrives for New Year festivities and is treated as an honoured guest rather than a disgraced former queen.
  • Henry and Katheryn receive lavish gifts from Anne; Katheryn passes on two puppies and a ring.
  • Anne leaves cheerfully, and in a private German conversation with Jane, she declares herself happier without a master and hints at Henry’s failing health.
  • Anne speculates that Katheryn could become regent, with Jane and the Howards wielding the real power.
  • Sir Thomas Wyatt and ambassador Sir John Wallop are suddenly arrested and imprisoned in the Tower without evidence or charges.
  • The investigation founders because no one possesses Cromwell’s talent for manufacturing a deadly legal case.
  • Jane’s uncle reveals that Wyatt’s suspected offense is his sharp wit—insulting the old nobility, praising Wolsey and Cromwell, and mocking the king’s poetry.

Character Development

  • Jane Boleyn: Her ambition sharpens. Secure in wealth and royal favour, she openly acknowledges a hunger to rule through Katheryn. She begins to think of herself as a potential kingmaker, using the queen’s ignorance as a lever.
  • Anne of Cleves: The chapter completes her transformation from the humiliated “Flanders Mare” to a liberated, shrewd survivor. She no longer cares about court opinion, enjoys her fortune, and sees the peril of Henry’s crown from a safe distance.
  • Katheryn Howard: She appears briefly but significantly. Her casual gift-giving shows she still sees royal possessions as trinkets to be shed. She remains politically innocent, a blank page for Jane’s schemes.
  • The Duke of Norfolk (Uncle): His irritable explanation about Wyatt illuminates the petty rivalries among the old nobility. He reveals a court where wit is as dangerous as treason.
  • Thomas Wyatt: Although absent from direct action, his arrest demonstrates that the factional machinery of the court still grinds, but now incompetently.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • The Machinery of Power Without Cromwell: The arrests show the Tudor legal machine is broken. Cromwell’s expertise in falsifying evidence and writing attainders has left a vacuum, leaving accusations to flounder.
  • Female Ambition and Regent Queenship: Anne’s hypothetical scenario of a woman ruling England threads through the chapter, reflecting Jane’s growing dream. The image of a Boleyn descendant guiding the crown through a Howard queen is a direct inversion of Tudor patriarchy.
  • The Performance of Queenship: Anne’s role during her visit—the lowered curtsy, the dance with Katheryn—is a calculated display. She has learned to play the obedient former wife to secure her independence, a lesson Katheryn has yet to absorb.
  • Gifts as Tokens of Power: The exchange of horses, puppies, and a ring externalises the transactional nature of favour. Katheryn’s casual disposal of Henry’s gifts hints at her lack of political understanding.
  • The Danger of Cleverness: Wyatt’s intellectual pride becomes a motif for the peril of speaking too plainly in a court that prizes flattery. Intelligence unallied to a protector like Cromwell is a liability.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter bridges the fading glamour of the New Year celebrations with the cold reality of factional struggle. Anne of Cleves’s visit underscores that Henry’s queens can survive—even thrive—if they exit the role gracefully. Simultaneously, the clumsy move against Wyatt reveals a power vacuum. Cromwell’s absence means the court’s old guard cannot efficiently eliminate threats, leaving Jane and the Howards poised to fill the gap. Jane’s internal acknowledgment of her desire to rule through Katheryn marks a turning point: she shifts from reactive courtier to aspiring puppet-master. The chapter plants the seeds of a regency plot and warns that wit without a patron invites the Tower.

Study Questions and Answers

  1. Why is Anne of Cleves so cheerful when she bids farewell to the court?
    She has escaped the constant surveillance and mortal danger of being Henry’s wife. Securely pensioned and recognised as the king’s sister, she controls her own household, her own meals, and her own bed. The performance she must put on during visits is brief and rewarded with gifts, not threats.

  2. What does the failed inquiry into Thomas Wyatt reveal about the Tudor court after Cromwell’s execution?
    The inquiry exposes a profound lack of legal cunning. Without Cromwell, no one can spin whispers into a capital case. The old noblemen can arrest suspects but cannot fabricate treasonable evidence, which stalls the mechanism of judicial murder and leaves the court in a state of paranoid paralysis.

  3. How does Jane’s reaction to the possibility of a regency for Katheryn reflect her ambition?
    Jane immediately sees Katheryn’s lack of education and statecraft as an opportunity. She pictures herself as the hidden hand directing a regent queen, a scenario that would allow a woman of Boleyn blood to control England. Her private thoughts reveal she has already begun planning for this outcome.