I have been savouring The Mirror and the Light for about a month now and, like most people, when I think of Thomas Cromwell I think of Mark Rylance although I know he looks nothing like Cromwell. Apart from the major players, I have no idea what many of the other characters looked like. So I have draw together portraits of some of the recurring characters, particularly those of Cromwell’s household. I suspect others have done this already but my Google skills have failed me and I could not find anyone else’s collection of images.
The Cromwell Household
Workshop of Hans Holbein
Public domain
Hans Holbein
Public domain
Thomas Cromwell’s nephew
by a follower of Hans Holbein
Public domain
Workshop of Hans Holbein
Public Domain
Hans Holbein
Public domain
Wife of Gregory Cromwell
Hans Holbein
Public domain
Royalty
After Hans Holbein
Public domain
Copy by an unknown artist c1570
Public domain
Hans Holbein
Public domain
Daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon
Attributed to Lucas Horenbout
Public Domain
Nobility
Lucas Horenbout
Public domain
Attributed to Jan Gossaert
Public domain
Hans Holbein
Public domain
Son of the Duke of Norfolk
Attributed to William Scrots
Public domain
Sebastiano del Piombo
Public domain
Ambassadors, clergymen, and rising and falling men
Hans Holbein
Public domain
Unknown artist
Public domain
Unknown painter
Public domain
After Hans Holbein
Public domain
Gerlach Flicke
Public domain
Unknown artist
Public domain
Unidentified painter
Public domain
Catherine Meyrick 
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A great accompaniment, thank you. Wish I’d had it to hand when I was reading the book. Good to see what ‘Call me Riseley’ looked like. (And is the Duke of Norfolk holding a snooker cue?)
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I was hoping to find more images of the women but there seem to be few about. Wouldn’t surprise me if that was a snooker cue – they all seemed to misspend their youth back then.
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Thomas Cromwell will always have Mark Rylance’s face for me, too. When I’ve finished reading the trilogy, I’ve got Diarmaid MacCulloch’s biography of Cromwell to read.
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GR Elton’s book, Reform & Renewal, was a constant during the years I studied Tudor history. The image of Thomas Cromwell on the cover is what always came to mind when I thought of him, not that I did that often. But Mark Rylance’s performance is so quietly compelling – he has pretty much become Cromwell for us. Diarmaid MacCulloch’s biography is on my list but I certainly won’t get to it this year. John Guy’s biography of Margaret and Thomas Moore is also there. I did read Young and Damned and Fair, the biography of Catherine Howard by Gareth Russell last year. It was detailed and excellent. It really was so dangerous to be near to Henry.
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That last point has been the theme of most of the novels about his reign that I’ve read over the last two or three years.
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I expect it could be dangerous to be too near any king in that period.
I haven’t read all that much Tudor fiction for a few years. I am definitely over retellings of the lives of Henry’s wives which too often reflect the modern preoccupations of the authors. I much prefer fictional main characters. But some authors are always worth making an exception for.
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Indeed. They are few and far between.
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Brilliant idea – must have taken a bit of research to do that!
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Mainly good old google. And I have realized I’ve left a couple out. I’ll fix that later today.
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Some great images.
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When I see “Hans” paintings of Cromwell, I always think how perfect James Galdolfini would have been.
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I hadn’t considered him, but he is a good likeness. I believe there will be a TV adaptation of the Mirror and the Light eventually. It will be interesting to see who they cast if Mark Rylance isn’t. I imagine it will be near to ten years on from the first series by the time we see it.
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Reblogged this on Hunter S. Jones.
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What an interesting post! Thank you.
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