The momentous rift between England’s King Henry V111 and Rome in 1534 is an integral part of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, first televised a decade ago and now dramatising a much praised follow up – Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light. Focusing on his adviser Thomas Cromwell, a Putney blacksmith’s boy risen to high office, closely involved in the break with the Vatican, the latest BBC offering covers the final stages of Cromwell’s life before his execution.
Henry’s decision stemmed in part from his desire to be Supreme Head of the Church of England, with the power and revenues that would bring and remove external allegiance; partly the influence of the reformers at court, including Cromwell and Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (a Sun Cancer opposition Uranus Saturn). But the principle reason was the crisis over the succession to the throne with his then wife the Spanish Katherine of Aragon having only produced one son who died young. Declaring his marriage had never taken place, freed him to marry Anne Boleyn.
Henry V111, born 28 June 1491 JC 8.45 am London, was a Sun Cancer with an Aries Moon. With an over-hopeful and reckless Jupiter in Gemini opposition Neptune square Mars in Virgo; and an intensely stubborn Mercury opposition Saturn square Pluto.
When the split came in 1534 he was on a Saturn Half Return and more crucially a Uranus half return marking his midlife crisis. His Progressed Mars was square his natal Uranus and transiting Uranus. And his Solar Arc Mars was square his Saturn and his Mercury with tr Saturn square his SA Mars as well. A high-stakes moment with tempers rising sharply.
That was also reflected in the England 11 May 973 JC chart with the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the Mars and square the Pluto for an explosive and epoch-making parting of the ways.
What is intriguing is that the late Hilary Mantel, twice a Booker winner, born 6 July 1952, has her Sun in Cancer exactly at the same degree as Henry V111, though in her case it is conjunct a freethinking, unconventional Uranus and a charming Venus. Her Mercury in Leo is also close to Henry’s Mercury in Leo with her Mars in Scorpio square. Her (maybe) Sagittarius Moon may be conjunct Henry’s Neptune and hooking into his Mutable T square. Small wonders she was drawn to write so movingly about his court.
There is no birthdate for Thomas Cromwell, sadly, apart from 1485. Though sticking a finger in the middle of 1485 would give him a Jupiter in Sagittarius conjunct Henry’s North Node which could have been a support to Henry’s spiritual path. And Cromwell’s Uranus in Sagittarius square his North/South Node axis would rattle up Henry’s impulsive Mutable T square – Cromwell’s reforming instincts propelled Henry into action.
Actor Damien Lewis, a serious Sun Aquarius square Saturn with a Virgo Moon plays Henry in this adaptation, not an intuitive casting at first glance but he pulls it off. Lewis’s Jupiter Neptune in Sagittarius is conjunct henry’s North Node and his Mercury in Aquarius keys into Henry’s Saturn opposition Mercury Pluto T square – enough connections to key into the spirit of Henry.
Mark Rylance, 18 January 1960, who plays Cromwell, a Sun Capricorn with a Virgo Moon, has his North Node conjunct Cromwell’s South Node and his Jupiter in Sagittarius conjunct Cromwell’s Uranus. A link across the centuries.
Medieval society was dominated by an alliance between the Catholic Church and a military aristocracy. By the end of the 15th century this arrangement was starting to breakdown in England. The Hundred Years War and the Wars of the Roses had been a disaster for the aristocratic class who had first lost their lands in France and then seen many noble houses wiped out entirely during the struggles surrounding the Houses of Lancaster and York which followed. At the same time the Catholic Church was slowly being undermined by Renaissance thinking and its own slide into venality. It is against that backdrop that the English Reformation needs to be set. What essentially it sees is the replacement of the old Priestly and Warrior Class by a Merchant Class who slowly take over politically and become the new aristocracy. They are aided in this process by a new Protestant Priestly class formed in their image and who operate via the printing press and the new learning of the Renaissance. Henry VIII desire for more money to fund his international wars and his need for a male heir are the catalysts of this process.
Whatever one thinks of the accuracy of Mantel’s novels on individual points of historical accuracy she captures this shift in power brilliantly in her novels. Wolsey and the Duke of Norfolk in many ways represent the old order. Cromwell and Cramner represent the way things are going to change in the future. The shift is outlined in numerous scenes. The most brutal is when Cromwell confronts Henry Percy, Duke of Northumberland, the scion of the oldest surviving aristocratic house in a tavern. He tells Percy that if he does not sign an affidavit basically renouncing his secret contract of marriage with Ann Boleyn then Cromwell will have the aristocrat’s outstanding loans called in thus effectively bankrupting him. Although the old order manage eventually to plot Cromwell’s downfall and execution their triumph is temporary. By the time Cromwell’s assistant Rafe Sadler dies in the reign of Elizabeth 1 he is reputed to be the richest man in England.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that Henry VIII with his love of jousting and his enthusiasm for war against France was himself a representative of the old world order that was dying away. Moreover the changes in England he initiated ultimately led to the monarchy itself becoming subservient to the Merchant class in Parliament a process which ultimately led to a civil war that saw Charles I overthrown, tried and beheaded to be replaced by Oliver Cromwell, a direct descendant of Thomas Cromwell’s nephew Richard Cromwell. This event occurred over a century before the even more bloody ousting of France’s and aristocracy by the Merchant Class in the French Revolution. Astrologically it would be interesting to know why England and France took such different routes to similar results. The one thing that unites the English Reformation and the French Revolution is that transit of Pluto through Aquarius which does seem to put its stamp of making shifts in political structures and beliefs permanent.
Thank you Hugh, Always informative and illuminating.
I don’t think Wolsey would have been too happy about Cromwell’s destruction of the monasteries and the break with Rome. It seems to have been mostly about the money and the land for him. I wonder if we’ll see much of that in the new series.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/23/how-hilary-mantels-wolf-hall-trilogy-turned-thomas-cromwell-from-villain-to-hero
https://shorturl.at/bBKzi
If I am not mistaken, England was having a Pluto return at the time of Henry VIII. The US is having one now. Does he remind you of someone?
Hilary Mantel was a great writer . . . of fiction.
Her Sun, Uranus square Neptune suggests an “overworked imagination” and a tendency for deluding herself she alone knew ‘the truth’. Her historically revisionist version of Thomas Cromwell is brilliantly evoked in her books but it is fiction not history.
Thanks Marjorie, very fascinating. Gamal’s mention of Sirius which has now reached Henry’s Sun (would have been an earlier degree when he was born) also intrigues, considering the popular culture focus on him in our own time. Plus, I’m wondering about all the controversy currently rolling around the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury, which also connects with Henry, and Hilary.
Justin Welby’s Sun is 15 Capricorn, opposing that sensitive mid-Cancer for Henry and Hilary. The tr Moon on the day Wolf Hall was published (30 April 2009) passed over 15 Cancer. The Moon was 14 Cancer on the day Justin Welby was installed as Archbishop – 21 March, 2013.
I also noticed this:
Henry: Mars 26 Virgo, square Neptune 25 Sagittarius, opposing Jupiter 24 Gemini.
England 973: Jupiter 23 Virgo, Saturn 27 Gemini
Wolf Hall Published: Uranus 25 Pisces
Justin Welby becomes Archbishop of Canterbury: Venus 28 Pisces, Black Moon Lilith 21 Gemini
The Virgo and Pisces eclipses of September and next March, tr Neptune, and the Moon’s Nodes moving into ‘spiritual’ Pisces next January, all seem to suggest there’s more to come. Henry’s ‘ghost’ chart seems to have quite a lot to say to us! I wonder if in his dark and secret heart he regretted the formation of the C of E. He certainly regretted his marriage to Anne Boleyn, judging by his extreme and shocking behaviour towards her, and her untimely death by execution.
I tend to think of Cromwell as a Sun Capricorn – one who knows how to utilise people and the levers of power towards a goal.
Sometimes I get frustrated when there is no chart information on someone and Cromwell is one of those cases. Mantel’s books are fascinating but it’s clear it’s Cromwell she holds a candle for not Henry so I would love to see the contacts. Cromwell really was instrumental in bringing about the Anglican church, while making it look as though he was just serving up new wives for Henry and not interested in protestantism personally.
Both Hilary and Henry with sun close to Sirius, an illustrious and famed pairing, or can be.