English Parliament

English Parliament is presented as a contested political institution: Henry VIII’s government turns to it to advance claims about marriage, the Church, and the succession, while peers consider whether its proceedings can also obstruct those claims. Its importance lies not only in the measures it is asked to support, but in the pressure placed on individuals to give public, written assent—and in the fear that prevents potential opposition from becoming action.

Parliament and the marriage question

Before the oath crisis, Lord Thomas Darcy tells Margaret Pole that the next Parliament, after Christmas, is to be asked to bring the king’s marriage case before England rather than leave judgment to the Pope. Darcy understands the proposal as part of an effort to annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon and disinherit their daughter, Princess Mary. He has told Thomas Howard that he cannot stand by, but Howard has advised him to keep quiet; Darcy therefore asks whether Geoffrey Pole and Montague will join him if he speaks out. Parliament enters the story first as a threatened venue for changing who has authority to judge the marriage—and for turning that change into consequences for the princess.

The dispute is not presented as a simple disagreement about procedure. The Pope has publicly ruled that the marriage is valid and that Henry should remain with Katherine. Yet the king claims that the Pope has no authority in England, while the narrative observes that the Pope has not excommunicated him. The peers must therefore decide what to do amid competing claims of authority, rather than act on a resolution that removes their uncertainty. The planned parliamentary judgment would shift the matter from the Pope’s authority to a domestic political process backed by the king.

The oath at Westminster

In spring 1534, the peers of the realm are summoned to the Privy Council at Westminster Palace. Thomas Cromwell, newly occupying the office of Lord Chancellor after Thomas More, administers the oath of succession. The scene gives Parliament’s role a concrete, individual form: peers approach a table, encounter the written oath beneath the great seal, and sign in turn. The paper does more than record a private opinion. For Margaret, signing means renewing allegiance to Henry, pledging loyalty to the children of his marriage to Anne Boleyn, and acknowledging him as head of the Church in England.

Margaret signs alongside Montague and Geoffrey Pole, who have agreed to sign so that their loyalty cannot be doubted and in the hope of better days. She experiences the act as a betrayal of what she believes to be true. The Pope’s ruling, the king’s asserted authority, and the oath’s demand that the peers affirm the royal settlement do not align in her conscience. Parliament’s procedure thus becomes a test of individual responsibility: the participants act one by one, while the formal document makes their submission visible and attributable.

Thomas More’s refusal supplies a contrast. He would have signed a revised version of the oath, but could not sign it as written; he also refrained from condemning those who did sign. Henry had promised his friend that he would not put him to this test, but the promise is not kept. More’s resignation and refusal do not prevent the oath from being administered to the peers. The episode instead makes the cost of dissent—and the difference between a qualified assent and compliance with the text—part of the institution’s political meaning.

A possible arena of resistance

Parliament is also imagined as a place where the queen and princess might be defended. When Henry Courtenay asks whether there is enough support to defeat a bill in Parliament, Geoffrey Pole estimates that the queen has enough votes, provided men dare to speak their minds. The difficulty is not simply counting support: it is converting private agreement into public opposition. Montague proposes approaching his friends to oppose an attainder against Katherine and Princess Mary, while Margaret offers the help of Lord Thomas Darcy and John Hussey.

Geoffrey warns that Cromwell may already have moved ahead of them. In his assessment, Cromwell knows how to manage Parliament, has substantial resources, and can exploit the fear created by his knowledge of other people’s secrets. Parliament’s potential as a check on royal policy is therefore sharply qualified. Support may exist, but the narrative distinguishes having votes from being able to assemble and use them under pressure.

Succession legislation and royal choice

A later bill put before the houses of Parliament would let the king nominate his own heir: first from among the children of Jane Seymour, or, as the measure provides, from a subsequent wife. The proposal leaves Princess Mary’s position uncertain, removes Elizabeth’s title, and gives Henry the power to choose if he has no children with Jane. Parliament’s consideration of the bill prompts questions not only about the wording of the succession settlement but about which person the king intends to favor.

During the bill’s reading, men ask Montague whom Henry will name. One even suggests Henry Courtenay as a possible heir who might restore his family. Geoffrey Pole instead reads the king’s public gestures as signs that Henry FitzRoy is favored: FitzRoy has walked before the king at the opening of Parliament carrying the royal cap, received lands and places formerly held by Henry Norris, and is to be established at Baynard’s Castle with his wife, Mary Howard. These are presented as Geoffrey’s interpretation of political signals, not as a result formally declared by Parliament. The contrast is telling: while the bill gives the king broad discretion, those around the proceedings try to infer how that discretion will be used.

Parliament as promise and pressure

The institution’s meaning shifts again in Montague’s report of a proposed settlement at York. A gentleman described as a Yorkshireman and a kinsman of the Seymours has refused a place on the Privy Council, saying that it is unnecessary. What he wants is a free Parliament governed by the old lords rather than new arrivals. Henry responds by promising to hold a free Parliament at York, where the queen will be crowned and a Church convocation will meet to declare its learning. Margaret receives the news as a change beyond what the family had dared to expect.

This promise does not erase the earlier scenes of compelled assent or political management. Rather, the movement between the administered oath, the feared parliamentary bill, and the prospect of a free assembly reveals the institution’s unresolved position in the novel. Parliament can supply the public form through which royal power seeks to redefine marriage, religious authority, and inheritance; it can also be imagined as a forum in which peers speak for the queen and princess. Whether it performs either role depends on who controls the proceedings—and whether those who privately oppose the king are willing to speak openly.