Mercy Wykys

Mercy Wykys, Liz’s daughter and a member of Thomas Cromwell’s household, becomes the witness who carries the details of Liz’s death to her husband. Her account gives the loss its hour-by-hour shape, while her presence helps hold together a family suddenly made vulnerable to illness and grief.

Identity and Background

Mercy belongs to a family in which English scripture has been preserved across generations. Cromwell suspects that her family kept and quoted John Wycliffe’s writings, passing down scraps of forbidden religious writing as one might inherit physical traits. The suggestion places Mercy within a household culture of scriptural memory, though the passage presents this as Cromwell’s suspicion rather than a confirmed account of her own beliefs.

She is also part of the practical life of Cromwell’s household. When Liz falls ill, Mercy and the others search for Cromwell, sending Rafe Sadler first to Gray’s Inn and then across the city. The search fails: Cromwell has gone from his legal business to the Steelyard, and returns only at dusk, to a house already lit with torches and full of dismayed faces.

Witness to Liz’s Death

Mercy meets Cromwell when he arrives and tells him she is sorry. He initially fears that Gregory has died, then understands that the loss is Liz’s. Rather than offer a general announcement, Mercy recounts the day in sequence, preserving the ordinary turns of Liz’s last hours: at ten in the morning Liz sat down, weary and dizzy, pushed food away, and resisted going to bed. At midday she lay down, shivering despite burning skin, and asked whether Rafe was in the house; she wanted him to find Cromwell.

The account continues with the small requests and decisions that acquire terrible weight after her death. At half past twelve, Liz told Mercy to tell Cromwell to look after the children. At one she asked for a priest; at two she confessed, including that she had once picked up a snake in Italy. The priest gave her absolution, then left in fear of catching the contagion. Liz declined at three and died at four. Mercy’s recollection makes her not merely the messenger of the death but its principal witness, giving Cromwell the words and chronology he could not share because he was absent.

Cromwell would like Mercy to shorten the story, but understands why she needs to tell it over, moment by moment. He recognizes the telling as something she is making for him: a package of words that is now his to carry. Her testimony cannot undo his absence or alter the outcome, but it gives the loss a human sequence instead of leaving it as a bare fact.

Care for the Children and Household

Before hearing the full account, Cromwell takes the children to their room. Grace falls asleep against his shoulder; Anne remains awake and says she, too, may feel cold. Mercy leads the way, and Cromwell stays with the girls until Anne’s tears stop. Mercy offers to sit with them, but he insists on doing so himself. In this scene she helps restore order around the children, while Cromwell takes on the immediate work of comforting them.

Afterward, Mercy helps Cromwell confront the practical demands of contagious disease. Liz’s body has been prepared with linen around the jaw, candles at her head and feet, and herbs burning in the room. Because those struck by the sickness must be buried quickly, the customary mourning arrangements cannot be made; Cromwell cannot summon Gregory or gather the family. The household must hang straw outside the door as a sign of infection, restrict entry for forty days, and travel as little as possible.

Mercy suggests that the illness might be called a fever rather than admitted to be the sweat, arguing that if everyone stayed home London would come to a standstill. Cromwell refuses to evade the rule: the household will comply with the quarantine regulations established by Thomas Wolsey. Her suggestion and his answer expose the conflict between the disruption imposed on the living and the obligation to follow precautions during an epidemic. Mercy asks where Cromwell has been; he admits that he was with Thomas Bilney and later learning Polish. She accepts the answer without expecting it to make the day intelligible.

Narrative Role

Mercy’s importance is concentrated in a single crisis, but her actions shape how that crisis can be understood. She searches for Cromwell, cares for the children, and recounts Liz’s final hours with exactness. The contrast between the household’s attempts to keep an ordinary routine—the girls are put into their nightclothes, and their mother’s deathbed is filled with candles and herbs—and the speed of Liz’s decline makes Mercy’s steady account an anchor amid sudden disorder.

The passage also distinguishes what can be known from what cannot be repaired. Mercy can report Liz’s requests and the timing of her death, but neither her account nor Cromwell’s efforts supply a consoling explanation. Her role is therefore one of witness and care: she preserves the last day in language and helps the household pass from shock into mourning and quarantine.