Thomas Howard

Duke of Norfolk stalks through Henry's court as if he owns it by right of blood, which as far as he's concerned he does. Uncle to Anne Boleyn, he is loud, easily offended, and openly scornful of jumped-up men like Cromwell who rise by cleverness rather than lineage. He wants deference and gets impatient when the world stops giving it.

Bernard Hill plays Norfolk as a man permanently on the verge of an aneurysm, all bluster and old-blood entitlement, and it is very funny without ever becoming cartoonish. Mantel's writing uses him as the voice of a dying aristocratic order, sneering at Cromwell's competence, and Hill finds the fear underneath the contempt.