Thomas Wolsey

Cardinal Wolsey is Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor, the most powerful churchman in England and the king's chief fixer. He is worldly, shrewd, and used to getting his way through charm and patience rather than force. Thomas Cromwell serves as his loyal secretary, and Wolsey's great unfinished task is securing the king's annulment from Rome.

Jonathan Pryce plays Wolsey with a mixture of grandeur and weary self-awareness that makes him feel entirely lived-in rather than merely historical. The writing gives him wit and warmth toward Cromwell, so the audience feels his intelligence and his vulnerability at once — a man who has thrived by reading rooms perfectly, watching one room he cannot read.