Cremuel-- tell the Ambassador of the bil...

Cremuel-- tell the Ambassador of the bill you are bringing into Parliament. I wish it made clear to your master, and to all Europe, that a bill is going through Parliament which settles the succession of England on my children. Mine. Not Katharine’s. When a son is born to me he shall succeed to the throne of England. And my daughters are and shall be royal princesses.

Cremuel’s bill declares that Katharine’s child Mary is a bastard-- she was never your wife, Henry, so the child you go on her is a bastard--is that not so, Cremuel? It’s not enough to put Mary out of the line of succession! It’s no good to me. I want her made a bastard. You bill will make her a bastard.

You are worried about her cousin, the Emperor? You don’t want to provoke him? No? Then I shall provoke him for you. I shall tell you, Ambassador, what will happen to Mary. The Princess Elizabeth is to have her own household and the bastard Mary will join it as her servant. She will go on her knees to my daughter. And if she won’t bend her knee then she shall be beaten and buffeted until she does bend. She will call my daughter Princess, or I shall make her suffer.

Poulton, Mike. Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies: The Stage Adaptation. Picador, New York. 2009, pp. 267-269.