Bring Up the Bodies: Hilary Mantel’s Romancing of History

This chapter examines how Hilary Mantel’s romancing of history comes from imagining history not removed from gender in order to substantiate the thesis that, in Bring Up the Bodies (2012), the process of understanding the past combines drawing on the official records and, more importantly, on recognising the dead in the living. To demonstrate the above, I delve into what I propose are the stages of Cromwell’s historical apprenticeship. As is to be shown, as he grows closer to the inner life of female characters, Cromwell learns that, next to official records, historical knowledge is embedded in the female body – in women’s biological, cultural, and political complexity.