Henry VIII’s household and retainers

Henry’s personal courtiers range from ranges from bishops to bodyguards. Each of them is a public supporter and ally of Henry directly, but many may have other personal allegiances and agendas.

Bishop Stephen Gardiner

63, male. Privy Councillor. Influence Over Convocation of Bishops.
Bishop of Winchester, and a former secretary of Cardinal Wolsey. Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Hugely Conservative, loyal to the King, loyal to the Church of England, opponent of any innovation in the Church. He holds similar religious power to the Archbishop of Canterbury but is in profound disagreement with Cranmer’s reformer sympathies and Latimer’s near-heretical extremism. Published De Vera Obedientia where the popular idea of the divine right of kings originated. This was obviously very popular with Henry.

Margaret Bryan, Baroness Bryan

77, female
Head of the Royal Nursery, maternal aunt of both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. As head of the royal nursery, she has overseen the upbringing of all of Henry’s children until they were old enough to move to their own household. She is the oldest person at court and every child of Henry’s would view her somewhere between their primary school teacher and their mother, with a due sense of reverence and fear. She has come to court specially to report on the progress of Henry’s minor children in their studies.

Sir Francis Bryan, “The Vicar of Hell”

50, male. Privy Councillor. Parliamentarian.
Wears an eyepatch.
Son of Margaret Bryan, the head of the royal nursery. Francis is a trusted advisor to Henry, former spy and codebreaker, influential member of Parliament and member of the Privy Council. Former vice-admiral, thrown out of the navy for disobeying the Admiral. A famously debauched libertine, he was dismissed as ambassador to the French court for excessive drinking, gambling and whoring. Religiously he is naturally staunchly Conservative and fond of confession, noting his personal motto: “we’re all sinners”. Best friend of Thomas Seymour. Brought to power by the Boleyn family, suspected to be responsible for their downfall.

John Dudley, Viscount Lisle

41, male. Privy Councillor. Military.
The genius who made English naval administration the envy of Europe and the present Lord Admiral with significant military support especially from the navy. He famously burned Edinburgh to the ground during the Rough Wooing. Owing to his military rank he is naturally a member of the Privy Council.

Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London and Hereford

45, male. Influence Over Convocation of Bishops.
The King’s personal chaplain. Former chaplain to Thomas Wolsey, previous ambassador to the French Court and the Pope. He has never protested any religious change enacted by Henry, and describes himself as ‘no theologian’. The son of a sawyer, he is a university man risen up from the lower classes.

Ambrose Dudley

20, male
Son of John Dudley, cupbearer to King Henry and a Gentleman Pensioner. He recently became his father’s heir after the death of his older brother during the siege of Boulogne. Excellent at the joust and a very eligible bachelor.

John Hooper,  the Bishop of Worcester (Understudy character)

45, male. Influence Over Convocation of Bishops.
Previously Viscount John Dudley’s household chaplain. After Hugh Latimer dramatically quit the post of Bishop of Worcester, Cranmer convinced the King to appoint John Hooper. This provoked a prolonged argument between John Hooper, Bishop Bonner and the Privy Council over which tenets of the current Henrician faith John Hooper would be bound to promote in his new post. After escalating to the point of imprisonment, the disagreement was resolved by a sincere apology to the King and the Privy Council.

Sir George Throckmorton (Understudy character)

65, Male. Parliamentarian.
The Member of Parliament for Warwickshire. He is related by marriage to Catherine and William Parr, but is most famous for championing the rights of Catherine of Aragon in Parliament. He has been implicated in several rebellions against the crown, notably the Pilgrimage of Grace and the Exeter Conspiracy that brought down the Pole family, but has never been put on trial or found guilty of any crime. After the fall of Cromwell, he has returned to the King’s good graces and sits in Parliament.

Sir Ralph Sadler (Understudy character)

38, Male. Parliamentarian.
Ralph Sadler is the Member of Parliament for Preston. He used to work for Thomas Cromwell, inspecting monasteries and deciding which to close. This work has made him rich, so rich that he is sometimes called the “richest commoner in England”.

Sir Edmund Bertie (Understudy character)

25, Male,
A hot-headed young man and Gentleman-Pensioner of the King. He was raised as a ward of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, but has repeatedly quarrelled with the Duke’s son, Henry Howard. Once the quarrel turned so violent, Edmund was arrested for breaching the peace at the King’s court. This is a serious offence and nearly cost him a hand; luckily the King pardoned him at the last moment.

The King’s Fool(s) (NPCs)

Age – unknown? Gender – confusing?
Off-game: the fool is an NPC who is there to interact with if you’re bored or a person to ask for help if you are feeling ‘stuck’. Nobody should comment on it being unusual to interact with The Fool, they are primarily there for OC wellbeing purposes and to help push the story on occasionally.

In-game: Henry has one or more Fools at his court – perhaps the same fool in different clothes, perhaps different fools, nobody is quite sure, they all answer to Fool. Some say they are divinely inspired, other say they simply babble nonsense. In any case, Fools are considered holy and are uniquely exempted from essentially all social conventions, talking to anybody they fancy. They offer commentary on the comings and goings, they lampoon people at the highest rungs of power and they come and go as they please.
However it is common to take comfort from conversing with a Fool and nobody thinks it unusual to do so.