July 2, 1489

Thomas Cranmer (July 2, 1489 to March 21, 1556) was the Archbishop of Canterbury who helped Henry VIII divorce his wife, Katharine of Aragon, a Spanish princess, and then later to get rid of Anne Boleyn. The charges against the latter have always boggled my mind, multiple lovers and incest. Yet recently something occurred to me: it may have been that Anne was so desperate to have a child, a boy of course, that perhaps she turned to someone she felt she could trust to help accomplish this, when she concluded the King, fat and old by now, was unable to give her the virile assistance getting pregnant needs. It does not now completely seem inpossible that she and her brother may have hoped to cement power with some incestuous deed.

Jollier, and on safer historical grounds to recall Cranmer's cat. One of many no doubt, but somehow his black cat has worked its way onto the historical record. His name was Marlinspike. Hilary Mantel is not the only source for this information, but she says in Bring Up the Bodies, (2012) a fictional account, that the cat finally ran off. Not sure of the accuracy but Mantel is famously fastidious about the historical record.

We read that a marlinspike is "A pointed metal tool used by sailors to separate strands of rope or wire, especially in splicing." Sounds like the cat was named for his claws. 

When he had time, Cranmer wrote the Book of Common Prayer.