Queen Jane and Lady Mary bring the toddler Lady Elizabeth to court, and Henry reconciles with her at the Christmas holiday. He also makes promises of pardons and redress of grievances to the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace, while making plans to bring them to heel for their insurrection, then using a further uprising as an excuse to have Charles Brandon put the leaders to death.

Henry remains in seclusion while mourning the queen's death, an opportunity that enemies of the crown seize to murder several friends of the court; Cromwell is disturbed when Henry does not resist his new church's similarities to Catholicism. Meanwhile Henry ends his depression by having sex with Ursula one more time before she returns to her hometown.