The Shadow of the Tower

Bernard de Vignolles:
[to David] I killed Rodrigo, but you know on a project of this sort, there is always one tongue more that you can silence - unless you're prepared to silence it yourself.

King Henry VII:
To the usurper every man is dangerous. To the true king, no one is.

King Henry VII:
[to Lincoln] You must help either to build the kingdom or destroy it. Which is it to be?

King Henry VII:
[to Elizabeth] A king can only afford to be kind in little things... not in great ones.

Elizabeth of York:
You have the crown; you have a wife. Now you are secure.

King Henry VII:
Am I?

Henry VII:
[to Audley] Fool! He wastes the very air he breathes.

Henry VII:
[Referring to the lifting of taxes for certain subjects] There's no better way of buying loyalty, Kent. It costs much less than any other gift.

Earl of Surrey:
Rumors are like swallows. They gather only to disperse.

Henry VII:
My trust shall be buried with your carcass.

Henry VII:
Dear body of Christ, I am bored with insurrection!

[last lines]

Henry VII:
[after signing a pardon for the double agent Cleymounde] Would the God pardon me so easily.

Henry VII:
[to Puebla] One can not please everybody, doctor. You do much better to please me.

Henry VII:
[to Dr. Aylesworth as his life lies dead] You come too late, doctor. They're already taking the mask.

De Puebla:
[Humorously to Henry] In France... lechery. In England... treachery.

Henry VII:
[Referring to Catherine Warbeck] Is it quite certain she is not with child?

Earl of Devon:
Quite, sir.

Henry VII:
[Drolly] Then let her remain. This kingdom spawns enough pretenders without their spawning for themselves.

Signora Cabot:
[to Cabot] They are English. They do nothing without reason.

Ashurst:
[to Elyot and Warde] That is no way to treat a Venetian!

Hugh Elyot:
As Master Warde says, "There's mustard in garlic."

Abbot Sante:
Father Simmmons sleeps lightly and dreams deeply.

Henry VII:
[to his pet monkey] I am doing my best to trust everyone.

Elizabeth Woodville:
Crowns are dear in England, son-in-law, but heads are cheap that wear them.

Henry VII:
On a crooked road a fit ass is better than a sick horse.

Henry VII:
[to Lincolm] It must be hard for a man to lose his whole future as well as his past on the outcome of one day's warring at Bosworth Field to live to see it all go.

Earl of Lincoln:
You have the spirit of a man but the malice of a woman.

Margaret of Burgundy:
And the hopes of both.

Catherine Warbeck:
[to Warbeck] You're either a man of great weakness or great wickedness. Which i cannot tell.

Catherine Warbeck:
[to Warbeck] Once I loved you. Now I pity you. I will never hate you.

Henry VII:
Oh, pity the man cursed with perceptive friends.

Perkin Warbeck:
There's ne thing more important than money - powerful friends.

Catherine Warbeck:
Are you Perkin Warbeck or Richard of York?

Perkin Warbeck:
I've been both in my time, lady,

Perkin Warbeck:
There's no destroyer greater than deceit.

Henry VII:
[to Stanley] If you're a man painted on glass, I could see you.

Sir William Stanley:
Oh, murder's legal now. THey do it by jury and call it Tudor law.