Characters in The Pillars of the Earth

Jack Jackson

Ellen's son and Tom's stepson, a gifted, curious builder in stone who grows into a visionary master mason.

Tom Builder

A master mason who wanders southern England looking for work and whose lifelong ambition is to build a great cathedral.

Prior Philip

An idealistic monk who becomes prior of Kingsbridge and fights church and crown alike to see the cathedral rise.

Aliena

Daughter of the disgraced Earl Bartholomew, impoverished by her father's arrest, who rebuilds her fortunes as a wool merchant.

William Hamleigh

A cruel, vengeful nobleman whose pursuit of Aliena and of the earldom torments Kingsbridge and its people.

Bishop Waleran Bigod

A scheming, ambitious clergyman whose designs on power set him against Prior Philip.

Ellen (Kingsbridge)

Jack's mother, an educated outlaw living in the forest, who cursed the men responsible for the execution of Jack's father.

Alfred Builder

Tom's elder son, a mason of limited talent whose resentment of his stepbrother Jack shapes much of the story.

Richard of Kingsbridge

Aliena's younger brother, whom she supports through years of hardship as he fights to reclaim the earldom of Shiring.

Thomas Becket

Henry II of England

Stephen of England

Empress Matilda

Waleran Bigod

Lord Percy Hamleigh

Lady Regan Hamleigh

Remigius