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&lt;center&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;_httpdocimg_/cromwell.gif&quot;
 alt=&quot;Thomas Cromwell&quot; style=&quot;width: 313px; height: 59px;&quot;&gt; &lt;br&gt;
born c.1485 in Putney &lt;br&gt;
executed 28 July 1540 in London
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;+1&quot;&gt;&quot;A good household manager, but not fit to meddle
in the affairs of kings.&quot;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;May 1538, Henry VIII describes Cromwell to the French
ambassador&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/center&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img
 src=&quot;_httpdocimg_/cromwell-small.jpg&quot;
 alt=&quot;portrait of Cromwell as the earl of Essex&quot;
 style=&quot;border: 2px solid ; width: 220px; height: 264px;&quot; align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Thomas Cromwell was as great a statesman as England
has ever seen and, in his decade of power, permanently changed the
course
of English history.&amp;nbsp; Unlike his mentor, Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell
was not a priest or a papist.&amp;nbsp; He was a lawyer determined to
impose his own character - methodical, detached, and calculating - upon
government. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Cromwell wanted government to be effective and
efficient; to achieve this, he had to end the chaos of feudal privilege
and ill-defined jurisdictions.&amp;nbsp; He was blessed with a logical mind
in an age sadly devoid of them.&amp;nbsp; And unlike his royal master, he
did not let his emotions interfere with his position.&amp;nbsp; He was the
ideal statesman for Tudor England and, just months after his execution
in 1540, Henry VIII was bemoaning his loss. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Cromwell was introduced to government service as
a secretary for &lt;a
 href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=0&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fcitizens%2fwolsey.html&quot;&gt;Cardinal
Wolsey&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; His abilities won him the older man's respect and
soon Cromwell was his most
trusted servant and principal secretary.&amp;nbsp; But Cromwell managed to
distance
himself from Wolsey immediately after the Cardinal fell from grace and
soon
had taken his place as Henry's most valuable advisor.&amp;nbsp; Before
entering
Wolsey's service, Cromwell lived an adventurous life.&amp;nbsp; His father
had
been a brewer and blacksmith known for permanent drunkenness and
illegal
activities.&amp;nbsp; From this inauspicious beginning, his son went on to
indulge
his curiosity and practical nature by traveling through Europe.&amp;nbsp;
Over
the course of several years, he was a soldier in Europe, a banker in
Italy,
clerk in the Netherlands, and a lawyer in London.&amp;nbsp; Like so many
ambitious
men, he was in Wolsey's service in the mid-1520s.&amp;nbsp; His most
important
work was the suppression of 29 religious houses whose monies Wolsey
used
to endow colleges at Ipswich and Oxford.&amp;nbsp; When Wolsey fell from
grace
in 1529, Cromwell was hurriedly elected burgess for Taunton so he could
remain in government service. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; There were striking similarities between the two
men - both managed to remain favorites of the mercurial Henry VIII for
years; both were despised by the older nobility who coveted their
influence with the king; both sought to reform the creaky medieval
bureaucracy of Tudor government; both were highly intelligent and
well-versed in international affairs.&amp;nbsp; And both, ultimately, fell
from Henry's favor with spectacular speed.&amp;nbsp; In the end, the king
preferred to listen to the old nobility. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; But Cromwell and Wolsey were also markedly
different in many ways.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell was the man responsible for the
Henrician reformation while Wolsey fell because he served two masters,
the king of England and the Pope.&amp;nbsp; Though Henry had ejected Rome
from his nation, he still practiced the Roman Catholic religion.&amp;nbsp;
The king's religious tendencies were never reformist and many
historians have made the mistake of painting him as one of the first
Protestant kings.&amp;nbsp; Henry was never a Protestant and he wrote
treatises vilifying Martin Luther for which he was titled 'Defender of
the Faith' by the Pope.&amp;nbsp; Rather, he was an opportunist who
disliked papal authority and interference in his realm and wanted some
of the vast wealth the English church possessed.&amp;nbsp; For
Henry, often desperately short of money, it was near-blasphemy for his
subjects
to pay taxes directly to Rome; he wanted the money for his
government.&amp;nbsp;
He also wanted an annulment from a devoutly Catholic wife, Katharine of
Aragon, and when the Pope, held hostage by the Holy Roman Emperor,
refused
to rule in his favor, he found it most expedient to simply disregard
the
papacy.&amp;nbsp; But throughout it all, Henry was unaware of the forces he
had unleashed when he declared himself head of the English
church.&amp;nbsp;
Trained for the church as a child, he remained staunchly Catholic for
his
entire life though the Catholic church deemed him a heretic. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;center&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;a discussion of the Henrician reformation&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/center&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It is important to remember that during Henry's
reign, at least half of his subjects were under the age of
eighteen.&amp;nbsp; Henry's court swarmed with young people - pages,
scullery maids, and the like.&amp;nbsp; English culture celebrated youth;
tournaments, hunts, glorious warfare were all the province of the young
and strong.&amp;nbsp; And while Henry was young, he joined these events
with a gusto sadly lacking in his father or son.&amp;nbsp; But time does
not stop, not even for a despotic monarch determined to have his way in
all things.&amp;nbsp; During his 'great matter', Henry was in his thirties
and changing from 'Bluff King Hal' into an overweight and balding
hypochondriac.&amp;nbsp; He had rid himself of Rome to gain wealth and a
son.&amp;nbsp; He gained both and, once he had, continually toyed with the
idea of making peace with the pope.&amp;nbsp; He didn't relish
excommunication and it is likely that he persuaded himself that he
wasn't disobeying Christ's vicar but rather the Emperor's puppet. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; But he misjudged the mood of his people,
particularly his nobles.&amp;nbsp; Educated and by nature inquisitive and
acquisitive, the new Protestant teachings intrigued them; they also
sought the vast monastic lands which Henry planned to sell.&amp;nbsp; This
was the paradox of the Henrician reformation.&amp;nbsp; It was motivated by
greed and genuine religious turmoil.&amp;nbsp; As time passed, the new
generation of nobles were Protestant because it was expedient and
philosophically appealing.&amp;nbsp; And with each year, more Englishmen
were born who were further and further away from the old days of Roman
domination.&amp;nbsp; Henry, in his forties, could remember the papist ways
but, as the years passed, fewer and fewer of his subjects did. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In terms of the practical effect the reformation
had on everyday Englishmen, the situation is more difficult to
gauge.&amp;nbsp; Unlike the wealthy noblemen, they couldn't bid on the
seized monastic properties.&amp;nbsp; And in many towns and villages, the
parish church was the community center, where births, weddings, and
deaths were officiated over by a priest.&amp;nbsp; But they undoubtedly
enjoyed not paying their tax to Rome.&amp;nbsp; Once again, a paradox
emerged - an excommunicated nation which found itself torn between
loyalty to the sovereign and loyalty to the papacy.&amp;nbsp; Also, since
Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn could only be recognized if one
accepted his annulment from Katharine - which in itself meant a
rejection of papal authority - and it was treason to &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt;
recognize his marriage to Anne, then many people were swayed by the
threat of execution.&amp;nbsp; In other words, accept Henry's decisions or
die.&amp;nbsp; Of course, I cannot discuss all aspects of the reformation
at this site; I recommend L.B. Smith's &lt;i&gt;Henry VIII&lt;/i&gt; which studies
Henry's own theological beliefs. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; There was opposition to the reformation which
probably had more to do with the attendant loss of independence in
north England.&amp;nbsp; In 1536, a northern uprising which came to be
called the Pilgrimage of Grace, gathered over 40,000 men and marched
through England.&amp;nbsp; It eventually destroyed itself by internal
division and lack of clear purpose but one of the rebels' demands was a
warning for Cromwell - they want their king to be advised by &lt;i&gt;noble&lt;/i&gt;
councilors who understand the people's wishes, not common men like
Cromwell.&amp;nbsp; Henry was angry at their presumption - how dare his
ignorant subjects rebel annd then tell him how to run the country! -
but he was persuaded to show mercy and pardon those involved.&amp;nbsp; And
he continued to listen to Cromwell. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The &lt;a
 href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=0&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fprimary.html&quot;&gt;Pilgrimage of Grace&lt;/a&gt;
was largely motivated not by religious concerns but by Cromwell's
determination to dissolve the monasteries and improve the royal tax
collecting methods.&amp;nbsp; For example, the movement began in Louth, in
Lincolnshire, and began with the murder of two tax collectors, one of
whom was hanged and the other sewn into a sack and thrown to a pack of
hungry dogs! &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; So the common people might grumble somewhat but
they were ultimately more influenced by practical matters.&amp;nbsp; Had
Henry's excommunication been followed by a terrible harvest or bad
weather, it may have been otherwise.&amp;nbsp; During his daughter Mary's
reign, such signs were taken to mean God was angry with her for
attempting to reinstate Catholicism.&amp;nbsp; But not only did Henry enjoy
good weather, he had a brilliant servant.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell was the one
who gave force to Henry's grand declarations.&amp;nbsp; The king declared
that Rome had no authority in England and Cromwell instituted the
reforms which would make it so.&amp;nbsp; The king declared that all
monastic lands were forfeit and Cromwell set out to close the
monasteries, assess their value, and sell them to the highest
bidder.&amp;nbsp; For a decade, this partnership worked marvelously. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Also, Henry and Cromwell both recognized a
fundamental truth of the English people; the government could do what
it liked as long as traditional religious views were not upset too
much.&amp;nbsp; Certainly Henry did not upset his own.&amp;nbsp; The name of
the pope was omitted in their prayers but not much else.&amp;nbsp; Henry's
break with Rome was really a legal reformation rather than one of real
religious content.&amp;nbsp; England practiced Catholicism without a pope
and, in his place, was their king.&amp;nbsp; This situation suited
Cromwell.&amp;nbsp; Like many, he recognized that the Church had lost its
way, remaining a ponderous medieval institution concerned with wealth
and influence.&amp;nbsp; But Europe was no longer medieval; countries were
becoming nation-states, patriotic and immune to the cultural unity
which Rome promoted.&amp;nbsp; The pope envisioned a collection of nations
joined beneath the cloak of Christendom with him at its head; but,
particularly in xenophobic England, there were mutterings that the
church was dominated by other nations.&amp;nbsp; Also, the church claimed
authority over its subjects; no priest or cleric could be tried by
their sovereign nation.&amp;nbsp; They would answer only to Rome.&amp;nbsp;
This problem had angered Henry II centuries before and resulted in
Thomas Becket's murder.&amp;nbsp; In Henry's time, it had grown
worse.&amp;nbsp; Also, as king, he believed himself ruler of &lt;i&gt;all&lt;/i&gt;
his subjects, priest and commoner alike. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; One must also mention the corruption of the
church, sadly evident to everyone.&amp;nbsp; Certainly there were Godly men
who struggled to enforce the tenets of their faith.&amp;nbsp; But there
were also bishops and cardinals more interested in business and finance
than theology.&amp;nbsp; The church preached that the surest path to heaven
was through good works, particularly at a monastery or abbey, but every
Englishmen knew that only the wealthy could afford to endow or board at
them.&amp;nbsp; Furthermore, an increasing number of churchmen were absent
from their posts.&amp;nbsp; Cardinal Wolsey embodied this avaricious
streak; he was bishop, archbishop, abbot, and cardinal yet the affairs
of state kept him from his duties.&amp;nbsp; Instead of tending to his
flock, he tended to his purse.&amp;nbsp; He sired illegitimate children and
collected nearly 50,000 pds a year from his vast holdings. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Wolsey represented the church as it had become;
certainly such abuses may not have turned most Englishmen from their
faith.&amp;nbsp; But when confronted with the forces of Protestantism, the
church found precious few willing to die for their beliefs.&amp;nbsp; After
all, why would anyone die for a faith they didn't respect?&amp;nbsp; When
the king styled himself head of the church, many were perhaps
relieved.&amp;nbsp; Henry made no claim to a holy life, not like the
churchman Wolsey; he also was shrewd enough to endow his monarchy with
papal apparatus.&amp;nbsp; From the 1530s on, the Tudor dynasty was even
more divine and the machinery of state could enforce its divinity. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;center&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#000000&quot;&gt;Cromwell's revolution in government&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/center&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Cromwell's rise to power was extraordinary and
occurred just when Henry needed a minister of great administrative
imagination and genius, uninterested in the squabbles of his council
and determined to empower the machinery of state.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell
entered royal service in early 1530 and, from then on, rose
rapidly.&amp;nbsp; In late 1530 he was sworn into the King's Council and,
just a year later, began to attract unfavorable attention from Wolsey's
old rivals.&amp;nbsp; These were Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester,
Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, and Charles Brandon, duke of
Suffolk.&amp;nbsp; Gardiner had worked with Wolsey but, like Norfolk and
Suffolk, viewed the Cardinal's fall as a chance to take his
place.&amp;nbsp; From 1529 to about 1533, they enjoyed the king's
confidence even as Cromwell rose to overtake them all.&amp;nbsp; His career
progressed as follows: &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;1531&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - member of the privy council &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;1532&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - Master of Court of Wards and
Master of Jewel House &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;1533&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - Chancellor of the Exchequer &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;1534&lt;/b&gt; &lt;/font&gt;- King's Secretary and Master
of the Rolls &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;1535&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - Vicar-General &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;1536&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - Lord Privy Seal and Baron
Cromwell of Oakham &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;1537&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - Knight of the Garter and
Dean of Wells &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;1539&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - Lord Great Chamberlain &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;1540&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - created Earl of Essex &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; As the above list shows, Henry never forgot the
fallen Wolsey.&amp;nbsp; He had heaped honors upon him with extravagant
generosity and had written to the pope recommending religious
promotion.&amp;nbsp; In the end, Henry believed himself betrayed.&amp;nbsp; Not
only had Wolsey accumulated obscene wealth, but he had grown arrogant
and eventually treasonous.&amp;nbsp; And so Cromwell, despite his years of
diligence and genius, was eventually rewarded with an earldom but only
a short time before his execution. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; His influence upon the 1530s, one of the most
influential and vital decades in English history, was enormous.&amp;nbsp;
One needs only to study the 1540s to realize how the loss of Cromwell
affected Tudor government.&amp;nbsp; He also came to power during Anne
Boleyn's ascendancy.&amp;nbsp; It was a symbolic changing of the guard -
the old Katharine of Aragon thrust aside for the young, ambitious Anne
Boleyn and Wolsey disgraced and replaced by his protégé
Cromwell.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell supported Anne until she, like Wolsey, became
a liability.&amp;nbsp; Among his immediate accomplishments were the
following: &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;1&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - the dissolution of the
monasteries and establishment of the royal supremacy &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;2&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - founded the ministries of
Augmentations and First Fruits to handle income from the dissolution &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;3&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - founded the two courts of Wards
and Surveyors which allowed more efficient taxation and leasing &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;4 &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt;- politically integrated the
kingdom by extending sovereign authority into northern England, Wales
&amp;amp; Ireland (actions which angered the great feudal lords) &lt;br&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#990000&quot;&gt;5&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - used the power of that
relatively new invention, the printing-press and thus spearheaded the
first propaganda campaign in English history. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the 1530s, he had instituted reforms of the
English government which earned enmity from the nobility.&amp;nbsp;
Cromwell recognized the basic inefficiency of feudal government and,
from it, struggled to create a more logical system.&amp;nbsp; Instead of
offices held solely because of birth, he wanted trained servants with
expertise in their field.&amp;nbsp; He built a bureaucracy of professionals
outside the royal household.&amp;nbsp; He began the first era of
parliamentary control of England, using the institution to dissolve the
monasteries which made up a quarter of all arable land and validate his
other decisions. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; From the above list, one will note that most of
the 'accomplishments' were motivated by financial need.&amp;nbsp; Like his
predecessors in government ministry, Cromwell needed to provide secure
and regular income.&amp;nbsp; This alone necessitated an assault on the
church's wealth.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell also developed a novel, and very
unpopular idea - in the past, taxes were created to support warfare; in
1534, he developed a new tax.&amp;nbsp; Its basis?&amp;nbsp; The king's
maintenance of peace.&amp;nbsp; These measures did not help his reputation
but, by 1547, had brought nearly 2,000,000 pds to
Henry's treasury.&amp;nbsp; Of course, Henry would use the entire windfall
to
finance his increasingly complicated foreign policy.&amp;nbsp; At the time
of
Henry's death, all the wealth Cromwell had accumulated was gone and
Edward
VI was left with debased currency and massive debts. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In 1534, however, Henry was prepared to reap the
benefits of his new anti-clerical policies.&amp;nbsp; He had appointed his
friend Thomas Cranmer to the venerable and powerful position of
Archbishop of Canterbury.&amp;nbsp; Cranmer was like Cromwell in many ways
- both owed their rise to prominence entirely to Henry's mercurial
favor; both came from humble backgrounds; both
were despised by the traditional nobility.&amp;nbsp; Cranmer had come to
Henry's
attention by first suggesting a solution to the divorce problem -
petition
learned churchmen for their opinion, assuming they agreed with
Henry.&amp;nbsp;
Like Cromwell, Cranmer benefited directly from the fall of Katharine of
Aragon and the Imperial alliance and the rise of Anne Boleyn and her
Norfolk
relations.&amp;nbsp; Henry's midlife crisis provided fertile ground for
ambitious
men.&amp;nbsp; Cranmer and Cromwell liked one another and became friends,
though
Cranmer was careful to distance himself once Cromwell's ruin was
assured. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In 1535, Henry appointed Cromwell Vicar General
and, over the next five years, the honors increased - Lord Privy Seal,
titled Baron Cromwell of Oakham, Knight of the Garter and Dean of
Wells, and finally Lord Great Chancellor and ennoblement as Earl of
Essex.&amp;nbsp; The last was Cromwell's greatest ambition and long before
justified by his superior service to the crown.&amp;nbsp; During the
accumulation of these honors, however, Cromwell began to recognize the
flaws in his success. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; First, he had accompanied Anne Boleyn on her rise
to power; yet, in 1536, he helped engineer her disgrace and execution
on charges of adultery, incest, and witchcraft.&amp;nbsp; Why?&amp;nbsp;
Cromwell recognized Henry's dissatisfaction with the marriage - after
several years, Anne's sharp tongue had offended many and, even worse,
she had not produced a male heir.&amp;nbsp; Furthermore, Henry had become
infatuated with Anne's lady-in-waiting, Mistress Jane Seymour.&amp;nbsp;
Tiring of his wife, he wanted to be rid of her.&amp;nbsp; Divorce was only
briefly considered before being pushed aside.&amp;nbsp; As he had with
Katharine of Aragon, Henry became convinced his marriage was invalid,
only this time because of adultery, and he retained his absolute
conviction in her guilt even as he truly believed his and Katharine's
marriage was invalid.&amp;nbsp; To rid himself of Anne, he turned to the
ever-ready Cromwell.&amp;nbsp; Soon enough, Anne was on trial with her
brother and two male servants.&amp;nbsp; They were all executed, despite
spirited defenses and the widely-held belief that it was judicial
murder. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Cromwell betrayed his former patron because she
no longer held the king's favor.&amp;nbsp; In the rough world of Tudor
politics, friendships were lost in the struggle for prestige and
survival.&amp;nbsp; And now Cromwell turned to Mistress Jane Seymour and
her relatively obscure family for support.&amp;nbsp; The Seymours, however,
never warmed to Cromwell as had the Boleyns, largely because they
didn't trust him or his influence over the king.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell was
careful to press Jane's cause to the king though Henry needed little
urging.&amp;nbsp; Just days after Anne Boleyn's execution, Jane Seymour
became his third wife, dying eighteen months later after delivering the
longed-for son, Prince Edward.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell busied himself with
auctioning off church properties to various noblemen and further
reforming the archaic machinery of Tudor government.&amp;nbsp; In doing so,
he continued to ignore Henry's council of noble peers.&amp;nbsp; When the
council did meet, Cromwell dominated the meetings and disregarded most
suggestions.&amp;nbsp; To his credit, he was right on most counts; the
nobility was quite distanced from the changing nature of
government.&amp;nbsp; They were fiercely protective of their own
'inalienable' rights as landowners and peers and notoriously difficult
when these rights were impugned (this conflict between the nobility and
monarchy was centuries-old - simply remember the 13th century &lt;i&gt;Magna
Carta&lt;/i&gt;, when the nobles forced King John I to recognize their
'natural' rights.) &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; As discussed earlier, the nobility resented
Cromwell's influence with the king and his pro-monarchy, anti-nobility
policy.&amp;nbsp; And while many of the nobles benefited from the sale of
clerical lands, many others had relatives dedicated to religious
service.&amp;nbsp; Also, reverence for the church and its servants was as
deeply-held as reverence for the monarchy.&amp;nbsp; Henry's attacks upon
the church struck many as unnatural and wrong; since they could not
turn on the king, they turned on Cromwell and blamed him for every
unpopular policy.&amp;nbsp; Henry VIII, who relished his popularity,
allowed his faithful servant to be impugned.&amp;nbsp; Thus, Henry could
meet with his nobles, listen to their complaints, and even agree with
them since many were his dearest friends.&amp;nbsp; The king remained
popular while his chief minister became increasingly despised and
isolated.&amp;nbsp; It is worth noting that one of Cromwell's friends,
Richard Moryson, argued that merit and not birth should be the only
qualification for entry into the privy council.&amp;nbsp; Moryson
eventually became a member himself. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It is also important to note that years of
listening to anti-Cromwell gossip eventually affected Henry.&amp;nbsp; Even
the king did not exist in a vacuum and, as his temper became
increasingly erratic, he was easily swayed by inflamed opinion.&amp;nbsp;
Thus, Cromwell suffered from a lapse in Henry's temper and one which
the king almost immediately regretted.&amp;nbsp; Chief among Cromwell's
enemies were the highest nobles in the land, once Wolsey's great
enemies and led by the dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk.&amp;nbsp; These men
had pushed Wolsey from favor after years of effort and were determined
to do the same to his protégé.&amp;nbsp; The perfect
opportunity arrived when Queen Jane died two weeks after childbirth, in
October 1537.&amp;nbsp; Henry VIII was genuinely bereaved at her death but
almost immediately the search began for a new queen.&amp;nbsp; After all,
Jane had delivered a son but one male heir was not enough in the
sixteenth century.&amp;nbsp; Henry's council began to search for a new
consort with the king's enthusiastic support. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; For Cromwell, this was a chance to further extend
his influence while thwarting the English nobility.&amp;nbsp; Henry's
second and third wives had been English noblewomen whose families
directly profited from their rise to power.&amp;nbsp; The influence of
these families naturally troubled Cromwell.&amp;nbsp; As their influence
rose, his own suffered - so he was opposed to the idea of another
English wife.&amp;nbsp; Also, as an intelligent statesman, he recognized
the diplomatic power of royal marriages.&amp;nbsp; Henry's troublesome
foreign policy could be soothed if he chose a foreign wife - a princess
or duchess of one of the great European families.&amp;nbsp; Kings were
meant to marry other royalty and Cromwell immediately searched for
possible candidates. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; While searching, he was careful to avoid Catholic
candidates.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell's rise to power was directly connected to
the fall of Catholicism in England and he wanted to keep England on the
path of Protestantism.&amp;nbsp; Therefore, he sought a Protestant ally for
Henry VIII.&amp;nbsp; Naturally, his gaze turned to the Protestant states
of Germany, birthplace of the Lutheran revolution.&amp;nbsp; Meanwhile,
Henry VIII was concerned with more aesthetic matters, sending artists
(most famously, Hans
Holbein the Younger) to France and Milan to paint potential
brides.&amp;nbsp; Among those painted was Christina, duchess of Milan and
niece of the Holy Roman Emperor; she famously remarked that she would
be happy to marry Henry - if she had two heads!&amp;nbsp; Henry also
considered Marie de Guise, a widowed cousin of the French king.&amp;nbsp;
Marie, however, chose to marry Henry's nephew, James V of Scotland,
thus creating a French-Scottish alliance along Henry's troublesome
northern border.&amp;nbsp; Their only surviving child is famous in history
as the tragic Mary queen of Scots. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Cromwell was well aware that if France and the
Holy Roman Empire ended hostilities, as seemed likely, England would be
left out in the diplomatic cold.&amp;nbsp; He was quite happy when the
French and Imperial marriage negotiations fell apart.&amp;nbsp; But as the
search wound on, Henry became increasingly desperate for a wife.&amp;nbsp;
No doubt he was lonely; also, his court needed a queen to be
complete.&amp;nbsp; A king was not meant to be a bachelor, as every
European monarch knew.&amp;nbsp; Finally, Cromwell found a Protestant ally
with two available sisters - the duke of Cleves, whose lands were
strategically located and wealthy.&amp;nbsp; He had two sisters not yet wed
called Anne and Amelia.&amp;nbsp; As the eldest, Anne was chosen as the
possible bride and Holbein immediately went to Cleves to paint her
portrait.&amp;nbsp; &lt;a
 href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=0&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fwww.geocities.com%2fathens%2fforum%2f9194%2fcleves1.jpg&quot;&gt;This
painting&lt;/a&gt; would become of paramount importance in the coming
year.&amp;nbsp; Henry was determined to have a beautiful wife and
specifically asked his various ambassadors probing questions - does
Marie de Guise have wide hips for childbearing? is Christina of Milan
pock-marked? does Anne of Cleves play the lute?&amp;nbsp; Holbein's famous
portrait of Anne cannot be adequately judged in our time; after all,
standards of beauty have changed.&amp;nbsp; However, it is amusing to note
that she - so maligned in her own time as the ugliest of Henry's wives
- is the most attractive by twentieth-century standards. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Holbein's portrait showed a perfectly attractive
young woman - and, on that basis, Cromwell was able to secure the
marriage alliance with a Protestant ally.&amp;nbsp; Anne set sail for
England, little realizing what lay ahead.&amp;nbsp; The king, meanwhile,
was ecstatic that after almost three years as a widower he would be a
husband again, able to play one of his favorite roles.&amp;nbsp; The entire
country was thrilled at the news, in fact, and after Anne arrived,
Cromwell finally secured his greatest ambition - an earldom.&amp;nbsp; He
was titled earl of Essex by Henry VIII on 18 April 1540 after the
marriage treaty was finalized. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; During this time, he also attempted to placate
the nobility by redistributing lands to the great magnates, providing
them with near-autonomous controls of great sections of land.&amp;nbsp; For
example, the duke of Suffolk traded East Anglian lands for lands in
Lincolnshire - the duke of Norfolk already held lands in Anglia while
Lincolnshire needed a strong leader.&amp;nbsp; Earlier, Cromwell had
attempted to befriend Henry's oldest child, the stubbornly Catholic
Princess Mary.&amp;nbsp; She rebuffed his attention, largely on religious
grounds. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Two years of marriage-brokering were often
interrupted by rumors of rebellion.&amp;nbsp; The Pilgrimage of Grace had
made Henry more sensitive to popular sentiment.&amp;nbsp; While Cromwell
searched for a wife, rumors spread that the king planned new
taxes.&amp;nbsp; Also, the last remnants of the legitimate Plantagenet line
- the Nevilles, Poles, and Courtenays - were suspected of encouraging
rebellionn and Henry used this convenient excuse to order more
executions.&amp;nbsp; But popular unrest needed to be assuaged in some
manner so Cromwell engineered the passing of the Six Articles at
Parliament in April 1539.&amp;nbsp; These articles attempted to stamp a
more conservative gloss on the Henrician reformation, thus placating
conservative European nobles - and the Catholic nations in Europe, now
forced to concede Henry was not so great a heretic after all.&amp;nbsp; It
was a supreme example of Cromwell's talent for diffusing domestic
tension.&amp;nbsp; In effect, it was all talk and no action; it didn't
alter the course of the reformation one bit. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Finally, on 6 October 1539, the marriage treaty
with Cleves was finalized just two months after Holbein delivered his
portrait.&amp;nbsp; Princess Anne, once betrothed to the duke of Lorraine,
was now destined to be queen of England.&amp;nbsp; It was the fulfillment
of Cromwell's domestic and foreign policies.&amp;nbsp; On 11 December, Anne
was at Calais waiting for a favorable wind to carry her to Dover.&amp;nbsp;
She was there for almost two weeks while Henry waited at
Greenwich.&amp;nbsp; Finally, on 27 December she landed at Deal and then
traveled to Dover and Canterbury before arriving at Rochester on 1
January 1540.&amp;nbsp; Henry, desperate to see his bride in person, rushed
in disguise to meet her 'to thus nourish love', he told Cromwell.&amp;nbsp;
Their comical first meeting is described at the &lt;a
 href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=0&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fprimary.html&quot;&gt;Primary Sources&lt;/a&gt;
section. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The meeting was an unmitigated disaster and the
beginning of Cromwell's end.&amp;nbsp; The New Year gifts Henry had brought
for Anne were delivered the next day by a courier with a brief note of
welcome.&amp;nbsp; 'I am ashamed that men have so praised her as they have
done, and I like her not', the king said ominously; he told Cromwell
that Anne was 'nothing so well as she was spoken of' and, if he had
known the truth of her appearance, she would never have come to
England.&amp;nbsp; The next day, his betrothed arrived in Greenwich and the
marriage, scheduled for that day, was delayed for two days while Henry
sought escape.&amp;nbsp; But there was none to be had - the Holy Roman
Emperor was in Paris meeting with the French king and Henry, locked out
by those two great powers, could not risk offending the German princes
who approved the union with Anne.&amp;nbsp; They were, after all, his only
allies at the moment.&amp;nbsp; So Anne was not sent back and Henry moaned
that he must 'put my neck in the yoke'.&amp;nbsp; He wrote to Cromwell, 'My
lord, if it were not to satisfy the world and my realm, I would not do
that I must do this day for none earthly thing'. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Poor Anne of Cleves - barely able to speak
English, in a foreign land, and despised by her intended husband!&amp;nbsp;
The confused woman was led to a private marriage ceremony at Greenwich
and, then, to her equally humiliating marriage-bed.&amp;nbsp; The union was
not consummated, a subject upon which Henry never wavered.&amp;nbsp; He
spoke openly of how disgusted he was by Anne's appearance; 'struck to
the heart' by distaste, he 'left her as good a maid as he found
her'.&amp;nbsp; They lay together for the entire length of their marriage
but were never physically intimate.&amp;nbsp; After a few months had
passed, the French-Imperial alliance showed signs of cooling and
Henry's natural boldness had returned.&amp;nbsp; He wanted out of this
fourth marriage and told Cromwell to arrange it. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; What were Cromwell's options?&amp;nbsp; There were
two ways to nullify the marriage (in essence, arrange a divorce) -
Henry had not consented to the marriage (this was proved by his failure
to consummate it) and Anne had not consented to the marriage (this was
proved by Anne's precontract to the duke of Lorraine.)&amp;nbsp; Henry had
long been concerned with the latter problem - but had been assured that
the contract was completely repudiated.&amp;nbsp; Still, the day before his
marriage to Anne, he called the Clevian ambassadors to him and raised
the issue.&amp;nbsp; They were astonished, and rightly so, and offered to
remain as prisoners in England until the formal repudiation papers were
delivered from Cleves.&amp;nbsp; Meanwhile, Thomas Cranmer told the king
that Anne could simply swear that the betrothal had been repudiated -
no official documents were necessary.&amp;nbsp; His friend Cromwell
'travailed on him [Henry] to pass the matter over'; he hoped that once
Henry was married to Anne, the king would resign himself to the
marriage. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; But instead Henry turned to the precontract when
his distaste could not be overcome.&amp;nbsp; On 9 July, Parliament
declared the marriage null and void and Anne, surprising Henry and the
court, was content to be called 'sister' and receive a handsome income
and household in England.&amp;nbsp; She had no desire to return to Cleves,
where she would remain under her brother's
thumb and perhaps married again.&amp;nbsp; It is also possible she found
Henry
as unattractive as he found her.&amp;nbsp; Henry was so pleased with this
unexpected
docility that he gave her status second only to his daughters,
Princesses
Mary and Elizabeth, both of whom came to befriend Anne.&amp;nbsp; Anne's
letter
to Henry, in which she accepts the dissolution of their marriage, can
be
read at '&lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=0&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fletters.html&quot;&gt;Letters
of the Six Wives of Henry VIII&lt;/a&gt;'. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; However, the time had come to search for a
convenient scapegoat - the person responsible for the disastrous
union.&amp;nbsp; Henry railed against his ambassadors who had so misled him
with descriptions of her beauty - though, in truth, the ambassador's
descriptions had been honest.&amp;nbsp; It was soon alleged that Cromwell
had kept them from the king, for fear of discouraging the union.&amp;nbsp;
Now, Cromwell was arrested on 10 June 1540, at 3pm on a Saturday, while
at a Privy Council meeting.&amp;nbsp; This was a full month before the
marriage was nullified.&amp;nbsp; Henry and Cromwell's enemies were in the
midst of finding scapegoats for the marriage, while not yet assured of
its outcome.&amp;nbsp; Henry, in a fit of temper and pique, complained
bitterly that his minister had betrayed him while trying to further his
own influence; the nobility were only too happy to encourage such
thoughts.&amp;nbsp; They urged Henry to arrest Cromwell and teach the
upstart his final lesson - namely, that it does not pay to mislead a
king. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; So the captain of the guard arrived at the
council chamber and arrested Cromwell, while a table of his enemies
looked on.&amp;nbsp; The moment the guard entered the room, Cromwell
recognized the danger - and threw his hat upon the table in rage.&amp;nbsp;
Norfolk and Southampton stripped his decorations from his robe of state
and Cromwell was then escorted to a barge - and, then, the Tower of
London.&amp;nbsp; The events which follow are far from clear - Cromwell's
fall and execution are among the most mysterious events of Henry VIII's
reign and cannot be easily understood.&amp;nbsp; I have yet to read a
history which offers an adequate explanation.&amp;nbsp; In truth, Henry
became increasingly mercurial and tempermental in his later years, and
Cromwell was just one of many victims of the king's ever-changing
whims. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;+1&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/font&gt; First, if Cromwell fell from favor
because of the Cleves marriage, as most believe, why did Henry title
him earl of Essex in April 1540 - months after the marriage had been
finalized and while negotiations for divorce were underway?&amp;nbsp;
Second, if Cromwell was executed because his government policies
angered the king, as has been alleged, why did Henry give his voluntary
approval to all of Cromwell's legislation?&amp;nbsp; Third, is his enemies
were in the ascendancy, why had Henry only recently shown the duke of
Norfolk (Cromwell's great enemy) open favor?&amp;nbsp; After all, Norfolk
had just been sent abroad on diplomatic work - away from the king. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; What are we left with?&amp;nbsp; The charges
eventually listed in Cromwell's attainder &lt;i&gt;did not&lt;/i&gt; list the
above - Cromwell was not accused of misleading Henry on matters of
policy, he was not held responsible for the disastrous marriage, and he
was not charged with leading England into an unwanted Lutheran
alliance.&amp;nbsp; Instead, he was charged with selling export licenses
illegally, granting passports and commissions without royal knowledge,
freeing people suspected of treason and - of course - that he,
base-born and ignoble, had usuurped and deliberately misused royal
power.&amp;nbsp; Most significantly, however, he was charged with heresy -
this charge was the bulk of his attaindder and apparently swayed Henry
decisively.&amp;nbsp; Norfolk, allied with the Catholic bishops Cromwell
had forced from power, engineered this charge.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell, they
charged, had encouraged and spread heretical literature, allowed
heretics to preach, released them from prison, and allied himself
against their enemies.&amp;nbsp; Significantly, it was reported that in
March 1539 Cromwell said that, even if Henry turned from Protestantism,
'yet I would not turn, and if the king did turn, and all his people, I
would fight in this field in mine own person, with my sword in my hand &lt;i&gt;against
him&lt;/i&gt; and all other'.&amp;nbsp; That was treason. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Shortly after his arrest, incriminating letters
to Lutherans were found in Cromwell's home, placed there by agents of
the duke of Norfolk; they were so inflammatory that the king was
outraged.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell's name, Henry swore, would be abolished
forever.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell wrote two desperate letters from the Tower; the
one that survives is in tatters.&amp;nbsp; He assured his monarch that he
was a good, loyal servant and a faithful Christian.&amp;nbsp; But Henry,
surrounded by Cromwell's enemies and - more significantly - newly
infatuated with Norfolk's niece, Catherine Howard, would hear
nothing.&amp;nbsp; Furthermore, Norfolk was shrewd enough to create a
Lutheran conspiracy; three popular reformers, Robert Barnes, Thomas
Garret, and William Jerome, were executed just days after
Cromwell.&amp;nbsp; None of the men were allowed an open trial.&amp;nbsp; That
would allow the public opportunity for them to dispute the false
charges.&amp;nbsp; Instead, they were condemned by Act of Attainder, a
parliamentary tool which dispensed with justice in favor of speed. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The executed men were also neighbors of Cromwell,
which was their only link to the earl.&amp;nbsp; And they were as innocent
as
Cromwell of the charges against them - as evidenced by the confusion of
contemporary chroniclers.&amp;nbsp; Edward Hall, one of the great
chroniclers of Tudor England, could find no real evidence against them
although he 'searched to know the truth'. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; So Cromwell was executed privately on Tower Green
on 28 July 1540, still protesting his innocence.&amp;nbsp; He died with
dignity - but the whole sordid affair of his death would not
rest.&amp;nbsp; For the volatile Henry VIII was soon despairing of his
loss, just a few months after he allowed the execution.&amp;nbsp; He raged
at his council, accusing them of lying and deliberately destroying his
'most faithful servant'.&amp;nbsp; Cromwell's destruction had been
engineered on 'light pretexts' and against the king's wishes.&amp;nbsp; In
truth, Henry was a victim as well - of a determined group of nobles and
clerics, led by Norfolk, who hated Cromwell and carried the king along
on their path of destruction.&amp;nbsp; Events were rapid and deliberately
confused.&amp;nbsp; By the time Henry realized what had happened, it was
too late.&amp;nbsp; He could only bemoan his loss, while never
understanding exactly why it happened. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; This was no comfort to Thomas Cromwell, however;
after a lifetime of dedicated service, he met his end by execution and
all of Henry's
regrets could not bring him back to life. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;center&gt;
&lt;hr width=&quot;100%&quot;&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=0&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fcitizens.html&quot;&gt;to
Tudor Citizens&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=0&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor.html&quot;&gt;to Tudor
England&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;Want to learn more about Cromwell?&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;Try these books (used as sources for my article) -&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;The Cardinal and the Secretary: Thomas Wolsey and
Thomas Cromwell&lt;/font&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;by Neville Williams.&lt;/font&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;Policy and Police: the enforcement of the Reformation
in the Age of Thomas Cromwell&lt;/font&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;by G. R. Elton.&lt;/font&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;Reform and Renewal: Thomas Cromwell and the Common Weal&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;by G. R. Elton.&lt;/font&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;Thomas Cromwell and the English Reformation&lt;/font&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;by A. G. Dickens.&lt;/font&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;Thomas Cromwell: Tudor Minister&lt;/font&gt; &lt;br&gt;
&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;by B. W. Beckingsale.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;-1&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/center&gt;
&lt;br&gt;
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