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| 9 | <title>Tudor Citizens - Thomas Cromwell</title>
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| 13 | <center><img src="cromwell.gif"
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| 14 | alt="Thomas Cromwell" style="width: 313px; height: 59px;"> <br>
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| 15 | born c.1485 in Putney <br>
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| 16 | executed 28 July 1540 in London
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| 17 | <p><b><font size="+1">"A good household manager, but not fit to meddle
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| 18 | in the affairs of kings."</font></b> <br>
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| 19 | <font size="-1">May 1538, Henry VIII describes Cromwell to the French
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| 20 | ambassador</font></p>
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| 21 | </center>
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| 22 | <p><img
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| 23 | src="cromwell-small.jpg"
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| 24 | alt="portrait of Cromwell as the earl of Essex"
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| 25 | style="border: 2px solid ; width: 220px; height: 264px;" align="left">
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| 26 | Thomas Cromwell was as great a statesman as England
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| 27 | has ever seen and, in his decade of power, permanently changed the
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| 28 | course
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| 29 | of English history. Unlike his mentor, Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell
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| 30 | was not a priest or a papist. He was a lawyer determined to
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| 31 | impose his own character - methodical, detached, and calculating - upon
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| 32 | government. </p>
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| 33 | <p> Cromwell wanted government to be effective and
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| 34 | efficient; to achieve this, he had to end the chaos of feudal privilege
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| 35 | and ill-defined jurisdictions. He was blessed with a logical mind
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| 36 | in an age sadly devoid of them. And unlike his royal master, he
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| 37 | did not let his emotions interfere with his position. He was the
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| 38 | ideal statesman for Tudor England and, just months after his execution
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| 39 | in 1540, Henry VIII was bemoaning his loss. </p>
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| 40 | <p> Cromwell was introduced to government service as
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| 41 | a secretary for <a
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| 42 | href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/citizens/wolsey.html">Cardinal
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| 43 | Wolsey</a>. His abilities won him the older man's respect and
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| 44 | soon Cromwell was his most
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| 45 | trusted servant and principal secretary. But Cromwell managed to
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| 46 | distance
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| 47 | himself from Wolsey immediately after the Cardinal fell from grace and
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| 48 | soon
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| 49 | had taken his place as Henry's most valuable advisor. Before
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| 50 | entering
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| 51 | Wolsey's service, Cromwell lived an adventurous life. His father
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| 52 | had
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| 53 | been a brewer and blacksmith known for permanent drunkenness and
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| 54 | illegal
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| 55 | activities. From this inauspicious beginning, his son went on to
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| 56 | indulge
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| 57 | his curiosity and practical nature by traveling through Europe.
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| 58 | Over
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| 59 | the course of several years, he was a soldier in Europe, a banker in
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| 60 | Italy,
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| 61 | clerk in the Netherlands, and a lawyer in London. Like so many
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| 62 | ambitious
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| 63 | men, he was in Wolsey's service in the mid-1520s. His most
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| 64 | important
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| 65 | work was the suppression of 29 religious houses whose monies Wolsey
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| 66 | used
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| 67 | to endow colleges at Ipswich and Oxford. When Wolsey fell from
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| 68 | grace
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| 69 | in 1529, Cromwell was hurriedly elected burgess for Taunton so he could
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| 70 | remain in government service. </p>
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| 71 | <p> There were striking similarities between the two
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| 72 | men - both managed to remain favorites of the mercurial Henry VIII for
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| 73 | years; both were despised by the older nobility who coveted their
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| 74 | influence with the king; both sought to reform the creaky medieval
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| 75 | bureaucracy of Tudor government; both were highly intelligent and
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| 76 | well-versed in international affairs. And both, ultimately, fell
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| 77 | from Henry's favor with spectacular speed. In the end, the king
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| 78 | preferred to listen to the old nobility. </p>
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| 79 | <p> But Cromwell and Wolsey were also markedly
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| 80 | different in many ways. Cromwell was the man responsible for the
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| 81 | Henrician reformation while Wolsey fell because he served two masters,
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| 82 | the king of England and the Pope. Though Henry had ejected Rome
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| 83 | from his nation, he still practiced the Roman Catholic religion.
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| 84 | The king's religious tendencies were never reformist and many
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| 85 | historians have made the mistake of painting him as one of the first
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| 86 | Protestant kings. Henry was never a Protestant and he wrote
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| 87 | treatises vilifying Martin Luther for which he was titled 'Defender of
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| 88 | the Faith' by the Pope. Rather, he was an opportunist who
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| 89 | disliked papal authority and interference in his realm and wanted some
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| 90 | of the vast wealth the English church possessed. For
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| 91 | Henry, often desperately short of money, it was near-blasphemy for his
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| 92 | subjects
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| 93 | to pay taxes directly to Rome; he wanted the money for his
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| 94 | government.
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| 95 | He also wanted an annulment from a devoutly Catholic wife, Katharine of
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| 96 | Aragon, and when the Pope, held hostage by the Holy Roman Emperor,
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| 97 | refused
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| 98 | to rule in his favor, he found it most expedient to simply disregard
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| 99 | the
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| 100 | papacy. But throughout it all, Henry was unaware of the forces he
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| 101 | had unleashed when he declared himself head of the English
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| 102 | church.
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| 103 | Trained for the church as a child, he remained staunchly Catholic for
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| 104 | his
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| 105 | entire life though the Catholic church deemed him a heretic. </p>
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| 106 | <center>
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| 107 | <p><b><u><font color="#000000">a discussion of the Henrician reformation</font></u></b></p>
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| 108 | </center>
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| 109 | <p> It is important to remember that during Henry's
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| 110 | reign, at least half of his subjects were under the age of
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| 111 | eighteen. Henry's court swarmed with young people - pages,
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| 112 | scullery maids, and the like. English culture celebrated youth;
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| 113 | tournaments, hunts, glorious warfare were all the province of the young
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| 114 | and strong. And while Henry was young, he joined these events
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| 115 | with a gusto sadly lacking in his father or son. But time does
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| 116 | not stop, not even for a despotic monarch determined to have his way in
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| 117 | all things. During his 'great matter', Henry was in his thirties
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| 118 | and changing from 'Bluff King Hal' into an overweight and balding
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| 119 | hypochondriac. He had rid himself of Rome to gain wealth and a
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| 120 | son. He gained both and, once he had, continually toyed with the
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| 121 | idea of making peace with the pope. He didn't relish
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| 122 | excommunication and it is likely that he persuaded himself that he
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| 123 | wasn't disobeying Christ's vicar but rather the Emperor's puppet. </p>
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| 124 | <p> But he misjudged the mood of his people,
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| 125 | particularly his nobles. Educated and by nature inquisitive and
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| 126 | acquisitive, the new Protestant teachings intrigued them; they also
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| 127 | sought the vast monastic lands which Henry planned to sell. This
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| 128 | was the paradox of the Henrician reformation. It was motivated by
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| 129 | greed and genuine religious turmoil. As time passed, the new
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| 130 | generation of nobles were Protestant because it was expedient and
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| 131 | philosophically appealing. And with each year, more Englishmen
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| 132 | were born who were further and further away from the old days of Roman
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| 133 | domination. Henry, in his forties, could remember the papist ways
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| 134 | but, as the years passed, fewer and fewer of his subjects did. </p>
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| 135 | <p> In terms of the practical effect the reformation
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| 136 | had on everyday Englishmen, the situation is more difficult to
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| 137 | gauge. Unlike the wealthy noblemen, they couldn't bid on the
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| 138 | seized monastic properties. And in many towns and villages, the
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| 139 | parish church was the community center, where births, weddings, and
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| 140 | deaths were officiated over by a priest. But they undoubtedly
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| 141 | enjoyed not paying their tax to Rome. Once again, a paradox
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| 142 | emerged - an excommunicated nation which found itself torn between
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| 143 | loyalty to the sovereign and loyalty to the papacy. Also, since
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| 144 | Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn could only be recognized if one
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| 145 | accepted his annulment from Katharine - which in itself meant a
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| 146 | rejection of papal authority - and it was treason to <i>not</i>
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| 147 | recognize his marriage to Anne, then many people were swayed by the
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| 148 | threat of execution. In other words, accept Henry's decisions or
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| 149 | die. Of course, I cannot discuss all aspects of the reformation
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| 150 | at this site; I recommend L.B. Smith's <i>Henry VIII</i> which studies
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| 151 | Henry's own theological beliefs. </p>
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| 152 | <p> There was opposition to the reformation which
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| 153 | probably had more to do with the attendant loss of independence in
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| 154 | north England. In 1536, a northern uprising which came to be
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| 155 | called the Pilgrimage of Grace, gathered over 40,000 men and marched
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| 156 | through England. It eventually destroyed itself by internal
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| 157 | division and lack of clear purpose but one of the rebels' demands was a
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| 158 | warning for Cromwell - they want their king to be advised by <i>noble</i>
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| 159 | councilors who understand the people's wishes, not common men like
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| 160 | Cromwell. Henry was angry at their presumption - how dare his
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| 161 | ignorant subjects rebel annd then tell him how to run the country! -
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| 162 | but he was persuaded to show mercy and pardon those involved. And
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| 163 | he continued to listen to Cromwell. </p>
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| 164 | <p> The <a
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| 165 | href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/primary.html">Pilgrimage of Grace</a>
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| 166 | was largely motivated not by religious concerns but by Cromwell's
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| 167 | determination to dissolve the monasteries and improve the royal tax
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| 168 | collecting methods. For example, the movement began in Louth, in
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| 169 | Lincolnshire, and began with the murder of two tax collectors, one of
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| 170 | whom was hanged and the other sewn into a sack and thrown to a pack of
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| 171 | hungry dogs! </p>
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| 172 | <p> So the common people might grumble somewhat but
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| 173 | they were ultimately more influenced by practical matters. Had
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| 174 | Henry's excommunication been followed by a terrible harvest or bad
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| 175 | weather, it may have been otherwise. During his daughter Mary's
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| 176 | reign, such signs were taken to mean God was angry with her for
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| 177 | attempting to reinstate Catholicism. But not only did Henry enjoy
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| 178 | good weather, he had a brilliant servant. Cromwell was the one
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| 179 | who gave force to Henry's grand declarations. The king declared
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| 180 | that Rome had no authority in England and Cromwell instituted the
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| 181 | reforms which would make it so. The king declared that all
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| 182 | monastic lands were forfeit and Cromwell set out to close the
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| 183 | monasteries, assess their value, and sell them to the highest
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| 184 | bidder. For a decade, this partnership worked marvelously. </p>
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| 185 | <p> Also, Henry and Cromwell both recognized a
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| 186 | fundamental truth of the English people; the government could do what
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| 187 | it liked as long as traditional religious views were not upset too
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| 188 | much. Certainly Henry did not upset his own. The name of
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| 189 | the pope was omitted in their prayers but not much else. Henry's
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| 190 | break with Rome was really a legal reformation rather than one of real
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| 191 | religious content. England practiced Catholicism without a pope
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| 192 | and, in his place, was their king. This situation suited
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| 193 | Cromwell. Like many, he recognized that the Church had lost its
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| 194 | way, remaining a ponderous medieval institution concerned with wealth
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| 195 | and influence. But Europe was no longer medieval; countries were
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| 196 | becoming nation-states, patriotic and immune to the cultural unity
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| 197 | which Rome promoted. The pope envisioned a collection of nations
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| 198 | joined beneath the cloak of Christendom with him at its head; but,
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| 199 | particularly in xenophobic England, there were mutterings that the
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| 200 | church was dominated by other nations. Also, the church claimed
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| 201 | authority over its subjects; no priest or cleric could be tried by
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| 202 | their sovereign nation. They would answer only to Rome.
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| 203 | This problem had angered Henry II centuries before and resulted in
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| 204 | Thomas Becket's murder. In Henry's time, it had grown
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| 205 | worse. Also, as king, he believed himself ruler of <i>all</i>
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| 206 | his subjects, priest and commoner alike. </p>
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| 207 | <p> One must also mention the corruption of the
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| 208 | church, sadly evident to everyone. Certainly there were Godly men
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| 209 | who struggled to enforce the tenets of their faith. But there
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| 210 | were also bishops and cardinals more interested in business and finance
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| 211 | than theology. The church preached that the surest path to heaven
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| 212 | was through good works, particularly at a monastery or abbey, but every
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| 213 | Englishmen knew that only the wealthy could afford to endow or board at
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| 214 | them. Furthermore, an increasing number of churchmen were absent
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| 215 | from their posts. Cardinal Wolsey embodied this avaricious
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| 216 | streak; he was bishop, archbishop, abbot, and cardinal yet the affairs
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| 217 | of state kept him from his duties. Instead of tending to his
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| 218 | flock, he tended to his purse. He sired illegitimate children and
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| 219 | collected nearly 50,000 pds a year from his vast holdings. </p>
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| 220 | <p> Wolsey represented the church as it had become;
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| 221 | certainly such abuses may not have turned most Englishmen from their
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| 222 | faith. But when confronted with the forces of Protestantism, the
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| 223 | church found precious few willing to die for their beliefs. After
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| 224 | all, why would anyone die for a faith they didn't respect? When
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| 225 | the king styled himself head of the church, many were perhaps
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| 226 | relieved. Henry made no claim to a holy life, not like the
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| 227 | churchman Wolsey; he also was shrewd enough to endow his monarchy with
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| 228 | papal apparatus. From the 1530s on, the Tudor dynasty was even
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| 229 | more divine and the machinery of state could enforce its divinity. </p>
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| 230 | <center>
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| 231 | <p><b><u><font color="#000000">Cromwell's revolution in government</font></u></b></p>
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| 232 | </center>
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| 233 | <p> Cromwell's rise to power was extraordinary and
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| 234 | occurred just when Henry needed a minister of great administrative
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| 235 | imagination and genius, uninterested in the squabbles of his council
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| 236 | and determined to empower the machinery of state. Cromwell
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| 237 | entered royal service in early 1530 and, from then on, rose
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| 238 | rapidly. In late 1530 he was sworn into the King's Council and,
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| 239 | just a year later, began to attract unfavorable attention from Wolsey's
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| 240 | old rivals. These were Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester,
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| 241 | Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, and Charles Brandon, duke of
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| 242 | Suffolk. Gardiner had worked with Wolsey but, like Norfolk and
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| 243 | Suffolk, viewed the Cardinal's fall as a chance to take his
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| 244 | place. From 1529 to about 1533, they enjoyed the king's
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| 245 | confidence even as Cromwell rose to overtake them all. His career
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| 246 | progressed as follows: <br>
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| 247 | <b><font color="#990000">1531</font></b> - member of the privy council <br>
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| 248 | <b><font color="#990000">1532</font></b> - Master of Court of Wards and
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| 249 | Master of Jewel House <br>
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| 250 | <b><font color="#990000">1533</font></b> - Chancellor of the Exchequer <br>
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| 251 | <font color="#990000"><b>1534</b> </font>- King's Secretary and Master
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| 252 | of the Rolls <br>
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| 253 | <b><font color="#990000">1535</font></b> - Vicar-General <br>
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| 254 | <b><font color="#990000">1536</font></b> - Lord Privy Seal and Baron
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| 255 | Cromwell of Oakham <br>
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| 256 | <b><font color="#990000">1537</font></b> - Knight of the Garter and
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| 257 | Dean of Wells <br>
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| 258 | <b><font color="#990000">1539</font></b> - Lord Great Chamberlain <br>
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| 259 | <b><font color="#990000">1540</font></b> - created Earl of Essex </p>
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| 260 | <p> As the above list shows, Henry never forgot the
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| 261 | fallen Wolsey. He had heaped honors upon him with extravagant
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| 262 | generosity and had written to the pope recommending religious
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| 263 | promotion. In the end, Henry believed himself betrayed. Not
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| 264 | only had Wolsey accumulated obscene wealth, but he had grown arrogant
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| 265 | and eventually treasonous. And so Cromwell, despite his years of
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| 266 | diligence and genius, was eventually rewarded with an earldom but only
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| 267 | a short time before his execution. </p>
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| 268 | <p> His influence upon the 1530s, one of the most
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| 269 | influential and vital decades in English history, was enormous.
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| 270 | One needs only to study the 1540s to realize how the loss of Cromwell
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| 271 | affected Tudor government. He also came to power during Anne
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| 272 | Boleyn's ascendancy. It was a symbolic changing of the guard -
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| 273 | the old Katharine of Aragon thrust aside for the young, ambitious Anne
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| 274 | Boleyn and Wolsey disgraced and replaced by his protégé
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| 275 | Cromwell. Cromwell supported Anne until she, like Wolsey, became
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| 276 | a liability. Among his immediate accomplishments were the
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| 277 | following: <br>
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| 278 | <b><font color="#990000">1</font></b> - the dissolution of the
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| 279 | monasteries and establishment of the royal supremacy <br>
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| 280 | <b><font color="#990000">2</font></b> - founded the ministries of
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| 281 | Augmentations and First Fruits to handle income from the dissolution <br>
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| 282 | <b><font color="#990000">3</font></b> - founded the two courts of Wards
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| 283 | and Surveyors which allowed more efficient taxation and leasing <br>
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| 284 | <b><font color="#990000">4 </font></b>- politically integrated the
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| 285 | kingdom by extending sovereign authority into northern England, Wales
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| 286 | & Ireland (actions which angered the great feudal lords) <br>
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| 287 | <b><font color="#990000">5</font></b> - used the power of that
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| 288 | relatively new invention, the printing-press and thus spearheaded the
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| 289 | first propaganda campaign in English history. </p>
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| 290 | <p> In the 1530s, he had instituted reforms of the
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| 291 | English government which earned enmity from the nobility.
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| 292 | Cromwell recognized the basic inefficiency of feudal government and,
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| 293 | from it, struggled to create a more logical system. Instead of
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| 294 | offices held solely because of birth, he wanted trained servants with
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| 295 | expertise in their field. He built a bureaucracy of professionals
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| 296 | outside the royal household. He began the first era of
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| 297 | parliamentary control of England, using the institution to dissolve the
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| 298 | monasteries which made up a quarter of all arable land and validate his
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| 299 | other decisions. </p>
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| 300 | <p> From the above list, one will note that most of
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| 301 | the 'accomplishments' were motivated by financial need. Like his
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| 302 | predecessors in government ministry, Cromwell needed to provide secure
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| 303 | and regular income. This alone necessitated an assault on the
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| 304 | church's wealth. Cromwell also developed a novel, and very
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| 305 | unpopular idea - in the past, taxes were created to support warfare; in
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| 306 | 1534, he developed a new tax. Its basis? The king's
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| 307 | maintenance of peace. These measures did not help his reputation
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| 308 | but, by 1547, had brought nearly 2,000,000 pds to
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| 309 | Henry's treasury. Of course, Henry would use the entire windfall
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| 310 | to
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| 311 | finance his increasingly complicated foreign policy. At the time
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| 312 | of
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| 313 | Henry's death, all the wealth Cromwell had accumulated was gone and
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| 314 | Edward
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| 315 | VI was left with debased currency and massive debts. </p>
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| 316 | <p> In 1534, however, Henry was prepared to reap the
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| 317 | benefits of his new anti-clerical policies. He had appointed his
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| 318 | friend Thomas Cranmer to the venerable and powerful position of
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| 319 | Archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer was like Cromwell in many ways
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| 320 | - both owed their rise to prominence entirely to Henry's mercurial
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| 321 | favor; both came from humble backgrounds; both
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| 322 | were despised by the traditional nobility. Cranmer had come to
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| 323 | Henry's
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| 324 | attention by first suggesting a solution to the divorce problem -
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| 325 | petition
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| 326 | learned churchmen for their opinion, assuming they agreed with
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| 327 | Henry.
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| 328 | Like Cromwell, Cranmer benefited directly from the fall of Katharine of
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| 329 | Aragon and the Imperial alliance and the rise of Anne Boleyn and her
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| 330 | Norfolk
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| 331 | relations. Henry's midlife crisis provided fertile ground for
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| 332 | ambitious
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| 333 | men. Cranmer and Cromwell liked one another and became friends,
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| 334 | though
|
|---|
| 335 | Cranmer was careful to distance himself once Cromwell's ruin was
|
|---|
| 336 | assured. </p>
|
|---|
| 337 | <p> In 1535, Henry appointed Cromwell Vicar General
|
|---|
| 338 | and, over the next five years, the honors increased - Lord Privy Seal,
|
|---|
| 339 | titled Baron Cromwell of Oakham, Knight of the Garter and Dean of
|
|---|
| 340 | Wells, and finally Lord Great Chancellor and ennoblement as Earl of
|
|---|
| 341 | Essex. The last was Cromwell's greatest ambition and long before
|
|---|
| 342 | justified by his superior service to the crown. During the
|
|---|
| 343 | accumulation of these honors, however, Cromwell began to recognize the
|
|---|
| 344 | flaws in his success. </p>
|
|---|
| 345 | <p> First, he had accompanied Anne Boleyn on her rise
|
|---|
| 346 | to power; yet, in 1536, he helped engineer her disgrace and execution
|
|---|
| 347 | on charges of adultery, incest, and witchcraft. Why?
|
|---|
| 348 | Cromwell recognized Henry's dissatisfaction with the marriage - after
|
|---|
| 349 | several years, Anne's sharp tongue had offended many and, even worse,
|
|---|
| 350 | she had not produced a male heir. Furthermore, Henry had become
|
|---|
| 351 | infatuated with Anne's lady-in-waiting, Mistress Jane Seymour.
|
|---|
| 352 | Tiring of his wife, he wanted to be rid of her. Divorce was only
|
|---|
| 353 | briefly considered before being pushed aside. As he had with
|
|---|
| 354 | Katharine of Aragon, Henry became convinced his marriage was invalid,
|
|---|
| 355 | only this time because of adultery, and he retained his absolute
|
|---|
| 356 | conviction in her guilt even as he truly believed his and Katharine's
|
|---|
| 357 | marriage was invalid. To rid himself of Anne, he turned to the
|
|---|
| 358 | ever-ready Cromwell. Soon enough, Anne was on trial with her
|
|---|
| 359 | brother and two male servants. They were all executed, despite
|
|---|
| 360 | spirited defenses and the widely-held belief that it was judicial
|
|---|
| 361 | murder. </p>
|
|---|
| 362 | <p> Cromwell betrayed his former patron because she
|
|---|
| 363 | no longer held the king's favor. In the rough world of Tudor
|
|---|
| 364 | politics, friendships were lost in the struggle for prestige and
|
|---|
| 365 | survival. And now Cromwell turned to Mistress Jane Seymour and
|
|---|
| 366 | her relatively obscure family for support. The Seymours, however,
|
|---|
| 367 | never warmed to Cromwell as had the Boleyns, largely because they
|
|---|
| 368 | didn't trust him or his influence over the king. Cromwell was
|
|---|
| 369 | careful to press Jane's cause to the king though Henry needed little
|
|---|
| 370 | urging. Just days after Anne Boleyn's execution, Jane Seymour
|
|---|
| 371 | became his third wife, dying eighteen months later after delivering the
|
|---|
| 372 | longed-for son, Prince Edward. Cromwell busied himself with
|
|---|
| 373 | auctioning off church properties to various noblemen and further
|
|---|
| 374 | reforming the archaic machinery of Tudor government. In doing so,
|
|---|
| 375 | he continued to ignore Henry's council of noble peers. When the
|
|---|
| 376 | council did meet, Cromwell dominated the meetings and disregarded most
|
|---|
| 377 | suggestions. To his credit, he was right on most counts; the
|
|---|
| 378 | nobility was quite distanced from the changing nature of
|
|---|
| 379 | government. They were fiercely protective of their own
|
|---|
| 380 | 'inalienable' rights as landowners and peers and notoriously difficult
|
|---|
| 381 | when these rights were impugned (this conflict between the nobility and
|
|---|
| 382 | monarchy was centuries-old - simply remember the 13th century <i>Magna
|
|---|
| 383 | Carta</i>, when the nobles forced King John I to recognize their
|
|---|
| 384 | 'natural' rights.) </p>
|
|---|
| 385 | <p> As discussed earlier, the nobility resented
|
|---|
| 386 | Cromwell's influence with the king and his pro-monarchy, anti-nobility
|
|---|
| 387 | policy. And while many of the nobles benefited from the sale of
|
|---|
| 388 | clerical lands, many others had relatives dedicated to religious
|
|---|
| 389 | service. Also, reverence for the church and its servants was as
|
|---|
| 390 | deeply-held as reverence for the monarchy. Henry's attacks upon
|
|---|
| 391 | the church struck many as unnatural and wrong; since they could not
|
|---|
| 392 | turn on the king, they turned on Cromwell and blamed him for every
|
|---|
| 393 | unpopular policy. Henry VIII, who relished his popularity,
|
|---|
| 394 | allowed his faithful servant to be impugned. Thus, Henry could
|
|---|
| 395 | meet with his nobles, listen to their complaints, and even agree with
|
|---|
| 396 | them since many were his dearest friends. The king remained
|
|---|
| 397 | popular while his chief minister became increasingly despised and
|
|---|
| 398 | isolated. It is worth noting that one of Cromwell's friends,
|
|---|
| 399 | Richard Moryson, argued that merit and not birth should be the only
|
|---|
| 400 | qualification for entry into the privy council. Moryson
|
|---|
| 401 | eventually became a member himself. </p>
|
|---|
| 402 | <p> It is also important to note that years of
|
|---|
| 403 | listening to anti-Cromwell gossip eventually affected Henry. Even
|
|---|
| 404 | the king did not exist in a vacuum and, as his temper became
|
|---|
| 405 | increasingly erratic, he was easily swayed by inflamed opinion.
|
|---|
| 406 | Thus, Cromwell suffered from a lapse in Henry's temper and one which
|
|---|
| 407 | the king almost immediately regretted. Chief among Cromwell's
|
|---|
| 408 | enemies were the highest nobles in the land, once Wolsey's great
|
|---|
| 409 | enemies and led by the dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk. These men
|
|---|
| 410 | had pushed Wolsey from favor after years of effort and were determined
|
|---|
| 411 | to do the same to his protégé. The perfect
|
|---|
| 412 | opportunity arrived when Queen Jane died two weeks after childbirth, in
|
|---|
| 413 | October 1537. Henry VIII was genuinely bereaved at her death but
|
|---|
| 414 | almost immediately the search began for a new queen. After all,
|
|---|
| 415 | Jane had delivered a son but one male heir was not enough in the
|
|---|
| 416 | sixteenth century. Henry's council began to search for a new
|
|---|
| 417 | consort with the king's enthusiastic support. </p>
|
|---|
| 418 | <p> For Cromwell, this was a chance to further extend
|
|---|
| 419 | his influence while thwarting the English nobility. Henry's
|
|---|
| 420 | second and third wives had been English noblewomen whose families
|
|---|
| 421 | directly profited from their rise to power. The influence of
|
|---|
| 422 | these families naturally troubled Cromwell. As their influence
|
|---|
| 423 | rose, his own suffered - so he was opposed to the idea of another
|
|---|
| 424 | English wife. Also, as an intelligent statesman, he recognized
|
|---|
| 425 | the diplomatic power of royal marriages. Henry's troublesome
|
|---|
| 426 | foreign policy could be soothed if he chose a foreign wife - a princess
|
|---|
| 427 | or duchess of one of the great European families. Kings were
|
|---|
| 428 | meant to marry other royalty and Cromwell immediately searched for
|
|---|
| 429 | possible candidates. </p>
|
|---|
| 430 | <p> While searching, he was careful to avoid Catholic
|
|---|
| 431 | candidates. Cromwell's rise to power was directly connected to
|
|---|
| 432 | the fall of Catholicism in England and he wanted to keep England on the
|
|---|
| 433 | path of Protestantism. Therefore, he sought a Protestant ally for
|
|---|
| 434 | Henry VIII. Naturally, his gaze turned to the Protestant states
|
|---|
| 435 | of Germany, birthplace of the Lutheran revolution. Meanwhile,
|
|---|
| 436 | Henry VIII was concerned with more aesthetic matters, sending artists
|
|---|
| 437 | (most famously, Hans
|
|---|
| 438 | Holbein the Younger) to France and Milan to paint potential
|
|---|
| 439 | brides. Among those painted was Christina, duchess of Milan and
|
|---|
| 440 | niece of the Holy Roman Emperor; she famously remarked that she would
|
|---|
| 441 | be happy to marry Henry - if she had two heads! Henry also
|
|---|
| 442 | considered Marie de Guise, a widowed cousin of the French king.
|
|---|
| 443 | Marie, however, chose to marry Henry's nephew, James V of Scotland,
|
|---|
| 444 | thus creating a French-Scottish alliance along Henry's troublesome
|
|---|
| 445 | northern border. Their only surviving child is famous in history
|
|---|
| 446 | as the tragic Mary queen of Scots. </p>
|
|---|
| 447 | <p> Cromwell was well aware that if France and the
|
|---|
| 448 | Holy Roman Empire ended hostilities, as seemed likely, England would be
|
|---|
| 449 | left out in the diplomatic cold. He was quite happy when the
|
|---|
| 450 | French and Imperial marriage negotiations fell apart. But as the
|
|---|
| 451 | search wound on, Henry became increasingly desperate for a wife.
|
|---|
| 452 | No doubt he was lonely; also, his court needed a queen to be
|
|---|
| 453 | complete. A king was not meant to be a bachelor, as every
|
|---|
| 454 | European monarch knew. Finally, Cromwell found a Protestant ally
|
|---|
| 455 | with two available sisters - the duke of Cleves, whose lands were
|
|---|
| 456 | strategically located and wealthy. He had two sisters not yet wed
|
|---|
| 457 | called Anne and Amelia. As the eldest, Anne was chosen as the
|
|---|
| 458 | possible bride and Holbein immediately went to Cleves to paint her
|
|---|
| 459 | portrait. <a
|
|---|
| 460 | href="http://www.geocities.com/athens/forum/9194/cleves1.jpg">This
|
|---|
| 461 | painting</a> would become of paramount importance in the coming
|
|---|
| 462 | year. Henry was determined to have a beautiful wife and
|
|---|
| 463 | specifically asked his various ambassadors probing questions - does
|
|---|
| 464 | Marie de Guise have wide hips for childbearing? is Christina of Milan
|
|---|
| 465 | pock-marked? does Anne of Cleves play the lute? Holbein's famous
|
|---|
| 466 | portrait of Anne cannot be adequately judged in our time; after all,
|
|---|
| 467 | standards of beauty have changed. However, it is amusing to note
|
|---|
| 468 | that she - so maligned in her own time as the ugliest of Henry's wives
|
|---|
| 469 | - is the most attractive by twentieth-century standards. </p>
|
|---|
| 470 | <p> Holbein's portrait showed a perfectly attractive
|
|---|
| 471 | young woman - and, on that basis, Cromwell was able to secure the
|
|---|
| 472 | marriage alliance with a Protestant ally. Anne set sail for
|
|---|
| 473 | England, little realizing what lay ahead. The king, meanwhile,
|
|---|
| 474 | was ecstatic that after almost three years as a widower he would be a
|
|---|
| 475 | husband again, able to play one of his favorite roles. The entire
|
|---|
| 476 | country was thrilled at the news, in fact, and after Anne arrived,
|
|---|
| 477 | Cromwell finally secured his greatest ambition - an earldom. He
|
|---|
| 478 | was titled earl of Essex by Henry VIII on 18 April 1540 after the
|
|---|
| 479 | marriage treaty was finalized. </p>
|
|---|
| 480 | <p> During this time, he also attempted to placate
|
|---|
| 481 | the nobility by redistributing lands to the great magnates, providing
|
|---|
| 482 | them with near-autonomous controls of great sections of land. For
|
|---|
| 483 | example, the duke of Suffolk traded East Anglian lands for lands in
|
|---|
| 484 | Lincolnshire - the duke of Norfolk already held lands in Anglia while
|
|---|
| 485 | Lincolnshire needed a strong leader. Earlier, Cromwell had
|
|---|
| 486 | attempted to befriend Henry's oldest child, the stubbornly Catholic
|
|---|
| 487 | Princess Mary. She rebuffed his attention, largely on religious
|
|---|
| 488 | grounds. </p>
|
|---|
| 489 | <p> Two years of marriage-brokering were often
|
|---|
| 490 | interrupted by rumors of rebellion. The Pilgrimage of Grace had
|
|---|
| 491 | made Henry more sensitive to popular sentiment. While Cromwell
|
|---|
| 492 | searched for a wife, rumors spread that the king planned new
|
|---|
| 493 | taxes. Also, the last remnants of the legitimate Plantagenet line
|
|---|
| 494 | - the Nevilles, Poles, and Courtenays - were suspected of encouraging
|
|---|
| 495 | rebellionn and Henry used this convenient excuse to order more
|
|---|
| 496 | executions. But popular unrest needed to be assuaged in some
|
|---|
| 497 | manner so Cromwell engineered the passing of the Six Articles at
|
|---|
| 498 | Parliament in April 1539. These articles attempted to stamp a
|
|---|
| 499 | more conservative gloss on the Henrician reformation, thus placating
|
|---|
| 500 | conservative European nobles - and the Catholic nations in Europe, now
|
|---|
| 501 | forced to concede Henry was not so great a heretic after all. It
|
|---|
| 502 | was a supreme example of Cromwell's talent for diffusing domestic
|
|---|
| 503 | tension. In effect, it was all talk and no action; it didn't
|
|---|
| 504 | alter the course of the reformation one bit. </p>
|
|---|
| 505 | <p> Finally, on 6 October 1539, the marriage treaty
|
|---|
| 506 | with Cleves was finalized just two months after Holbein delivered his
|
|---|
| 507 | portrait. Princess Anne, once betrothed to the duke of Lorraine,
|
|---|
| 508 | was now destined to be queen of England. It was the fulfillment
|
|---|
| 509 | of Cromwell's domestic and foreign policies. On 11 December, Anne
|
|---|
| 510 | was at Calais waiting for a favorable wind to carry her to Dover.
|
|---|
| 511 | She was there for almost two weeks while Henry waited at
|
|---|
| 512 | Greenwich. Finally, on 27 December she landed at Deal and then
|
|---|
| 513 | traveled to Dover and Canterbury before arriving at Rochester on 1
|
|---|
| 514 | January 1540. Henry, desperate to see his bride in person, rushed
|
|---|
| 515 | in disguise to meet her 'to thus nourish love', he told Cromwell.
|
|---|
| 516 | Their comical first meeting is described at the <a
|
|---|
| 517 | href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/primary.html">Primary Sources</a>
|
|---|
| 518 | section. </p>
|
|---|
| 519 | <p> The meeting was an unmitigated disaster and the
|
|---|
| 520 | beginning of Cromwell's end. The New Year gifts Henry had brought
|
|---|
| 521 | for Anne were delivered the next day by a courier with a brief note of
|
|---|
| 522 | welcome. 'I am ashamed that men have so praised her as they have
|
|---|
| 523 | done, and I like her not', the king said ominously; he told Cromwell
|
|---|
| 524 | that Anne was 'nothing so well as she was spoken of' and, if he had
|
|---|
| 525 | known the truth of her appearance, she would never have come to
|
|---|
| 526 | England. The next day, his betrothed arrived in Greenwich and the
|
|---|
| 527 | marriage, scheduled for that day, was delayed for two days while Henry
|
|---|
| 528 | sought escape. But there was none to be had - the Holy Roman
|
|---|
| 529 | Emperor was in Paris meeting with the French king and Henry, locked out
|
|---|
| 530 | by those two great powers, could not risk offending the German princes
|
|---|
| 531 | who approved the union with Anne. They were, after all, his only
|
|---|
| 532 | allies at the moment. So Anne was not sent back and Henry moaned
|
|---|
| 533 | that he must 'put my neck in the yoke'. He wrote to Cromwell, 'My
|
|---|
| 534 | lord, if it were not to satisfy the world and my realm, I would not do
|
|---|
| 535 | that I must do this day for none earthly thing'. </p>
|
|---|
| 536 | <p> Poor Anne of Cleves - barely able to speak
|
|---|
| 537 | English, in a foreign land, and despised by her intended husband!
|
|---|
| 538 | The confused woman was led to a private marriage ceremony at Greenwich
|
|---|
| 539 | and, then, to her equally humiliating marriage-bed. The union was
|
|---|
| 540 | not consummated, a subject upon which Henry never wavered. He
|
|---|
| 541 | spoke openly of how disgusted he was by Anne's appearance; 'struck to
|
|---|
| 542 | the heart' by distaste, he 'left her as good a maid as he found
|
|---|
| 543 | her'. They lay together for the entire length of their marriage
|
|---|
| 544 | but were never physically intimate. After a few months had
|
|---|
| 545 | passed, the French-Imperial alliance showed signs of cooling and
|
|---|
| 546 | Henry's natural boldness had returned. He wanted out of this
|
|---|
| 547 | fourth marriage and told Cromwell to arrange it. </p>
|
|---|
| 548 | <p> What were Cromwell's options? There were
|
|---|
| 549 | two ways to nullify the marriage (in essence, arrange a divorce) -
|
|---|
| 550 | Henry had not consented to the marriage (this was proved by his failure
|
|---|
| 551 | to consummate it) and Anne had not consented to the marriage (this was
|
|---|
| 552 | proved by Anne's precontract to the duke of Lorraine.) Henry had
|
|---|
| 553 | long been concerned with the latter problem - but had been assured that
|
|---|
| 554 | the contract was completely repudiated. Still, the day before his
|
|---|
| 555 | marriage to Anne, he called the Clevian ambassadors to him and raised
|
|---|
| 556 | the issue. They were astonished, and rightly so, and offered to
|
|---|
| 557 | remain as prisoners in England until the formal repudiation papers were
|
|---|
| 558 | delivered from Cleves. Meanwhile, Thomas Cranmer told the king
|
|---|
| 559 | that Anne could simply swear that the betrothal had been repudiated -
|
|---|
| 560 | no official documents were necessary. His friend Cromwell
|
|---|
| 561 | 'travailed on him [Henry] to pass the matter over'; he hoped that once
|
|---|
| 562 | Henry was married to Anne, the king would resign himself to the
|
|---|
| 563 | marriage. </p>
|
|---|
| 564 | <p> But instead Henry turned to the precontract when
|
|---|
| 565 | his distaste could not be overcome. On 9 July, Parliament
|
|---|
| 566 | declared the marriage null and void and Anne, surprising Henry and the
|
|---|
| 567 | court, was content to be called 'sister' and receive a handsome income
|
|---|
| 568 | and household in England. She had no desire to return to Cleves,
|
|---|
| 569 | where she would remain under her brother's
|
|---|
| 570 | thumb and perhaps married again. It is also possible she found
|
|---|
| 571 | Henry
|
|---|
| 572 | as unattractive as he found her. Henry was so pleased with this
|
|---|
| 573 | unexpected
|
|---|
| 574 | docility that he gave her status second only to his daughters,
|
|---|
| 575 | Princesses
|
|---|
| 576 | Mary and Elizabeth, both of whom came to befriend Anne. Anne's
|
|---|
| 577 | letter
|
|---|
| 578 | to Henry, in which she accepts the dissolution of their marriage, can
|
|---|
| 579 | be
|
|---|
| 580 | read at '<a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/letters.html">Letters
|
|---|
| 581 | of the Six Wives of Henry VIII</a>'. </p>
|
|---|
| 582 | <p> However, the time had come to search for a
|
|---|
| 583 | convenient scapegoat - the person responsible for the disastrous
|
|---|
| 584 | union. Henry railed against his ambassadors who had so misled him
|
|---|
| 585 | with descriptions of her beauty - though, in truth, the ambassador's
|
|---|
| 586 | descriptions had been honest. It was soon alleged that Cromwell
|
|---|
| 587 | had kept them from the king, for fear of discouraging the union.
|
|---|
| 588 | Now, Cromwell was arrested on 10 June 1540, at 3pm on a Saturday, while
|
|---|
| 589 | at a Privy Council meeting. This was a full month before the
|
|---|
| 590 | marriage was nullified. Henry and Cromwell's enemies were in the
|
|---|
| 591 | midst of finding scapegoats for the marriage, while not yet assured of
|
|---|
| 592 | its outcome. Henry, in a fit of temper and pique, complained
|
|---|
| 593 | bitterly that his minister had betrayed him while trying to further his
|
|---|
| 594 | own influence; the nobility were only too happy to encourage such
|
|---|
| 595 | thoughts. They urged Henry to arrest Cromwell and teach the
|
|---|
| 596 | upstart his final lesson - namely, that it does not pay to mislead a
|
|---|
| 597 | king. </p>
|
|---|
| 598 | <p> So the captain of the guard arrived at the
|
|---|
| 599 | council chamber and arrested Cromwell, while a table of his enemies
|
|---|
| 600 | looked on. The moment the guard entered the room, Cromwell
|
|---|
| 601 | recognized the danger - and threw his hat upon the table in rage.
|
|---|
| 602 | Norfolk and Southampton stripped his decorations from his robe of state
|
|---|
| 603 | and Cromwell was then escorted to a barge - and, then, the Tower of
|
|---|
| 604 | London. The events which follow are far from clear - Cromwell's
|
|---|
| 605 | fall and execution are among the most mysterious events of Henry VIII's
|
|---|
| 606 | reign and cannot be easily understood. I have yet to read a
|
|---|
| 607 | history which offers an adequate explanation. In truth, Henry
|
|---|
| 608 | became increasingly mercurial and tempermental in his later years, and
|
|---|
| 609 | Cromwell was just one of many victims of the king's ever-changing
|
|---|
| 610 | whims. </p>
|
|---|
| 611 | <p><font size="+1"> </font> First, if Cromwell fell from favor
|
|---|
| 612 | because of the Cleves marriage, as most believe, why did Henry title
|
|---|
| 613 | him earl of Essex in April 1540 - months after the marriage had been
|
|---|
| 614 | finalized and while negotiations for divorce were underway?
|
|---|
| 615 | Second, if Cromwell was executed because his government policies
|
|---|
| 616 | angered the king, as has been alleged, why did Henry give his voluntary
|
|---|
| 617 | approval to all of Cromwell's legislation? Third, is his enemies
|
|---|
| 618 | were in the ascendancy, why had Henry only recently shown the duke of
|
|---|
| 619 | Norfolk (Cromwell's great enemy) open favor? After all, Norfolk
|
|---|
| 620 | had just been sent abroad on diplomatic work - away from the king. </p>
|
|---|
| 621 | <p> What are we left with? The charges
|
|---|
| 622 | eventually listed in Cromwell's attainder <i>did not</i> list the
|
|---|
| 623 | above - Cromwell was not accused of misleading Henry on matters of
|
|---|
| 624 | policy, he was not held responsible for the disastrous marriage, and he
|
|---|
| 625 | was not charged with leading England into an unwanted Lutheran
|
|---|
| 626 | alliance. Instead, he was charged with selling export licenses
|
|---|
| 627 | illegally, granting passports and commissions without royal knowledge,
|
|---|
| 628 | freeing people suspected of treason and - of course - that he,
|
|---|
| 629 | base-born and ignoble, had usuurped and deliberately misused royal
|
|---|
| 630 | power. Most significantly, however, he was charged with heresy -
|
|---|
| 631 | this charge was the bulk of his attaindder and apparently swayed Henry
|
|---|
| 632 | decisively. Norfolk, allied with the Catholic bishops Cromwell
|
|---|
| 633 | had forced from power, engineered this charge. Cromwell, they
|
|---|
| 634 | charged, had encouraged and spread heretical literature, allowed
|
|---|
| 635 | heretics to preach, released them from prison, and allied himself
|
|---|
| 636 | against their enemies. Significantly, it was reported that in
|
|---|
| 637 | March 1539 Cromwell said that, even if Henry turned from Protestantism,
|
|---|
| 638 | 'yet I would not turn, and if the king did turn, and all his people, I
|
|---|
| 639 | would fight in this field in mine own person, with my sword in my hand <i>against
|
|---|
| 640 | him</i> and all other'. That was treason. </p>
|
|---|
| 641 | <p> Shortly after his arrest, incriminating letters
|
|---|
| 642 | to Lutherans were found in Cromwell's home, placed there by agents of
|
|---|
| 643 | the duke of Norfolk; they were so inflammatory that the king was
|
|---|
| 644 | outraged. Cromwell's name, Henry swore, would be abolished
|
|---|
| 645 | forever. Cromwell wrote two desperate letters from the Tower; the
|
|---|
| 646 | one that survives is in tatters. He assured his monarch that he
|
|---|
| 647 | was a good, loyal servant and a faithful Christian. But Henry,
|
|---|
| 648 | surrounded by Cromwell's enemies and - more significantly - newly
|
|---|
| 649 | infatuated with Norfolk's niece, Catherine Howard, would hear
|
|---|
| 650 | nothing. Furthermore, Norfolk was shrewd enough to create a
|
|---|
| 651 | Lutheran conspiracy; three popular reformers, Robert Barnes, Thomas
|
|---|
| 652 | Garret, and William Jerome, were executed just days after
|
|---|
| 653 | Cromwell. None of the men were allowed an open trial. That
|
|---|
| 654 | would allow the public opportunity for them to dispute the false
|
|---|
| 655 | charges. Instead, they were condemned by Act of Attainder, a
|
|---|
| 656 | parliamentary tool which dispensed with justice in favor of speed. </p>
|
|---|
| 657 | <p> The executed men were also neighbors of Cromwell,
|
|---|
| 658 | which was their only link to the earl. And they were as innocent
|
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| 659 | as
|
|---|
| 660 | Cromwell of the charges against them - as evidenced by the confusion of
|
|---|
| 661 | contemporary chroniclers. Edward Hall, one of the great
|
|---|
| 662 | chroniclers of Tudor England, could find no real evidence against them
|
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| 663 | although he 'searched to know the truth'. </p>
|
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| 664 | <p> So Cromwell was executed privately on Tower Green
|
|---|
| 665 | on 28 July 1540, still protesting his innocence. He died with
|
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| 666 | dignity - but the whole sordid affair of his death would not
|
|---|
| 667 | rest. For the volatile Henry VIII was soon despairing of his
|
|---|
| 668 | loss, just a few months after he allowed the execution. He raged
|
|---|
| 669 | at his council, accusing them of lying and deliberately destroying his
|
|---|
| 670 | 'most faithful servant'. Cromwell's destruction had been
|
|---|
| 671 | engineered on 'light pretexts' and against the king's wishes. In
|
|---|
| 672 | truth, Henry was a victim as well - of a determined group of nobles and
|
|---|
| 673 | clerics, led by Norfolk, who hated Cromwell and carried the king along
|
|---|
| 674 | on their path of destruction. Events were rapid and deliberately
|
|---|
| 675 | confused. By the time Henry realized what had happened, it was
|
|---|
| 676 | too late. He could only bemoan his loss, while never
|
|---|
| 677 | understanding exactly why it happened. </p>
|
|---|
| 678 | <p> This was no comfort to Thomas Cromwell, however;
|
|---|
| 679 | after a lifetime of dedicated service, he met his end by execution and
|
|---|
| 680 | all of Henry's
|
|---|
| 681 | regrets could not bring him back to life. </p>
|
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| 682 | <center>
|
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| 683 | <hr width="100%"> <br>
|
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| 684 | <font size="-1"><a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/citizens.html">to
|
|---|
| 685 | Tudor Citizens</a></font> <br>
|
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| 686 | <font size="-1"><a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html">to Tudor
|
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| 687 | England</a></font>
|
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| 688 | <p><b><font size="-1">Want to learn more about Cromwell?</font></b> <br>
|
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| 689 | <font size="-1">Try these books (used as sources for my article) -</font>
|
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| 690 | <br>
|
|---|
| 691 | <font size="-1">The Cardinal and the Secretary: Thomas Wolsey and
|
|---|
| 692 | Thomas Cromwell</font> <br>
|
|---|
| 693 | <font size="-1">by Neville Williams.</font> <br>
|
|---|
| 694 | <font size="-1">Policy and Police: the enforcement of the Reformation
|
|---|
| 695 | in the Age of Thomas Cromwell</font> <br>
|
|---|
| 696 | <font size="-1">by G. R. Elton.</font> <br>
|
|---|
| 697 | <font size="-1">Reform and Renewal: Thomas Cromwell and the Common Weal</font>
|
|---|
| 698 | <br>
|
|---|
| 699 | <font size="-1">by G. R. Elton.</font> <br>
|
|---|
| 700 | <font size="-1">Thomas Cromwell and the English Reformation</font> <br>
|
|---|
| 701 | <font size="-1">by A. G. Dickens.</font> <br>
|
|---|
| 702 | <font size="-1">Thomas Cromwell: Tudor Minister</font> <br>
|
|---|
| 703 | <font size="-1">by B. W. Beckingsale.<br>
|
|---|
| 704 | </font></p>
|
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| 705 | <p><font size="-1"><br>
|
|---|
| 706 | </font></p>
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| 707 | </center>
|
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| 708 | <br>
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| 709 | <script type="text/javascript"><!--
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| 720 | </body>
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| 721 | </html>
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