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&lt;center&gt;&lt;img SRC=&quot;_httpdocimg_/cromwell.gif&quot; ALT=&quot;Thomas Cromwell&quot; height=59 width=313&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=+1&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=-1&gt;May 1538, Henry VIII describes Cromwell to the French
ambassador&lt;/font&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; BORDER=2 height=264 width=220 align=LEFT&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;&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;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Cromwell was introduced to government service as
a secretary for &lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&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;&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;&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;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;/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;&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;&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;&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;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The &lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;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;/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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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;&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=1&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fprimary.html&quot;&gt;Primary
Sources&lt;/a&gt; section.
&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;&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;&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;&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=1&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;&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;&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;font size=+1&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;&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;&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;&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;&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 deatth 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;&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;center&gt;
&lt;hr WIDTH=&quot;100%&quot;&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&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=-1&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&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=-1&gt;Want to learn more about Cromwell?&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;Try these books (used as sources for my article) -&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;The Cardinal and the Secretary: Thomas Wolsey and Thomas
Cromwell&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;by Neville Williams.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;Policy and Police: the enforcement of the Reformation
in the Age of Thomas Cromwell&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;by G. R. Elton.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;Reform and Renewal: Thomas Cromwell and the Common Weal&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;by G. R. Elton.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;Thomas Cromwell and the English Reformation&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;by A. G. Dickens.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;Thomas Cromwell: Tudor Minister&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;font size=-1&gt;by B. W. Beckingsale.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/center&gt;



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