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| 5 | <meta name="Author" content="Marilee Mongello">
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| 7 | <title>Tudor Citizens - Thomas Cromwell</title>
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| 9 | <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#006600" vlink="#006600" alink="#000000">
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| 10 |
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| 11 | <center><img SRC="cromwell.gif" ALT="Thomas Cromwell" height=59 width=313>
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| 12 | <br>born c.1485 in Putney
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| 13 | <br>executed 28 July 1540 in London
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| 14 | <p><b><font size=+1>"A good household manager, but not fit to meddle in
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| 15 | the affairs of kings."</font></b>
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| 16 | <br><font size=-1>May 1538, Henry VIII describes Cromwell to the French
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| 17 | ambassador</font></center>
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| 18 |
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| 19 | <p><img SRC="cromwell-small.jpg" ALT="portrait of Cromwell as the earl of Essex" BORDER=2 height=264 width=220 align=LEFT>
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| 20 | Thomas Cromwell was as great a statesman as England has ever seen and,
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| 21 | in his decade of power, permanently changed the course of English history.
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| 22 | Unlike his mentor, Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell was not a priest or a papist.
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| 23 | He was a lawyer determined to impose his own character - methodical, detached,
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| 24 | and calculating - upon government.
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| 25 | <p> Cromwell wanted government to be effective and efficient;
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| 26 | to achieve this, he had to end the chaos of feudal privilege and ill-defined
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| 27 | jurisdictions. He was blessed with a logical mind in an age sadly
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| 28 | devoid of them. And unlike his royal master, he did not let his emotions
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| 29 | interfere with his position. He was the ideal statesman for Tudor
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| 30 | England and, just months after his execution in 1540, Henry VIII was bemoaning
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| 31 | his loss.
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| 32 | <p> Cromwell was introduced to government service as
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| 33 | a secretary for <a href="wolsey.html">Cardinal
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| 34 | Wolsey</a>. His abilities won him the older man's respect and soon
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| 35 | Cromwell was his most trusted servant and principal secretary. But
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| 36 | Cromwell managed to distance himself from Wolsey immediately after the
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| 37 | Cardinal fell from grace and soon had taken his place as Henry's most valuable
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| 38 | advisor. Before entering Wolsey's service, Cromwell lived an adventurous
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| 39 | life. His father had been a brewer and blacksmith known for permanent
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| 40 | drunkenness and illegal activities. From this inauspicious beginning,
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| 41 | his son went on to indulge his curiosity and practical nature by traveling
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| 42 | through Europe. Over the course of several years, he was a soldier
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| 43 | in Europe, a banker in Italy, clerk in the Netherlands, and a lawyer in
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| 44 | London. Like so many ambitious men, he was in Wolsey's service in
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| 45 | the mid-1520s. His most important work was the suppression of 29
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| 46 | religious houses whose monies Wolsey used to endow colleges at Ipswich
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| 47 | and Oxford. When Wolsey fell from grace in 1529, Cromwell was hurriedly
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| 48 | elected burgess for Taunton so he could remain in government service.
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| 49 | <p> There were striking similarities between the two
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| 50 | men - both managed to remain favorites of the mercurial Henry VIII for
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| 51 | years; both were despised by the older nobility who coveted their influence
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| 52 | with the king; both sought to reform the creaky medieval bureaucracy of
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| 53 | Tudor government; both were highly intelligent and well-versed in international
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| 54 | affairs. And both, ultimately, fell from Henry's favor with spectacular
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| 55 | speed. In the end, the king preferred to listen to the old nobility.
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| 56 | <p> But Cromwell and Wolsey were also markedly different
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| 57 | in many ways. Cromwell was the man responsible for the Henrician
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| 58 | reformation while Wolsey fell because he served two masters, the king of
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| 59 | England and the Pope. Though Henry had ejected Rome from his nation,
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| 60 | he still practiced the Roman Catholic religion. The king's religious
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| 61 | tendencies were never reformist and many historians have made the mistake
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| 62 | of painting him as one of the first Protestant kings. Henry was never
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| 63 | a Protestant and he wrote treatises vilifying Martin Luther for which he
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| 64 | was titled 'Defender of the Faith' by the Pope. Rather, he was an
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| 65 | opportunist who disliked papal authority and interference in his realm
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| 66 | and wanted some of the vast wealth the English church possessed.
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| 67 | For Henry, often desperately short of money, it was near-blasphemy for
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| 68 | his subjects to pay taxes directly to Rome; he wanted the money for his
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| 69 | government. He also wanted an annulment from a devoutly Catholic
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| 70 | wife, Katharine of Aragon, and when the Pope, held hostage by the Holy
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| 71 | Roman Emperor, refused to rule in his favor, he found it most expedient
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| 72 | to simply disregard the papacy. But throughout it all, Henry was
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| 73 | unaware of the forces he had unleashed when he declared himself head of
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| 74 | the English church. Trained for the church as a child, he remained
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| 75 | staunchly Catholic for his entire life though the Catholic church deemed
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| 76 | him a heretic.
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| 77 | <center>
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| 78 | <p><b><u><font color="#000000">a discussion of the Henrician reformation</font></u></b></center>
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| 79 |
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| 80 | <p> It is important to remember that during Henry's reign,
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| 81 | at least half of his subjects were under the age of eighteen. Henry's
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| 82 | court swarmed with young people - pages, scullery maids, and the like.
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| 83 | English culture celebrated youth; tournaments, hunts, glorious warfare
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| 84 | were all the province of the young and strong. And while Henry was
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| 85 | young, he joined these events with a gusto sadly lacking in his father
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| 86 | or son. But time does not stop, not even for a despotic monarch determined
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| 87 | to have his way in all things. During his 'great matter', Henry was
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| 88 | in his thirties and changing from 'Bluff King Hal' into an overweight and
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| 89 | balding hypochondriac. He had rid himself of Rome to gain wealth
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| 90 | and a son. He gained both and, once he had, continually toyed with
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| 91 | the idea of making peace with the pope. He didn't relish excommunication
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| 92 | and it is likely that he persuaded himself that he wasn't disobeying Christ's
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| 93 | vicar but rather the Emperor's puppet.
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| 94 | <p> But he misjudged the mood of his people, particularly
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| 95 | his nobles. Educated and by nature inquisitive and acquisitive, the
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| 96 | new Protestant teachings intrigued them; they also sought the vast monastic
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| 97 | lands which Henry planned to sell. This was the paradox of the Henrician
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| 98 | reformation. It was motivated by greed and genuine religious turmoil.
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| 99 | As time passed, the new generation of nobles were Protestant because it
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| 100 | was expedient and philosophically appealing. And with each year,
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| 101 | more Englishmen were born who were further and further away from the old
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| 102 | days of Roman domination. Henry, in his forties, could remember the
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| 103 | papist ways but, as the years passed, fewer and fewer of his subjects did.
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| 104 | <p> In terms of the practical effect the reformation
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| 105 | had on everyday Englishmen, the situation is more difficult to gauge.
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| 106 | Unlike the wealthy noblemen, they couldn't bid on the seized monastic properties.
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| 107 | And in many towns and villages, the parish church was the community center,
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| 108 | where births, weddings, and deaths were officiated over by a priest.
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| 109 | But they undoubtedly enjoyed not paying their tax to Rome. Once again,
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| 110 | a paradox emerged - an excommunicated nation which found itself torn between
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| 111 | loyalty to the sovereign and loyalty to the papacy. Also, since Henry's
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| 112 | marriage to Anne Boleyn could only be recognized if one accepted his annulment
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| 113 | from Katharine - which in itself meant a rejection of papal authority -
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| 114 | and it was treason to <i>not</i> recognize his marriage to Anne, then many
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| 115 | people were swayed by the threat of execution. In other words, accept
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| 116 | Henry's decisions or die. Of course, I cannot discuss all aspects
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| 117 | of the reformation at this site; I recommend L.B. Smith's <i>Henry VIII</i>
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| 118 | which studies Henry's own theological beliefs.
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| 119 | <p> There was opposition to the reformation which probably
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| 120 | had more to do with the attendant loss of independence in north England.
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| 121 | In 1536, a northern uprising which came to be called the Pilgrimage of
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| 122 | Grace, gathered over 40,000 men and marched through England. It eventually
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| 123 | destroyed itself by internal division and lack of clear purpose but one
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| 124 | of the rebels' demands was a warning for Cromwell - they want their king
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| 125 | to be advised by <i>noble</i> councilors who understand the people's wishes,
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| 126 | not common men like Cromwell. Henry was angry at their presumption
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| 127 | - how dare his ignorant subjects rebel annd then tell him how to run the
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| 128 | country! - but he was persuaded to show mercy and pardon those involved.
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| 129 | And he continued to listen to Cromwell.
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| 130 | <p> The <a href="../primary.html">Pilgrimage
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| 131 | of Grace</a> was largely motivated not by religious concerns but by Cromwell's
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| 132 | determination to dissolve the monasteries and improve the royal tax collecting
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| 133 | methods. For example, the movement began in Louth, in Lincolnshire,
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| 134 | and began with the murder of two tax collectors, one of whom was hanged
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| 135 | and the other sewn into a sack and thrown to a pack of hungry dogs!
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| 136 | <p> So the common people might grumble somewhat but they
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| 137 | were ultimately more influenced by practical matters. Had Henry's
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| 138 | excommunication been followed by a terrible harvest or bad weather, it
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| 139 | may have been otherwise. During his daughter Mary's reign, such signs
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| 140 | were taken to mean God was angry with her for attempting to reinstate Catholicism.
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| 141 | But not only did Henry enjoy good weather, he had a brilliant servant.
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| 142 | Cromwell was the one who gave force to Henry's grand declarations.
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| 143 | The king declared that Rome had no authority in England and Cromwell instituted
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| 144 | the reforms which would make it so. The king declared that all monastic
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| 145 | lands were forfeit and Cromwell set out to close the monasteries, assess
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| 146 | their value, and sell them to the highest bidder. For a decade, this
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| 147 | partnership worked marvelously.
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| 148 | <p> Also, Henry and Cromwell both recognized a fundamental
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| 149 | truth of the English people; the government could do what it liked as long
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| 150 | as traditional religious views were not upset too much. Certainly
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| 151 | Henry did not upset his own. The name of the pope was omitted in
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| 152 | their prayers but not much else. Henry's break with Rome was really
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| 153 | a legal reformation rather than one of real religious content. England
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| 154 | practiced Catholicism without a pope and, in his place, was their king.
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| 155 | This situation suited Cromwell. Like many, he recognized that the
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| 156 | Church had lost its way, remaining a ponderous medieval institution concerned
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| 157 | with wealth and influence. But Europe was no longer medieval; countries
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| 158 | were becoming nation-states, patriotic and immune to the cultural unity
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| 159 | which Rome promoted. The pope envisioned a collection of nations
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| 160 | joined beneath the cloak of Christendom with him at its head; but, particularly
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| 161 | in xenophobic England, there were mutterings that the church was dominated
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| 162 | by other nations. Also, the church claimed authority over its subjects;
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| 163 | no priest or cleric could be tried by their sovereign nation. They
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| 164 | would answer only to Rome. This problem had angered Henry II centuries
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| 165 | before and resulted in Thomas Becket's murder. In Henry's time, it
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| 166 | had grown worse. Also, as king, he believed himself ruler of <i>all</i>
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| 167 | his subjects, priest and commoner alike.
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| 168 | <p> One must also mention the corruption of the church,
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| 169 | sadly evident to everyone. Certainly there were Godly men who struggled
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| 170 | to enforce the tenets of their faith. But there were also bishops
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| 171 | and cardinals more interested in business and finance than theology.
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| 172 | The church preached that the surest path to heaven was through good works,
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| 173 | particularly at a monastery or abbey, but every Englishmen knew that only
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| 174 | the wealthy could afford to endow or board at them. Furthermore,
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| 175 | an increasing number of churchmen were absent from their posts. Cardinal
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| 176 | Wolsey embodied this avaricious streak; he was bishop, archbishop, abbot,
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| 177 | and cardinal yet the affairs of state kept him from his duties. Instead
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| 178 | of tending to his flock, he tended to his purse. He sired illegitimate
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| 179 | children and collected nearly 50,000 pds a year from his vast holdings.
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| 180 | <p> Wolsey represented the church as it had become; certainly
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| 181 | such abuses may not have turned most Englishmen from their faith.
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| 182 | But when confronted with the forces of Protestantism, the church found
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| 183 | precious few willing to die for their beliefs. After all, why would
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| 184 | anyone die for a faith they didn't respect? When the king styled
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| 185 | himself head of the church, many were perhaps relieved. Henry made
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| 186 | no claim to a holy life, not like the churchman Wolsey; he also was shrewd
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| 187 | enough to endow his monarchy with papal apparatus. From the 1530s
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| 188 | on, the Tudor dynasty was even more divine and the machinery of state could
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| 189 | enforce its divinity.
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| 190 | <center>
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| 191 | <p><b><u><font color="#000000">Cromwell's revolution in government</font></u></b></center>
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| 192 |
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| 193 | <p> Cromwell's rise to power was extraordinary and occurred
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| 194 | just when Henry needed a minister of great administrative imagination and
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| 195 | genius, uninterested in the squabbles of his council and determined to
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| 196 | empower the machinery of state. Cromwell entered royal service in
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| 197 | early 1530 and, from then on, rose rapidly. In late 1530 he was sworn
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| 198 | into the King's Council and, just a year later, began to attract unfavorable
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| 199 | attention from Wolsey's old rivals. These were Stephen Gardiner,
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| 200 | bishop of Winchester, Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, and Charles Brandon,
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| 201 | duke of Suffolk. Gardiner had worked with Wolsey but, like Norfolk
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| 202 | and Suffolk, viewed the Cardinal's fall as a chance to take his place.
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| 203 | From 1529 to about 1533, they enjoyed the king's confidence even as Cromwell
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| 204 | rose to overtake them all. His career progressed as follows:
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| 205 | <br><b><font color="#990000">1531</font></b> - member of the privy council
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| 206 | <br><b><font color="#990000">1532</font></b> - Master of Court of Wards
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| 207 | and Master of Jewel House
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| 208 | <br><b><font color="#990000">1533</font></b> - Chancellor of the Exchequer
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| 209 | <br><font color="#990000"><b>1534</b> </font>- King's Secretary and Master
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| 210 | of the Rolls
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| 211 | <br><b><font color="#990000">1535</font></b> - Vicar-General
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| 212 | <br><b><font color="#990000">1536</font></b> - Lord Privy Seal and Baron
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| 213 | Cromwell of Oakham
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| 214 | <br><b><font color="#990000">1537</font></b> - Knight of the Garter and
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| 215 | Dean of Wells
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| 216 | <br><b><font color="#990000">1539</font></b> - Lord Great Chamberlain
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| 217 | <br><b><font color="#990000">1540</font></b> - created Earl of Essex
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| 218 | <p> As the above list shows, Henry never forgot the fallen
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| 219 | Wolsey. He had heaped honors upon him with extravagant generosity
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| 220 | and had written to the pope recommending religious promotion. In
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| 221 | the end, Henry believed himself betrayed. Not only had Wolsey accumulated
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| 222 | obscene wealth, but he had grown arrogant and eventually treasonous.
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| 223 | And so Cromwell, despite his years of diligence and genius, was eventually
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| 224 | rewarded with an earldom but only a short time before his execution.
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| 225 | <p> His influence upon the 1530s, one of the most influential
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| 226 | and vital decades in English history, was enormous. One needs only
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| 227 | to study the 1540s to realize how the loss of Cromwell affected Tudor government.
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| 228 | He also came to power during Anne Boleyn's ascendancy. It was a symbolic
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| 229 | changing of the guard - the old Katharine of Aragon thrust aside for the
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| 230 | young, ambitious Anne Boleyn and Wolsey disgraced and replaced by his protégé
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| 231 | Cromwell. Cromwell supported Anne until she, like Wolsey, became
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| 232 | a liability. Among his immediate accomplishments were the following:
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| 233 | <br><b><font color="#990000">1</font></b> - the dissolution of the monasteries
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| 234 | and establishment of the royal supremacy
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| 235 | <br><b><font color="#990000">2</font></b> - founded the ministries of Augmentations
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| 236 | and First Fruits to handle income from the dissolution
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| 237 | <br><b><font color="#990000">3</font></b> - founded the two courts of Wards
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| 238 | and Surveyors which allowed more efficient taxation and leasing
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| 239 | <br><b><font color="#990000">4 </font></b>- politically integrated the
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| 240 | kingdom by extending sovereign authority into northern England, Wales &
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| 241 | Ireland (actions which angered the great feudal lords)
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| 242 | <br><b><font color="#990000">5</font></b> - used the power of that relatively
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| 243 | new invention, the printing-press and thus spearheaded the first propaganda
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| 244 | campaign in English history.
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| 245 | <p> In the 1530s, he had instituted reforms of the English
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| 246 | government which earned enmity from the nobility. Cromwell recognized
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| 247 | the basic inefficiency of feudal government and, from it, struggled to
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| 248 | create a more logical system. Instead of offices held solely because
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| 249 | of birth, he wanted trained servants with expertise in their field.
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| 250 | He built a bureaucracy of professionals outside the royal household.
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| 251 | He began the first era of parliamentary control of England, using the institution
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| 252 | to dissolve the monasteries which made up a quarter of all arable land
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| 253 | and validate his other decisions.
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| 254 | <p> From the above list, one will note that most of the
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| 255 | 'accomplishments' were motivated by financial need. Like his predecessors
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| 256 | in government ministry, Cromwell needed to provide secure and regular income.
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| 257 | This alone necessitated an assault on the church's wealth. Cromwell
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| 258 | also developed a novel, and very unpopular idea - in the past, taxes were
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| 259 | created to support warfare; in 1534, he developed a new tax. Its
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| 260 | basis? The king's maintenance of peace. These measures did
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| 261 | not help his reputation but, by 1547, had brought nearly 2,000,000 pds
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| 262 | to Henry's treasury. Of course, Henry would use the entire windfall
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| 263 | to finance his increasingly complicated foreign policy. At the time
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| 264 | of Henry's death, all the wealth Cromwell had accumulated was gone and
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| 265 | Edward VI was left with debased currency and massive debts.
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| 266 | <p> In 1534, however, Henry was prepared to reap the
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| 267 | benefits of his new anti-clerical policies. He had appointed his
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| 268 | friend Thomas Cranmer to the venerable and powerful position of Archbishop
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| 269 | of Canterbury. Cranmer was like Cromwell in many ways - both owed
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| 270 | their rise to prominence entirely to Henry's mercurial favor; both came
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| 271 | from humble backgrounds; both were despised by the traditional nobility.
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| 272 | Cranmer had come to Henry's attention by first suggesting a solution to
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| 273 | the divorce problem - petition learned churchmen for their opinion, assuming
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| 274 | they agreed with Henry. Like Cromwell, Cranmer benefited directly
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| 275 | from the fall of Katharine of Aragon and the Imperial alliance and the
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| 276 | rise of Anne Boleyn and her Norfolk relations. Henry's midlife crisis
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| 277 | provided fertile ground for ambitious men. Cranmer and Cromwell liked
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| 278 | one another and became friends, though Cranmer was careful to distance
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| 279 | himself once Cromwell's ruin was assured.
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| 280 | <p> In 1535, Henry appointed Cromwell Vicar General and,
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| 281 | over the next five years, the honors increased - Lord Privy Seal, titled
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| 282 | Baron Cromwell of Oakham, Knight of the Garter and Dean of Wells, and finally
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| 283 | Lord Great Chancellor and ennoblement as Earl of Essex. The last
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| 284 | was Cromwell's greatest ambition and long before justified by his superior
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| 285 | service to the crown. During the accumulation of these honors, however,
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| 286 | Cromwell began to recognize the flaws in his success.
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| 287 | <p> First, he had accompanied Anne Boleyn on her rise
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| 288 | to power; yet, in 1536, he helped engineer her disgrace and execution on
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| 289 | charges of adultery, incest, and witchcraft. Why? Cromwell
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| 290 | recognized Henry's dissatisfaction with the marriage - after several years,
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| 291 | Anne's sharp tongue had offended many and, even worse, she had not produced
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| 292 | a male heir. Furthermore, Henry had become infatuated with Anne's
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| 293 | lady-in-waiting, Mistress Jane Seymour. Tiring of his wife, he wanted
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| 294 | to be rid of her. Divorce was only briefly considered before being
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| 295 | pushed aside. As he had with Katharine of Aragon, Henry became convinced
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| 296 | his marriage was invalid, only this time because of adultery, and he retained
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| 297 | his absolute conviction in her guilt even as he truly believed his and
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| 298 | Katharine's marriage was invalid. To rid himself of Anne, he turned
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| 299 | to the ever-ready Cromwell. Soon enough, Anne was on trial with her
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| 300 | brother and two male servants. They were all executed, despite spirited
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| 301 | defenses and the widely-held belief that it was judicial murder.
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| 302 | <p> Cromwell betrayed his former patron because she no
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| 303 | longer held the king's favor. In the rough world of Tudor politics,
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| 304 | friendships were lost in the struggle for prestige and survival.
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| 305 | And now Cromwell turned to Mistress Jane Seymour and her relatively obscure
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| 306 | family for support. The Seymours, however, never warmed to Cromwell
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| 307 | as had the Boleyns, largely because they didn't trust him or his influence
|
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| 308 | over the king. Cromwell was careful to press Jane's cause to the
|
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| 309 | king though Henry needed little urging. Just days after Anne Boleyn's
|
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| 310 | execution, Jane Seymour became his third wife, dying eighteen months later
|
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| 311 | after delivering the longed-for son, Prince Edward. Cromwell busied
|
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| 312 | himself with auctioning off church properties to various noblemen and further
|
|---|
| 313 | reforming the archaic machinery of Tudor government. In doing so,
|
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| 314 | he continued to ignore Henry's council of noble peers. When the council
|
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| 315 | did meet, Cromwell dominated the meetings and disregarded most suggestions.
|
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| 316 | To his credit, he was right on most counts; the nobility was quite distanced
|
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| 317 | from the changing nature of government. They were fiercely protective
|
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| 318 | of their own 'inalienable' rights as landowners and peers and notoriously
|
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| 319 | difficult when these rights were impugned (this conflict between the nobility
|
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| 320 | and monarchy was centuries-old - simply remember the 13th century <i>Magna
|
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| 321 | Carta</i>, when the nobles forced King John I to recognize their 'natural'
|
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| 322 | rights.)
|
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| 323 | <p> As discussed earlier, the nobility resented Cromwell's
|
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| 324 | influence with the king and his pro-monarchy, anti-nobility policy.
|
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| 325 | And while many of the nobles benefited from the sale of clerical lands,
|
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| 326 | many others had relatives dedicated to religious service. Also, reverence
|
|---|
| 327 | for the church and its servants was as deeply-held as reverence for the
|
|---|
| 328 | monarchy. Henry's attacks upon the church struck many as unnatural
|
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| 329 | and wrong; since they could not turn on the king, they turned on Cromwell
|
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| 330 | and blamed him for every unpopular policy. Henry VIII, who relished
|
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| 331 | his popularity, allowed his faithful servant to be impugned. Thus,
|
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| 332 | Henry could meet with his nobles, listen to their complaints, and even
|
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| 333 | agree with them since many were his dearest friends. The king remained
|
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| 334 | popular while his chief minister became increasingly despised and isolated.
|
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| 335 | It is worth noting that one of Cromwell's friends, Richard Moryson, argued
|
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| 336 | that merit and not birth should be the only qualification for entry into
|
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| 337 | the privy council. Moryson eventually became a member himself.
|
|---|
| 338 | <p> It is also important to note that years of listening
|
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| 339 | to anti-Cromwell gossip eventually affected Henry. Even the king
|
|---|
| 340 | did not exist in a vacuum and, as his temper became increasingly erratic,
|
|---|
| 341 | he was easily swayed by inflamed opinion. Thus, Cromwell suffered
|
|---|
| 342 | from a lapse in Henry's temper and one which the king almost immediately
|
|---|
| 343 | regretted. Chief among Cromwell's enemies were the highest nobles
|
|---|
| 344 | in the land, once Wolsey's great enemies and led by the dukes of Suffolk
|
|---|
| 345 | and Norfolk. These men had pushed Wolsey from favor after years of
|
|---|
| 346 | effort and were determined to do the same to his protégé.
|
|---|
| 347 | The perfect opportunity arrived when Queen Jane died two weeks after childbirth,
|
|---|
| 348 | in October 1537. Henry VIII was genuinely bereaved at her death but
|
|---|
| 349 | almost immediately the search began for a new queen. After all, Jane
|
|---|
| 350 | had delivered a son but one male heir was not enough in the sixteenth century.
|
|---|
| 351 | Henry's council began to search for a new consort with the king's enthusiastic
|
|---|
| 352 | support.
|
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| 353 | <p> For Cromwell, this was a chance to further extend
|
|---|
| 354 | his influence while thwarting the English nobility. Henry's second
|
|---|
| 355 | and third wives had been English noblewomen whose families directly profited
|
|---|
| 356 | from their rise to power. The influence of these families naturally
|
|---|
| 357 | troubled Cromwell. As their influence rose, his own suffered - so
|
|---|
| 358 | he was opposed to the idea of another English wife. Also, as an intelligent
|
|---|
| 359 | statesman, he recognized the diplomatic power of royal marriages.
|
|---|
| 360 | Henry's troublesome foreign policy could be soothed if he chose a foreign
|
|---|
| 361 | wife - a princess or duchess of one of the great European families.
|
|---|
| 362 | Kings were meant to marry other royalty and Cromwell immediately searched
|
|---|
| 363 | for possible candidates.
|
|---|
| 364 | <p> While searching, he was careful to avoid Catholic
|
|---|
| 365 | candidates. Cromwell's rise to power was directly connected to the
|
|---|
| 366 | fall of Catholicism in England and he wanted to keep England on the path
|
|---|
| 367 | of Protestantism. Therefore, he sought a Protestant ally for Henry
|
|---|
| 368 | VIII. Naturally, his gaze turned to the Protestant states of Germany,
|
|---|
| 369 | birthplace of the Lutheran revolution. Meanwhile, Henry VIII was
|
|---|
| 370 | concerned with more aesthetic matters, sending artists (most famously,
|
|---|
| 371 | Hans Holbein the Younger) to France and Milan to paint potential brides.
|
|---|
| 372 | Among those painted was Christina, duchess of Milan and niece of the Holy
|
|---|
| 373 | Roman Emperor; she famously remarked that she would be happy to marry Henry
|
|---|
| 374 | - if she had two heads! Henry also considered Marie de Guise, a widowed
|
|---|
| 375 | cousin of the French king. Marie, however, chose to marry Henry's
|
|---|
| 376 | nephew, James V of Scotland, thus creating a French-Scottish alliance along
|
|---|
| 377 | Henry's troublesome northern border. Their only surviving child is
|
|---|
| 378 | famous in history as the tragic Mary queen of Scots.
|
|---|
| 379 | <p> Cromwell was well aware that if France and the Holy
|
|---|
| 380 | Roman Empire ended hostilities, as seemed likely, England would be left
|
|---|
| 381 | out in the diplomatic cold. He was quite happy when the French and
|
|---|
| 382 | Imperial marriage negotiations fell apart. But as the search wound
|
|---|
| 383 | on, Henry became increasingly desperate for a wife. No doubt he was
|
|---|
| 384 | lonely; also, his court needed a queen to be complete. A king was
|
|---|
| 385 | not meant to be a bachelor, as every European monarch knew. Finally,
|
|---|
| 386 | Cromwell found a Protestant ally with two available sisters - the duke
|
|---|
| 387 | of Cleves, whose lands were strategically located and wealthy. He
|
|---|
| 388 | had two sisters not yet wed called Anne and Amelia. As the eldest,
|
|---|
| 389 | Anne was chosen as the possible bride and Holbein immediately went to Cleves
|
|---|
| 390 | to paint her portrait. <a href="http://www.geocities.com/athens/forum/9194/cleves1.jpg">This
|
|---|
| 391 | painting</a> would become of paramount importance in the coming year.
|
|---|
| 392 | Henry was determined to have a beautiful wife and specifically asked his
|
|---|
| 393 | various ambassadors probing questions - does Marie de Guise have wide hips
|
|---|
| 394 | for childbearing? is Christina of Milan pock-marked? does Anne of Cleves
|
|---|
| 395 | play the lute? Holbein's famous portrait of Anne cannot be adequately
|
|---|
| 396 | judged in our time; after all, standards of beauty have changed.
|
|---|
| 397 | However, it is amusing to note that she - so maligned in her own time as
|
|---|
| 398 | the ugliest of Henry's wives - is the most attractive by twentieth-century
|
|---|
| 399 | standards.
|
|---|
| 400 | <p> Holbein's portrait showed a perfectly attractive
|
|---|
| 401 | young woman - and, on that basis, Cromwell was able to secure the marriage
|
|---|
| 402 | alliance with a Protestant ally. Anne set sail for England, little
|
|---|
| 403 | realizing what lay ahead. The king, meanwhile, was ecstatic that
|
|---|
| 404 | after almost three years as a widower he would be a husband again, able
|
|---|
| 405 | to play one of his favorite roles. The entire country was thrilled
|
|---|
| 406 | at the news, in fact, and after Anne arrived, Cromwell finally secured
|
|---|
| 407 | his greatest ambition - an earldom. He was titled earl of Essex by
|
|---|
| 408 | Henry VIII on 18 April 1540 after the marriage treaty was finalized.
|
|---|
| 409 | <p> During this time, he also attempted to placate the
|
|---|
| 410 | nobility by redistributing lands to the great magnates, providing them
|
|---|
| 411 | with near-autonomous controls of great sections of land. For example,
|
|---|
| 412 | the duke of Suffolk traded East Anglian lands for lands in Lincolnshire
|
|---|
| 413 | - the duke of Norfolk already held lands in Anglia while Lincolnshire needed
|
|---|
| 414 | a strong leader. Earlier, Cromwell had attempted to befriend Henry's
|
|---|
| 415 | oldest child, the stubbornly Catholic Princess Mary. She rebuffed
|
|---|
| 416 | his attention, largely on religious grounds.
|
|---|
| 417 | <p> Two years of marriage-brokering were often interrupted
|
|---|
| 418 | by rumors of rebellion. The Pilgrimage of Grace had made Henry more
|
|---|
| 419 | sensitive to popular sentiment. While Cromwell searched for a wife,
|
|---|
| 420 | rumors spread that the king planned new taxes. Also, the last remnants
|
|---|
| 421 | of the legitimate Plantagenet line - the Nevilles, Poles, and Courtenays
|
|---|
| 422 | - were suspected of encouraging rebellionn and Henry used this convenient
|
|---|
| 423 | excuse to order more executions. But popular unrest needed to be
|
|---|
| 424 | assuaged in some manner so Cromwell engineered the passing of the Six Articles
|
|---|
| 425 | at Parliament in April 1539. These articles attempted to stamp a
|
|---|
| 426 | more conservative gloss on the Henrician reformation, thus placating conservative
|
|---|
| 427 | European nobles - and the Catholic nations in Europe, now forced to concede
|
|---|
| 428 | Henry was not so great a heretic after all. It was a supreme example
|
|---|
| 429 | of Cromwell's talent for diffusing domestic tension. In effect, it
|
|---|
| 430 | was all talk and no action; it didn't alter the course of the reformation
|
|---|
| 431 | one bit.
|
|---|
| 432 | <p> Finally, on 6 October 1539, the marriage treaty with
|
|---|
| 433 | Cleves was finalized just two months after Holbein delivered his portrait.
|
|---|
| 434 | Princess Anne, once betrothed to the duke of Lorraine, was now destined
|
|---|
| 435 | to be queen of England. It was the fulfillment of Cromwell's domestic
|
|---|
| 436 | and foreign policies. On 11 December, Anne was at Calais waiting
|
|---|
| 437 | for a favorable wind to carry her to Dover. She was there for almost
|
|---|
| 438 | two weeks while Henry waited at Greenwich. Finally, on 27 December
|
|---|
| 439 | she landed at Deal and then traveled to Dover and Canterbury before arriving
|
|---|
| 440 | at Rochester on 1 January 1540. Henry, desperate to see his bride
|
|---|
| 441 | in person, rushed in disguise to meet her 'to thus nourish love', he told
|
|---|
| 442 | Cromwell. Their comical first meeting is described at the <a href="../primary.html">Primary
|
|---|
| 443 | Sources</a> section.
|
|---|
| 444 | <p> The meeting was an unmitigated disaster and the beginning
|
|---|
| 445 | of Cromwell's end. The New Year gifts Henry had brought for Anne
|
|---|
| 446 | were delivered the next day by a courier with a brief note of welcome.
|
|---|
| 447 | 'I am ashamed that men have so praised her as they have done, and I like
|
|---|
| 448 | her not', the king said ominously; he told Cromwell that Anne was 'nothing
|
|---|
| 449 | so well as she was spoken of' and, if he had known the truth of her appearance,
|
|---|
| 450 | she would never have come to England. The next day, his betrothed
|
|---|
| 451 | arrived in Greenwich and the marriage, scheduled for that day, was delayed
|
|---|
| 452 | for two days while Henry sought escape. But there was none to be
|
|---|
| 453 | had - the Holy Roman Emperor was in Paris meeting with the French king
|
|---|
| 454 | and Henry, locked out by those two great powers, could not risk offending
|
|---|
| 455 | the German princes who approved the union with Anne. They were, after
|
|---|
| 456 | all, his only allies at the moment. So Anne was not sent back and
|
|---|
| 457 | Henry moaned that he must 'put my neck in the yoke'. He wrote to
|
|---|
| 458 | Cromwell, 'My lord, if it were not to satisfy the world and my realm, I
|
|---|
| 459 | would not do that I must do this day for none earthly thing'.
|
|---|
| 460 | <p> Poor Anne of Cleves - barely able to speak English,
|
|---|
| 461 | in a foreign land, and despised by her intended husband! The confused
|
|---|
| 462 | woman was led to a private marriage ceremony at Greenwich and, then, to
|
|---|
| 463 | her equally humiliating marriage-bed. The union was not consummated,
|
|---|
| 464 | a subject upon which Henry never wavered. He spoke openly of how
|
|---|
| 465 | disgusted he was by Anne's appearance; 'struck to the heart' by distaste,
|
|---|
| 466 | he 'left her as good a maid as he found her'. They lay together for
|
|---|
| 467 | the entire length of their marriage but were never physically intimate.
|
|---|
| 468 | After a few months had passed, the French-Imperial alliance showed signs
|
|---|
| 469 | of cooling and Henry's natural boldness had returned. He wanted out
|
|---|
| 470 | of this fourth marriage and told Cromwell to arrange it.
|
|---|
| 471 | <p> What were Cromwell's options? There were two
|
|---|
| 472 | ways to nullify the marriage (in essence, arrange a divorce) - Henry had
|
|---|
| 473 | not consented to the marriage (this was proved by his failure to consummate
|
|---|
| 474 | it) and Anne had not consented to the marriage (this was proved by Anne's
|
|---|
| 475 | precontract to the duke of Lorraine.) Henry had long been concerned
|
|---|
| 476 | with the latter problem - but had been assured that the contract was completely
|
|---|
| 477 | repudiated. Still, the day before his marriage to Anne, he called
|
|---|
| 478 | the Clevian ambassadors to him and raised the issue. They were astonished,
|
|---|
| 479 | and rightly so, and offered to remain as prisoners in England until the
|
|---|
| 480 | formal repudiation papers were delivered from Cleves. Meanwhile,
|
|---|
| 481 | Thomas Cranmer told the king that Anne could simply swear that the betrothal
|
|---|
| 482 | had been repudiated - no official documents were necessary. His friend
|
|---|
| 483 | Cromwell 'travailed on him [Henry] to pass the matter over'; he hoped that
|
|---|
| 484 | once Henry was married to Anne, the king would resign himself to the marriage.
|
|---|
| 485 | <p> But instead Henry turned to the precontract when
|
|---|
| 486 | his distaste could not be overcome. On 9 July, Parliament declared
|
|---|
| 487 | the marriage null and void and Anne, surprising Henry and the court, was
|
|---|
| 488 | content to be called 'sister' and receive a handsome income and household
|
|---|
| 489 | in England. She had no desire to return to Cleves, where she would
|
|---|
| 490 | remain under her brother's thumb and perhaps married again. It is
|
|---|
| 491 | also possible she found Henry as unattractive as he found her. Henry
|
|---|
| 492 | was so pleased with this unexpected docility that he gave her status second
|
|---|
| 493 | only to his daughters, Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, both of whom came
|
|---|
| 494 | to befriend Anne. Anne's letter to Henry, in which she accepts the
|
|---|
| 495 | dissolution of their marriage, can be read at '<a href="../letters.html">Letters
|
|---|
| 496 | of the Six Wives of Henry VIII</a>'.
|
|---|
| 497 | <p> However, the time had come to search for a convenient
|
|---|
| 498 | scapegoat - the person responsible for the disastrous union. Henry
|
|---|
| 499 | railed against his ambassadors who had so misled him with descriptions
|
|---|
| 500 | of her beauty - though, in truth, the ambassador's descriptions had been
|
|---|
| 501 | honest. It was soon alleged that Cromwell had kept them from the
|
|---|
| 502 | king, for fear of discouraging the union. Now, Cromwell was arrested
|
|---|
| 503 | on 10 June 1540, at 3pm on a Saturday, while at a Privy Council meeting.
|
|---|
| 504 | This was a full month before the marriage was nullified. Henry and
|
|---|
| 505 | Cromwell's enemies were in the midst of finding scapegoats for the marriage,
|
|---|
| 506 | while not yet assured of its outcome. Henry, in a fit of temper and
|
|---|
| 507 | pique, complained bitterly that his minister had betrayed him while trying
|
|---|
| 508 | to further his own influence; the nobility were only too happy to encourage
|
|---|
| 509 | such thoughts. They urged Henry to arrest Cromwell and teach the
|
|---|
| 510 | upstart his final lesson - namely, that it does not pay to mislead a king.
|
|---|
| 511 | <p> So the captain of the guard arrived at the council
|
|---|
| 512 | chamber and arrested Cromwell, while a table of his enemies looked on.
|
|---|
| 513 | The moment the guard entered the room, Cromwell recognized the danger -
|
|---|
| 514 | and threw his hat upon the table in rage. Norfolk and Southampton
|
|---|
| 515 | stripped his decorations from his robe of state and Cromwell was then escorted
|
|---|
| 516 | to a barge - and, then, the Tower of London. The events which follow
|
|---|
| 517 | are far from clear - Cromwell's fall and execution are among the most mysterious
|
|---|
| 518 | events of Henry VIII's reign and cannot be easily understood. I have
|
|---|
| 519 | yet to read a history which offers an adequate explanation. In truth,
|
|---|
| 520 | Henry became increasingly mercurial and tempermental in his later years,
|
|---|
| 521 | and Cromwell was just one of many victims of the king's ever-changing whims.
|
|---|
| 522 | <p><font size=+1> </font> First, if Cromwell fell from favor because
|
|---|
| 523 | of the Cleves marriage, as most believe, why did Henry title him earl of
|
|---|
| 524 | Essex in April 1540 - months after the marriage had been finalized and
|
|---|
| 525 | while negotiations for divorce were underway? Second, if Cromwell
|
|---|
| 526 | was executed because his government policies angered the king, as has been
|
|---|
| 527 | alleged, why did Henry give his voluntary approval to all of Cromwell's
|
|---|
| 528 | legislation? Third, is his enemies were in the ascendancy, why had
|
|---|
| 529 | Henry only recently shown the duke of Norfolk (Cromwell's great enemy)
|
|---|
| 530 | open favor? After all, Norfolk had just been sent abroad on diplomatic
|
|---|
| 531 | work - away from the king.
|
|---|
| 532 | <p> What are we left with? The charges eventually
|
|---|
| 533 | listed in Cromwell's attainder <i>did not</i> list the above - Cromwell
|
|---|
| 534 | was not accused of misleading Henry on matters of policy, he was not held
|
|---|
| 535 | responsible for the disastrous marriage, and he was not charged with leading
|
|---|
| 536 | England into an unwanted Lutheran alliance. Instead, he was charged
|
|---|
| 537 | with selling export licenses illegally, granting passports and commissions
|
|---|
| 538 | without royal knowledge, freeing people suspected of treason and - of course
|
|---|
| 539 | - that he, base-born and ignoble, had usuurped and deliberately misused
|
|---|
| 540 | royal power. Most significantly, however, he was charged with heresy
|
|---|
| 541 | - this charge was the bulk of his attaindder and apparently swayed Henry
|
|---|
| 542 | decisively. Norfolk, allied with the Catholic bishops Cromwell had
|
|---|
| 543 | forced from power, engineered this charge. Cromwell, they charged,
|
|---|
| 544 | had encouraged and spread heretical literature, allowed heretics to preach,
|
|---|
| 545 | released them from prison, and allied himself against their enemies.
|
|---|
| 546 | Significantly, it was reported that in March 1539 Cromwell said that, even
|
|---|
| 547 | if Henry turned from Protestantism, 'yet I would not turn, and if the king
|
|---|
| 548 | did turn, and all his people, I would fight in this field in mine own person,
|
|---|
| 549 | with my sword in my hand <i>against him</i> and all other'. That
|
|---|
| 550 | was treason.
|
|---|
| 551 | <p> Shortly after his arrest, incriminating letters to
|
|---|
| 552 | Lutherans were found in Cromwell's home, placed there by agents of the
|
|---|
| 553 | duke of Norfolk; they were so inflammatory that the king was outraged.
|
|---|
| 554 | Cromwell's name, Henry swore, would be abolished forever. Cromwell
|
|---|
| 555 | wrote two desperate letters from the Tower; the one that survives is in
|
|---|
| 556 | tatters. He assured his monarch that he was a good, loyal servant
|
|---|
| 557 | and a faithful Christian. But Henry, surrounded by Cromwell's enemies
|
|---|
| 558 | and - more significantly - newly infatuated with Norfolk's niece, Catherine
|
|---|
| 559 | Howard, would hear nothing. Furthermore, Norfolk was shrewd enough
|
|---|
| 560 | to create a Lutheran conspiracy; three popular reformers, Robert Barnes,
|
|---|
| 561 | Thomas Garret, and William Jerome, were executed just days after Cromwell.
|
|---|
| 562 | None of the men were allowed an open trial. That would allow the
|
|---|
| 563 | public opportunity for them to dispute the false charges. Instead,
|
|---|
| 564 | they were condemned by Act of Attainder, a parliamentary tool which dispensed
|
|---|
| 565 | with justice in favor of speed.
|
|---|
| 566 | <p> The executed men were also neighbors of Cromwell,
|
|---|
| 567 | which was their only link to the earl. And they were as innocent
|
|---|
| 568 | as Cromwell of the charges against them - as evidenced by the confusion
|
|---|
| 569 | of contemporary chroniclers. Edward Hall, one of the great chroniclers
|
|---|
| 570 | of Tudor England, could find no real evidence against them although he
|
|---|
| 571 | 'searched to know the truth'.
|
|---|
| 572 | <p> So Cromwell was executed privately on Tower Green
|
|---|
| 573 | on 28 July 1540, still protesting his innocence. He died with dignity
|
|---|
| 574 | - but the whole sordid affair of his deatth would not rest. For the
|
|---|
| 575 | volatile Henry VIII was soon despairing of his loss, just a few months
|
|---|
| 576 | after he allowed the execution. He raged at his council, accusing
|
|---|
| 577 | them of lying and deliberately destroying his 'most faithful servant'.
|
|---|
| 578 | Cromwell's destruction had been engineered on 'light pretexts' and against
|
|---|
| 579 | the king's wishes. In truth, Henry was a victim as well - of a determined
|
|---|
| 580 | group of nobles and clerics, led by Norfolk, who hated Cromwell and carried
|
|---|
| 581 | the king along on their path of destruction. Events were rapid and
|
|---|
| 582 | deliberately confused. By the time Henry realized what had happened,
|
|---|
| 583 | it was too late. He could only bemoan his loss, while never understanding
|
|---|
| 584 | exactly why it happened.
|
|---|
| 585 | <p> This was no comfort to Thomas Cromwell, however;
|
|---|
| 586 | after a lifetime of dedicated service, he met his end by execution and
|
|---|
| 587 | all of Henry's regrets could not bring him back to life.
|
|---|
| 588 | <center>
|
|---|
| 589 | <hr WIDTH="100%">
|
|---|
| 590 | <br><font size=-1><a href="../citizens.html">to
|
|---|
| 591 | Tudor Citizens</a></font>
|
|---|
| 592 | <br><font size=-1><a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html">to Tudor
|
|---|
| 593 | England</a></font>
|
|---|
| 594 | <p><b><font size=-1>Want to learn more about Cromwell?</font></b>
|
|---|
| 595 | <br><font size=-1>Try these books (used as sources for my article) -</font>
|
|---|
| 596 | <br><font size=-1>The Cardinal and the Secretary: Thomas Wolsey and Thomas
|
|---|
| 597 | Cromwell</font>
|
|---|
| 598 | <br><font size=-1>by Neville Williams.</font>
|
|---|
| 599 | <br><font size=-1>Policy and Police: the enforcement of the Reformation
|
|---|
| 600 | in the Age of Thomas Cromwell</font>
|
|---|
| 601 | <br><font size=-1>by G. R. Elton.</font>
|
|---|
| 602 | <br><font size=-1>Reform and Renewal: Thomas Cromwell and the Common Weal</font>
|
|---|
| 603 | <br><font size=-1>by G. R. Elton.</font>
|
|---|
| 604 | <br><font size=-1>Thomas Cromwell and the English Reformation</font>
|
|---|
| 605 | <br><font size=-1>by A. G. Dickens.</font>
|
|---|
| 606 | <br><font size=-1>Thomas Cromwell: Tudor Minister</font>
|
|---|
| 607 | <br><font size=-1>by B. W. Beckingsale.</font></center>
|
|---|
| 608 |
|
|---|
| 609 | </body>
|
|---|
| 610 | </html>
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