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29	<center><img src="_httpdocimg_/cromwell.gif"
30	alt="Thomas Cromwell" style="width: 313px; height: 59px;"> <br>
31	born c.1485 in Putney <br>
32	executed 28 July 1540 in London
33	<p><b><font size="+1">"A good household manager, but not fit to meddle
34	in the affairs of kings."</font></b> <br>
35	<font size="-1">May 1538, Henry VIII describes Cromwell to the French
36	ambassador</font></p>
37	</center>
38	<p><img
39	src="_httpdocimg_/cromwell-small.jpg"
40	alt="portrait of Cromwell as the earl of Essex"
41	style="border: 2px solid ; width: 220px; height: 264px;" align="left">
42	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Thomas Cromwell was as great a statesman as England
43	has ever seen and, in his decade of power, permanently changed the
44	course
45	of English history.&nbsp; Unlike his mentor, Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell
46	was not a priest or a papist.&nbsp; He was a lawyer determined to
47	impose his own character - methodical, detached, and calculating - upon
48	government. </p>
49	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cromwell wanted government to be effective and
50	efficient; to achieve this, he had to end the chaos of feudal privilege
51	and ill-defined jurisdictions.&nbsp; He was blessed with a logical mind
52	in an age sadly devoid of them.&nbsp; And unlike his royal master, he
53	did not let his emotions interfere with his position.&nbsp; He was the
54	ideal statesman for Tudor England and, just months after his execution
55	in 1540, Henry VIII was bemoaning his loss. </p>
56	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cromwell was introduced to government service as
57	a secretary for <a
58	href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fcitizens%2fwolsey.html">Cardinal
59	Wolsey</a>.&nbsp; His abilities won him the older man's respect and
60	soon Cromwell was his most
61	trusted servant and principal secretary.&nbsp; But Cromwell managed to
62	distance
63	himself from Wolsey immediately after the Cardinal fell from grace and
64	soon
65	had taken his place as Henry's most valuable advisor.&nbsp; Before
66	entering
67	Wolsey's service, Cromwell lived an adventurous life.&nbsp; His father
68	had
69	been a brewer and blacksmith known for permanent drunkenness and
70	illegal
71	activities.&nbsp; From this inauspicious beginning, his son went on to
72	indulge
73	his curiosity and practical nature by traveling through Europe.&nbsp;
74	Over
75	the course of several years, he was a soldier in Europe, a banker in
76	Italy,
77	clerk in the Netherlands, and a lawyer in London.&nbsp; Like so many
78	ambitious
79	men, he was in Wolsey's service in the mid-1520s.&nbsp; His most
80	important
81	work was the suppression of 29 religious houses whose monies Wolsey
82	used
83	to endow colleges at Ipswich and Oxford.&nbsp; When Wolsey fell from
84	grace
85	in 1529, Cromwell was hurriedly elected burgess for Taunton so he could
86	remain in government service. </p>
87	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There were striking similarities between the two
88	men - both managed to remain favorites of the mercurial Henry VIII for
89	years; both were despised by the older nobility who coveted their
90	influence with the king; both sought to reform the creaky medieval
91	bureaucracy of Tudor government; both were highly intelligent and
92	well-versed in international affairs.&nbsp; And both, ultimately, fell
93	from Henry's favor with spectacular speed.&nbsp; In the end, the king
94	preferred to listen to the old nobility. </p>
95	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But Cromwell and Wolsey were also markedly
96	different in many ways.&nbsp; Cromwell was the man responsible for the
97	Henrician reformation while Wolsey fell because he served two masters,
98	the king of England and the Pope.&nbsp; Though Henry had ejected Rome
99	from his nation, he still practiced the Roman Catholic religion.&nbsp;
100	The king's religious tendencies were never reformist and many
101	historians have made the mistake of painting him as one of the first
102	Protestant kings.&nbsp; Henry was never a Protestant and he wrote
103	treatises vilifying Martin Luther for which he was titled 'Defender of
104	the Faith' by the Pope.&nbsp; Rather, he was an opportunist who
105	disliked papal authority and interference in his realm and wanted some
106	of the vast wealth the English church possessed.&nbsp; For
107	Henry, often desperately short of money, it was near-blasphemy for his
108	subjects
109	to pay taxes directly to Rome; he wanted the money for his
110	government.&nbsp;
111	He also wanted an annulment from a devoutly Catholic wife, Katharine of
112	Aragon, and when the Pope, held hostage by the Holy Roman Emperor,
113	refused
114	to rule in his favor, he found it most expedient to simply disregard
115	the
116	papacy.&nbsp; But throughout it all, Henry was unaware of the forces he
117	had unleashed when he declared himself head of the English
118	church.&nbsp;
119	Trained for the church as a child, he remained staunchly Catholic for
120	his
121	entire life though the Catholic church deemed him a heretic. </p>
122	<center>
123	<p><b><u><font color="#000000">a discussion of the Henrician reformation</font></u></b></p>
124	</center>
125	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is important to remember that during Henry's
126	reign, at least half of his subjects were under the age of
127	eighteen.&nbsp; Henry's court swarmed with young people - pages,
128	scullery maids, and the like.&nbsp; English culture celebrated youth;
129	tournaments, hunts, glorious warfare were all the province of the young
130	and strong.&nbsp; And while Henry was young, he joined these events
131	with a gusto sadly lacking in his father or son.&nbsp; But time does
132	not stop, not even for a despotic monarch determined to have his way in
133	all things.&nbsp; During his 'great matter', Henry was in his thirties
134	and changing from 'Bluff King Hal' into an overweight and balding
135	hypochondriac.&nbsp; He had rid himself of Rome to gain wealth and a
136	son.&nbsp; He gained both and, once he had, continually toyed with the
137	idea of making peace with the pope.&nbsp; He didn't relish
138	excommunication and it is likely that he persuaded himself that he
139	wasn't disobeying Christ's vicar but rather the Emperor's puppet. </p>
140	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But he misjudged the mood of his people,
141	particularly his nobles.&nbsp; Educated and by nature inquisitive and
142	acquisitive, the new Protestant teachings intrigued them; they also
143	sought the vast monastic lands which Henry planned to sell.&nbsp; This
144	was the paradox of the Henrician reformation.&nbsp; It was motivated by
145	greed and genuine religious turmoil.&nbsp; As time passed, the new
146	generation of nobles were Protestant because it was expedient and
147	philosophically appealing.&nbsp; And with each year, more Englishmen
148	were born who were further and further away from the old days of Roman
149	domination.&nbsp; Henry, in his forties, could remember the papist ways
150	but, as the years passed, fewer and fewer of his subjects did. </p>
151	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In terms of the practical effect the reformation
152	had on everyday Englishmen, the situation is more difficult to
153	gauge.&nbsp; Unlike the wealthy noblemen, they couldn't bid on the
154	seized monastic properties.&nbsp; And in many towns and villages, the
155	parish church was the community center, where births, weddings, and
156	deaths were officiated over by a priest.&nbsp; But they undoubtedly
157	enjoyed not paying their tax to Rome.&nbsp; Once again, a paradox
158	emerged - an excommunicated nation which found itself torn between
159	loyalty to the sovereign and loyalty to the papacy.&nbsp; Also, since
160	Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn could only be recognized if one
161	accepted his annulment from Katharine - which in itself meant a
162	rejection of papal authority - and it was treason to <i>not</i>
163	recognize his marriage to Anne, then many people were swayed by the
164	threat of execution.&nbsp; In other words, accept Henry's decisions or
165	die.&nbsp; Of course, I cannot discuss all aspects of the reformation
166	at this site; I recommend L.B. Smith's <i>Henry VIII</i> which studies
167	Henry's own theological beliefs. </p>
168	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There was opposition to the reformation which
169	probably had more to do with the attendant loss of independence in
170	north England.&nbsp; In 1536, a northern uprising which came to be
171	called the Pilgrimage of Grace, gathered over 40,000 men and marched
172	through England.&nbsp; It eventually destroyed itself by internal
173	division and lack of clear purpose but one of the rebels' demands was a
174	warning for Cromwell - they want their king to be advised by <i>noble</i>
175	councilors who understand the people's wishes, not common men like
176	Cromwell.&nbsp; Henry was angry at their presumption - how dare his
177	ignorant subjects rebel annd then tell him how to run the country! -
178	but he was persuaded to show mercy and pardon those involved.&nbsp; And
179	he continued to listen to Cromwell. </p>
180	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The <a
181	href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fprimary.html">Pilgrimage of Grace</a>
182	was largely motivated not by religious concerns but by Cromwell's
183	determination to dissolve the monasteries and improve the royal tax
184	collecting methods.&nbsp; For example, the movement began in Louth, in
185	Lincolnshire, and began with the murder of two tax collectors, one of
186	whom was hanged and the other sewn into a sack and thrown to a pack of
187	hungry dogs! </p>
188	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So the common people might grumble somewhat but
189	they were ultimately more influenced by practical matters.&nbsp; Had
190	Henry's excommunication been followed by a terrible harvest or bad
191	weather, it may have been otherwise.&nbsp; During his daughter Mary's
192	reign, such signs were taken to mean God was angry with her for
193	attempting to reinstate Catholicism.&nbsp; But not only did Henry enjoy
194	good weather, he had a brilliant servant.&nbsp; Cromwell was the one
195	who gave force to Henry's grand declarations.&nbsp; The king declared
196	that Rome had no authority in England and Cromwell instituted the
197	reforms which would make it so.&nbsp; The king declared that all
198	monastic lands were forfeit and Cromwell set out to close the
199	monasteries, assess their value, and sell them to the highest
200	bidder.&nbsp; For a decade, this partnership worked marvelously. </p>
201	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Also, Henry and Cromwell both recognized a
202	fundamental truth of the English people; the government could do what
203	it liked as long as traditional religious views were not upset too
204	much.&nbsp; Certainly Henry did not upset his own.&nbsp; The name of
205	the pope was omitted in their prayers but not much else.&nbsp; Henry's
206	break with Rome was really a legal reformation rather than one of real
207	religious content.&nbsp; England practiced Catholicism without a pope
208	and, in his place, was their king.&nbsp; This situation suited
209	Cromwell.&nbsp; Like many, he recognized that the Church had lost its
210	way, remaining a ponderous medieval institution concerned with wealth
211	and influence.&nbsp; But Europe was no longer medieval; countries were
212	becoming nation-states, patriotic and immune to the cultural unity
213	which Rome promoted.&nbsp; The pope envisioned a collection of nations
214	joined beneath the cloak of Christendom with him at its head; but,
215	particularly in xenophobic England, there were mutterings that the
216	church was dominated by other nations.&nbsp; Also, the church claimed
217	authority over its subjects; no priest or cleric could be tried by
218	their sovereign nation.&nbsp; They would answer only to Rome.&nbsp;
219	This problem had angered Henry II centuries before and resulted in
220	Thomas Becket's murder.&nbsp; In Henry's time, it had grown
221	worse.&nbsp; Also, as king, he believed himself ruler of <i>all</i>
222	his subjects, priest and commoner alike. </p>
223	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; One must also mention the corruption of the
224	church, sadly evident to everyone.&nbsp; Certainly there were Godly men
225	who struggled to enforce the tenets of their faith.&nbsp; But there
226	were also bishops and cardinals more interested in business and finance
227	than theology.&nbsp; The church preached that the surest path to heaven
228	was through good works, particularly at a monastery or abbey, but every
229	Englishmen knew that only the wealthy could afford to endow or board at
230	them.&nbsp; Furthermore, an increasing number of churchmen were absent
231	from their posts.&nbsp; Cardinal Wolsey embodied this avaricious
232	streak; he was bishop, archbishop, abbot, and cardinal yet the affairs
233	of state kept him from his duties.&nbsp; Instead of tending to his
234	flock, he tended to his purse.&nbsp; He sired illegitimate children and
235	collected nearly 50,000 pds a year from his vast holdings. </p>
236	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Wolsey represented the church as it had become;
237	certainly such abuses may not have turned most Englishmen from their
238	faith.&nbsp; But when confronted with the forces of Protestantism, the
239	church found precious few willing to die for their beliefs.&nbsp; After
240	all, why would anyone die for a faith they didn't respect?&nbsp; When
241	the king styled himself head of the church, many were perhaps
242	relieved.&nbsp; Henry made no claim to a holy life, not like the
243	churchman Wolsey; he also was shrewd enough to endow his monarchy with
244	papal apparatus.&nbsp; From the 1530s on, the Tudor dynasty was even
245	more divine and the machinery of state could enforce its divinity. </p>
246	<center>
247	<p><b><u><font color="#000000">Cromwell's revolution in government</font></u></b></p>
248	</center>
249	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cromwell's rise to power was extraordinary and
250	occurred just when Henry needed a minister of great administrative
251	imagination and genius, uninterested in the squabbles of his council
252	and determined to empower the machinery of state.&nbsp; Cromwell
253	entered royal service in early 1530 and, from then on, rose
254	rapidly.&nbsp; In late 1530 he was sworn into the King's Council and,
255	just a year later, began to attract unfavorable attention from Wolsey's
256	old rivals.&nbsp; These were Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester,
257	Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, and Charles Brandon, duke of
258	Suffolk.&nbsp; Gardiner had worked with Wolsey but, like Norfolk and
259	Suffolk, viewed the Cardinal's fall as a chance to take his
260	place.&nbsp; From 1529 to about 1533, they enjoyed the king's
261	confidence even as Cromwell rose to overtake them all.&nbsp; His career
262	progressed as follows: <br>
263	<b><font color="#990000">1531</font></b> - member of the privy council <br>
264	<b><font color="#990000">1532</font></b> - Master of Court of Wards and
265	Master of Jewel House <br>
266	<b><font color="#990000">1533</font></b> - Chancellor of the Exchequer <br>
267	<font color="#990000"><b>1534</b> </font>- King's Secretary and Master
268	of the Rolls <br>
269	<b><font color="#990000">1535</font></b> - Vicar-General <br>
270	<b><font color="#990000">1536</font></b> - Lord Privy Seal and Baron
271	Cromwell of Oakham <br>
272	<b><font color="#990000">1537</font></b> - Knight of the Garter and
273	Dean of Wells <br>
274	<b><font color="#990000">1539</font></b> - Lord Great Chamberlain <br>
275	<b><font color="#990000">1540</font></b> - created Earl of Essex </p>
276	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As the above list shows, Henry never forgot the
277	fallen Wolsey.&nbsp; He had heaped honors upon him with extravagant
278	generosity and had written to the pope recommending religious
279	promotion.&nbsp; In the end, Henry believed himself betrayed.&nbsp; Not
280	only had Wolsey accumulated obscene wealth, but he had grown arrogant
281	and eventually treasonous.&nbsp; And so Cromwell, despite his years of
282	diligence and genius, was eventually rewarded with an earldom but only
283	a short time before his execution. </p>
284	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; His influence upon the 1530s, one of the most
285	influential and vital decades in English history, was enormous.&nbsp;
286	One needs only to study the 1540s to realize how the loss of Cromwell
287	affected Tudor government.&nbsp; He also came to power during Anne
288	Boleyn's ascendancy.&nbsp; It was a symbolic changing of the guard -
289	the old Katharine of Aragon thrust aside for the young, ambitious Anne
290	Boleyn and Wolsey disgraced and replaced by his protÃ©gÃ©
291	Cromwell.&nbsp; Cromwell supported Anne until she, like Wolsey, became
292	a liability.&nbsp; Among his immediate accomplishments were the
293	following: <br>
294	<b><font color="#990000">1</font></b> - the dissolution of the
295	monasteries and establishment of the royal supremacy <br>
296	<b><font color="#990000">2</font></b> - founded the ministries of
297	Augmentations and First Fruits to handle income from the dissolution <br>
298	<b><font color="#990000">3</font></b> - founded the two courts of Wards
299	and Surveyors which allowed more efficient taxation and leasing <br>
300	<b><font color="#990000">4 </font></b>- politically integrated the
301	kingdom by extending sovereign authority into northern England, Wales
302	&amp; Ireland (actions which angered the great feudal lords) <br>
303	<b><font color="#990000">5</font></b> - used the power of that
304	relatively new invention, the printing-press and thus spearheaded the
305	first propaganda campaign in English history. </p>
306	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the 1530s, he had instituted reforms of the
307	English government which earned enmity from the nobility.&nbsp;
308	Cromwell recognized the basic inefficiency of feudal government and,
309	from it, struggled to create a more logical system.&nbsp; Instead of
310	offices held solely because of birth, he wanted trained servants with
311	expertise in their field.&nbsp; He built a bureaucracy of professionals
312	outside the royal household.&nbsp; He began the first era of
313	parliamentary control of England, using the institution to dissolve the
314	monasteries which made up a quarter of all arable land and validate his
315	other decisions. </p>
316	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; From the above list, one will note that most of
317	the 'accomplishments' were motivated by financial need.&nbsp; Like his
318	predecessors in government ministry, Cromwell needed to provide secure
319	and regular income.&nbsp; This alone necessitated an assault on the
320	church's wealth.&nbsp; Cromwell also developed a novel, and very
321	unpopular idea - in the past, taxes were created to support warfare; in
322	1534, he developed a new tax.&nbsp; Its basis?&nbsp; The king's
323	maintenance of peace.&nbsp; These measures did not help his reputation
324	but, by 1547, had brought nearly 2,000,000 pds to
325	Henry's treasury.&nbsp; Of course, Henry would use the entire windfall
326	to
327	finance his increasingly complicated foreign policy.&nbsp; At the time
328	of
329	Henry's death, all the wealth Cromwell had accumulated was gone and
330	Edward
331	VI was left with debased currency and massive debts. </p>
332	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1534, however, Henry was prepared to reap the
333	benefits of his new anti-clerical policies.&nbsp; He had appointed his
334	friend Thomas Cranmer to the venerable and powerful position of
335	Archbishop of Canterbury.&nbsp; Cranmer was like Cromwell in many ways
336	- both owed their rise to prominence entirely to Henry's mercurial
337	favor; both came from humble backgrounds; both
338	were despised by the traditional nobility.&nbsp; Cranmer had come to
339	Henry's
340	attention by first suggesting a solution to the divorce problem -
341	petition
342	learned churchmen for their opinion, assuming they agreed with
343	Henry.&nbsp;
344	Like Cromwell, Cranmer benefited directly from the fall of Katharine of
345	Aragon and the Imperial alliance and the rise of Anne Boleyn and her
346	Norfolk
347	relations.&nbsp; Henry's midlife crisis provided fertile ground for
348	ambitious
349	men.&nbsp; Cranmer and Cromwell liked one another and became friends,
350	though
351	Cranmer was careful to distance himself once Cromwell's ruin was
352	assured. </p>
353	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1535, Henry appointed Cromwell Vicar General
354	and, over the next five years, the honors increased - Lord Privy Seal,
355	titled Baron Cromwell of Oakham, Knight of the Garter and Dean of
356	Wells, and finally Lord Great Chancellor and ennoblement as Earl of
357	Essex.&nbsp; The last was Cromwell's greatest ambition and long before
358	justified by his superior service to the crown.&nbsp; During the
359	accumulation of these honors, however, Cromwell began to recognize the
360	flaws in his success. </p>
361	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; First, he had accompanied Anne Boleyn on her rise
362	to power; yet, in 1536, he helped engineer her disgrace and execution
363	on charges of adultery, incest, and witchcraft.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp;
364	Cromwell recognized Henry's dissatisfaction with the marriage - after
365	several years, Anne's sharp tongue had offended many and, even worse,
366	she had not produced a male heir.&nbsp; Furthermore, Henry had become
367	infatuated with Anne's lady-in-waiting, Mistress Jane Seymour.&nbsp;
368	Tiring of his wife, he wanted to be rid of her.&nbsp; Divorce was only
369	briefly considered before being pushed aside.&nbsp; As he had with
370	Katharine of Aragon, Henry became convinced his marriage was invalid,
371	only this time because of adultery, and he retained his absolute
372	conviction in her guilt even as he truly believed his and Katharine's
373	marriage was invalid.&nbsp; To rid himself of Anne, he turned to the
374	ever-ready Cromwell.&nbsp; Soon enough, Anne was on trial with her
375	brother and two male servants.&nbsp; They were all executed, despite
376	spirited defenses and the widely-held belief that it was judicial
377	murder. </p>
378	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cromwell betrayed his former patron because she
379	no longer held the king's favor.&nbsp; In the rough world of Tudor
380	politics, friendships were lost in the struggle for prestige and
381	survival.&nbsp; And now Cromwell turned to Mistress Jane Seymour and
382	her relatively obscure family for support.&nbsp; The Seymours, however,
383	never warmed to Cromwell as had the Boleyns, largely because they
384	didn't trust him or his influence over the king.&nbsp; Cromwell was
385	careful to press Jane's cause to the king though Henry needed little
386	urging.&nbsp; Just days after Anne Boleyn's execution, Jane Seymour
387	became his third wife, dying eighteen months later after delivering the
388	longed-for son, Prince Edward.&nbsp; Cromwell busied himself with
389	auctioning off church properties to various noblemen and further
390	reforming the archaic machinery of Tudor government.&nbsp; In doing so,
391	he continued to ignore Henry's council of noble peers.&nbsp; When the
392	council did meet, Cromwell dominated the meetings and disregarded most
393	suggestions.&nbsp; To his credit, he was right on most counts; the
394	nobility was quite distanced from the changing nature of
395	government.&nbsp; They were fiercely protective of their own
396	'inalienable' rights as landowners and peers and notoriously difficult
397	when these rights were impugned (this conflict between the nobility and
398	monarchy was centuries-old - simply remember the 13th century <i>Magna
399	Carta</i>, when the nobles forced King John I to recognize their
400	'natural' rights.) </p>
401	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As discussed earlier, the nobility resented
402	Cromwell's influence with the king and his pro-monarchy, anti-nobility
403	policy.&nbsp; And while many of the nobles benefited from the sale of
404	clerical lands, many others had relatives dedicated to religious
405	service.&nbsp; Also, reverence for the church and its servants was as
406	deeply-held as reverence for the monarchy.&nbsp; Henry's attacks upon
407	the church struck many as unnatural and wrong; since they could not
408	turn on the king, they turned on Cromwell and blamed him for every
409	unpopular policy.&nbsp; Henry VIII, who relished his popularity,
410	allowed his faithful servant to be impugned.&nbsp; Thus, Henry could
411	meet with his nobles, listen to their complaints, and even agree with
412	them since many were his dearest friends.&nbsp; The king remained
413	popular while his chief minister became increasingly despised and
414	isolated.&nbsp; It is worth noting that one of Cromwell's friends,
415	Richard Moryson, argued that merit and not birth should be the only
416	qualification for entry into the privy council.&nbsp; Moryson
417	eventually became a member himself. </p>
418	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is also important to note that years of
419	listening to anti-Cromwell gossip eventually affected Henry.&nbsp; Even
420	the king did not exist in a vacuum and, as his temper became
421	increasingly erratic, he was easily swayed by inflamed opinion.&nbsp;
422	Thus, Cromwell suffered from a lapse in Henry's temper and one which
423	the king almost immediately regretted.&nbsp; Chief among Cromwell's
424	enemies were the highest nobles in the land, once Wolsey's great
425	enemies and led by the dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk.&nbsp; These men
426	had pushed Wolsey from favor after years of effort and were determined
427	to do the same to his protÃ©gÃ©.&nbsp; The perfect
428	opportunity arrived when Queen Jane died two weeks after childbirth, in
429	October 1537.&nbsp; Henry VIII was genuinely bereaved at her death but
430	almost immediately the search began for a new queen.&nbsp; After all,
431	Jane had delivered a son but one male heir was not enough in the
432	sixteenth century.&nbsp; Henry's council began to search for a new
433	consort with the king's enthusiastic support. </p>
434	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; For Cromwell, this was a chance to further extend
435	his influence while thwarting the English nobility.&nbsp; Henry's
436	second and third wives had been English noblewomen whose families
437	directly profited from their rise to power.&nbsp; The influence of
438	these families naturally troubled Cromwell.&nbsp; As their influence
439	rose, his own suffered - so he was opposed to the idea of another
440	English wife.&nbsp; Also, as an intelligent statesman, he recognized
441	the diplomatic power of royal marriages.&nbsp; Henry's troublesome
442	foreign policy could be soothed if he chose a foreign wife - a princess
443	or duchess of one of the great European families.&nbsp; Kings were
444	meant to marry other royalty and Cromwell immediately searched for
445	possible candidates. </p>
446	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; While searching, he was careful to avoid Catholic
447	candidates.&nbsp; Cromwell's rise to power was directly connected to
448	the fall of Catholicism in England and he wanted to keep England on the
449	path of Protestantism.&nbsp; Therefore, he sought a Protestant ally for
450	Henry VIII.&nbsp; Naturally, his gaze turned to the Protestant states
451	of Germany, birthplace of the Lutheran revolution.&nbsp; Meanwhile,
452	Henry VIII was concerned with more aesthetic matters, sending artists
453	(most famously, Hans
454	Holbein the Younger) to France and Milan to paint potential
455	brides.&nbsp; Among those painted was Christina, duchess of Milan and
456	niece of the Holy Roman Emperor; she famously remarked that she would
457	be happy to marry Henry - if she had two heads!&nbsp; Henry also
458	considered Marie de Guise, a widowed cousin of the French king.&nbsp;
459	Marie, however, chose to marry Henry's nephew, James V of Scotland,
460	thus creating a French-Scottish alliance along Henry's troublesome
461	northern border.&nbsp; Their only surviving child is famous in history
462	as the tragic Mary queen of Scots. </p>
463	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cromwell was well aware that if France and the
464	Holy Roman Empire ended hostilities, as seemed likely, England would be
465	left out in the diplomatic cold.&nbsp; He was quite happy when the
466	French and Imperial marriage negotiations fell apart.&nbsp; But as the
467	search wound on, Henry became increasingly desperate for a wife.&nbsp;
468	No doubt he was lonely; also, his court needed a queen to be
469	complete.&nbsp; A king was not meant to be a bachelor, as every
470	European monarch knew.&nbsp; Finally, Cromwell found a Protestant ally
471	with two available sisters - the duke of Cleves, whose lands were
472	strategically located and wealthy.&nbsp; He had two sisters not yet wed
473	called Anne and Amelia.&nbsp; As the eldest, Anne was chosen as the
474	possible bride and Holbein immediately went to Cleves to paint her
475	portrait.&nbsp; <a
476	href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fwww.geocities.com%2fathens%2fforum%2f9194%2fcleves1.jpg">This
477	painting</a> would become of paramount importance in the coming
478	year.&nbsp; Henry was determined to have a beautiful wife and
479	specifically asked his various ambassadors probing questions - does
480	Marie de Guise have wide hips for childbearing? is Christina of Milan
481	pock-marked? does Anne of Cleves play the lute?&nbsp; Holbein's famous
482	portrait of Anne cannot be adequately judged in our time; after all,
483	standards of beauty have changed.&nbsp; However, it is amusing to note
484	that she - so maligned in her own time as the ugliest of Henry's wives
485	- is the most attractive by twentieth-century standards. </p>
486	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Holbein's portrait showed a perfectly attractive
487	young woman - and, on that basis, Cromwell was able to secure the
488	marriage alliance with a Protestant ally.&nbsp; Anne set sail for
489	England, little realizing what lay ahead.&nbsp; The king, meanwhile,
490	was ecstatic that after almost three years as a widower he would be a
491	husband again, able to play one of his favorite roles.&nbsp; The entire
492	country was thrilled at the news, in fact, and after Anne arrived,
493	Cromwell finally secured his greatest ambition - an earldom.&nbsp; He
494	was titled earl of Essex by Henry VIII on 18 April 1540 after the
495	marriage treaty was finalized. </p>
496	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; During this time, he also attempted to placate
497	the nobility by redistributing lands to the great magnates, providing
498	them with near-autonomous controls of great sections of land.&nbsp; For
499	example, the duke of Suffolk traded East Anglian lands for lands in
500	Lincolnshire - the duke of Norfolk already held lands in Anglia while
501	Lincolnshire needed a strong leader.&nbsp; Earlier, Cromwell had
502	attempted to befriend Henry's oldest child, the stubbornly Catholic
503	Princess Mary.&nbsp; She rebuffed his attention, largely on religious
504	grounds. </p>
505	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Two years of marriage-brokering were often
506	interrupted by rumors of rebellion.&nbsp; The Pilgrimage of Grace had
507	made Henry more sensitive to popular sentiment.&nbsp; While Cromwell
508	searched for a wife, rumors spread that the king planned new
509	taxes.&nbsp; Also, the last remnants of the legitimate Plantagenet line
510	- the Nevilles, Poles, and Courtenays - were suspected of encouraging
511	rebellionn and Henry used this convenient excuse to order more
512	executions.&nbsp; But popular unrest needed to be assuaged in some
513	manner so Cromwell engineered the passing of the Six Articles at
514	Parliament in April 1539.&nbsp; These articles attempted to stamp a
515	more conservative gloss on the Henrician reformation, thus placating
516	conservative European nobles - and the Catholic nations in Europe, now
517	forced to concede Henry was not so great a heretic after all.&nbsp; It
518	was a supreme example of Cromwell's talent for diffusing domestic
519	tension.&nbsp; In effect, it was all talk and no action; it didn't
520	alter the course of the reformation one bit. </p>
521	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Finally, on 6 October 1539, the marriage treaty
522	with Cleves was finalized just two months after Holbein delivered his
523	portrait.&nbsp; Princess Anne, once betrothed to the duke of Lorraine,
524	was now destined to be queen of England.&nbsp; It was the fulfillment
525	of Cromwell's domestic and foreign policies.&nbsp; On 11 December, Anne
526	was at Calais waiting for a favorable wind to carry her to Dover.&nbsp;
527	She was there for almost two weeks while Henry waited at
528	Greenwich.&nbsp; Finally, on 27 December she landed at Deal and then
529	traveled to Dover and Canterbury before arriving at Rochester on 1
530	January 1540.&nbsp; Henry, desperate to see his bride in person, rushed
531	in disguise to meet her 'to thus nourish love', he told Cromwell.&nbsp;
532	Their comical first meeting is described at the <a
533	href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fprimary.html">Primary Sources</a>
534	section. </p>
535	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The meeting was an unmitigated disaster and the
536	beginning of Cromwell's end.&nbsp; The New Year gifts Henry had brought
537	for Anne were delivered the next day by a courier with a brief note of
538	welcome.&nbsp; 'I am ashamed that men have so praised her as they have
539	done, and I like her not', the king said ominously; he told Cromwell
540	that Anne was 'nothing so well as she was spoken of' and, if he had
541	known the truth of her appearance, she would never have come to
542	England.&nbsp; The next day, his betrothed arrived in Greenwich and the
543	marriage, scheduled for that day, was delayed for two days while Henry
544	sought escape.&nbsp; But there was none to be had - the Holy Roman
545	Emperor was in Paris meeting with the French king and Henry, locked out
546	by those two great powers, could not risk offending the German princes
547	who approved the union with Anne.&nbsp; They were, after all, his only
548	allies at the moment.&nbsp; So Anne was not sent back and Henry moaned
549	that he must 'put my neck in the yoke'.&nbsp; He wrote to Cromwell, 'My
550	lord, if it were not to satisfy the world and my realm, I would not do
551	that I must do this day for none earthly thing'. </p>
552	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Poor Anne of Cleves - barely able to speak
553	English, in a foreign land, and despised by her intended husband!&nbsp;
554	The confused woman was led to a private marriage ceremony at Greenwich
555	and, then, to her equally humiliating marriage-bed.&nbsp; The union was
556	not consummated, a subject upon which Henry never wavered.&nbsp; He
557	spoke openly of how disgusted he was by Anne's appearance; 'struck to
558	the heart' by distaste, he 'left her as good a maid as he found
559	her'.&nbsp; They lay together for the entire length of their marriage
560	but were never physically intimate.&nbsp; After a few months had
561	passed, the French-Imperial alliance showed signs of cooling and
562	Henry's natural boldness had returned.&nbsp; He wanted out of this
563	fourth marriage and told Cromwell to arrange it. </p>
564	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What were Cromwell's options?&nbsp; There were
565	two ways to nullify the marriage (in essence, arrange a divorce) -
566	Henry had not consented to the marriage (this was proved by his failure
567	to consummate it) and Anne had not consented to the marriage (this was
568	proved by Anne's precontract to the duke of Lorraine.)&nbsp; Henry had
569	long been concerned with the latter problem - but had been assured that
570	the contract was completely repudiated.&nbsp; Still, the day before his
571	marriage to Anne, he called the Clevian ambassadors to him and raised
572	the issue.&nbsp; They were astonished, and rightly so, and offered to
573	remain as prisoners in England until the formal repudiation papers were
574	delivered from Cleves.&nbsp; Meanwhile, Thomas Cranmer told the king
575	that Anne could simply swear that the betrothal had been repudiated -
576	no official documents were necessary.&nbsp; His friend Cromwell
577	'travailed on him [Henry] to pass the matter over'; he hoped that once
578	Henry was married to Anne, the king would resign himself to the
579	marriage. </p>
580	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But instead Henry turned to the precontract when
581	his distaste could not be overcome.&nbsp; On 9 July, Parliament
582	declared the marriage null and void and Anne, surprising Henry and the
583	court, was content to be called 'sister' and receive a handsome income
584	and household in England.&nbsp; She had no desire to return to Cleves,
585	where she would remain under her brother's
586	thumb and perhaps married again.&nbsp; It is also possible she found
587	Henry
588	as unattractive as he found her.&nbsp; Henry was so pleased with this
589	unexpected
590	docility that he gave her status second only to his daughters,
591	Princesses
592	Mary and Elizabeth, both of whom came to befriend Anne.&nbsp; Anne's
593	letter
594	to Henry, in which she accepts the dissolution of their marriage, can
595	be
596	read at '<a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fletters.html">Letters
597	of the Six Wives of Henry VIII</a>'. </p>
598	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; However, the time had come to search for a
599	convenient scapegoat - the person responsible for the disastrous
600	union.&nbsp; Henry railed against his ambassadors who had so misled him
601	with descriptions of her beauty - though, in truth, the ambassador's
602	descriptions had been honest.&nbsp; It was soon alleged that Cromwell
603	had kept them from the king, for fear of discouraging the union.&nbsp;
604	Now, Cromwell was arrested on 10 June 1540, at 3pm on a Saturday, while
605	at a Privy Council meeting.&nbsp; This was a full month before the
606	marriage was nullified.&nbsp; Henry and Cromwell's enemies were in the
607	midst of finding scapegoats for the marriage, while not yet assured of
608	its outcome.&nbsp; Henry, in a fit of temper and pique, complained
609	bitterly that his minister had betrayed him while trying to further his
610	own influence; the nobility were only too happy to encourage such
611	thoughts.&nbsp; They urged Henry to arrest Cromwell and teach the
612	upstart his final lesson - namely, that it does not pay to mislead a
613	king. </p>
614	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So the captain of the guard arrived at the
615	council chamber and arrested Cromwell, while a table of his enemies
616	looked on.&nbsp; The moment the guard entered the room, Cromwell
617	recognized the danger - and threw his hat upon the table in rage.&nbsp;
618	Norfolk and Southampton stripped his decorations from his robe of state
619	and Cromwell was then escorted to a barge - and, then, the Tower of
620	London.&nbsp; The events which follow are far from clear - Cromwell's
621	fall and execution are among the most mysterious events of Henry VIII's
622	reign and cannot be easily understood.&nbsp; I have yet to read a
623	history which offers an adequate explanation.&nbsp; In truth, Henry
624	became increasingly mercurial and tempermental in his later years, and
625	Cromwell was just one of many victims of the king's ever-changing
626	whims. </p>
627	<p><font size="+1">&nbsp;</font> First, if Cromwell fell from favor
628	because of the Cleves marriage, as most believe, why did Henry title
629	him earl of Essex in April 1540 - months after the marriage had been
630	finalized and while negotiations for divorce were underway?&nbsp;
631	Second, if Cromwell was executed because his government policies
632	angered the king, as has been alleged, why did Henry give his voluntary
633	approval to all of Cromwell's legislation?&nbsp; Third, is his enemies
634	were in the ascendancy, why had Henry only recently shown the duke of
635	Norfolk (Cromwell's great enemy) open favor?&nbsp; After all, Norfolk
636	had just been sent abroad on diplomatic work - away from the king. </p>
637	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What are we left with?&nbsp; The charges
638	eventually listed in Cromwell's attainder <i>did not</i> list the
639	above - Cromwell was not accused of misleading Henry on matters of
640	policy, he was not held responsible for the disastrous marriage, and he
641	was not charged with leading England into an unwanted Lutheran
642	alliance.&nbsp; Instead, he was charged with selling export licenses
643	illegally, granting passports and commissions without royal knowledge,
644	freeing people suspected of treason and - of course - that he,
645	base-born and ignoble, had usuurped and deliberately misused royal
646	power.&nbsp; Most significantly, however, he was charged with heresy -
647	this charge was the bulk of his attaindder and apparently swayed Henry
648	decisively.&nbsp; Norfolk, allied with the Catholic bishops Cromwell
649	had forced from power, engineered this charge.&nbsp; Cromwell, they
650	charged, had encouraged and spread heretical literature, allowed
651	heretics to preach, released them from prison, and allied himself
652	against their enemies.&nbsp; Significantly, it was reported that in
653	March 1539 Cromwell said that, even if Henry turned from Protestantism,
654	'yet I would not turn, and if the king did turn, and all his people, I
655	would fight in this field in mine own person, with my sword in my hand <i>against
656	him</i> and all other'.&nbsp; That was treason. </p>
657	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Shortly after his arrest, incriminating letters
658	to Lutherans were found in Cromwell's home, placed there by agents of
659	the duke of Norfolk; they were so inflammatory that the king was
660	outraged.&nbsp; Cromwell's name, Henry swore, would be abolished
661	forever.&nbsp; Cromwell wrote two desperate letters from the Tower; the
662	one that survives is in tatters.&nbsp; He assured his monarch that he
663	was a good, loyal servant and a faithful Christian.&nbsp; But Henry,
664	surrounded by Cromwell's enemies and - more significantly - newly
665	infatuated with Norfolk's niece, Catherine Howard, would hear
666	nothing.&nbsp; Furthermore, Norfolk was shrewd enough to create a
667	Lutheran conspiracy; three popular reformers, Robert Barnes, Thomas
668	Garret, and William Jerome, were executed just days after
669	Cromwell.&nbsp; None of the men were allowed an open trial.&nbsp; That
670	would allow the public opportunity for them to dispute the false
671	charges.&nbsp; Instead, they were condemned by Act of Attainder, a
672	parliamentary tool which dispensed with justice in favor of speed. </p>
673	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The executed men were also neighbors of Cromwell,
674	which was their only link to the earl.&nbsp; And they were as innocent
675	as
676	Cromwell of the charges against them - as evidenced by the confusion of
677	contemporary chroniclers.&nbsp; Edward Hall, one of the great
678	chroniclers of Tudor England, could find no real evidence against them
679	although he 'searched to know the truth'. </p>
680	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So Cromwell was executed privately on Tower Green
681	on 28 July 1540, still protesting his innocence.&nbsp; He died with
682	dignity - but the whole sordid affair of his death would not
683	rest.&nbsp; For the volatile Henry VIII was soon despairing of his
684	loss, just a few months after he allowed the execution.&nbsp; He raged
685	at his council, accusing them of lying and deliberately destroying his
686	'most faithful servant'.&nbsp; Cromwell's destruction had been
687	engineered on 'light pretexts' and against the king's wishes.&nbsp; In
688	truth, Henry was a victim as well - of a determined group of nobles and
689	clerics, led by Norfolk, who hated Cromwell and carried the king along
690	on their path of destruction.&nbsp; Events were rapid and deliberately
691	confused.&nbsp; By the time Henry realized what had happened, it was
692	too late.&nbsp; He could only bemoan his loss, while never
693	understanding exactly why it happened. </p>
694	<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This was no comfort to Thomas Cromwell, however;
695	after a lifetime of dedicated service, he met his end by execution and
696	all of Henry's
697	regrets could not bring him back to life. </p>
698	<center>
699	<hr width="100%"> <br>
700	<font size="-1"><a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fcitizens.html">to
701	Tudor Citizens</a></font> <br>
702	<font size="-1"><a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor.html">to Tudor
703	England</a></font>
704	<p><b><font size="-1">Want to learn more about Cromwell?</font></b> <br>
705	<font size="-1">Try these books (used as sources for my article) -</font>
706	<br>
707	<font size="-1">The Cardinal and the Secretary: Thomas Wolsey and
708	Thomas Cromwell</font> <br>
709	<font size="-1">by Neville Williams.</font> <br>
710	<font size="-1">Policy and Police: the enforcement of the Reformation
711	in the Age of Thomas Cromwell</font> <br>
712	<font size="-1">by G. R. Elton.</font> <br>
713	<font size="-1">Reform and Renewal: Thomas Cromwell and the Common Weal</font>
714	<br>
715	<font size="-1">by G. R. Elton.</font> <br>
716	<font size="-1">Thomas Cromwell and the English Reformation</font> <br>
717	<font size="-1">by A. G. Dickens.</font> <br>
718	<font size="-1">Thomas Cromwell: Tudor Minister</font> <br>
719	<font size="-1">by B. W. Beckingsale.<br>
720	</font></p>
721	<p><font size="-1"><br>
722	</font></p>
723	</center>
724	<br>
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740	</Archive>

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