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| 14 | <Metadata name="Title">Tudor Citizens - Thomas Cromwell</Metadata>
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| 26 | </Description>
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| 27 | <Content>
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| 28 | <center><img src="_httpdocimg_/cromwell.gif"
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| 29 | alt="Thomas Cromwell" style="width: 313px; height: 59px;"> <br>
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| 30 | born c.1485 in Putney <br>
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| 31 | executed 28 July 1540 in London
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| 32 | <p><b><font size="+1">"A good household manager, but not fit to meddle
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| 33 | in the affairs of kings."</font></b> <br>
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| 34 | <font size="-1">May 1538, Henry VIII describes Cromwell to the French
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| 35 | ambassador</font></p>
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| 36 | </center>
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| 37 | <p><img
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| 38 | src="_httpdocimg_/cromwell-small.jpg"
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| 39 | alt="portrait of Cromwell as the earl of Essex"
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| 40 | style="border: 2px solid ; width: 220px; height: 264px;" align="left">
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| 41 | &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Thomas Cromwell was as great a statesman as England
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| 42 | has ever seen and, in his decade of power, permanently changed the
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| 43 | course
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| 44 | of English history.&nbsp; Unlike his mentor, Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell
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| 45 | was not a priest or a papist.&nbsp; He was a lawyer determined to
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| 46 | impose his own character - methodical, detached, and calculating - upon
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| 47 | government. </p>
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| 48 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cromwell wanted government to be effective and
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| 49 | efficient; to achieve this, he had to end the chaos of feudal privilege
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| 50 | and ill-defined jurisdictions.&nbsp; He was blessed with a logical mind
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| 51 | in an age sadly devoid of them.&nbsp; And unlike his royal master, he
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| 52 | did not let his emotions interfere with his position.&nbsp; He was the
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| 53 | ideal statesman for Tudor England and, just months after his execution
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| 54 | in 1540, Henry VIII was bemoaning his loss. </p>
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| 55 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cromwell was introduced to government service as
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| 56 | a secretary for <a
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| 57 | href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fcitizens%2fwolsey.html">Cardinal
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| 58 | Wolsey</a>.&nbsp; His abilities won him the older man's respect and
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| 59 | soon Cromwell was his most
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| 60 | trusted servant and principal secretary.&nbsp; But Cromwell managed to
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| 61 | distance
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| 62 | himself from Wolsey immediately after the Cardinal fell from grace and
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| 63 | soon
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| 64 | had taken his place as Henry's most valuable advisor.&nbsp; Before
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| 65 | entering
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| 66 | Wolsey's service, Cromwell lived an adventurous life.&nbsp; His father
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| 67 | had
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| 68 | been a brewer and blacksmith known for permanent drunkenness and
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| 69 | illegal
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| 70 | activities.&nbsp; From this inauspicious beginning, his son went on to
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| 71 | indulge
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| 72 | his curiosity and practical nature by traveling through Europe.&nbsp;
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| 73 | Over
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| 74 | the course of several years, he was a soldier in Europe, a banker in
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| 75 | Italy,
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| 76 | clerk in the Netherlands, and a lawyer in London.&nbsp; Like so many
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| 77 | ambitious
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| 78 | men, he was in Wolsey's service in the mid-1520s.&nbsp; His most
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| 79 | important
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| 80 | work was the suppression of 29 religious houses whose monies Wolsey
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| 81 | used
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| 82 | to endow colleges at Ipswich and Oxford.&nbsp; When Wolsey fell from
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| 83 | grace
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| 84 | in 1529, Cromwell was hurriedly elected burgess for Taunton so he could
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| 85 | remain in government service. </p>
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| 86 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There were striking similarities between the two
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| 87 | men - both managed to remain favorites of the mercurial Henry VIII for
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| 88 | years; both were despised by the older nobility who coveted their
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| 89 | influence with the king; both sought to reform the creaky medieval
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| 90 | bureaucracy of Tudor government; both were highly intelligent and
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| 91 | well-versed in international affairs.&nbsp; And both, ultimately, fell
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| 92 | from Henry's favor with spectacular speed.&nbsp; In the end, the king
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| 93 | preferred to listen to the old nobility. </p>
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| 94 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But Cromwell and Wolsey were also markedly
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| 95 | different in many ways.&nbsp; Cromwell was the man responsible for the
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| 96 | Henrician reformation while Wolsey fell because he served two masters,
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| 97 | the king of England and the Pope.&nbsp; Though Henry had ejected Rome
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| 98 | from his nation, he still practiced the Roman Catholic religion.&nbsp;
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| 99 | The king's religious tendencies were never reformist and many
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| 100 | historians have made the mistake of painting him as one of the first
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| 101 | Protestant kings.&nbsp; Henry was never a Protestant and he wrote
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| 102 | treatises vilifying Martin Luther for which he was titled 'Defender of
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| 103 | the Faith' by the Pope.&nbsp; Rather, he was an opportunist who
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| 104 | disliked papal authority and interference in his realm and wanted some
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| 105 | of the vast wealth the English church possessed.&nbsp; For
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| 106 | Henry, often desperately short of money, it was near-blasphemy for his
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| 107 | subjects
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| 108 | to pay taxes directly to Rome; he wanted the money for his
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| 109 | government.&nbsp;
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| 110 | He also wanted an annulment from a devoutly Catholic wife, Katharine of
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| 111 | Aragon, and when the Pope, held hostage by the Holy Roman Emperor,
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| 112 | refused
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| 113 | to rule in his favor, he found it most expedient to simply disregard
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| 114 | the
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| 115 | papacy.&nbsp; But throughout it all, Henry was unaware of the forces he
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| 116 | had unleashed when he declared himself head of the English
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| 117 | church.&nbsp;
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| 118 | Trained for the church as a child, he remained staunchly Catholic for
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| 119 | his
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| 120 | entire life though the Catholic church deemed him a heretic. </p>
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| 121 | <center>
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| 122 | <p><b><u><font color="#000000">a discussion of the Henrician reformation</font></u></b></p>
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| 123 | </center>
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| 124 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is important to remember that during Henry's
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| 125 | reign, at least half of his subjects were under the age of
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| 126 | eighteen.&nbsp; Henry's court swarmed with young people - pages,
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| 127 | scullery maids, and the like.&nbsp; English culture celebrated youth;
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| 128 | tournaments, hunts, glorious warfare were all the province of the young
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| 129 | and strong.&nbsp; And while Henry was young, he joined these events
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| 130 | with a gusto sadly lacking in his father or son.&nbsp; But time does
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| 131 | not stop, not even for a despotic monarch determined to have his way in
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| 132 | all things.&nbsp; During his 'great matter', Henry was in his thirties
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| 133 | and changing from 'Bluff King Hal' into an overweight and balding
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| 134 | hypochondriac.&nbsp; He had rid himself of Rome to gain wealth and a
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| 135 | son.&nbsp; He gained both and, once he had, continually toyed with the
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| 136 | idea of making peace with the pope.&nbsp; He didn't relish
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| 137 | excommunication and it is likely that he persuaded himself that he
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| 138 | wasn't disobeying Christ's vicar but rather the Emperor's puppet. </p>
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| 139 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But he misjudged the mood of his people,
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| 140 | particularly his nobles.&nbsp; Educated and by nature inquisitive and
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| 141 | acquisitive, the new Protestant teachings intrigued them; they also
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| 142 | sought the vast monastic lands which Henry planned to sell.&nbsp; This
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| 143 | was the paradox of the Henrician reformation.&nbsp; It was motivated by
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| 144 | greed and genuine religious turmoil.&nbsp; As time passed, the new
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| 145 | generation of nobles were Protestant because it was expedient and
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| 146 | philosophically appealing.&nbsp; And with each year, more Englishmen
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| 147 | were born who were further and further away from the old days of Roman
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| 148 | domination.&nbsp; Henry, in his forties, could remember the papist ways
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| 149 | but, as the years passed, fewer and fewer of his subjects did. </p>
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| 150 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In terms of the practical effect the reformation
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| 151 | had on everyday Englishmen, the situation is more difficult to
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| 152 | gauge.&nbsp; Unlike the wealthy noblemen, they couldn't bid on the
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| 153 | seized monastic properties.&nbsp; And in many towns and villages, the
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| 154 | parish church was the community center, where births, weddings, and
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| 155 | deaths were officiated over by a priest.&nbsp; But they undoubtedly
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| 156 | enjoyed not paying their tax to Rome.&nbsp; Once again, a paradox
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| 157 | emerged - an excommunicated nation which found itself torn between
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| 158 | loyalty to the sovereign and loyalty to the papacy.&nbsp; Also, since
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| 159 | Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn could only be recognized if one
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| 160 | accepted his annulment from Katharine - which in itself meant a
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| 161 | rejection of papal authority - and it was treason to <i>not</i>
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| 162 | recognize his marriage to Anne, then many people were swayed by the
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| 163 | threat of execution.&nbsp; In other words, accept Henry's decisions or
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| 164 | die.&nbsp; Of course, I cannot discuss all aspects of the reformation
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| 165 | at this site; I recommend L.B. Smith's <i>Henry VIII</i> which studies
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| 166 | Henry's own theological beliefs. </p>
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| 167 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There was opposition to the reformation which
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| 168 | probably had more to do with the attendant loss of independence in
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| 169 | north England.&nbsp; In 1536, a northern uprising which came to be
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| 170 | called the Pilgrimage of Grace, gathered over 40,000 men and marched
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| 171 | through England.&nbsp; It eventually destroyed itself by internal
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| 172 | division and lack of clear purpose but one of the rebels' demands was a
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| 173 | warning for Cromwell - they want their king to be advised by <i>noble</i>
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| 174 | councilors who understand the people's wishes, not common men like
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| 175 | Cromwell.&nbsp; Henry was angry at their presumption - how dare his
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| 176 | ignorant subjects rebel annd then tell him how to run the country! -
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| 177 | but he was persuaded to show mercy and pardon those involved.&nbsp; And
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| 178 | he continued to listen to Cromwell. </p>
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| 179 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The <a
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| 180 | href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fprimary.html">Pilgrimage of Grace</a>
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| 181 | was largely motivated not by religious concerns but by Cromwell's
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| 182 | determination to dissolve the monasteries and improve the royal tax
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| 183 | collecting methods.&nbsp; For example, the movement began in Louth, in
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| 184 | Lincolnshire, and began with the murder of two tax collectors, one of
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| 185 | whom was hanged and the other sewn into a sack and thrown to a pack of
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| 186 | hungry dogs! </p>
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| 187 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So the common people might grumble somewhat but
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| 188 | they were ultimately more influenced by practical matters.&nbsp; Had
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| 189 | Henry's excommunication been followed by a terrible harvest or bad
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| 190 | weather, it may have been otherwise.&nbsp; During his daughter Mary's
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| 191 | reign, such signs were taken to mean God was angry with her for
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| 192 | attempting to reinstate Catholicism.&nbsp; But not only did Henry enjoy
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| 193 | good weather, he had a brilliant servant.&nbsp; Cromwell was the one
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| 194 | who gave force to Henry's grand declarations.&nbsp; The king declared
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| 195 | that Rome had no authority in England and Cromwell instituted the
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| 196 | reforms which would make it so.&nbsp; The king declared that all
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| 197 | monastic lands were forfeit and Cromwell set out to close the
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| 198 | monasteries, assess their value, and sell them to the highest
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| 199 | bidder.&nbsp; For a decade, this partnership worked marvelously. </p>
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| 200 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Also, Henry and Cromwell both recognized a
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| 201 | fundamental truth of the English people; the government could do what
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| 202 | it liked as long as traditional religious views were not upset too
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| 203 | much.&nbsp; Certainly Henry did not upset his own.&nbsp; The name of
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| 204 | the pope was omitted in their prayers but not much else.&nbsp; Henry's
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| 205 | break with Rome was really a legal reformation rather than one of real
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| 206 | religious content.&nbsp; England practiced Catholicism without a pope
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| 207 | and, in his place, was their king.&nbsp; This situation suited
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| 208 | Cromwell.&nbsp; Like many, he recognized that the Church had lost its
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| 209 | way, remaining a ponderous medieval institution concerned with wealth
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| 210 | and influence.&nbsp; But Europe was no longer medieval; countries were
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| 211 | becoming nation-states, patriotic and immune to the cultural unity
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| 212 | which Rome promoted.&nbsp; The pope envisioned a collection of nations
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| 213 | joined beneath the cloak of Christendom with him at its head; but,
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| 214 | particularly in xenophobic England, there were mutterings that the
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| 215 | church was dominated by other nations.&nbsp; Also, the church claimed
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| 216 | authority over its subjects; no priest or cleric could be tried by
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| 217 | their sovereign nation.&nbsp; They would answer only to Rome.&nbsp;
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| 218 | This problem had angered Henry II centuries before and resulted in
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| 219 | Thomas Becket's murder.&nbsp; In Henry's time, it had grown
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| 220 | worse.&nbsp; Also, as king, he believed himself ruler of <i>all</i>
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| 221 | his subjects, priest and commoner alike. </p>
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| 222 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; One must also mention the corruption of the
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| 223 | church, sadly evident to everyone.&nbsp; Certainly there were Godly men
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| 224 | who struggled to enforce the tenets of their faith.&nbsp; But there
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| 225 | were also bishops and cardinals more interested in business and finance
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| 226 | than theology.&nbsp; The church preached that the surest path to heaven
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| 227 | was through good works, particularly at a monastery or abbey, but every
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| 228 | Englishmen knew that only the wealthy could afford to endow or board at
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| 229 | them.&nbsp; Furthermore, an increasing number of churchmen were absent
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| 230 | from their posts.&nbsp; Cardinal Wolsey embodied this avaricious
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| 231 | streak; he was bishop, archbishop, abbot, and cardinal yet the affairs
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| 232 | of state kept him from his duties.&nbsp; Instead of tending to his
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| 233 | flock, he tended to his purse.&nbsp; He sired illegitimate children and
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| 234 | collected nearly 50,000 pds a year from his vast holdings. </p>
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| 235 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Wolsey represented the church as it had become;
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| 236 | certainly such abuses may not have turned most Englishmen from their
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| 237 | faith.&nbsp; But when confronted with the forces of Protestantism, the
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| 238 | church found precious few willing to die for their beliefs.&nbsp; After
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| 239 | all, why would anyone die for a faith they didn't respect?&nbsp; When
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| 240 | the king styled himself head of the church, many were perhaps
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| 241 | relieved.&nbsp; Henry made no claim to a holy life, not like the
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| 242 | churchman Wolsey; he also was shrewd enough to endow his monarchy with
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| 243 | papal apparatus.&nbsp; From the 1530s on, the Tudor dynasty was even
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| 244 | more divine and the machinery of state could enforce its divinity. </p>
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| 245 | <center>
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| 246 | <p><b><u><font color="#000000">Cromwell's revolution in government</font></u></b></p>
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| 247 | </center>
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| 248 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cromwell's rise to power was extraordinary and
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| 249 | occurred just when Henry needed a minister of great administrative
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| 250 | imagination and genius, uninterested in the squabbles of his council
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| 251 | and determined to empower the machinery of state.&nbsp; Cromwell
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| 252 | entered royal service in early 1530 and, from then on, rose
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| 253 | rapidly.&nbsp; In late 1530 he was sworn into the King's Council and,
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| 254 | just a year later, began to attract unfavorable attention from Wolsey's
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| 255 | old rivals.&nbsp; These were Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester,
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| 256 | Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, and Charles Brandon, duke of
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| 257 | Suffolk.&nbsp; Gardiner had worked with Wolsey but, like Norfolk and
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| 258 | Suffolk, viewed the Cardinal's fall as a chance to take his
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| 259 | place.&nbsp; From 1529 to about 1533, they enjoyed the king's
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| 260 | confidence even as Cromwell rose to overtake them all.&nbsp; His career
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| 261 | progressed as follows: <br>
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| 262 | <b><font color="#990000">1531</font></b> - member of the privy council <br>
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| 263 | <b><font color="#990000">1532</font></b> - Master of Court of Wards and
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| 264 | Master of Jewel House <br>
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| 265 | <b><font color="#990000">1533</font></b> - Chancellor of the Exchequer <br>
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| 266 | <font color="#990000"><b>1534</b> </font>- King's Secretary and Master
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| 267 | of the Rolls <br>
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| 268 | <b><font color="#990000">1535</font></b> - Vicar-General <br>
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| 269 | <b><font color="#990000">1536</font></b> - Lord Privy Seal and Baron
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| 270 | Cromwell of Oakham <br>
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| 271 | <b><font color="#990000">1537</font></b> - Knight of the Garter and
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| 272 | Dean of Wells <br>
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| 273 | <b><font color="#990000">1539</font></b> - Lord Great Chamberlain <br>
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| 274 | <b><font color="#990000">1540</font></b> - created Earl of Essex </p>
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| 275 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As the above list shows, Henry never forgot the
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| 276 | fallen Wolsey.&nbsp; He had heaped honors upon him with extravagant
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| 277 | generosity and had written to the pope recommending religious
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| 278 | promotion.&nbsp; In the end, Henry believed himself betrayed.&nbsp; Not
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| 279 | only had Wolsey accumulated obscene wealth, but he had grown arrogant
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| 280 | and eventually treasonous.&nbsp; And so Cromwell, despite his years of
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| 281 | diligence and genius, was eventually rewarded with an earldom but only
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| 282 | a short time before his execution. </p>
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| 283 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; His influence upon the 1530s, one of the most
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| 284 | influential and vital decades in English history, was enormous.&nbsp;
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| 285 | One needs only to study the 1540s to realize how the loss of Cromwell
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| 286 | affected Tudor government.&nbsp; He also came to power during Anne
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| 287 | Boleyn's ascendancy.&nbsp; It was a symbolic changing of the guard -
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| 288 | the old Katharine of Aragon thrust aside for the young, ambitious Anne
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| 289 | Boleyn and Wolsey disgraced and replaced by his protégé
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| 290 | Cromwell.&nbsp; Cromwell supported Anne until she, like Wolsey, became
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| 291 | a liability.&nbsp; Among his immediate accomplishments were the
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| 292 | following: <br>
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| 293 | <b><font color="#990000">1</font></b> - the dissolution of the
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| 294 | monasteries and establishment of the royal supremacy <br>
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| 295 | <b><font color="#990000">2</font></b> - founded the ministries of
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| 296 | Augmentations and First Fruits to handle income from the dissolution <br>
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| 297 | <b><font color="#990000">3</font></b> - founded the two courts of Wards
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| 298 | and Surveyors which allowed more efficient taxation and leasing <br>
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| 299 | <b><font color="#990000">4 </font></b>- politically integrated the
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| 300 | kingdom by extending sovereign authority into northern England, Wales
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| 301 | &amp; Ireland (actions which angered the great feudal lords) <br>
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| 302 | <b><font color="#990000">5</font></b> - used the power of that
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| 303 | relatively new invention, the printing-press and thus spearheaded the
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| 304 | first propaganda campaign in English history. </p>
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| 305 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the 1530s, he had instituted reforms of the
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| 306 | English government which earned enmity from the nobility.&nbsp;
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| 307 | Cromwell recognized the basic inefficiency of feudal government and,
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| 308 | from it, struggled to create a more logical system.&nbsp; Instead of
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| 309 | offices held solely because of birth, he wanted trained servants with
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| 310 | expertise in their field.&nbsp; He built a bureaucracy of professionals
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| 311 | outside the royal household.&nbsp; He began the first era of
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| 312 | parliamentary control of England, using the institution to dissolve the
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| 313 | monasteries which made up a quarter of all arable land and validate his
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| 314 | other decisions. </p>
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| 315 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; From the above list, one will note that most of
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| 316 | the 'accomplishments' were motivated by financial need.&nbsp; Like his
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| 317 | predecessors in government ministry, Cromwell needed to provide secure
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| 318 | and regular income.&nbsp; This alone necessitated an assault on the
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| 319 | church's wealth.&nbsp; Cromwell also developed a novel, and very
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| 320 | unpopular idea - in the past, taxes were created to support warfare; in
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| 321 | 1534, he developed a new tax.&nbsp; Its basis?&nbsp; The king's
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| 322 | maintenance of peace.&nbsp; These measures did not help his reputation
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| 323 | but, by 1547, had brought nearly 2,000,000 pds to
|
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| 324 | Henry's treasury.&nbsp; Of course, Henry would use the entire windfall
|
---|
| 325 | to
|
---|
| 326 | finance his increasingly complicated foreign policy.&nbsp; At the time
|
---|
| 327 | of
|
---|
| 328 | Henry's death, all the wealth Cromwell had accumulated was gone and
|
---|
| 329 | Edward
|
---|
| 330 | VI was left with debased currency and massive debts. </p>
|
---|
| 331 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1534, however, Henry was prepared to reap the
|
---|
| 332 | benefits of his new anti-clerical policies.&nbsp; He had appointed his
|
---|
| 333 | friend Thomas Cranmer to the venerable and powerful position of
|
---|
| 334 | Archbishop of Canterbury.&nbsp; Cranmer was like Cromwell in many ways
|
---|
| 335 | - both owed their rise to prominence entirely to Henry's mercurial
|
---|
| 336 | favor; both came from humble backgrounds; both
|
---|
| 337 | were despised by the traditional nobility.&nbsp; Cranmer had come to
|
---|
| 338 | Henry's
|
---|
| 339 | attention by first suggesting a solution to the divorce problem -
|
---|
| 340 | petition
|
---|
| 341 | learned churchmen for their opinion, assuming they agreed with
|
---|
| 342 | Henry.&nbsp;
|
---|
| 343 | Like Cromwell, Cranmer benefited directly from the fall of Katharine of
|
---|
| 344 | Aragon and the Imperial alliance and the rise of Anne Boleyn and her
|
---|
| 345 | Norfolk
|
---|
| 346 | relations.&nbsp; Henry's midlife crisis provided fertile ground for
|
---|
| 347 | ambitious
|
---|
| 348 | men.&nbsp; Cranmer and Cromwell liked one another and became friends,
|
---|
| 349 | though
|
---|
| 350 | Cranmer was careful to distance himself once Cromwell's ruin was
|
---|
| 351 | assured. </p>
|
---|
| 352 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1535, Henry appointed Cromwell Vicar General
|
---|
| 353 | and, over the next five years, the honors increased - Lord Privy Seal,
|
---|
| 354 | titled Baron Cromwell of Oakham, Knight of the Garter and Dean of
|
---|
| 355 | Wells, and finally Lord Great Chancellor and ennoblement as Earl of
|
---|
| 356 | Essex.&nbsp; The last was Cromwell's greatest ambition and long before
|
---|
| 357 | justified by his superior service to the crown.&nbsp; During the
|
---|
| 358 | accumulation of these honors, however, Cromwell began to recognize the
|
---|
| 359 | flaws in his success. </p>
|
---|
| 360 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; First, he had accompanied Anne Boleyn on her rise
|
---|
| 361 | to power; yet, in 1536, he helped engineer her disgrace and execution
|
---|
| 362 | on charges of adultery, incest, and witchcraft.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp;
|
---|
| 363 | Cromwell recognized Henry's dissatisfaction with the marriage - after
|
---|
| 364 | several years, Anne's sharp tongue had offended many and, even worse,
|
---|
| 365 | she had not produced a male heir.&nbsp; Furthermore, Henry had become
|
---|
| 366 | infatuated with Anne's lady-in-waiting, Mistress Jane Seymour.&nbsp;
|
---|
| 367 | Tiring of his wife, he wanted to be rid of her.&nbsp; Divorce was only
|
---|
| 368 | briefly considered before being pushed aside.&nbsp; As he had with
|
---|
| 369 | Katharine of Aragon, Henry became convinced his marriage was invalid,
|
---|
| 370 | only this time because of adultery, and he retained his absolute
|
---|
| 371 | conviction in her guilt even as he truly believed his and Katharine's
|
---|
| 372 | marriage was invalid.&nbsp; To rid himself of Anne, he turned to the
|
---|
| 373 | ever-ready Cromwell.&nbsp; Soon enough, Anne was on trial with her
|
---|
| 374 | brother and two male servants.&nbsp; They were all executed, despite
|
---|
| 375 | spirited defenses and the widely-held belief that it was judicial
|
---|
| 376 | murder. </p>
|
---|
| 377 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cromwell betrayed his former patron because she
|
---|
| 378 | no longer held the king's favor.&nbsp; In the rough world of Tudor
|
---|
| 379 | politics, friendships were lost in the struggle for prestige and
|
---|
| 380 | survival.&nbsp; And now Cromwell turned to Mistress Jane Seymour and
|
---|
| 381 | her relatively obscure family for support.&nbsp; The Seymours, however,
|
---|
| 382 | never warmed to Cromwell as had the Boleyns, largely because they
|
---|
| 383 | didn't trust him or his influence over the king.&nbsp; Cromwell was
|
---|
| 384 | careful to press Jane's cause to the king though Henry needed little
|
---|
| 385 | urging.&nbsp; Just days after Anne Boleyn's execution, Jane Seymour
|
---|
| 386 | became his third wife, dying eighteen months later after delivering the
|
---|
| 387 | longed-for son, Prince Edward.&nbsp; Cromwell busied himself with
|
---|
| 388 | auctioning off church properties to various noblemen and further
|
---|
| 389 | reforming the archaic machinery of Tudor government.&nbsp; In doing so,
|
---|
| 390 | he continued to ignore Henry's council of noble peers.&nbsp; When the
|
---|
| 391 | council did meet, Cromwell dominated the meetings and disregarded most
|
---|
| 392 | suggestions.&nbsp; To his credit, he was right on most counts; the
|
---|
| 393 | nobility was quite distanced from the changing nature of
|
---|
| 394 | government.&nbsp; They were fiercely protective of their own
|
---|
| 395 | 'inalienable' rights as landowners and peers and notoriously difficult
|
---|
| 396 | when these rights were impugned (this conflict between the nobility and
|
---|
| 397 | monarchy was centuries-old - simply remember the 13th century <i>Magna
|
---|
| 398 | Carta</i>, when the nobles forced King John I to recognize their
|
---|
| 399 | 'natural' rights.) </p>
|
---|
| 400 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As discussed earlier, the nobility resented
|
---|
| 401 | Cromwell's influence with the king and his pro-monarchy, anti-nobility
|
---|
| 402 | policy.&nbsp; And while many of the nobles benefited from the sale of
|
---|
| 403 | clerical lands, many others had relatives dedicated to religious
|
---|
| 404 | service.&nbsp; Also, reverence for the church and its servants was as
|
---|
| 405 | deeply-held as reverence for the monarchy.&nbsp; Henry's attacks upon
|
---|
| 406 | the church struck many as unnatural and wrong; since they could not
|
---|
| 407 | turn on the king, they turned on Cromwell and blamed him for every
|
---|
| 408 | unpopular policy.&nbsp; Henry VIII, who relished his popularity,
|
---|
| 409 | allowed his faithful servant to be impugned.&nbsp; Thus, Henry could
|
---|
| 410 | meet with his nobles, listen to their complaints, and even agree with
|
---|
| 411 | them since many were his dearest friends.&nbsp; The king remained
|
---|
| 412 | popular while his chief minister became increasingly despised and
|
---|
| 413 | isolated.&nbsp; It is worth noting that one of Cromwell's friends,
|
---|
| 414 | Richard Moryson, argued that merit and not birth should be the only
|
---|
| 415 | qualification for entry into the privy council.&nbsp; Moryson
|
---|
| 416 | eventually became a member himself. </p>
|
---|
| 417 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is also important to note that years of
|
---|
| 418 | listening to anti-Cromwell gossip eventually affected Henry.&nbsp; Even
|
---|
| 419 | the king did not exist in a vacuum and, as his temper became
|
---|
| 420 | increasingly erratic, he was easily swayed by inflamed opinion.&nbsp;
|
---|
| 421 | Thus, Cromwell suffered from a lapse in Henry's temper and one which
|
---|
| 422 | the king almost immediately regretted.&nbsp; Chief among Cromwell's
|
---|
| 423 | enemies were the highest nobles in the land, once Wolsey's great
|
---|
| 424 | enemies and led by the dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk.&nbsp; These men
|
---|
| 425 | had pushed Wolsey from favor after years of effort and were determined
|
---|
| 426 | to do the same to his protégé.&nbsp; The perfect
|
---|
| 427 | opportunity arrived when Queen Jane died two weeks after childbirth, in
|
---|
| 428 | October 1537.&nbsp; Henry VIII was genuinely bereaved at her death but
|
---|
| 429 | almost immediately the search began for a new queen.&nbsp; After all,
|
---|
| 430 | Jane had delivered a son but one male heir was not enough in the
|
---|
| 431 | sixteenth century.&nbsp; Henry's council began to search for a new
|
---|
| 432 | consort with the king's enthusiastic support. </p>
|
---|
| 433 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; For Cromwell, this was a chance to further extend
|
---|
| 434 | his influence while thwarting the English nobility.&nbsp; Henry's
|
---|
| 435 | second and third wives had been English noblewomen whose families
|
---|
| 436 | directly profited from their rise to power.&nbsp; The influence of
|
---|
| 437 | these families naturally troubled Cromwell.&nbsp; As their influence
|
---|
| 438 | rose, his own suffered - so he was opposed to the idea of another
|
---|
| 439 | English wife.&nbsp; Also, as an intelligent statesman, he recognized
|
---|
| 440 | the diplomatic power of royal marriages.&nbsp; Henry's troublesome
|
---|
| 441 | foreign policy could be soothed if he chose a foreign wife - a princess
|
---|
| 442 | or duchess of one of the great European families.&nbsp; Kings were
|
---|
| 443 | meant to marry other royalty and Cromwell immediately searched for
|
---|
| 444 | possible candidates. </p>
|
---|
| 445 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; While searching, he was careful to avoid Catholic
|
---|
| 446 | candidates.&nbsp; Cromwell's rise to power was directly connected to
|
---|
| 447 | the fall of Catholicism in England and he wanted to keep England on the
|
---|
| 448 | path of Protestantism.&nbsp; Therefore, he sought a Protestant ally for
|
---|
| 449 | Henry VIII.&nbsp; Naturally, his gaze turned to the Protestant states
|
---|
| 450 | of Germany, birthplace of the Lutheran revolution.&nbsp; Meanwhile,
|
---|
| 451 | Henry VIII was concerned with more aesthetic matters, sending artists
|
---|
| 452 | (most famously, Hans
|
---|
| 453 | Holbein the Younger) to France and Milan to paint potential
|
---|
| 454 | brides.&nbsp; Among those painted was Christina, duchess of Milan and
|
---|
| 455 | niece of the Holy Roman Emperor; she famously remarked that she would
|
---|
| 456 | be happy to marry Henry - if she had two heads!&nbsp; Henry also
|
---|
| 457 | considered Marie de Guise, a widowed cousin of the French king.&nbsp;
|
---|
| 458 | Marie, however, chose to marry Henry's nephew, James V of Scotland,
|
---|
| 459 | thus creating a French-Scottish alliance along Henry's troublesome
|
---|
| 460 | northern border.&nbsp; Their only surviving child is famous in history
|
---|
| 461 | as the tragic Mary queen of Scots. </p>
|
---|
| 462 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cromwell was well aware that if France and the
|
---|
| 463 | Holy Roman Empire ended hostilities, as seemed likely, England would be
|
---|
| 464 | left out in the diplomatic cold.&nbsp; He was quite happy when the
|
---|
| 465 | French and Imperial marriage negotiations fell apart.&nbsp; But as the
|
---|
| 466 | search wound on, Henry became increasingly desperate for a wife.&nbsp;
|
---|
| 467 | No doubt he was lonely; also, his court needed a queen to be
|
---|
| 468 | complete.&nbsp; A king was not meant to be a bachelor, as every
|
---|
| 469 | European monarch knew.&nbsp; Finally, Cromwell found a Protestant ally
|
---|
| 470 | with two available sisters - the duke of Cleves, whose lands were
|
---|
| 471 | strategically located and wealthy.&nbsp; He had two sisters not yet wed
|
---|
| 472 | called Anne and Amelia.&nbsp; As the eldest, Anne was chosen as the
|
---|
| 473 | possible bride and Holbein immediately went to Cleves to paint her
|
---|
| 474 | portrait.&nbsp; <a
|
---|
| 475 | href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fwww.geocities.com%2fathens%2fforum%2f9194%2fcleves1.jpg">This
|
---|
| 476 | painting</a> would become of paramount importance in the coming
|
---|
| 477 | year.&nbsp; Henry was determined to have a beautiful wife and
|
---|
| 478 | specifically asked his various ambassadors probing questions - does
|
---|
| 479 | Marie de Guise have wide hips for childbearing? is Christina of Milan
|
---|
| 480 | pock-marked? does Anne of Cleves play the lute?&nbsp; Holbein's famous
|
---|
| 481 | portrait of Anne cannot be adequately judged in our time; after all,
|
---|
| 482 | standards of beauty have changed.&nbsp; However, it is amusing to note
|
---|
| 483 | that she - so maligned in her own time as the ugliest of Henry's wives
|
---|
| 484 | - is the most attractive by twentieth-century standards. </p>
|
---|
| 485 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Holbein's portrait showed a perfectly attractive
|
---|
| 486 | young woman - and, on that basis, Cromwell was able to secure the
|
---|
| 487 | marriage alliance with a Protestant ally.&nbsp; Anne set sail for
|
---|
| 488 | England, little realizing what lay ahead.&nbsp; The king, meanwhile,
|
---|
| 489 | was ecstatic that after almost three years as a widower he would be a
|
---|
| 490 | husband again, able to play one of his favorite roles.&nbsp; The entire
|
---|
| 491 | country was thrilled at the news, in fact, and after Anne arrived,
|
---|
| 492 | Cromwell finally secured his greatest ambition - an earldom.&nbsp; He
|
---|
| 493 | was titled earl of Essex by Henry VIII on 18 April 1540 after the
|
---|
| 494 | marriage treaty was finalized. </p>
|
---|
| 495 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; During this time, he also attempted to placate
|
---|
| 496 | the nobility by redistributing lands to the great magnates, providing
|
---|
| 497 | them with near-autonomous controls of great sections of land.&nbsp; For
|
---|
| 498 | example, the duke of Suffolk traded East Anglian lands for lands in
|
---|
| 499 | Lincolnshire - the duke of Norfolk already held lands in Anglia while
|
---|
| 500 | Lincolnshire needed a strong leader.&nbsp; Earlier, Cromwell had
|
---|
| 501 | attempted to befriend Henry's oldest child, the stubbornly Catholic
|
---|
| 502 | Princess Mary.&nbsp; She rebuffed his attention, largely on religious
|
---|
| 503 | grounds. </p>
|
---|
| 504 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Two years of marriage-brokering were often
|
---|
| 505 | interrupted by rumors of rebellion.&nbsp; The Pilgrimage of Grace had
|
---|
| 506 | made Henry more sensitive to popular sentiment.&nbsp; While Cromwell
|
---|
| 507 | searched for a wife, rumors spread that the king planned new
|
---|
| 508 | taxes.&nbsp; Also, the last remnants of the legitimate Plantagenet line
|
---|
| 509 | - the Nevilles, Poles, and Courtenays - were suspected of encouraging
|
---|
| 510 | rebellionn and Henry used this convenient excuse to order more
|
---|
| 511 | executions.&nbsp; But popular unrest needed to be assuaged in some
|
---|
| 512 | manner so Cromwell engineered the passing of the Six Articles at
|
---|
| 513 | Parliament in April 1539.&nbsp; These articles attempted to stamp a
|
---|
| 514 | more conservative gloss on the Henrician reformation, thus placating
|
---|
| 515 | conservative European nobles - and the Catholic nations in Europe, now
|
---|
| 516 | forced to concede Henry was not so great a heretic after all.&nbsp; It
|
---|
| 517 | was a supreme example of Cromwell's talent for diffusing domestic
|
---|
| 518 | tension.&nbsp; In effect, it was all talk and no action; it didn't
|
---|
| 519 | alter the course of the reformation one bit. </p>
|
---|
| 520 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Finally, on 6 October 1539, the marriage treaty
|
---|
| 521 | with Cleves was finalized just two months after Holbein delivered his
|
---|
| 522 | portrait.&nbsp; Princess Anne, once betrothed to the duke of Lorraine,
|
---|
| 523 | was now destined to be queen of England.&nbsp; It was the fulfillment
|
---|
| 524 | of Cromwell's domestic and foreign policies.&nbsp; On 11 December, Anne
|
---|
| 525 | was at Calais waiting for a favorable wind to carry her to Dover.&nbsp;
|
---|
| 526 | She was there for almost two weeks while Henry waited at
|
---|
| 527 | Greenwich.&nbsp; Finally, on 27 December she landed at Deal and then
|
---|
| 528 | traveled to Dover and Canterbury before arriving at Rochester on 1
|
---|
| 529 | January 1540.&nbsp; Henry, desperate to see his bride in person, rushed
|
---|
| 530 | in disguise to meet her 'to thus nourish love', he told Cromwell.&nbsp;
|
---|
| 531 | Their comical first meeting is described at the <a
|
---|
| 532 | href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fprimary.html">Primary Sources</a>
|
---|
| 533 | section. </p>
|
---|
| 534 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The meeting was an unmitigated disaster and the
|
---|
| 535 | beginning of Cromwell's end.&nbsp; The New Year gifts Henry had brought
|
---|
| 536 | for Anne were delivered the next day by a courier with a brief note of
|
---|
| 537 | welcome.&nbsp; 'I am ashamed that men have so praised her as they have
|
---|
| 538 | done, and I like her not', the king said ominously; he told Cromwell
|
---|
| 539 | that Anne was 'nothing so well as she was spoken of' and, if he had
|
---|
| 540 | known the truth of her appearance, she would never have come to
|
---|
| 541 | England.&nbsp; The next day, his betrothed arrived in Greenwich and the
|
---|
| 542 | marriage, scheduled for that day, was delayed for two days while Henry
|
---|
| 543 | sought escape.&nbsp; But there was none to be had - the Holy Roman
|
---|
| 544 | Emperor was in Paris meeting with the French king and Henry, locked out
|
---|
| 545 | by those two great powers, could not risk offending the German princes
|
---|
| 546 | who approved the union with Anne.&nbsp; They were, after all, his only
|
---|
| 547 | allies at the moment.&nbsp; So Anne was not sent back and Henry moaned
|
---|
| 548 | that he must 'put my neck in the yoke'.&nbsp; He wrote to Cromwell, 'My
|
---|
| 549 | lord, if it were not to satisfy the world and my realm, I would not do
|
---|
| 550 | that I must do this day for none earthly thing'. </p>
|
---|
| 551 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Poor Anne of Cleves - barely able to speak
|
---|
| 552 | English, in a foreign land, and despised by her intended husband!&nbsp;
|
---|
| 553 | The confused woman was led to a private marriage ceremony at Greenwich
|
---|
| 554 | and, then, to her equally humiliating marriage-bed.&nbsp; The union was
|
---|
| 555 | not consummated, a subject upon which Henry never wavered.&nbsp; He
|
---|
| 556 | spoke openly of how disgusted he was by Anne's appearance; 'struck to
|
---|
| 557 | the heart' by distaste, he 'left her as good a maid as he found
|
---|
| 558 | her'.&nbsp; They lay together for the entire length of their marriage
|
---|
| 559 | but were never physically intimate.&nbsp; After a few months had
|
---|
| 560 | passed, the French-Imperial alliance showed signs of cooling and
|
---|
| 561 | Henry's natural boldness had returned.&nbsp; He wanted out of this
|
---|
| 562 | fourth marriage and told Cromwell to arrange it. </p>
|
---|
| 563 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What were Cromwell's options?&nbsp; There were
|
---|
| 564 | two ways to nullify the marriage (in essence, arrange a divorce) -
|
---|
| 565 | Henry had not consented to the marriage (this was proved by his failure
|
---|
| 566 | to consummate it) and Anne had not consented to the marriage (this was
|
---|
| 567 | proved by Anne's precontract to the duke of Lorraine.)&nbsp; Henry had
|
---|
| 568 | long been concerned with the latter problem - but had been assured that
|
---|
| 569 | the contract was completely repudiated.&nbsp; Still, the day before his
|
---|
| 570 | marriage to Anne, he called the Clevian ambassadors to him and raised
|
---|
| 571 | the issue.&nbsp; They were astonished, and rightly so, and offered to
|
---|
| 572 | remain as prisoners in England until the formal repudiation papers were
|
---|
| 573 | delivered from Cleves.&nbsp; Meanwhile, Thomas Cranmer told the king
|
---|
| 574 | that Anne could simply swear that the betrothal had been repudiated -
|
---|
| 575 | no official documents were necessary.&nbsp; His friend Cromwell
|
---|
| 576 | 'travailed on him [Henry] to pass the matter over'; he hoped that once
|
---|
| 577 | Henry was married to Anne, the king would resign himself to the
|
---|
| 578 | marriage. </p>
|
---|
| 579 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But instead Henry turned to the precontract when
|
---|
| 580 | his distaste could not be overcome.&nbsp; On 9 July, Parliament
|
---|
| 581 | declared the marriage null and void and Anne, surprising Henry and the
|
---|
| 582 | court, was content to be called 'sister' and receive a handsome income
|
---|
| 583 | and household in England.&nbsp; She had no desire to return to Cleves,
|
---|
| 584 | where she would remain under her brother's
|
---|
| 585 | thumb and perhaps married again.&nbsp; It is also possible she found
|
---|
| 586 | Henry
|
---|
| 587 | as unattractive as he found her.&nbsp; Henry was so pleased with this
|
---|
| 588 | unexpected
|
---|
| 589 | docility that he gave her status second only to his daughters,
|
---|
| 590 | Princesses
|
---|
| 591 | Mary and Elizabeth, both of whom came to befriend Anne.&nbsp; Anne's
|
---|
| 592 | letter
|
---|
| 593 | to Henry, in which she accepts the dissolution of their marriage, can
|
---|
| 594 | be
|
---|
| 595 | read at '<a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fletters.html">Letters
|
---|
| 596 | of the Six Wives of Henry VIII</a>'. </p>
|
---|
| 597 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; However, the time had come to search for a
|
---|
| 598 | convenient scapegoat - the person responsible for the disastrous
|
---|
| 599 | union.&nbsp; Henry railed against his ambassadors who had so misled him
|
---|
| 600 | with descriptions of her beauty - though, in truth, the ambassador's
|
---|
| 601 | descriptions had been honest.&nbsp; It was soon alleged that Cromwell
|
---|
| 602 | had kept them from the king, for fear of discouraging the union.&nbsp;
|
---|
| 603 | Now, Cromwell was arrested on 10 June 1540, at 3pm on a Saturday, while
|
---|
| 604 | at a Privy Council meeting.&nbsp; This was a full month before the
|
---|
| 605 | marriage was nullified.&nbsp; Henry and Cromwell's enemies were in the
|
---|
| 606 | midst of finding scapegoats for the marriage, while not yet assured of
|
---|
| 607 | its outcome.&nbsp; Henry, in a fit of temper and pique, complained
|
---|
| 608 | bitterly that his minister had betrayed him while trying to further his
|
---|
| 609 | own influence; the nobility were only too happy to encourage such
|
---|
| 610 | thoughts.&nbsp; They urged Henry to arrest Cromwell and teach the
|
---|
| 611 | upstart his final lesson - namely, that it does not pay to mislead a
|
---|
| 612 | king. </p>
|
---|
| 613 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So the captain of the guard arrived at the
|
---|
| 614 | council chamber and arrested Cromwell, while a table of his enemies
|
---|
| 615 | looked on.&nbsp; The moment the guard entered the room, Cromwell
|
---|
| 616 | recognized the danger - and threw his hat upon the table in rage.&nbsp;
|
---|
| 617 | Norfolk and Southampton stripped his decorations from his robe of state
|
---|
| 618 | and Cromwell was then escorted to a barge - and, then, the Tower of
|
---|
| 619 | London.&nbsp; The events which follow are far from clear - Cromwell's
|
---|
| 620 | fall and execution are among the most mysterious events of Henry VIII's
|
---|
| 621 | reign and cannot be easily understood.&nbsp; I have yet to read a
|
---|
| 622 | history which offers an adequate explanation.&nbsp; In truth, Henry
|
---|
| 623 | became increasingly mercurial and tempermental in his later years, and
|
---|
| 624 | Cromwell was just one of many victims of the king's ever-changing
|
---|
| 625 | whims. </p>
|
---|
| 626 | <p><font size="+1">&nbsp;</font> First, if Cromwell fell from favor
|
---|
| 627 | because of the Cleves marriage, as most believe, why did Henry title
|
---|
| 628 | him earl of Essex in April 1540 - months after the marriage had been
|
---|
| 629 | finalized and while negotiations for divorce were underway?&nbsp;
|
---|
| 630 | Second, if Cromwell was executed because his government policies
|
---|
| 631 | angered the king, as has been alleged, why did Henry give his voluntary
|
---|
| 632 | approval to all of Cromwell's legislation?&nbsp; Third, is his enemies
|
---|
| 633 | were in the ascendancy, why had Henry only recently shown the duke of
|
---|
| 634 | Norfolk (Cromwell's great enemy) open favor?&nbsp; After all, Norfolk
|
---|
| 635 | had just been sent abroad on diplomatic work - away from the king. </p>
|
---|
| 636 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What are we left with?&nbsp; The charges
|
---|
| 637 | eventually listed in Cromwell's attainder <i>did not</i> list the
|
---|
| 638 | above - Cromwell was not accused of misleading Henry on matters of
|
---|
| 639 | policy, he was not held responsible for the disastrous marriage, and he
|
---|
| 640 | was not charged with leading England into an unwanted Lutheran
|
---|
| 641 | alliance.&nbsp; Instead, he was charged with selling export licenses
|
---|
| 642 | illegally, granting passports and commissions without royal knowledge,
|
---|
| 643 | freeing people suspected of treason and - of course - that he,
|
---|
| 644 | base-born and ignoble, had usuurped and deliberately misused royal
|
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| 645 | power.&nbsp; Most significantly, however, he was charged with heresy -
|
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| 646 | this charge was the bulk of his attaindder and apparently swayed Henry
|
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| 647 | decisively.&nbsp; Norfolk, allied with the Catholic bishops Cromwell
|
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| 648 | had forced from power, engineered this charge.&nbsp; Cromwell, they
|
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| 649 | charged, had encouraged and spread heretical literature, allowed
|
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| 650 | heretics to preach, released them from prison, and allied himself
|
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| 651 | against their enemies.&nbsp; Significantly, it was reported that in
|
---|
| 652 | March 1539 Cromwell said that, even if Henry turned from Protestantism,
|
---|
| 653 | 'yet I would not turn, and if the king did turn, and all his people, I
|
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| 654 | would fight in this field in mine own person, with my sword in my hand <i>against
|
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| 655 | him</i> and all other'.&nbsp; That was treason. </p>
|
---|
| 656 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Shortly after his arrest, incriminating letters
|
---|
| 657 | to Lutherans were found in Cromwell's home, placed there by agents of
|
---|
| 658 | the duke of Norfolk; they were so inflammatory that the king was
|
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| 659 | outraged.&nbsp; Cromwell's name, Henry swore, would be abolished
|
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| 660 | forever.&nbsp; Cromwell wrote two desperate letters from the Tower; the
|
---|
| 661 | one that survives is in tatters.&nbsp; He assured his monarch that he
|
---|
| 662 | was a good, loyal servant and a faithful Christian.&nbsp; But Henry,
|
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| 663 | surrounded by Cromwell's enemies and - more significantly - newly
|
---|
| 664 | infatuated with Norfolk's niece, Catherine Howard, would hear
|
---|
| 665 | nothing.&nbsp; Furthermore, Norfolk was shrewd enough to create a
|
---|
| 666 | Lutheran conspiracy; three popular reformers, Robert Barnes, Thomas
|
---|
| 667 | Garret, and William Jerome, were executed just days after
|
---|
| 668 | Cromwell.&nbsp; None of the men were allowed an open trial.&nbsp; That
|
---|
| 669 | would allow the public opportunity for them to dispute the false
|
---|
| 670 | charges.&nbsp; Instead, they were condemned by Act of Attainder, a
|
---|
| 671 | parliamentary tool which dispensed with justice in favor of speed. </p>
|
---|
| 672 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The executed men were also neighbors of Cromwell,
|
---|
| 673 | which was their only link to the earl.&nbsp; And they were as innocent
|
---|
| 674 | as
|
---|
| 675 | Cromwell of the charges against them - as evidenced by the confusion of
|
---|
| 676 | contemporary chroniclers.&nbsp; Edward Hall, one of the great
|
---|
| 677 | chroniclers of Tudor England, could find no real evidence against them
|
---|
| 678 | although he 'searched to know the truth'. </p>
|
---|
| 679 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So Cromwell was executed privately on Tower Green
|
---|
| 680 | on 28 July 1540, still protesting his innocence.&nbsp; He died with
|
---|
| 681 | dignity - but the whole sordid affair of his death would not
|
---|
| 682 | rest.&nbsp; For the volatile Henry VIII was soon despairing of his
|
---|
| 683 | loss, just a few months after he allowed the execution.&nbsp; He raged
|
---|
| 684 | at his council, accusing them of lying and deliberately destroying his
|
---|
| 685 | 'most faithful servant'.&nbsp; Cromwell's destruction had been
|
---|
| 686 | engineered on 'light pretexts' and against the king's wishes.&nbsp; In
|
---|
| 687 | truth, Henry was a victim as well - of a determined group of nobles and
|
---|
| 688 | clerics, led by Norfolk, who hated Cromwell and carried the king along
|
---|
| 689 | on their path of destruction.&nbsp; Events were rapid and deliberately
|
---|
| 690 | confused.&nbsp; By the time Henry realized what had happened, it was
|
---|
| 691 | too late.&nbsp; He could only bemoan his loss, while never
|
---|
| 692 | understanding exactly why it happened. </p>
|
---|
| 693 | <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This was no comfort to Thomas Cromwell, however;
|
---|
| 694 | after a lifetime of dedicated service, he met his end by execution and
|
---|
| 695 | all of Henry's
|
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| 696 | regrets could not bring him back to life. </p>
|
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| 697 | <center>
|
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| 698 | <hr width="100%"> <br>
|
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| 699 | <font size="-1"><a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fcitizens.html">to
|
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| 700 | Tudor Citizens</a></font> <br>
|
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| 701 | <font size="-1"><a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor.html">to Tudor
|
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| 702 | England</a></font>
|
---|
| 703 | <p><b><font size="-1">Want to learn more about Cromwell?</font></b> <br>
|
---|
| 704 | <font size="-1">Try these books (used as sources for my article) -</font>
|
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| 705 | <br>
|
---|
| 706 | <font size="-1">The Cardinal and the Secretary: Thomas Wolsey and
|
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| 707 | Thomas Cromwell</font> <br>
|
---|
| 708 | <font size="-1">by Neville Williams.</font> <br>
|
---|
| 709 | <font size="-1">Policy and Police: the enforcement of the Reformation
|
---|
| 710 | in the Age of Thomas Cromwell</font> <br>
|
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| 711 | <font size="-1">by G. R. Elton.</font> <br>
|
---|
| 712 | <font size="-1">Reform and Renewal: Thomas Cromwell and the Common Weal</font>
|
---|
| 713 | <br>
|
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| 714 | <font size="-1">by G. R. Elton.</font> <br>
|
---|
| 715 | <font size="-1">Thomas Cromwell and the English Reformation</font> <br>
|
---|
| 716 | <font size="-1">by A. G. Dickens.</font> <br>
|
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| 717 | <font size="-1">Thomas Cromwell: Tudor Minister</font> <br>
|
---|
| 718 | <font size="-1">by B. W. Beckingsale.<br>
|
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| 719 | </font></p>
|
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| 720 | <p><font size="-1"><br>
|
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| 721 | </font></p>
|
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| 722 | </center>
|
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| 723 | <br>
|
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| 724 | <script type="text/javascript"><!--
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| 734 | </script>
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| 735 |
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| 736 |
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| 737 | <!-- text below generated by server. PLEASE REMOVE --><!-- Counter/Statistics data collection code --><script language="JavaScript" src="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fl.yimg.com%2fd%2flib%2fsmb%2fjs%2fhosting%2fcp%2fjs%5fsource%2fwhv2%5f001.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;el=direct&amp;href=http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1374472070" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript></Content>
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| 738 | </Section>
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| 739 | </Archive>
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