[143], In 1535 Cromwell succeeded in having clearly identified reformers, such as Hugh Latimer, Edward Foxe and Nicholas Shaxton, appointed to the episcopacy. [114], Early in 1540 Cromwell's religiously conservative, aristocratic enemies, headed by the Duke of Norfolk and supported by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester (given the nickname "Wily Winchester" by polemical historian John Foxe for his mischievous counsels to the king)[115] decided that the country's decline towards "doctrinal radicalism" in religion, as expressed in a series of parliamentary debates held throughout that spring, had gone too far. Sweating sickness symptoms came suddenly and death could occur in under 24 hours. He also demonstrated his awareness of the need to provide practical management of a new kind. In the first week of April 1533, Parliament passed Cromwell's bill into law, as the Act in Restraint of Appeals, ensuring that any adjudication concerning the king's marriage could not be challenged in Rome. Little is known about Cromwell's early life. It would prove a successful marriage and produced at least three children: Alice (or Anne), Grace and Gregory. He never remarried and instead focused all of his affection upon his surviving child, Gregory. During November 1534, another provision of the Act of Succession was in preparation: the appointment of three vicegerentes to supervise all ecclesiastical institutions. Despite serious opposition, especially in the north, the task was carried out relentlessly. [59] By the end of October of that year, however, Wolsey had fallen from power. Image: Thomas More bids a final farewell to his daughter, Margaret Roper, outside the Tower of London in 'The Meeting of Thomas More with his daughter after his sentence' as imagined by William Frederick Yeames, 1863. Cromwell had been converted to a strong puritan faith. Thomas Cromwell served as Henry VIII's chief minister from 1533 to 1540. [d] The king had sent the Duke of Norfolk to the French king Francis I to offer Henry's support in his unresolved dispute with Emperor Charles V, and the mission had been received favourably. Cromwell subsequently charted an evangelical and reformist course for the Church of England from the unique posts of Vicegerent in Spirituals and Vicar-general (the two titles refer to the same position). Cromwell was arraigned under a bill of attainder and executed for treason and heresy on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540. [135][131] The circumstances of his execution are a source of debate: whilst some accounts state that the executioner had great difficulty severing his head,[136][137] others claim that this is apocryphal and that it took only one blow. What is he remembered for? 1068852), Thomas Cromwell's last letter to Henry VIII. Yet he had risen to become the most powerful man in England, next to the King, and Henry was utterly reliant upon him. The woman at the heart of all this controversy had soon proved a disappointment as a royal wife. She comes briefly into the records, in an incredibly obscure wayshe's in the archives of the county of Chester. When this had been displayed on London Bridge, it was reunited with the rest of his remains and buried at the Tower's Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula alongside his erstwhile rivals Anne Boleyn and Thomas More. Thereafter, Cromwells fall came quickly. Cromwells part in the English Reformation has been much debated. The king later expressed regret at the loss of his chief minister, and his reign never recovered from the incident. Thomas Cromwell was sympathetic towards the radical reformers such as Robert Barnes and Hugh Latimer. When Parliament reconvened in November, Cromwell brought in the most significant revision of the treason laws since 1352, making it treasonous to speak rebellious words against the Royal Family, to deny their titles, or to call the King a heretic, tyrant, infidel, or usurper. In stark contrast to the majority of Wolsey's sizeable entourage, Cromwell stood by his patron when he was thrown out of office for failing to secure the annulment of the King's marriage to Katherine of Aragon, so that he might marry Anne Boleyn. He had also secured an influential patron in the form of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII's chief minister. Image: Jane Seymour in 1536, by Hans Holbein the Younger Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria / Bridgeman Images. On New Year's Day 1540, the King met her at Rochester and was immediately repelled by her physically: "I like her not!". [13][58] Cromwell assisted in the dissolution of nearly thirty monasteries to raise funds for Wolsey to found The King's School, Ipswich (1528), and Cardinal College, in Oxford (1529). In the first episode of BBC historical drama Wolf Hall, based on Hilary Mantel's novel of the same name, Thomas Cromwell returns home to find his wife and two daughters have all died during the. A popular tradition that he also carried on the trade of blacksmith may have arisen from his use of the alternative surname of "Smith", rather than actually practising the trade. This article is about the minister of King Henry VIII of England. Anne Boleyn had been pregnant at the time of her marriage to Henry, but the child she carried was a girl (the future Elizabeth I) rather than the hoped-for son. The search for a fourth wife for Henry had begun almost immediately, and Cromwell found a new bride for his royal master. Then, Cromwell persuaded the King of France to release the unfinished books so that printing could continue in England. Cromwell also strengthened his own control over the Church. "[122] His enemies took every opportunity to humiliate him: The Duke of Norfolk snatched the St George's collar (insignia of the Order of the Garter) from Cromwell's shoulders, saying: "A traitor must not wear it", while the prisoner's former friend Sir William Fitzwilliam, the Earl of Southampton[123] untied the ceremonial garter of the Order. Jane Seymour had died after giving birth to the King's longed-for son, Edward, in 1537. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. In circumstances that have divided historians, Anne was accused of adultery with Mark Smeaton, a musician of the royal household; Sir Henry Norris, the King's groom of the stool and one of his closest friends; Sir Francis Weston; Sir William Brereton; and her brother, George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford. Corrections? Anne's portrait so delighted Henry that marriage negotiations began immediately and Anne made her way to England in December 1539. It has been estimated that by 1537 Cromwell's annual income was around 12,000 equivalent to more than 3.5 million in todays money. [100][101], The rebels' grievances were wide-ranging, but the most significant was the suppression of the monasteries, blamed on the King's "evil counsellors", principally Cromwell and Cranmer. He fought back for a few months, being created earl of Essex and lord great chamberlain in April 1540, but early in June his enemies persuaded Henry that his vicegerent was a heretic and a traitor. His fall did not end the Reformation, but it marked the end of competent government and purposeful policy in Henrys reign. Some historians are convinced that her fall and execution were engineered by Cromwell,[93][94] while others accept that the king instigated the process. Image: Portrait of Anne of Cleves, 1539 by Hans Holbein the Younger. Thereafter he was in complete control of the government, though he remained careful to pretend to be acting on the kings authority. Cromwell invited him to return to England where he wrote pamphlets in the defence of the royal supremacy. Sir Thomas Cromwell, Baron of Wimbleton and Earl of Essex, was one of King Henry VIII 's most trusted and brilliant advisors. The perfect gift for a medieval fan our goblets are made in a selection of leathers, glass and pewter. The King was growing impatient, having become enamoured of the young Jane Seymour and being encouraged by Anne's enemies, particularly Sir Nicholas Carew and the Seymours. [13][77] In 1534 a new Parliament was summoned, again under Cromwell's supervision, to enact the legislation necessary to make a formal break of England's remaining ties with Rome. [152], Subsequent historians have agreed with Elton as to Cromwell's importance, though not with his claims of "revolution". He was sworn into the council toward the end of that year and reached the inner circle of confidential advisers a year later. In 1536, as a newly created baron, Cromwell was also appointed the kings deputy as head of the church. He imprisoned the Marquess of Exeter, Sir Edward Neville, and Sir Nicholas Carew on charges of treason in November 1538 (the "Exeter Conspiracy"), using evidence acquired from Sir Geoffrey Pole under interrogation in the Tower. Tudor England was a treacherous place for ambitious courtiers, as the steady rise and . When Henry finally met her, the king was reportedly shocked by her plain appearance. [13], Cromwell had two sisters: the elder, Katherine, married Morgan (ap William) Williams, a Welsh lawyer's son who came to Surrey as a follower of King Henry VII when he established himself in the nearby Richmond Palace;[11] the younger, Elizabeth, married a farmer, William Wellyfed. When Henry denounced Wolsey and banished him 200 miles north to York, Cromwell had to stay in London. This ushered in one of the most turbulent periods in British history. But he was eager to escape the family home. "Cromwell may have been arrested for his promotion of religious reformation, but few could doubt that Henry was also punishing Cromwell for the humiliation of his latest marriage. After Parliament had been dissolved, Cromwell wrote a letter to a friend, jesting about the session's lack of productivity: I amongst other have indured a parlyament which contenwid by the space of xvii hole wekes wher we communyd of warre pease Stryffe contencyon debatte murmure grudge Riches poverte penurye trowth falshode Justyce equyte dicayte [deceit] opprescyon Magnanymyte actyvyte foce [force] attempraunce [moderation] Treason murder Felonye consyli [conciliation] and also how a commune welth myght be ediffyed and a[lso] contenewid within our Realme. For most of the five centuries since Henry VIII sent his chief minister to the scaffold on 28 July 1540, historians have cast Thomas Cromwell as a scheming, rapacious vulture. The family lived in Fenchurch, on the eastern side of the City of London, a popular area with merchants, before moving to nearby Austin Friars. On 14 May 1532, Parliament was prorogued. Thomas Cromwell was an English statesman and adviser to Henry VIII, responsible for drafting the legislation that formalised England's religious and political break with Rome during the 1530s . It is an indication of Cromwell's burgeoning career that in 1514 he married Elizabeth Williams (ne Wyks), a wealthy widow whose father had served Henry VII. [85] This caused a clash with Anne Boleyn, formerly one of Cromwell's strongest allies, who wanted the proceeds of the dissolution used for educational and charitable purposes, not paid into the King's coffers. His father's brutality was probably a myth. The marriage was a disaster for Cromwell, ending in an annulment six months later. Cromwell was one of the most powerful proponents of the English Reformation, and the creator of true English governance. Wriothesley, the bishop and the Lord Admiral were erstwhile friends of Cromwell and their self-serving disloyalty indicated that the minister's position was already known to be weakening. He proposed to destroy Romes power in England and to replace it by the royal supremacy in the church. [13] Cromwell held numerous offices during his career in the King's service, including: as well as numerous minor offices. [50] Elizabeth Gregory was listed among family members in the will, despite not being any relation to the Cromwell, Williams, Wyckes or Williamson families. In April 1540, just three months before he went to the block, he was created Earl of Essex and Lord Great Chamberlain. In 1519, Wolsey appointed Cromwell to council and he soon became one of his most trusted servants. [126] He was taken by barge to the Tower and imprisoned. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [6] In 1878, his birthplace was still of note: The site of Cromwell's birthplace is still pointed out by tradition and is in some measure confirmed by the survey of Wimbledon Manor [] for it describes on that spot 'an ancient cottage called the smith's shop, lying west of the highway from Richmond to Wandsworth, being the sign of the Anchor'. Hoping for clemency, Cromwell wrote in support of the annulment, in his last personal address to the King. This is a Cromwell that Catholics in the immediate aftermath of Henry's reformation would have . They certainly were not very strong, and his essentially secular temper subordinated religious to political considerations. [141], There remains an element of what G. R. Elton describes as "mystery" about Cromwell's demise. [84], The final session of the Reformation Parliament began on 4 February 1536. [13][129], All Cromwell's honours were forfeited and it was publicly proclaimed that he could be called only "Thomas Cromwell, cloth carder". Provisions made for Anne and Grace in Cromwell's will, dated 12 July 1529, were crossed out at some later date. He ruthlessly dispatched those who stood against him and his royal master, notably his rival Thomas More and Henrys notorious second wife Anne Boleyn. humble (low born) what did cromwell do in his early years? he shouted at the beleaguered Cromwell, complaining that Anne was 'nothing so well as she was spoken of'. [13], The King was becoming increasingly unhappy about the extent of religious changes, and the conservative faction was gaining strength at court. [142], Although Cromwell always maintained a primarily political outlook on general affairs, there is consensus among scholars that at least while he held power he was a Protestant, with a Lutheran mindset. He was arrested in 1540 with multiple charges that he had acted against the King, including high treason. The King did not heed his words and Cromwell was executed on 28 July 1540. On 18 April, an order was issued that all citizens of London were to swear their acceptance of the Oath of Succession. By 1539, Cromwell was desperate to claw back favour and soon thought he had found the perfect means. Thomas Cromwell was a loyal servant with Henry VIII, until Henry feared he was gaining too much control and fell out of his good books. He was the ideal statesman for Tudor England and, just months after his execution in 1540, Henry VIII was bemoaning his loss. [102] The suppression of the risings spurred further Reformation measures. [90][91][92], Regardless of the role Cromwell played in Anne Boleyn's fall, and his confessed animosity to her, Chapuys's letter states that Cromwell claimed that he was acting with the King's authority. [131] Anne, however, agreed to an amicable annulment (and was treated with great generosity by Henry as a result). [96], The Queen and her brother stood trial on Monday 15 May, while the four others accused with them were condemned on the Friday beforehand. [74], The parliamentary session began on 4 February, and Cromwell introduced a new bill restricting the right to make appeals to Rome, reasserting the long-standing historical fiction that England was an "empire" and thus not subject to external jurisdiction. Cromwell engineered a marriage between Jane Seymour's sister Elizabeth and his son Gregory, making him almost part of the royal family. ; Leeds Castle, Kent and Launde, Leics. Not only had he rid the King and himself of a woman who had become a dangerous enemy, but he quickly allied his family with the new queen, Jane Seymour, to whom Henry was betrothed the day after Annes execution. Cromwell and other crown officials obtained valuable grants as rewards, but, while the minister lived, the new wealth was not squandered. Within just a few short weeks of his chief minister's demise, the King was heard to lament the loss of 'the most faithful servant he had ever had'. It took three blows of the axe by the "ragged and butcherly" executioner to sever his head. I like her not. The wife rejected by Henry VIII. [157] He also introduced important social and economic reforms in England in the 1530s, including action against enclosures, the promotion of English cloth exports and the poor relief legislation of 1536. [32] Their death may have been due to sweating sickness. He was blessed with a logical mind in an age sadly devoid of them. One courtier described how the hapless minister was 'well pommelled about the head, and shaken up, as it were a dog'. [47][46] Cromwell's records show him paying Elizabeth for clothing and expenses for Jane. The two rapidly became allies, particularly after Wolseys death in 1530. The records suggest that Thomas was the youngest of three children, and the only boy, born to Walter Cromwell and his wife Katherine ne Meverell. [12] As a successful tradesman, Walter was regularly called upon for jury service and was elected Constable of Putney in 1495. [8], Cromwell was born around 1485, the son of Walter Cromwell (c.1450 - c.1514[9]), a yeoman, fuller and cloth merchant, and owner of both an hostelry and a brewery. Once he achieved his goal of managing affairs in Parliament, he never relinquished it. A Parliamentary committee was established to examine doctrine, and the Duke of Norfolk presented six questions on 16 May 1539 for the House to consider, which were duly passed as the Act of Six Articles shortly before the session ended on 28 June. [106], On 18 April 1540, Henry granted Cromwell the earldom of Essex and the senior Court office of Lord Great Chamberlain. [10][11] Diarmaid MacCulloch describes as "fantasies" the popular accounts that Walter was a violent man, unscrupulous in his business dealings: these tales are based on a mistaken understanding of Putney manorial court records, where civil disagreements are not easily distinguished from criminal proceedings, or fines for breaching ale quality standards from "a routine manorial system of licensing ale-selling". The 65cm 48cm (26in 19in) painting is now displayed at the Louvre in Paris. When Henry's humiliation became common knowledge, Southampton (who was anxious to avoid the king's displeasure for his part in bringing Anne to London), or possibly Wriothesley's close friend Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, made sure that Cromwell was blamed for the indiscretion. In later life, Thomas Cromwell made the unlikely claim that his mother was 52 when she bore him. In early October 1539, the King finally accepted Cromwell's suggestion that he should marry Anne of Cleves, the sister of Duke Wilhelm of Cleves, partly on the basis of a portrait which Hans Holbein had painted of her. Even the Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys, who had no liking for either Wolsey or Cromwell, admitted: 'At his masters fall he [Cromwell] behaved very well towards him.'. Katherine's and Morgan's son, Richard, was employed in his uncle's service and by the autumn of 1529 had changed his name to Cromwell. In so doing, he not only impressed Henry, but won the notice of Anne Boleyn. Having failed to secure the Pope's permission for the annulment, Henry broke with Rome and established a separate Church of England over which he was the Supreme Head. Shop our products inspired by the almost 1000 years of history at the Tower of London. Whether Henry knew her adultery charges were false remains largely unknown, and there is little to suggest he cared too much about the truth when it came to trials. And unlike his royal master, he did not let his emotions interfere with his position. [51][161], Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell was the great-grandson of Sir Richard Cromwell, Thomas Cromwell's nephew. Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 - 3 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the British Isles. For a short while early in 1523 Cromwell became an adviser to Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, drafting a parliamentary bill to relieve his sponsor of taxation on some property in Cumberland. [116] At this point, however, cynical self-interest may have made Henry hesitate to act immediately against Cromwell, as the minister was guiding two important revenue bills (the Subsidy Billwhereby Cromwell sought to extend the principle that taxation could be levied for general government purposes rather than a specified objectiveand a bill to confiscate the assets of the Order of St John) through parliament; Henry was anxious that any unpopularity caused by the measures would fall on Cromwell and not himself.[119][120][121]. The man who would one day become the most powerful in England was of such humble origins that nobody can be sure when or where he was born. This particular Bible with its coloured title page was probably Henry VIIIs personal copy. It was, to all appearances, Cromwell who then came forward with a clear notion of how to achieve Henrys purpose without the pope. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [111][112], A long-mooted Franco-Imperial alliance (contrary to England's interests) had failed to materialise. Tragically, Cromwell lost both his wife and daughters to the sweating sickness within the space of a year (1528/9). [83] In this capacity, Cromwell conducted a census in 1535 to enable the government to evaluate and tax church property more effectively. Tracy Borman is joint Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, the Banqueting House, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and Hillsborough Castle and Gardens. For other uses, see, Plaque at the ancient scaffold site on Tower Hill commemorating Thomas Cromwell and others executed at the site, Toggle France, Italy and the Low Countries subsection, Lawyer, Member of Parliament, adviser to Wolsey, The other two under consideration had been. By the time Cromwell returned to England in around 1512 he had both the experience and contacts to set himself up as a merchant. Some historians believe that Hans Holbein the Younger was partly responsible for Cromwell's downfall because he had provided a very flattering portrait of Anne which may have deceived the king. Its preamble embodied his political theory of the sovereign national state. The History Learning Site, 16 Mar 2015. It was almost certainly to celebrate his appointment as Master of the Jewels that Cromwell commissioned Hans Holbein, the most celebrated artist of the age, to paint his portrait in around 1532-33. In the New York Frick Collection, two portraits by Holbein hang facing each other on the same wall of the Study, one depicting Thomas Cromwell, the other a "fearless" Thomas More, Cromwell's executed political and religious opponent. On 18 March 1532, the Commons delivered a supplication to the king, denouncing clerical abuses and the power of the ecclesiastical courts, and describing Henry as "the only head, sovereign lord, protector and defender" of the Church. Writing for BBC History Magazine, Diarmaid MacCulloch investigates Published: April 14, 2020 at 10:10 am It was a 26-week trip, and on the journey Cromwell became familiar with Erasmus's new edition of the Gospels. The Man behind the Henrician Reformation", "All that Glitters: Hans Holbein's Lady of the Cromwell Family", "Cromwell, Gregory (by 151651), of Lewes, Suss. Anne was arrested on 2 May 1536 and taken to the Tower of London, where she was tried and found guilty a little over two weeks later. He helped to engineer an annulment of the king's marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that Henry could lawfully marry Anne Boleyn. [130] The King deferred the execution until his marriage to Anne of Cleves could be annulled; Cromwell was being spared for the time being in case he was needed to give evidence of the king's distaste for Anne. Many more promotions would follow, bringing Cromwell great riches as well as immense power. He was imprisoned at the Tower of London before his execution in 1540. For instance, in the mid-1530s, he promoted Protestant ideas to forge an alliance with German Lutheran states, but his support for the Protestant cause is too general to be accurately explained in narrow political terms. Cromwell's name can be found on a plaque just inside the door of the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula, and there is a memorial on the site of his execution on Tower Hill. Below: Wolsey's letter to Cromwell, in which he praises his servant's 'good, sad, discreet advice and counsel'. More recently, however, Hilary Mantel's two Man Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring up the Bodies (2012), and the final volume in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light (2020), have shown Cromwell in a more sympathetic light. This changed the balance of power in England's favour and demonstrated that Cromwell's earlier foreign policy of wooing support from the Duchy of Cleves had unnecessarily caused his king's conjugal difficulty.
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