Thomas Cromwell: Servant to Henry VIII by David Loades Read Free Book Online Page A

king’s counsels, running the administration and advising on foreign policy. In 1540 he was created Earl of Essex and Lord Great Chamberlain; but in that same year he overreached himself in his support for the reformers. He had once said that his religion was whatever pleased the king, but on this occasion he went too far, and forfeited Henry’s confidence. Like Wolsey before him he fell from power, but, unlike the cardinal, the Earl of Essex was indicted for high treason, and executed in July 1540.
    So who was Thomas Cromwell?

1. Henry VIII by Holbein.
    2. Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second and most controversial wife. Cromwell showed the king how to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in order to achieve the desired union with Anne.
    3. Arthur, Henry VII’s first son and Henry VIII’s elder brother, from a nineteenth-century stained-glass window in St Laurence’s church, Ludlow. Arthur was briefly married to Catherine of Aragon but died young.
    4. Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII’s fourth wife. Cromwell advocated this short-lived marriage.
    5. Anne Boleyn’s father, Thomas Boleyn, the Earl of Wiltshire. Cromwell replaced him in the office of Lord Privy Seal after Anne’s fall.
    6. Henry VII.
    7. Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife, who gave Henry the son he so desired.
    8. Edward, Henry VIII’s son by Jane Seymour. He would later succeed to the throne as Edward VI (r. 1547–53).
    9. Erasmus in an iconic woodcut by Dürer. Cromwell spoke French, Spanish and Italian and had a good working knowledge of Latin, which he appears to have developed by memorising chunks of the Erasmian translation of the New Testament.
    10. An Allegory of the Tudor Succession depicting the family of Henry VIII.
    11. Statue of Catherine of Aragon. By 1529 Catherine was past childbearing age and had produced only one living child, a daughter named Mary.
    12. Thomas Wolsey from a drawing by Jacques le Boucq. Cromwell was Wolsey’s servant from 1524 to 1530.
    13. Tomb of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and uncle to both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. Norfolk was a personal enemy of Cromwell.
    14. Thomas Cranmer from a painting by Gerhard Flicke. As Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer presided over the court that finalised Henry’s divorce from Catherine. He worked closely with Cromwell on religious reform following the break with Rome.
    15. Thomas Wyatt, poet and friend of Cromwell. On Cromwell’s death, he penned an eloquent epitaph.
    16. A view of the Tudor palace at Greenwich where Henry married Anne of Cleves at Cromwell’s recommendation and much to the king’s distaste.
    17. The Tower of London. Cromwell was arrested at three o’clock on 10 June 1540, stripped of the insignia of the Garter and taken to the Tower.
    18. Following his arrest, Cromwell was conveyed by boat to the Tower and would have entered through the Traitor’s Gate.
    19. After his downfall, Cromwell’s head was placed on a spike on London Bridge.
    20. A plan of Westminster Palace, showing the Great Hall, the Abbey and the two Houses of Parliament. Cromwell effectively ran the House of Commons from 1532, and the House of Lords from 1536.
    21. A view of Westminster, c. 1550, by Anthony van Wyngaerde. Westminster was the seat of the royal courts of justice and the meeting place of Parliament.
    22. Whitehall Palace, c. 1550, also by van Wyngaerde. Whitehall had been extensively rebuilt by Cardinal Wolsey. It came into the king’s hands on the fall of Wolsey in 1529 and was further rebuilt. It was used as a principal royal residence until largely destroyed by fire in the 1690s.
    23. A drawing for the painting of Sir Thomas More and his family by Hans Holbein, c. 1527. Thomas More waged a fierce war on heretics while Cromwell had an increasing number of dealings with Continental Lutherans.
    24. Windsor Castle, a royal palace and home of the Knights of the Garter.
    25. A copy of Pope Clement VII’s ‘definitive sentence’ in favour of Catherine of Aragon and