THOMAS CROMWELL: PAGE 2, HIS RISE TO POWER AND HIS DOWNFALL

THE DEMISE OF CARDINAL THOMAS WOLSEY AND THE RISE OF THOMAS CROMWELL

Cromwell, became immensely powerful under Henry VIII of England after the demise of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He had helped King Henry VIII to achieve everything he had wanted to achieve, including the removal of Anne Boleyn, the second of Henry VIII's Wives, replacing her with Jane Seymour.

However, Thomas Cromwell signed his own Death Warrant by arranging what turned out to be a disastrous marriage between Henry VIII of England and the German Princess, Anne of Cleves, a marriage which Cromwell had constantly put pressure on King Henry VIII to undertake.

Cromwell was a very intelligent man, who had learned a great deal, not only from his master, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, but also from his experiences of European commerce, and the way the Europeans conducted their business, while living there in his younger days.

However, before the fall from grace of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, prior to the Reformation Parliament of 1529, Thomas Cromwell had managed to distance himself from the Prelate, whilst on the surface still appearing to remain faithful to his old master.

In this way, he was able to keep in favour with King Henry VIII of England and in 1530, he formally entered into royal service, becoming a member of the Royal Council by the end of the year.

By the end of the following year, Thomas Cromwell had gained full access to the King, having become one of his inner circle of advisors.

Through gaining the confidence of King Henry VIII, Cromwell became the most powerful person in the land, second only to the King himself. In 1532, without being formerly appointed, he became chief minister to Henry VIII of England.

His position of power was confirmed by appointments to several key positions, including Chancellor of the exchequer(1533), which gave him much control over the country's finances. Other offices he was given were: Master of the Kings Jewels (1532), Clerk of the Hanaper (1532), Master of the Rolls, from (1534 until 1536), Secretary of State, from (1533 until 1536), Lord Privy Seal (1536 until 1540).

The last two offices gave him a lot of influence over the King's correspondence and the granting of letters patent, which are a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter, issued by a monarch or government, that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.

The word "hanaper" (Med. Lat. hanaperium) was used particularly in the English chancery, it was a wicker basket, in which were kept writs and other documents, and hence it became the name of a department of the chancery, now abolished, under an officer known as the clerk or warden of the hanaper, into which were paid fees and other moneys for the sealing of charters, patents, writs, etc., and from which issued certain writs under the great seal.

As mentioned earlier, Thomas Cromwell had been very much influenced by the writings of Martin Luther, the German priest who had started the Protestant Reformation.

He was also influenced by the writings of other political theorists, such as Marsilius of Padua (c.1270-c.1342), who was neither a religious, or the legitimate Archbishop of Milan.

In his Defensor Pacis, which is a treatise on politics, Marsilius was pro Imperial and anti-Papal. His views were that the state has the right to control the church, but the church does not have the corresponding right to control the state. Through his writings, he can truly be acknowledged as one of the fathers of the Reformation.

The role Thomas Cromwell played in the English Reformation, was immensely important. In 1531, Henry VIII of England had been declared Supreme Head of the English Church, as far as the law of Christ allowed, by the Clerical Convocation on 8th March 1531.

Although he had been declared Supreme Head, he still was no closer to getting the annulment he required, in order to end his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, despite the parliamentary sessions of 1529-1531.

However, Cromwell's first parliamentary session as King Henry VIII's chief minister brought about a change in direction. There were changes made to two very important issues, one, where ecclesiastical legislation was transferred to the King and two, where the main sources of Papal revenue, such as Peter's Pence, which was a substantial, voluntary payment made to Rome, were stopped.

Where by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles, it is manifestly declared and expressed that this realm of England is an Empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one Supreme Head and King having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial Crown of the same, unto whom a body politic compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal, be bounden and owe to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience.

Previous English Kings could justifiably claim to be Emperors, insomuch as they ruled more than one Kingdom, but in this Act, drafted by Cromwell, he was declaring that England was an Empire in its own right, by itself and free from the authority of any foreign power.

This meant that the jurisdiction of the Pope no longer held sway in England and that it was an independent sovereign nation state. It now allowed for a divorce in England, without having the need to seek the Pope's permission any more.

Of all the powerful people who were advising Henry VIII of England to make himself head of the English Church, Thomas Cromwell was the most prominent, he was the main force behind getting the First Act of Supremacy of 1534 through Parliament.

The new powers which King Henry VIII gained under the Act of Supremacy, he delegated to Cromwell the following year in 1535, appointing him to the newly created office of "Vicegerent in Spirituals." It was in this role that Thomas Cromwell, excercised his authority over the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The Dissolution was the administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their income, disposed of their assets and provided for their former members.

The Act of Supremacy 1534, the First Suppression Act 1536 and the Second Suppression Act 1539, gave him the power to carry this out in England and Wales.

Cromwell began by visiting the monasteries and Abbeys, which had been announced in 1535. He was now Vicar General, which had evolved from his position of Vicegerent, giving him the power to act as Supreme Judge in Church cases.

The stories of impropriety, vice and excess, which Thomas Cromwell and his other visitors collected were almost certainly exaggerated and most definitely biased. However, the observance of strict monastic rules had long since disappeared in some of the monasteries, but by no means all of them. There were still many Monastic Settlements adhering to their strict rules, which included the Carthusians, the Observant Friars and the Bridgettine Nuns.

In order to spread his propaganda for the English Reformation, Thomas Cromwell made use of a revolutionary new technology, the printing press.

He employed William Marshall, the author of several Protestant books, to translate and then print, Marsilius of Padua's Defensor Pacis and doctrinally radical texts by others, notably Martin Luther.

When these books got Marshall into trouble, Thomas Cromwell was there at his side to protect him against charges of heresy.

However, this charge would later be used against Thomas Cromwell himself, when the charge was made in his Bill of Attainder, that he had circulated heretical books.

Besides William Marshall, Thomas Cromwell also sponsored other intellectual humanists to promote the English Reformation through the medium of print. These included Thomas Starkey, who Cromwell commissioned to publish An Exhortation to the People instructing them to Unity and Obedience, which was a defence of Royal Supremacy.

On 9th July 1536, Thomas Cromwell was rewarded, by being elevated to the ranks of the Aristocracy, when he was created Baron Cromwell. He became the 300th Knight of the Garter in 1537 and on 18th April 1540 was made Earl of Essex.

During his years as King Henry VIII's first minister, Cromwell had supported Henry in everything the King had wanted, from the Act of Supremacy, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, replacing Anne Boleyn with Jane Seymour and all other matters considered important. In so doing however, he had managed to create many powerful enemies for himself along the way.

These enemies got their chance, with what turned out to be a disaster of a marriage between Henry and Anne of Cleves, a marriage which Thomas Cromwell himself had arranged.

Her brother William, the Duke of Cleves, had an ongoing dispute with the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, which Cromwell thought would make the Duke a suitable ally for King Henry. Cromwell's downfall came because of his haste in encouraging the King to marry Anne of Cleves.

When Henry VIII of England met her, he did not like what he saw. He felt he had been misled by everyone, including Thomas Cromwell.

He urged his chief minister to find a legal way out of the marriage, but by this time it was too late, for by doing so would endanger, the vitally important new alliance that had been forged with the Germans.

The wedding went ahead at the Palace of Placentia (Greenwich Palace) on 6th January 1540, despite King Henry VIII noisily making his displeasure known, but their first night it seems was not a very happy one. The King confided to Cromwell, that the marriage had not been consummated, saying, "I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse."

The fate of Thomas Cromwell was now sealed. This disaster, was all his enemies needed to press the King for Cromwell's head. He feared as much, when on 18th April 1540, he was made the 1st Earl of Essex, for he had never been so officially high in the King's graces.

He was arrested on 10th June 1540, while attending a Council meeting and taken to the Tower of London, where he was imprisoned. He was then subjected to an Act of Attainder, but kept alive by King Henry until his marriage to Anne of Cleves had been annulled.

On 24th June Anne of Cleves was ordered to leave the court. She agreed to an annulment which took place on 9th July 1540, on the grounds that the marriage had not been consummated and because of a pre-contract she had originally had to marry Francis of Lorraine.

Following the annullment of the marriage, the execution of Thomas Cromwell went ahead, taking place on the same day that Henry VIII married Catherine Howard, this was 28th July 1540.

After the execution, the head of Thomas Cromwell was boiled and put on a spike on London Bridge, for all to see. A contemporary chronicler, by the name of Edward Hall, recorded a speech which Cromwell made whilst on the scaffold, he professed to die, "in the traditional faith" and then "so paciently suffered the stroke of the axe, by a ragged Boocherly miser whiche very ungoodly perfourmed the Office."

Hall went on to record:

Many lamented but more rejoiced, and specially such as either had been religious men, or favoured religious persons; for they banqueted and triumphed together that night, many wishing that that day had been seven year before; and some fearing lest he should escape, although he were imprisoned, could not be merry. Others who knew nothing but truth by him both lamented him and heartily prayed for him. But this is true that of certain of the clergy he was detestably hated, & specially of such as had borne swynge, and by his means was put from it; for in dead he was a man that in all his doings seemed not to favour any kind of Popery, nor could not abide the snoffyng pride of some prelates, which undoubtedly, whatsoever else was the cause of his death, did shorten his life and procured the end that he was brought unto.

Henry VIII of England, spent the rest of his life regretting the execution of Thomas Cromwell.

He later accused Cromwell's enemies of causing his execution by spreading false stories about his former chief minister.

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