THOMAS CROMWELL: PAGE 1, FROM OBSCURITY TO THE ACT OF SUPREMACY1534Thomas Cromwell, was born in Putney, London in the year 1485, the son of a tradesman by the name of Walter Cromwell, who apparently was an out and out blackguard. It appears that Walter was also employed in various other trades, such as clothworker, blacksmith, and alehouse keeper/brewer, at some time or another. His son Thomas, rose from obscurity, to enter the inner circle, which surrounded Henry VIII of England, becoming the confidant of the King and one of his most trusted advisors. It was from this position he was able to influence the whole course of English history. He was probably the strongest advocate of the English Reformation, in which the English church broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in Rome. Little is known of Thomas Cromwell's early life before 1512, but he is known to have been employed, by the powerful merchant bankers, the Frescobaldi family, dealing in cloth at Syngsson's Market in Middelburg. This city, situated in the Netherlands, was a very important trading centre between England and Flanders, during the Middle Ages. In the Vatican City archives, are documents, which point to Thomas Cromwell being employed as an agent for Cardinal Christopher Bainbridge, in which he handled English Ecclesiastical issues before the Papal Rota, which was an ecclesiastical court.
ABOVE: PORTRAIT OF THOMAS CROMWELL BY HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER 1532-1533 After the death of Bainbridge on 14th July 1514, who had been poisoned by his own chaplain, Rainaldo da Modena, an Italian priest, Cromwell returned to England. However, by that time he had already married a clothier's daughter, by the name of Elizabeth Wyckes, in the previous year of 1513. Thomas Cromwell and his wife were to have three children, Gregory, who died in 1531 and two daughters, Anne and Grace, who both died of either the Sweating Sickness or bubonic plague in 1527 the same year that their mother died. He found employment with Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, chief minister of Henry VIII of England, who at the time, wielded great power within both the Church and the State. The outstanding administrative abilities possessed by Cromwell, were soon recognised and despite him being a layman, he was put in charge of highly important ecclesiastical business. It is thought that in the years between 1514 and 1520 he found the time to study law and became a Member of the English Parliament in 1523, at the dissolution of which, he wrote about its unproductiveness to a friend in which he states: I amongst other have endured a Parliament which continued by the space of xvij whole weeks, where we communied of war, peace, stryfe, contencion, debate, murmmur, grudge, riches, poverty, penwrye, truth, falsehood, justice, equyte, discayte, oppression, magnanymyte, activity, force, attempraunce, treason, murder, felony, counsil,[ation], and also how a common wealth might be edeffyed and continued within our realm. Howbeyt in conclusion we have done as our predecessors have been wont to do, that yes to say as well as we might, and left where we began. From 1524 to 1527, he helped Cardinal Wolsey, to shut down some minor religious houses in what could be regarded as a prelude,to the later widespread destruction of the monasteries. However, these early monasteries can't be considered to be associated with the main dissolution, for it appears, they were extremely decayed, and corruption was rife. Therefore, using his powers as Papal Legate, and with full backing from the Pope, Wolsey dissolved thirty of them. The proceeds were not misused, the income being used to found a grammar school in Ipswich and Cardinal College in Oxford. The Ipswich School continues to flourish and does exceptionately well with university entrances, sending six to twelve students to Oxford and Cambridge every year. It was in 1529, that the so-called English Reformation Parliament was called, it acquired this title, because it passed and enabled the major items of legislation, that led to the English Reformation. King Henry VIII, had begun to seek an annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon in 1527 and Cardinal Wolsey had centred his whole foreign policy around securing this annulment. By 1529, none of Wolsey's attempts had succeeded and it was this failure which, is widely believed to have been the cause of his downfall and arrest. He was stripped of his governmental office and his property. While travelling towards London from York and in great distress, having been arrested by commissioners from the King, on a charge of high treason and knowing full well what fate was awaiting him, he died at Leicester Abbey on 29th November 1530, having informed the Abbot, "I have come to leave my bones among you." With the failure of Cardinal Wolsey, King Henry VIII of England, summoned the 1529 Parliament to deal with the question of the annulment (the Reformation Parliament). Thomas Cromwell, was a lawyer who resented the privileges of the clergy to summon laity to their courts. He was also very hostile to the Roman Theology having been greatly influenced by Martin Luther's evangelicanism. He was also a Member of Parliament, who saw how Parliament could be used to bring about Royal Supremacy, (The Act of Supremacy 1534) which is what Henry VIII of England wanted, while at the same time furthering the religeous beliefs and practices of himself and his similarly minded friends. Friends who included Thomas Cranmer, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, who would be given the position in 1532. FOR SIGHTSEEING TOURS OF LONDON AND THINGS TO DO IN LONDON CLICK HERE How to Link to This PageIt will appear on your page as: FOR MORE INFO.ON THOMAS CROMWELL FOLLOW THIS LINKGo To Next Page: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell. Return from Thomas Cromwell To A-London-Tourist-Guide Home Page.
|
