Thomas Cromwell: Servant to Henry VIII (35 page)

1 The Making of a Man,
c
. 1485–1522

1.
Bodley MS Dods, xxvi, p. 97. R. B. Merriman,
Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell
(1902/68), p. 2.

2.
John Cromwell’s wife was the sister of one William Smyth, described as an armourer. There is no tangible evidence that Walter ever practised the trade of blacksmith. Merriman,
Life and Letters
, p. 3.

3.
Court Rolls of the Manor of Wimbledon, cited by Merriman, pp. 3–4, n. 3.

4.
There is no record of the death of Walter Cromwell.

5.
This story originated in a conversation with Chapuys in 1534, apropos of the age of Catherine of Aragon, who was forty-nine at that point.
Calendar of State Papers,
Spanish, 1534–5
, p. 468.

6.
Robert Hutchinson,
Thomas Cromwell
(2007), p. 268.

7.
Neither the exact date nor the method of his flight are recorded. Bandello later wrote that he was ‘fleeing from his father’. M. Bandello,
Novella XXIV
, p. 251. It was possible for a father to have his son imprisoned at that time without legal process.

8.
Bandello,
loc. cit
.

9.
It was not until 1539 that Lord Morley sent Cromwell a copy of
The History of Florence
in Italian, although Reginald Pole claimed that he had read
The Prince
ten years earlier (before it was published). John Schofield,
Thomas Cromwell
(2008), pp. 265–6. Machiavelli was a senior servant of the republican government at the time of Cromwell’s stay in Florence.

10.
Cromwell’s service in the English house in Antwerp is something of a mystery. Merriman supposes that he was ‘either a merchant or a clerk to a merchant’, and the latter is probably more likely. As such he would have needed knowledge of Flemish law rather than English, and that he could have picked up on the spot.

11.
He is supposed to have passed the time on his second visit to Rome in this fashion. During his years in power he was to be a great promoter of the English Bible.

12.
According to Foxe, ‘Cromwell, observing his time accordingly, as the Pope was newly come from hunting into his pavilion, he with his companion approached with his presents brought in with a three man song (as we call it) in the English tongue and after the English fashion …’, J. Foxe,
Acts and Monuments
(1583).

13.
Elyot’s letter was written in June 1536, and related to the ‘honour of God’, suggesting that Cromwell’s reforming qualities had been manifest as early as 1512. However, there is no contemporary evidence for that.
Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII
, X, no. 1218.

14.
Merriman,
Life and Letters
, pp. 12, 17–18.

15.
Letters and Papers
, III, no. 2447; a power of attorney granted 18 August 1522.

16.
A ‘Mistress Prior’ and a ‘Master Prior’ both had rooms in Cromwell’s house at Austin Friars in 1527. Mr Prior presumably died at some point between then and 1529.
L and P
, IV, no. 3157.

17.
Wolsey had been translated from Lincoln to York in August 1514, and appointed Lord Chancellor in succession to Warham on 24 December 1515. Peter Gwyn,
The King’s Cardinal
(1990). He had been the king’s chief minister since 1512.

18.
There is a large grey area relating to Cromwell’s service to Wolsey, but it presumably relates to his work as an attorney. The evidence is circumstantial, and relies mainly on later memories. The first record evidence is in a letter dated 18 October 1520, but by then the connection was obviously well established.
L & P
, III, no. 1026.

19.
L & P
, III, no. 1026.

20.
Ibid.
, no. 2447. Power granted by Perpetuus Deonantur in a suit against George Byrom of Salford. The document names several members of Wolsey’s household.

21.
Creke to Cromwell, 17 July 1522.
L & P
, III, no. 2394. The messenger who delivered the letter presumably had more precise directions!

22.
14 August 1522,
L & P
, III, no. 2437. For Wolsey’s earlier relationship with the Marquis, see Gwyn,
The King’s Cardinal
, pp. 2–3, and J. P. Coby,
Thomas Cromwell
(2012), p. 33.

23.
Cromwell appears to have been frequently absent from London on the cardinal’s business, but these journeys seldom occupied more than a few days. Chawffer to Cromwell, 15 August 1522.
L & P
, III, no. 2441. For Wolsey’s itinerary during these years, see N. Samman,
The Court of Henry VIII, 1509
–
1530
(forthcoming).

24.
Lacy to Cromwell, 18 August 1522.
L & P
, III, no. 2445. In June the king had asked London for £20,000, and the mayor ‘sent for none but men of substance’. Mr Ellderton was one such, and although ‘the crafts sold much of their plate … the sum was paid’. Edward Hall,
Chronicle
(1809), I, p. 258.

25.
Hutchinson,
Cromwell
, p. 12.
ODNB
.

26.
23 August 1522.
L & P
, III, no. 2461.

27.
Ibid.
, no. 2577.

28.
The nature of the commission requested is unclear; it was probably one of investigation.
L & P
,
III, no. 2557.

29.
That Cromwell made a conscious decision to give up the clothing business is a supposition, but it was almost certainly the result of the death of his father-in-law, which seems to have occurred in 1524. Twesell’s letter is dated 20 October 1522.
L & P
, III, no. 2624.

30.
Merriman says that ‘the spirit of the Italy of Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia stamped itself deeply upon his youthful character’, but there is no indication that any of his contemporaries noticed.

31.
Robert ap Reynolds of Calais claimed that he owed him 47 angels (£17 13
s
), ‘with opprobrious words’. Hutchinson, p. 12. This might have been an attempt to blackmail one who by then stood high in the king’s favour.

32.
Schofield,
Thomas Cromwell
, p. 22.

2 The Cardinal’s Servant, 1523–1530

1.
S. T. Bindoff,
The House of Commons, 1509
–
1558
(1982).

2.
Letters and Papers
, III, no. 2958. The speech is printed in full in Merriman,
Life and Letters
, I, pp. 30–44. There is no conclusive evidence that it was ever delivered.

3.
Merriman, p. 30

4.
Ibid.
, p. 43.

5.
F. C. Dietz,
English Government Finance
(1964), pp. 94–5. P. Gwyn,
The King’s Cardinal
(1990), p. 370.

6.
Ibid
. Surrey’s raiding on the Scottish borders ran the risk of provoking war, but did not in fact do so. M. C. Fissel,
English Warfare, 1511
–
1642
(2001), p. 22.

7.
P. Gwyn,
The King’s Cardinal
, pp. 369–70. Ellis Griffiths was not alone in expressing the opinion that this was a ‘gentleman’s war’, in which ordinary people had no interest. G. W. Bernard,
War, Taxation and Rebellion in Early Tudor England
(1986), p. 5.

8.
For the manner in which Wolsey extracted this peace from the complexities of Henry’s foreign policy, see J. J. Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII
, pp. 138–41.

9.
L & P
, IV, Appendix, no. 238. The letter is printed in full in Merriman, pp. 67–8.

10.
L & P
, III, no. 3249.

11.
It was a sign of his coming eclipse that Henry was persuaded to call what would be known as the ‘Reformation Parliament’ on 9 August 1529.

12.
L & P
, III, no. 3015. That Robinson was a friend of Cromwell’s is evident from other letters which passed between them.

13.
Ibid.
, no. 3530.

14.
The passages were closed to all normal merchandise, and this concession must have been due to the fact that Hanseatic goods were involved.

15.
L & P
, IV, nos 106, 695.

16.
Ibid.
, no. 3157.

17.
Checkyng was very defensive of his reputation as a tutor, although it does not seem to have been intended that Gregory should take any degree. Hilary Mantel is of the opinion that Gregory was much brighter than he is represented as being, pointing to his successful career at court. I do not necessarily agree with her (though I do in part), because intellectual ability was no particular advantage at court, and the evidence for his dullness at this stage seems conclusive. (Hilary Mantel, personal communication.)

18.
It would have been normal at that time for the sons of a gentleman to have spent a year or two at either Oxford or Cambridge to improve their cultural awareness.
L & P
, IV, no. 5757. Checkyng was claiming 40
s
for the bedding which Christopher had destroyed, and Cromwell may well have thought this excessive.

19.
It does not seem that Cromwell carried out his threat, because Checkyng wrote again in November 1530 in terms which make it clear that the boys were still with him, although one of Gregory’s companions had departed. He declares that Gregory will be ‘loaded with Latin’ before he sees his father again, and refers to a visit which Cromwell had paid to Cambridge six weeks earlier. The tone of the letter is friendly, and it seems that their financial disagreements had been resolved.

20.
L & P
, IV, no. 1732. Schofield,
Thomas Cromwell
, p. 23.

21.
According to Foxe, Cromwell was ‘in the wars of the Duke of Bourbon at the siege of Rome’. This would have been at the sack of Rome in May 1527, but there is no supporting evidence for such a presence, and it is difficult to fit in with his other known commitments. Schofield, p. 26.

22.
See, for example,
L & P
, IV, nos 1833–4, 2365, 5117, 5145.

23.
Gwyn,
The King’s Cardinal
, p. 481.

24.
Schofield, p. 24.

25.
Reginald Pole,
Apologia ad Carolum Quintum Ceasarem
. Epistolarum pars 1 (1744).

26.
L & P
, IV, nos 990, 1137.

27.
Ibid.
, nos 1409, 1834.

28.
Merriman,
Life and Letters
, p. 51. This story also comes from Pole.

29.
Henry Lacy to Cromwell, 30 April 1527.
L & P
, IV, no. 3079.

30.
Ibid.
, nos 2538, 2738. Wolsey’s total income at this point has been calculated at approximately £30,000 a year.

31.
Ibid.
, nos 3461, 3676.

32.
Ibid.
, no. 3536. Wolsey was to regret importing scholars from Cambridge, because by the following year several of them were in trouble for heresy. Gwyn,
King’s Cardinal
, pp. 495–6.

33.
Dated at Orvieto, 12 June 1528.
L & P
, IV, no. 4365.

34.
Ibid.
, no. 4778.

35.
Ibid.
, no. 5186.

36.
For example on 12 April 1529 he was written to by the Guild of Our Lady, thanking him for letters which he had written on their behalf.
L & P
, IV, no. 5460.

37.
Ibid.
, no. 5330.

38.
Ibid.
, no. 5772. The document is printed in full by Merriman in
Life and Letters
, I, pp. 56–63. The date is altered from 1528 in the clerk’s hand. All the other amendments (including the deletion of his daughters) were made subsequently by Cromwell, so we do not know exactly when they died.

39.
Merriman, p. 56.

40.
Ibid
., p. 61. Foxe is mainly responsible for the image of Cromwell as the patron of the Reformation, and he did not know of the existence of this document.

41.
Ibid
., p. 59. It is not known how long Mercy Prior lived after this, but commendations were still being sent to her in 1531.

42.
Bernard,
War, Taxation and Rebellion
, pp. 60–66.

43.
D. Loades,
The Boleyns
(2011), pp. 82–3.

44.
For the full story of this deteriorating relationship see E. W. Ives,
The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn
(2004), pp. 102–4.

45.
Ibid
., pp. 118–9. Gwyn,
The King’s Cardinal
, p. 525. Wolsey may have had his suspicions of Campeggio’s intentions, but he had no option but to proceed with the trial.

46.
Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII
, pp. 228–30. Wolsey was under attack both from above and below.

47.
The charge was absurd because, far from wielding his ecclesiastical jurisdiction without the king’s consent, his status, both as cardinal and legate, had been actively sought by Henry.

48.
Cavendish’s ‘Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey’,
in
Two Early Tudor Lives
, ed. R. S. Sylvester and D. P. Harding (1962), p. 108.

49.
Ibid
.

50.
Ibid
., pp. 109–13.

51.
L & P
, IV, Appendix 238. Merriman, pp. 57–8.

52.
Bindoff,
House of Commons, 1509
–
1558
.

53.
L & P
, IV, no. 6076.

54.
Wolsey never in fact forfeited York, because the praemunire was suspended before it was pardoned. He was, however, deprived of some of its properties which were restored with his reinstatement.

55.
L & P
, IV no. 6061.

56.
See for example,
ibid
., nos 6076, 6080.

57.
Ibid.
, no. 6335.

58.
Ibid
., nos 6226, 6263.

59.
Ibid
., nos 6196, 6326.