Thomas Cromwell: Servant to Henry VIII (36 page)

60.
Ibid.
, no. 6185.

61.
It is impossible at this distance to tell what that illness was, but sickness and diarrhoea were among the symptoms. He also predicted the time of his death with great accuracy, which gives rise to the suspicion that he hastened his end by self-poisoning. Gwyn,
The King’s Cardinal
, p. 637.

62.
Cromwell to Wolsey, 18 August 1530.
L & P
, IV, no. 6571.

63.
For a full discussion of these manoeuvres, see Gwyn, pp. 607–10.

64.
Schofield,
Thomas Cromwell
, p. 43.

65.
L & P
, IV, no. 3149.

66.
For instance, the letter of Edward Johns, the rector of Northrewly, to Cromwell on 18 May 1529, complaining of a non-payment by the Bishop of Bangor (Thomas Skevington), who had not been in his diocese for fourteen years.
L & P
, IV, no. 3533.

67.
Ibid
., no. 6420. Russell’s hint was not wasted.

68.
Ibid
., no. 6748.

3 The King’s Servant, 1533–1536

1.
G. R. Elton, ‘The Commons’ Supplication of 1532: Parliamentary Manoeuvres in the Reign of Henry VIII’,
Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics and Government
, II, 1974, pp. 107–36. The original version of this paper was published in the
English Historical Review
for 1951, and attacked by J. P. Cooper in the
EHR
for 1957. This version is Elton’s response.

2.
Schofield,
Thomas Cromwell
, p. 44.

3.
Elton,
The Tudor Revolution in Government
(1953), pp. 90–91.

4.
Graham Nicholson, ‘The Act of Appeals and the English Reformation’,
Law and Government under the Tudors
, ed. Cross, Loades and Scarisbrick (1988), pp. 19–30.

5.
On the use of the
privilegium regni
, see Nicholson, p. 20.

6.
In a document entitled ‘Quaedem pertinencia ad Regis officium’, TNA SP1/236, f. 204.

7.
The relevant text is 2 Chronicles, 19. Nicholson, ‘Act of Appeals’, p. 22.

8.
Ibid
., p. 23.

9.
Calendar of State Papers, Spanish
, IV, p. 460.

10.
Merriman,
Life and Letters
, I, p. 334. Cromwell to Wolsey, 21 October 1530. Cromwell expressed his scepticism of this praemunire, writing that ‘the prelates shall not appear in the praemunire … there is another way devised…’

11.
Elton,
The Tudor Constitution
(1982), p. 330.

12.
‘An act concerning the pardon granted to the king’s spiritual subjects’, 22 Henry VIII, c. 15.
Statutes of the Realm
, III, pp. 334–8.

13.
D. Wilkins,
Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae
(1737), III, p. 756.

14.
Schofield,
Thomas Cromwell
, pp. 47–50.

15.
P. L. Hughes and J. F. Larkin,
Tudor Royal Proclamations
(1964), I, pp. 181–6, 193–7.

16.
Elton,
Tudor Revolution
, pp. 94–5.

17.
David Daniell,
William Tyndale: a Biography
(1994), p. 201.
L & P
, IV, no. 5823.

18.
Vaughn to Cromwell, 26 January 1531,
L & P
, V, no. 65. Amended copy of a letter also sent to Henry VIII.

19.
L & P
, V, no. 153.

20.
Schofield, p. 50, Scarisbrick, Henry VIII, p. 299.

21.
Wilkins,
Concilia
, III, pp. 725, 746–7. Lehmberg,
Reformation Parliament
, p. 117.

22.
Cromwell to Stephen Vaughn, 20 May 1531.
L & P
, V, no. 248.

23.
Ibid
., no. 247.

24.
Daniell,
Tyndale
, pp. 206–7. Schofield, p. 51.

25.
L & P
,
V, Appendix, no. 18. Daniell,
Tyndale
, pp. 184–5.

26.
Korey D. Maas,
The Reformation and Robert Barnes
(2010).

27.
Vaughn to Cromwell, 9 December 1531,
L & P
, V, no. 574.

28.
Schofield, pp. 52–3.

29.
According to Scarisbrick, ‘Henry was never a Catholic in any but a conventional way’, but this does rather less than justice to his tenacious adherence to the mass.
Henry VIII
, p. 248. For a full examination of Henry’s doctrinal convictions, see G. W. Bernard,
The King’s Reformation
(2005).

30.
The supplication is printed in full in Merriman,
Life and Letters
, I, pp. 104–11.

31.
Elton, ‘The Commons Supplication’, pp. 109–14, where the processing of the various drafts is discussed.

32.
Merriman,
Life and Letters
, p. 105

33.
Ibid
., p. 106.

34.
Glyn Redworth,
In Defence of the Church Catholic: the Life of Stephen Gardiner
(1990).

35.
Elton, ’The Commons Supplication’, p. 135.
ODNB
.

36.
D. Loades,
The Tudors
(2012), p. 27.

37.
For a full discussion of this meeting and its significance, see Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII
, pp. 305–8.

38.
Calendar of State Papers, Venetian
, IV, nos 820, 824. Schofield, p. 74.

39.
Scarisbrick, p. 309 and note.

40.
Nicholson, ‘The Act of Repeals’, pp. 29–30. In January 1531, acting on the king’s behalf, he gave Eustace Chapuys a lesson in church history.
Cal. Span
., 1531–33, no. 598.

41.
Cranmer and Chapuys both accepted the date of 25 January, but Cranmer by his own confession was not present, and Chapuys was relying on court gossip. D. MacCulloch,
Thomas Cranmer
, pp. 637–8. Edward Hall accepted the November date. Hall,
Chronicle
, p. 794.

42.
MacCulloch,
Thomas Cranmer
, pp. 55–60. Guy Bedouelle, ‘Le recours aux Universités et ses implications’ in Bedouelle and Le Gal,
Le ‘Divorce’ du Roi Henry VIII
(1987), p. 49.

43.
Henry in fact found out about Cranmer’s marriage, but never let it trouble him in spite of his general insistence upon a celibate clergy. MacCulloch,
Cranmer
, pp. 320–22.

44.
Ibid
., pp. 88–9.

45.
‘An Act that the appeals in such cases as have been used to be pursued to the see of Rome shall not from henceforth [be] used but within this realm.’ Statute 24 Henry VIII, c. 12.
Statutes of the Realm
, III, pp. 427–9.

46.
Ibid.

47.
That being the day upon which the session ended.

48.
‘The Noble Triumphant Coronation of Queen Anne, wife to the most noble King Henry VIII’ (1533). Reprinted in A. F. Pollard,
Tudor Tracts
(1903), p. 15.

49.
J. E. Paul,
Catherine of Aragon and her Friends
(1966), p. 123.

50.
Robert Hutchinson,
Thomas Cromwell
(2007), p. 60.

51.
L &P
, V, nos 458, 1185. The latter shows him handling council business on the king’s behalf.

52.
Ibid.
, no. 773.

53.
Ibid.
, nos 38, 86, 168, 181, 182.

54.
Ibid.
, nos 323, 371.

55.
Ibid.
, nos 621, 708.

56.
It was Kildare’s unsatisfactory performance as deputy that led to his summons to London, and subsequently to the revolt of his son, Thomas, Lord Offaly. S. G. Ellis,
Tudor Ireland
(1985), pp. 123–6.

57.
L & P
, V, nos 840, 926.

58.
Ibid.
, nos 1040, 1100.

59.
Hutchinson,
Thomas Cromwell
, p. 53. Cromwell’s first inventory of Jewel House holdings is TNA E36/85.

60.
Ibid
.

61.
Cromwell’s holding of the office of the Wards is something of a mystery, because William Paulet held that position. Perhaps he only held it for a short while. For Cromwell’s reputation as a taker of bribes, see Merriman,
Life and Letters
, I, passim. This interpretation is now largely discredited, see G. R. Elton,
Thomas Cromwell
(ed. 2008).

62.
For an interpretation of that strategy, which had subsequently been challenged in general terms, see Elton,
The Tudor Revolution in Government
, Chapter three, ‘The reform of the agencies of finance’, pp. 160–258.

63.
L & P
,V, nos 359, 496.

64.
Ibid.
, no. 1136

65.
Various letters of Margaret Vernon are calendared in
L & P
, V, nos 15–23.

4 The Royal Supremacy, 1533–1536

1.
Garrett Mattingly,
Catherine of Aragon
, pp. 206–7.

2.
For example the statute of 1497, 12 Henry VII, c. 7, which prohibited those not in major orders from claiming benefit for misprision of treason.

3.
G. R. Elton,
The Tudor Constitution
, pp. 236–7.

4.
Statute 24 Henry VIII, c. 12.
Statutes of the Realm
, III, pp. 427–9.

5.
Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII
, pp. 250–52.

6.
Schofield,
Thomas Cromwell
, pp. 88–90. A. Neame,
The Holy Maid of Kent; the Life of Elizabeth Barton, 1506
–
1534
(1975).

7.
Schofield,
loc. cit
.

8.
BL Cotton MS Cleopatra E iv, f. 75.

9.
Hutchinson,
Thomas Cromwell
, p. 62. Neame,
The Holy Maid
.

10.
Christopher Hales to Cromwell, 25 September 1533,
L & P
, VI, no. 1149. Thomas Wright,
Three Chapters relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries
(Camden Society, 1843), p. 29.

11.
The text of his sermon is printed in L. E. Whatmore, ‘The sermon against the Holy Maid of Kent and her Adherents…’,
English Historical Review
, 58, 1943, pp. 463–75.

12.
Sir Henry Ellis,
Original Letters Illustrative of English History
(1846), II, pp. 315–8.

13.
Unless it was a matter of extreme urgency, all Acts received the royal assent at the close of the session.

14.
G. Burnet,
The History of the Reformation of the Church of England
, (1841), I, ii, p. 115.

15.
BL Cotton MS Cleopatra E iv, f. 85. Hutchinson,
Thomas Cromwell
, p. 64.

16.
Elton,
Policy and Police
, p. 58.

17.
Ibid.
, p. 60. Less fortunate was John Dobson, the vicar of Marston in Yorkshire who was executed in Lent 1538 at York for possessing an incriminating roll of such prophecies. Elton,
Policy and Police
, p. 61.

18.
Statute 25 Henry VIII, c. 6. Homosexual acts were frequently alleged against the occupants of male religious houses, and some may well have been true, but there is no suggestion that Cromwell was fiercer on this type of immorality than on ordinary fornication.

19.
Statute 25 Henry VIII, c. 19, ‘And for lack of justice at or in any of the courts of the Archbishops of this realm … it shall be lawful to the parties grieved to appeal to the King’s Majesty in the King’s court of Chancery…’

20.
Statute 25 Henry VIII, c. 20, iii.
Statutes of the Realm
, III, pp. 462–4.

21.
Statute 25 Henry VIII, c. 21.
Statutes of the Realm
, III, pp. 464–71.

22.
For a full discussion of the king’s consistency in respect of heresy, see G. Bernard,
The King’s Reformation
(2005).

23.
On Wingfield, see S. T. Bindoff,
The House of Commons, 1509
–
1558
(1982).

24.
Henry Brandon, Earl of Lincoln, was a mere child who was to die in 1534, while James V was a foreigner, born ‘out of the realm’ whose father had been James IV, killed at Flodden in 1513.

25.
Statute 25 Henry VIII, c. 22.
Statutes of the Realm
, III, pp. 471–4.

26.
Ibid
.

27.
Elton,
Tudor Revolution in Government
, p. 120. Schofield,
Thomas Cromwell
, p. 90.

28.
For a full discussion of Gardiner’s difficult temperament, see Glyn Redworth,
In Defence of the Church Catholic; the life of Stephen Gardiner
(1990).

29.
Elton,
Tudor Revolution
, pp. 298–315.

30.
Elton,
Policy and Police
, passim.
L & P
, VI, nos 711, 717, 724, 742, 746 etc.

31.
E. W. Ives,
The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn
(2004), pp. 291–318.

32.
For instance Thomas Wriothesley undertook several missions to Calais, and one or two to France on Cromwell’s behalf.
L & P
, VI, nos 1306, 1400.

33.
Elton,
Tudor Revolution
, pp. 259–60.
Ibid.
,
Tudor Constitution
, pp. 117–28.

34.
Statute 27 Henry VIII, c. 21. Elton,
Tudor Revolution
, p. 270.

35.
Ibid.
, pp. 276–97.

36.
Elton,
Tudor Constitution
, p. 118.

37.
Statute 26 Henry VIII, c. 1.
Statutes of the Realm
, III, p. 492.

38.
John Foxe,
Acts and Monuments
(1583) p. 1122.

39.
Statute 26 Henry VIII, c. 3.
Statutes of the Realm
, III, pp. 493–9. Lehmberg,
Reformation Parliament
, pp. 206–7.

40.
Ibid
., p. 207.

41.
Statute 26 Henry VIII, c. 6. Elton,
Tudor Constitution
, pp. 202–3. P. Williams,
The Council in the Marches of Wales under Elizabeth
(1958) also covers this earlier period.