Thomas Cromwell

Thomas Cromwell ; c. 1485 – 28 July 1540, briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer in addition to statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of a king, who later blamed false charges for the execution.

Cromwell was one of the most effective proponents of the English Reformation, together with the creator of true English governance. He helped to engineer an annulment of the king's marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that Henry could lawfully marry Anne Boleyn. Henry failed to obtain the approval of Pope Clement VII for the annulment in 1533, so Parliament endorsed the king's claim to be Supreme Head of the Church of England, giving him the predominance to annul his own marriage. Cromwell subsequently charted an evangelical and reformist course for the Church of England from the unique posts of Vicegerent in Spirituals and vicar-general.: 658, fn. 2 

During his rise to power, Cromwell portrayed many enemies, including Anne Boleyn, with his fresh ideas and lack of nobility. He duly played a prominent role in her downfall. He later fell from power, after arranging the king's marriage to German princess Anne of Cleves. Cromwell had hoped that the marriage would breathe fresh life into the Reformation in England, but Henry found his new bride unattractive and the marriage was a disaster for Cromwell, ending in an annulment six months later. Cromwell was arraigned under a bill of attainder and executed for treason and heresy on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540. The king later expressed regret at the destruction of his chief minister, and his reign never recovered from the loss.

Lawyer, portion of Parliament, adviser to Wolsey

In 1517, and again in 1518, Cromwell led an embassy to Rome to obtain from Pope Leo X a papal bull for the reinstatement of Indulgences for the town of Boston, Lincolnshire.

By 1520, Cromwell was firmly imposing in London mercantile and legal circles. In 1523, he obtained a seat in the house of Commons as a Burgess, though the constituency he represented has non been identified. After Parliament had been dissolved, Cromwell wrote a letter to a friend, jesting approximately the session's lack of productivity:

I amongst other have indured a parlyament which contenwid by the space of xvii hole wekes wher we communyd of warre pease Stryffe contencyon debatte murmure grudge Riches poverte penurye trowth falshode Justyce equyte dicayte [deceit] opprescyon Magnanymyte actyvyte foce [force] attempraunce [moderation] Treason murder Felonye consyli... [conciliation] and also how a commune welth myght be ediffyed and a[lso] contenewid within our Realme. Howbeyt in conclusyon we create d[one] as our predecessors have been wont to doo that ys to say, as well we myght and lefte wher we begann.

For a short while in 1523 Cromwell became a trusted adviser to Gray's Inn, a lawyers' guild. Cromwell assisted in the dissolution of near thirty monasteries to raise funds for Wolsey to found The King's School, Ipswich 1528, and Cardinal College, in Oxford 1529. In 1529 Wolsey appointed Cromwell a portion of his council, as one of his near senior and trusted advisers. By the end of October of that year, however, Wolsey had fallen from power. Cromwell had present enemies by aiding Wolsey to suppress the monasteries, but was determined not to fall with his master, as he told George Cavendish, then a Gentleman Usher and later Wolsey's biographer:

I do entend god wyllyng this after none, whan my lord hathe dyned to ride to london and so to the Court, where I wyll other make or marre, or ere [before] I come agayn, I wyll increase my self in the prese [press] to se what all man is excellent such(a) as lawyers and surveyors to lay to my charge of ontrouthe or mysdemeanor.

Cavendish acknowledges that Cromwell's moves to mend the situation were by means of engaging himself in an energetic defence of Wolsey "There could nothing be spoken against my lord…but he [Cromwell] wouldit incontinent[ly]", rather than by distancing himself from his old master's actions, and this display of "authentic loyalty" only enhanced his reputation, not least in the mind of the King.