Thomas Cromwell: a life

Abstract

This biography of Thomas Cromwell is a long-awaited companion to Professor MacCulloch’s magisterial biography Thomas Cranmer: a life, Yale University Press, 1996. Steeped in the remains of Cromwell’s papers and archive (sifted by his staff and annotated by them and by those who seized it on Cromwell’s fall), the picture which emerges is fascinating and appealing, questioning many of the conventional wisdoms about Cromwell’s life and career. From these pages, we can see that there was no Tudor Revolution in government on the Elton model. Following the Act for First Fruits and Tenths (1534), no permanent department was created to manage them in Cromwell’s lifetime. In similar vein, from 1537 the term Privy Council designated twenty or so men named to that position. Elton saw this as part of the Tudor Revolution in government, but MacCulloch paints a different picture. This development of the Privy Council was to clip Cromwell’s wings, not to enhance his power. Perhaps the most important role of the many with which Cromwell was entrusted was that as the King’s vice-gerent in spirituals. MacCulloch underlines that this role continued throughout Cromwell’s lifetime until his death in 1540. The assertion is certainly borne out by the remains of a copy of his Register as vicegerent which contains seventeen documents, surely only exemplars of what must have been a much fuller archive. The last document recorded here is a commission, dated 3 February 1540, from Cromwell as vicegerent to try the marital cause of Walter, Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury. However, six months later, Hungerford was dead ‒ executed for buggery and other crimes alongside Cromwell himself on 28 July ‒ clearly an attempt by the government to discredit Cromwell still further by association. One of the seminal activities of the 1530s was the dissolution of the monasteries. MacCulloch shows that this was in effect a gradual ramping up of activity against the religious life and did not stem from a grandiose plan to destroy monastic life from the start. The destruction of the greater monasteries is a good example. Following the example of his previous master Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell did not seek to destroy the greater monasteries wholesale. Many had reformed themselves and Cromwell himself advocated that they become less like monasteries and more like secular colleges. It was Henry who defeated this plan. Terrified at the thought of invasion by Continental powers, the King initiated the greatest national campaign for coastal defence in England until modern times. This work had to be paid for, and the monasteries were prime targets for raising the necessary funds. What of the traditional picture of Cromwell as cruel and rapacious? That is not a principal finding in this new biography, but aspects of Cromwell’s public life come under scrutiny. The trial of John Lambert alias Nicholson is a case in point. In 1538, Lambert cast doubt on the bodily presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Cranmer failed to convince him to recant and, fatally, Lambert appealed to the King. Henry, dressed in white, presided over a hearing in Westminster Hall. Cromwell’s role was simply to house the prisoner. Otherwise he kept his counsel as Lambert was burned at Smithfield on 22 November. It was a shocking moment for supporters of Protestant belief.