The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell

by John Schofield

  The French envoy, du Bellay, was also convinced that Wolsey would not survive the coming parliament. Both diplomats had read the situation well. On 9 October Wolsey was indicted for praemunire; on 18 he surrendered the great seal, and a week later Thomas More was made Lord Chancellor in his place. Du Bellay confirmed the news to the French – Wolsey was undone, Norfolk was chief of the council, behind him was Suffolk, but ‘above them all’ stood Anne. The ambassadors had no doubt that the vengeful, ambitious royal mistress was Wolsey’s chief enemy and the prime cause of his fall. Already Wolsey, now in great distress, was appealing to du Bellay for help from King Francis.16

  Shortly after the blow fell, Cavendish entered the Great Chamber of Wolsey’s Asher home one morning to behold what he regarded a ‘strange sight’. Cromwell was ‘leaning in the great window with a primer in his hand, saying Our Lady Mattens’, with tears in his eyes. ‘Why, Mr. Cromwell’, asked Cavendish. ‘What meaneth all this your sorrow? Is my lord in any danger for whom ye lament thus, or is it for any loss that ye have sustained?’ ‘Nay’, replied Cromwell with brutal frankness. ‘It is my unhappy adventure, who am like to lose all that I have travailed for, all the days of my life’. Cromwell felt ‘in disdain with most men for my master’s sake, and surely without just cause; however, an ill name once gotten will not lightly be put away’. Within twelve months Cromwell had lost a wife, two daughters and a master. He now faced political and financial ruin. Fortunately, he was also a man of mettle, not one to be cowed by misfortune. He told Cavendish that he would ride to London and court that afternoon, ‘when I will either make or mar, ere I come again’.17

  Fortified by this resolve, Cromwell attended a farewell dinner given by Wolsey. Sometime during dinner the conventional piety of Lady Mattens faded, and the independent, anti-clerical spirit of the late medieval humanist revived within him. Cromwell urged Wolsey to show his gratitude to his servants, and offer them some encouragement in the crisis that had overwhelmed them. ‘Alas Thomas’, cried Wolsey, ‘you know that I have nothing to give them’. Cromwell persisted. He reminded Wolsey of all his gifts to his chaplains and clergy while his lay servants have nothing, despite having ‘taken much more pains for you in one day than all your idle chaplains hath done in a year’. At this, Wolsey relented. He summoned his entourage, thanked them for their services, told them that they may ‘take your pleasures for a month’ and then return to him, by which time he hoped rather forlornly that the king would be reconciled to him. Cromwell pointed out that his servants did not have enough money for a month’s holiday, and suggested that Wolsey’s chaplains, ‘who hath received at your hands great beneficies and high dignities’, might care to show some charity to those less well off. Cromwell threw five pounds in gold on the table, then cast his eye around him. ‘Now let us see what your chaplains will do’, he challenged. ‘Go to, masters’. The browbeaten chaplains meekly coughed up, and a sizable sum was collected. Wolsey then bid his thankful servants farewell, and after a long conversation with his former master, Cromwell and his clerk, Ralph Sadler, rode off to London to ‘make or mar’.18

  It is intriguing that Cromwell, instead of retiring to his legal practice and private life, decided to set out for court. It was a gamble for a man from Wolsey’s council who had not joined – and was not going to join – the triumphant pro-Boleyn, anti-Wolsey faction around the king. Cromwell’s career hung in the balance, leaving his friends anxious. Stephen Vaughan, now in Flanders, was ‘greatly in doubt how you are treated in this sad overthrow of my lord your master’. Vaughan offered all the encouragement and help he could. He had heard malicious things about Cromwell, ‘yet do I not doubt but your truth and wisdom shall deliver you from danger. You are more hated for your master’s sake than for anything which I think you have wrongfully done against any man’. Vaughan prayed God to ‘lend you a constant and patient mind’ and help you.19

  The story of how Cromwell recovered his fortunes by becoming a member of parliament once again is complicated and a little uncertain. According to Cavendish, Cromwell ‘chanced to meet with one Sir Thomas Rush, knight, a special friend’, and ‘by that means’ Cromwell managed to ‘put his foot into the parliament house’. Here Cavendish was giving a summary only. It was not quite as simple as this, and a key letter to understanding what happened is Sadler’s to Cromwell dated 1 November. Sadler had seen a Mr Gage, who spoke to Norfolk, who spoke to the king about the possibility of Cromwell entering parliament. Henry agreed, and Cromwell was ordered to wait for further instructions from Norfolk. Sadler had also talked to Rush, and was intending to see him again to learn ‘whether ye [Cromwell] shall be burgess of Orforde [in Suffolk] or not’. Sadler continued: ‘And if ye be not elect there I will then according to your further commandment repair unto Mr Paulet, and require him to name you to one of the burgesses of one of my lord’s towns of his bishopric of Winchester’. Sadler suggested that Cromwell should come to court to meet Norfolk, ‘by whom ye shall know the king his pleasure how ye shall order yourself in the parliament’.20

  So Cromwell had taken the prudent precaution of obtaining the king’s approval, via the good offices of Gage and Norfolk. However, the reference to ‘Orforde or not’ proves that Cromwell was not allocated a plumb seat automatically. He had to wait his turn, and wheel and deal a bit. In the event Orforde chose Erasmus Paston and Richard Hunt, while Cromwell took his seat representing Taunton.21

  Parliament opened on 3 November with a speech from the new Lord Chancellor, Thomas More. Then the Commons elected Thomas Audley, soon to become a close evangelical ally of Cromwell’s, as Speaker. Archdeacon Cranmer, meanwhile, was now in the lower house of Convocation, the assembly of the clergy. An anti-clerical mood prevailed in this parliament, and a raft of complaints was quickly lodged against the clergy for assorted abuses ranging from excessive charges levied on the family of a deceased person, to more general gripes about worldly living and pastoral neglect. Audley appointed a committee to investigate, and it is almost certain that Cromwell sat on it.22

  Somewhat less certain is how prominent a role he played, or the degree of his opposition to the clergy. In Elton’s view it was quite decisive, though other scholars of Tudor constitutional history like Lehmberg are not so sure. Lehmberg gives examples of Cromwell’s notes actually softening some of the harsher criticisms of the clergy. A virtually irresolvable question is whether drafts in Cromwell’s handwriting should be taken as his own personal ideas, or the proposals or conclusions of the committee reached after a thorough discussion. Because there was nothing fundamentally Protestant about the critiques levelled at the clergy, we can pass over this moot point and concentrate on Cromwell’s relations with Wolsey during this difficult time in his career.

  Norfolk, Suffolk and Thomas Boleyn were now drawing up articles against Wolsey. According to Cavendish, Cromwell supported Wolsey so valiantly in the Commons that ‘there was no matter alleged against my lord [Wolsey] but that he [Cromwell] was ever ready furnished with a sufficient answer’. Cromwell demolished the attacks on Wolsey with ‘such witty persuasions and deep reasons that the same bill could take there no effect’. Cromwell was now full of confidence, and wearing a ‘much pleasanter countenance’ than at the recent dinner at Asher. He seemed unfazed by a warning from Sadler that Wolsey’s ‘enemies’ – he mentioned no names – had been talking to Henry, and that Sadler had now lost trust in Stephen Gardiner.23

  Bitter following his misfortunes, and still suspicious of Gardiner, Wolsey now looked on Cromwell as my ‘only aider in this mine intolerable anxiety and distress’. He urged him to ‘forsake me not in this my extreme need’. He pleaded with Cromwell to speak with Henry Norris, one of the king’s household and a supporter of the Boleyns, to see if the ‘displeasure of my lady Anne’ might be assuaged; likewise ‘my lords Norfolk and Suffolk … must be effectually laboured’. With Wolsey’s agreement, Cromwell drafted a grant for George Boleyn, Anne’s brother, awarding him an annuity of £200 for lands in Winchester, and another
£200 for abbey lands in St Albans. Apparently on Cromwell’s advice, more financial sweeteners were arranged for Norris and Sir John Russell, an envoy of the king and another affiliate of Anne’s increasingly dominant faction. Pandering to the Boleyns had become a disagreeable necessity because Anne’s hostility was widely believed to be the main reason for Wolsey’s demise: ‘everyone’, according to Chapuys, was saying that Henry bore Wolsey no ill will, but the king was forced to get rid of him solely to ‘gratify her’.24

  Cavendish’s portrayal of Cromwell’s loyalty towards Wolsey has rankled with critics like Merriman, who can only see Cromwell buying off opposition with money to help himself gain popularity and power in parliament and at court. However, whilst it is true that Cromwell had to rebuild his own career, the real point is that Wolsey had begged Cromwell to do all he could to assuage Anne’s ‘displeasure’; and Wolsey, still dreaming of making a grand comeback, would hardly have agreed to Cromwell’s ideas if he suspected that Cromwell had only his own welfare in mind.25

  During or shortly after January 1530, Cromwell more or less formally entered the king’s service. Effectively this meant being part of Henry’s administrative staff. He was a long, long way from being the king’s chief minister, but the point may be worth stressing that he was in the king’s service and no one else’s. After Wolsey’s fall he did not join the Boleyn faction, or the Norfolk faction, or any other vested interest at court. He transferred from the cardinal’s employment directly to the king’s. This independence from any party loyalty – allied to his natural abilities in law, languages and commerce – would soon ensure advancement and success. Stephen Vaughan, previously worried about Cromwell’s fortunes, was now relieved to hear ‘all things to have succeeded even as I desired; you now sail in a sure haven’.26

  Meanwhile, Anne’s ‘displeasure’ with Wolsey had at best only partially abated. She was overheard snapping at Norfolk and even at Henry for not being severe enough with the disgraced cardinal. Despite this, Wolsey’s fortunes revived somewhat when, in February 1530, he received a pardon; at this point even Merriman is forced to admit, though reluctantly and through ferociously gritted teeth, that Cromwell’s efforts might have had something to do with this. Wolsey certainly showed a deep gratitude towards Cromwell, begging ‘our Lord to reward you … for such great pains as you have taken in all my causes’. These ‘pains’ also included procuring medical help.27

  But to Wolsey’s intense chagrin, Henry was now abundantly helping himself to the cardinal’s colleges, lands and fine buildings. This was another affair that Cromwell was called on to manage. Once again he received fulsome praise from Cavendish for the way in which he executed his office, ‘so justly and exactly’, with such ‘faithful and diligent service’. Soon Cromwell found himself swamped with applications for annuities from enquirers who were ‘worthily to reward him’ for his efforts on their behalf. As a result, Cromwell had more and more direct contact with Henry, and by his competence and ‘witty demeanour he grew continually in the king’s favour’. Henry was impressed with Cromwell’s ‘honesty and wisdom’, finding him a ‘meet instrument to serve his grace’. Again Merriman sees Cromwell chiefly occupied in making money and buying influence for himself, but again Merriman’s jaundiced eye overlooks a rather obvious fact. Cromwell was now in the king’s service carrying out the king’s business, accountable directly to Henry for the administration of lands taken over by the king. Maybe Cromwell did, from time to time, consider his own interests as well as the king’s; maybe he gladly accepted the bonuses that came his way – who would not? Nevertheless, he was not free to fleece all and sundry and enrich himself in the process with impunity. Any unscrupulous, dishonest, selfish dealing could easily have been noticed and reported back to Henry.28

  When Wolsey hankered after a move from Asher to Richmond, he asked Cromwell to obtain the king’s permission. This gave Cromwell another opportunity to see Henry personally. Again Cromwell bypassed the council and dealt directly with the king. Permission was duly granted, but when the council heard about it they managed to persuade Henry that Wolsey should live out his days in York. Wolsey demurred and would have preferred Winchester, but under pressure from his council, and maybe from Anne as well, Henry was now adamant that Wolsey must go north. All the while Cromwell was the one shuttling backwards and forwards between Henry and Wolsey with requests and answers.29

  A sign of Henry’s increasing trust in Cromwell is that he confided to him, sometime in May, that Wolsey had been trying to sow discord between the king and Norfolk. Cromwell may also have been gratified to hear from John Russell that Henry ‘had very good communication of you’ following a recent meeting; the details of this meeting are not disclosed. Meanwhile a Mr Page had delivered certain letters from Wolsey to Anne, though Cromwell had to tell Wolsey that she ‘gave kind words, but will not promise to speak to the king for you’. Cromwell continued to look after Wolsey’s interests as best he could. Sometime in June he drafted a letter from Wolsey to Henry about a matter of maritime law that Wolsey had dealt with when he was Lord Chancellor, and which had, for reasons not stated, surfaced again.30

  But in summer 1530, dangerous thoughts were stirring in Wolsey’s mind. From his new home in York he renewed his contacts with Rome and, via Eustace Chapuys, Charles V. Wolsey used his physician, a Venetian called Dr Augustine, as intermediary to suggest to Chapuys that now was the time to act for Catherine of Aragon. Cromwell knew Augustine well; he had helped him obtain his English citizenship, for which Augustine was immensely grateful. There is, however, no evidence that Cromwell was involved in Wolsey’s intrigues.31

  As if oblivious to them, he carried on dealing assiduously with Wolsey’s incessant pleas and requests. Somewhat abruptly he told the testy and ever demanding cardinal that he was now ‘worse than when your troubles began’. Trying to soothe Wolsey’s anger over the loss of his colleges, Cromwell appealed to him to be content ‘and let your prince execute his pleasure’, and submit to the king in all things. He assured Wolsey of Henry’s goodwill, and the goodwill of many in court and country; but Cromwell also felt constrained to point out to Wolsey that his ways and manner of living were ‘not by your enemies interpreted after the best fashion’. Reports had reached London that Wolsey was living sumptuously in York, and Cromwell begged him ‘for the love of God … as I often times have done, I most heartily beseech your grace to have respect … and to refrain yourself for a season from all manner buildings more than mere necessity requireth’. Such restraint will ‘cease and put to silence’ those who were speaking ill of Wolsey to the king. Cromwell urged Wolsey to use his liberty to ‘serve God’, and to learn to ‘experiment how ye shall banish and exile the vain desires of this unstable world’. Cromwell’s letters to Wolsey in York are not all pastoral, however, and he regularly sent Wolsey news about events abroad and at court. He also promised his continued support.32

  Unfortunately, neither Wosley’s ambition nor his love of fine living had deserted him, and again in August Cromwell warned him that Henry was minded to take over more of the cardinal’s lands in York. ‘This will be very displeasing to you’, Cromwell admitted, ‘but it is best to suffer it’. Once more Cromwell appealed to his former master to have patience: for ‘some allege that your grace do keep too great a house and family, and that you are continually building – for love of God, therefore, have a respect and refrain’. According to Hall, Wolsey was planning a spectacular enthronement ceremony for himself at York, but Cromwell’s letters do not mention this.33

  Cromwell’s last surviving letters to Wolsey were written in October, after he heard a rumour that Wolsey suspected him of ‘dissembling’. The letter does not say what prompted these suspicions but Cromwell felt understandably aggrieved – ‘I beseech you to speak without faining if you have such conceit, that I may clear myself’, he appealed. Cromwell promised he would continue to act for Wolsey in all sorts of ways, but ‘truly your grace in some things over-shooteth yourself’. Still calling h
im ‘your grace’, however, Cromwell asked Wolsey to provide ‘some little office’ for one Dr Carbot, and he also commended other servants and scholars in Cambridge. He kept Wolsey up to date with parliamentary business – ‘The prelates shall not appear in the praemunire; there is another way devised … as your grace shall further know.’ There is no obvious hint or clue in these letters that Cromwell knew of, or even suspected, that something dramatic was about to happen. The clear impression is that he expected to be writing regularly to York during the coming weeks and months.34

  On 4 November, however, after incriminating letters were found in Dr Augustine’s possession, Wolsey was arrested on suspicion of treason. Chapuys blamed Norfolk, Anne and her father for their plotting against Wolsey, with Anne even threatening to leave Henry unless he took decisive action. Augustine, meanwhile, was taken to Norfolk’s house, where he was ‘entertained like a prince … singing to the right tune’. Chapuys heard details of Augustine’s statement from the Venetian ambassador: Wolsey had asked the pope to excommunicate Henry and put England under a papal interdict unless Henry dismissed Anne from court; and by this means Wolsey hoped to provoke a rising in England, and return to power as the restorer of good order. This may not have been technically treasonable according to the law of England as it then stood, but it was certainly more than enough to enrage Henry and ensure Wolsey’s final doom.35