Thomas Cromwell

by Diarmaid MacCulloch

  7. For Dr Rokeby’s old friendship with Thomas Lee, see Lee to Cromwell, 4 November [1535], SP 1/98 f. 173, LP 9 no. 762: ‘we have been brought up together and the one have known the other ever since we were children.’ Chambers (ed.), Faculty Office Registers, xxvi, mentions the appointment of James to an office in Cranmer’s Faculty Office in 1544, though he also elides him with his brother John. John Rokeby and Ellis ap Rhys were both members of St Nicholas Hostel Cambridge.

  8. For John Rokeby’s clerical appointments, see Clergy of the Church of England Database: he was rather belatedly ordained deacon in 1547, and resigned Wycliffe in 1551 in the course of a hands-off clerical career up to his death in 1574. James Rokeby is glaringly absent from his mother’s will made in 1540, while she made her ‘son Doctor’ one of the executors: Raine (ed.), Wills and Inventories from the Registry of the Archdeaconry of Richmond, 17–19.

  9. Deposition of James Rokeby, April 1537, SP 1/118 f. 256r, LP 12 i no. 1011.

  10. T. Thornton, ‘Henry VIII’s progress through Yorkshire in 1541 and its implications for northern identities’, Northern History 46 (2009), 231–44, at 232.

  11. Deposition of James Rokeby, April 1537, SP 1/118 f. 256v, LP 12 i no. 1011; my italics. On Savage, see ODNB, s.v. Savage, Thomas. Cf. Sir Thomas Tempest’s memorandum, October 1536, SP 1/112 ff. 114v–115r, LP 11 no. 1244.

  12. For Godolphin’s lobbying, see Sir William Godolphin to Cromwell, 3 May 1537, SP 1/119 f. 143, LP 12 i no. 1126, and for the result, John Tregonwell to Cromwell, 5 September [1537], SP 1/106 f. 134, LP 11 no. 405 (misdated in LP). For Godolphin possessing the greatest tin works in Cornwall, see Leland, Itinerary of John Leland, ed. Toulmin Smith, 1, 191.

  13. On Garrett, see above, this page; for his preaching licence from Cranmer on 6 June 1534, Chambers (ed.), Faculty Office Registers, 39, and for patronage from Latimer, Thomas Bell to John Stokesley Bishop of London, 9 June [1536], SP 1/104 f. 147, LP 10 no. 1099. For adverse reactions to his preaching, John Lord Hussey to Cromwell, c. mid-April 1537, SP 1/118 ff. 123–4, LP 12 i no. 899, referring to 1534, and Sir Francis Bigod to Cromwell, 12 July [1535], SP 1/94 f. 24, LP 8 no. 1025. For Bigod’s patronage to Jerome, see Bigod to Cromwell, 28 September [1536], SP 1/106 f. 220, LP 11 no. 503, and Dickens, Lollards and Protestants, 103–4, in the best (albeit perhaps over-sympathetic) account of Bigod, at 53–113.

  14. Lord Leonard Grey to Cromwell, 10 August [1536], SP 60/3 f. 127, LP 11 no. 266.

  15. Depositions accusing Pratt before Sir Gilbert Talbot and John Russell, 2 September 1536, SP 1/106 f. 139rv, LP 11 no. 407[2].

  16. Sir Gilbert Talbot and John Russell to Cromwell, 5 September 1536, SP 1/106 f. 137, LP 11 no. 407, and report on Pratt’s examination, SP 1/106 f. 138, LP 11 no. 407[2 ii]; Cromwell to Talbot and Russell, 7 September [1536], Merriman 2 no. 161 (not in LP); Cromwell to Russell, 8 October [1536], Merriman 2 no. 164 (not in LP).

  17. Report by John Freeman, Blaise Holland, Richard Wolmar and Roger Hilton, 7 September [1536], SP 1/106 f. 142, LP 11 no. 417, and see Freeman to Cromwell, 7 August [1536], SP 1/105 f. 257, LP 11 no. 242. For their friendship, see Freeman to Cromwell, ?September 1538, SP 1/136 f. 28, LP 13 ii no. 254.

  18. Deposition of Matthew Mackerell, Abbot of Barlings, BL MS Cotton Cleopatra E/IV f. 245, LP 12 i no. 702.

  19. For examples of the importance of this Michaelmas date directly referring to the Lincolnshire Rising, see Bowker, The Henrician Reformation, 148–52.

  20. Deposition of William Breyar, 22 October 1536, SP 1/109 ff. 36–49, LP 11 no. 841; the portion concerning Dent is effectively though belatedly analysed in Bush, Pilgrimage of Grace, 249. The Rectory of Sedbergh was worth £41 10s in the VE, 5, 243.

  21. The Dentdale initiative has been curiously downplayed by the most recent historians of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Hoyle, Pilgrimage of Grace, 213, talks of the ‘qualitative difference’ between it and the Pilgrimage outbursts from 11 October, with no real justification. Bush, Pilgrimage of Grace, deals with it in rather an afterthought at 249.

  22. Petition of Robert Asporner to Cromwell, ?spring 1537, SP 1/120 f. 265, LP 12 i no. 1326.

  23. For the succession of Richard Corney to Roger Horsman as Vicar of Sedbergh, see LP 11 no. 943[16], and for Cromwell’s previous entanglement with the Horsmans and Coverham, see above, this page, this page, this page.

  24. Useful discussion of this is Gray, Oaths and the English Reformation, 145–69.

  25. Report of Lionel Grey, Robert Collingwood, William Grene and James Rokeby 28 September 1536, SP 1/106 ff. 222–3, LP 11 no. 504. On Hexham’s place in northern defence, see Edward Lee Archbishop of York to Cromwell, 23 April 1536, BL MS Cotton Cleopatra E/IV f. 286, LP 10 no. 716.

  26. See the Earl’s plaintive letter about Hexham to Cromwell, 4 October [1536], SP 1/106 f. 251, LP 11 no. 535, only a day after he had written to Cromwell thanking him for sorting out Carnaby’s grant of Hexham: Northumberland to Cromwell, 3 October [1536], SP 1/106 f. 246, LP 11 no. 529. For the culmination of some months of negotiation between Carnaby and Cromwell over estates in Kent in April 1536, see LP 10 no. 775[24] (Reynold is there misnamed Richard). For Carnaby’s prompt journey north to resume the Hexham suppression, thwarted by events, see R. W. Hoyle (ed.), ‘Letters of the Cliffords, Lords Clifford and Earls of Cumberland, c. 1500–c. 1565’, Camden Miscellany 31 (Camden 4th series 44, 1992), 1–189, at 137–8.

  27. On this and what follows where not otherwise referenced, see depositions of Nicholas Melton and others, 21 October 1536, SP 1/109 f. 1, LP 11 no. 828[i]. See also for context and comment, Bowker, The Henrician Reformation, 148–56.

  28. See E. J. Hobsbawm and J. Wallach Scott, ‘Political Shoemakers’, PP 89 (1980), 86–114.

  29. M. E. James, ‘Obedience and dissent in Henrician England: the Lincolnshire Rebellion 1536’, in James, Society, Politics and Culture: studies in early modern England (Cambridge, 1986), 188–269 (reprinted from PP 48 (1970), 3–78), at 207.

  30. This was the observation of Eustace Chapuys’s nephew to the Queen of Hungary in connection with the rising, mid-October 1536, LP 11 no. 714, but it was a belief widely shared at the time, and stated in one version of the rebels’ demands to the King: cf. the articles, SP 1/108 f. 45, LP 11 no. 705; see also H. Walter (ed.), Expositions and Notes on sundry portions of the Holy Scriptures, together with The Practice of Prelates. By William Tyndale . . . (Parker Society, 1849), 309, 319–20; Loades (ed.), Papers of George Wyatt, 137–8; N. Pocock (ed.), A treatise on the pretended divorce between Henry VIII. and Catharine of Aragon, by Nicholas Harpsfield . . . (CS 2nd series 21, 1878), 175–6; Nichols (ed.), Narratives of the days of the Reformation, 219.

  31. Examination of Nicholas Melton, late 1536, SP 1/110 f. 133rv, LP 11 no. 968.

  32. TNA, E 315/209, ff. 7r–8r, LP 13 i no. 1520[iv].

  33. Convent of Legbourne to Cromwell, c. April 1536, BL MS Cotton Cleopatra E/IV f. 329, LP 10 no. 384.

  34. Deposition of Nicholas Melton, 21 October 1536, SP 1/109 f. 1r, LP 11 no. 828[i (1)]; examination of George Brantwhet alias Browne, 30 October 1536, SP 1/110 f. 23, LP 11 no. 920[2]; examination of Nicholas Melton, late 1536, SP 1/110 f. 133rv, LP 11 no. 968; examinations before Sir John St John and Richard Cromwell, 3 November 1536, SP 1/110 ff. 161r, 162v, LP 11 no. 972.

  35. Christopher Ayscough to Cromwell, ?6 October 1536, SP 1/106 f. 291, LP 11 no. 567.

  36. S. Gunn, ‘Peers, commons and gentry in the Lincolnshire Revolt of 1536’, PP 123 (1989), 52–79, at 60; on the Tamworths and Cranmer, see MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer, 17, 19. Gunn’s article is a sensible corrective to the overstatements and general thesis about aristocratic faction in James, ‘Obedience and dissent in Henrician England’, which nevertheless remains useful in its careful narrative.

  37. Christopher Ayscough to Cromwell, ?6 October 1536, SP 1/106 f. 291, LP 11 no. 567.

  38. ?Thomas Bolles to Sir Thomas Audley, 7 October [1536],
E 36/121 ff. 116–17, LP 11 no. 585; for the identification of Bolles, addressing himself from Gosberton, cf. Gunn, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, 179. Some sources call George Wolsey Thomas, an understandable slip.

  39. Chapuys’s nephew to the Queen of Hungary, mid-October 1536, LP 11 no. 714.

  40. On Milsent and Bellows, who frequently appear in Cromwell’s later business, Hoyle, Pilgrimage of Grace, 109; on Parker, examination of George Brantwhet alias Browne, 30 October 1536, SP 1/110 f. 23v, LP 11 no. 920[2].

  41. ?Thomas Bolles to Sir Thomas Audley, 7 October [1536], E 36/121 ff. 116–17, LP 11 no. 585. I have written extensively on this theme of yeoman leadership: see A. Fletcher and D. MacCulloch, Tudor Rebellions (6th edn, London 2016), ch. 10.

  42. Gunn, ‘Peers, commons and gentry in the Lincolnshire Revolt of 1536’, 60–63.

  43. For a draft in his hand of a long angry letter from the King to the Lincolnshire subsidy commissioners, berating them for passivity and for interceding for the rebels, c. 6/7 October 1536, SP 1/106 f. 301, LP 11 no. 569. For his efforts on the financial front, see Richard Eton to Thomas Heneage, probably late October 1536, SP 1/240 f. 215, LP Addenda 1 i no. 1130, and his memoranda about loans from November and December 1536, SP 1/113 ff. 83–6, LP 11 no. 1419.

  44. MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer, 170–71.

  45. Roland Lee to Cromwell, 3 September [1538], SP 1/136 f. 71, LP 13 ii no. 276. LP misreads the number of soldiers as 100.

  46. Roland Lee to Cromwell, 15 January [1537], BL MS Cotton Cleopatra E/V f. 414, LP 12 i no. 93.

  47. Chapuys’s nephew to the Queen of Hungary, mid-October 1536, LP 11 no. 714.

  48. Chapuys to Charles V, 7 October 1536, Spanish Calendar 5 ii no. 104, at 269.

  49. Richard Cromwell, [8 October 1536], SP 1/107 ff. 88–9, LP 11 no. 607 (for Cromwell’s allocation of 100 horse, see also LP 11 no. 580[5], 236); John Freeman to Thomas Wriothesley, [17 October 1536], SP 1/108 f. 138, LP 11 no. 756; Richard Cromwell to Cromwell, 2 November [1536], SP 1/110 f. 116, LP 11 no. 959.

  50. Sir William Fitzwilliam to Cromwell, 25 October [1536], SP 1/109 f. 99, LP 11 no. 865; Sir John Russell to Cromwell, 25 October 1536, SP 1/109 f. 101, LP 11 no. 866.

  51. Sir Richard Cotton to Cromwell, 21 October [1536], SP 1/109 ff. 17–18, LP 11 no. 831; on Cotton, see HC 1509–1558 1, 711–13. For his brother Sir George in Richard Cromwell’s troop, see Richard Cromwell to Cromwell, [8 October 1536], SP 1/107 ff. 88–9, LP 11 no. 607.

  52. ‘ce seroit la destruction et ruyne de son competiteur et enemy Cremuel, auquel se imputoit la coulpe de tous ces affaires, et duquel les mutins, comme lon dit, demandent la teste’: Chapuys to Charles V, 7 October 1536, Spanish Calendar 5 ii no. 104, at 268.

  53. Duke of Norfolk to Cromwell, Edward Foxe Bishop of Hereford and Sir William Paulet, 8 October 1536, SP 1/107 f. 82, LP 11 no. 602; Duke of Norfolk to Henry VIII, 8 October 1536, SP 1/107 f. 80, LP 11 no. 601.

  54. See the evident mood of relief at Windsor on 14 October, reflected in Cromwell’s letter to the Earl of Cumberland, Hoyle (ed.), ‘Letters of the Cliffords, Lords Clifford’, 148–9, and the orders received by the Earl of Surrey for his father, dated from Windsor on the same day: Surrey to Norfolk, 15 October [1536], SP 1/108 f. 95, LP 11 no. 727.

  55. Bush, Pilgrimage of Grace, 11. Superb and indispensable timelines of events are provided in ibid., 424–36 (October to December 1536) and in M. L. Bush and D. Bownes, The Defeat of the Pilgrimage of Grace: a study of the postpardon revolts of December 1536 to March 1537 and their effect (Hull, 1999), 418–41 (through to 1537).

  56. Hoyle, Pilgrimage of Grace, 282–91.

  57. LP 12 i no. 6, at 6. Holgate was made Bishop of Llandaff in March 1537, but Cromwell had already decided on his appointment in January 1537: John Hilsey Bishop of Rochester to Cromwell, January 1537, SP 1/105 f. 199, LP 11 no. 188 (misdated in LP to 1536, because of misdating same to same, St Laurence day [3 February 1537], SP 1/105 f. 199, LP 11 no. 188, by the wrong St Laurence Day). On Watton’s position in the order, see M. Stephenson, The Gilbertine Priory of Watton (Borthwick Papers 116, 2009), 33.

  58. For the sequence of events, see Thomas Lee to Cromwell, 10 February [1536], SP 1/102 f. 22, LP 10 no. 288; deposition of James Cockerell, quondam of Guisborough, April 1537, SP 1/119 f. 83r, LP 12 i no. 1087; Thomas Lee to Robert Pursglove alias Silvester, Prior of Guisborough, 8 March [1537], SP 1/102 f. 173, LP 10 no. 439.

  59. William Thornton alias Dent Abbot of York to Cromwell, 18 January [1537], SP 1/114 f. 159, LP 12 i no. 133.

  60. On Blythman, see the deposition of Lancelot Collins, SP 1/118 f. 268v, LP 12 i no. 1018; on Beckwith, examination of William Aclom, SP 1/116 ff. 169–70, LP 12 i no. 536, and his fairly honourable mention in Wilfrid Holme’s poem on the Pilgrimage, Dickens, Lollards and Protestants, 118.

  61. Sir George Lawson to Cromwell, 24 January [1537], SP 1/115 f. 41, LP 12 i no. 219. For Lawson’s calling Richard Cromwell ‘brother’, see Lawson to Cromwell, 9 January [1533], SP 1/74 f. 20, LP 6 no. 29.

  62. On Carnaby’s servant, a remembrance of Cromwell in spring 1537, LP 12 i no. 973, and a memorandum detailing inter alia Sir Thomas Percy’s campaign against Carnaby, SP 1/119 ff. 95–97r, LP 12 i no. 1090; for the Earl of Westmorland’s reluctance to be seen publicly defending Carnaby, Duke of Norfolk to Cromwell, 12 April [1537], SP 1/118 f. 155r, LP 12 i no. 919.

  63. Petition of John Dakyn, c. March 1537, SP 1/117 ff. 201v, 204r–205v, LP 12 i no. 788; on his helpfulness in Convocation, Roland Lee to Cromwell, 29 July [1533], SP 1/78 f. 46, LP 6 no. 912.

  64. On Lamplugh, see Edward Lee Archbishop of York to Cromwell, 14 October [1535], SP 1/98 f. 3, LP 9 no. 606, and his employment by Cromwell at the dissolved Furness Abbey, 15 December 1537, SP 1/127 ff. 58–61, LP 12 ii no. 1216. On Lee’s relationship to the other Lees and friendship with Cromwell, see John Lee to Cromwell, 18 October [1532], SP 1/71 f. 120, LP 5 no. 1446; on the leeches, Lee to Cromwell, 25 October [1533], SP 1/80 f. 23, LP 6 no. 1346. For their swearing to the Cumberland pilgrims, Bush, Pilgrimage of Grace, 350–51.

  65. Examination of Collins, 24 April 1537, SP 1/118 ff. 267v–268v, LP 12 i no. 1018. On his early acquaintance with Cromwell, see above, this page.

  66. Duke of Norfolk to Cromwell, 8 May [1537], BL MS Cotton Caligula B/I f. 341, LP 12 i no. 1156.

  67. Cranmer to Cromwell, 28 February [1538], SP 1/129 f. 121, LP 13 i no. 369.

  68. Deposition of Thomas Maunsell, SP 1/113 f. 55r, LP 11 no. 1402.

  69. For William Maunsell, see Hoyle, Pilgrimage of Grace, 274, and for his troubles before the Pilgrimage, e.g. William Abbot of York to Cromwell, 2 March [1535], SP 1/91 f. 16, LP 8 no. 313, and Maunsell to Cromwell, 3 March [1535], SP 1/91 f. 24, LP 8 no. 320; note in the latter his friendly colleagueship and friendship with George Lawson and John Gostwick. Wilfrid Holmes’s doggerel poem on the Pilgrimage singles out William Maunsell for praise for his loyalty: Dickens, Lollards and Protestants, 118.

  70. Pilgrims’ song, SP 1/108 f. 186r, LP 11 no. 786[3]. The interpretation of the Ls in Bush, Pilgrimage of Grace, 235, seems more plausible than including Bishop Longland, who had little relevance to the Yorkshire stirs.

  71. John Freeman to Cromwell, 15 October 1536, SP1/108 f. 92, LP 11 no. 724; MacCulloch, Suffolk and the Tudors, 293.

  72. Aske’s answers to interrogatories, 11 May 1537, SP 1/120 f. 35rv, LP 12 i no. 1175[ii]; for Richard’s sentiments on the Lincolnshire insurgents, Richard Cromwell to Cromwell, [11 October 1536], SP 1/107 f. 146, LP 11 no. 658.

  73. Cromwell to Sir Ralph Eure junior, 10 November [1536], SP 1/111 ff. 41–2, LP 11 no. 1032, two copies, one mutilated. For further comment and context, see Hoyle, Pilgrimage of Grace, 329–30.

  74. The draft is LP 11 no. 957, State Papers 1, 506–10 (my italics), discussed in Hoyle, Pilgrimage of Grace, 313–14, and Bush, Pilgrimage of Grace, 399, neither of whom discuss its most prominent sile
nce; nor do they relate it to the longer printed version, [Henry VIII], Ansvvere made by the Kynges Hyghnes to the Petitions of the Rebelles in Yorkeshire (London, 1536, RSTC 13077). Its Lincolnshire fellow is RSTC 13077.5.

  75. Thomas Heneage and Sir William Fitzwilliam to Cromwell, both 5 November 1536, respectively SP 1/110 f. 180, LP 11 no. 985, and SP 1/110 f. 181, LP 11 no. 986.

  76. Examination of Percival Cresswell, E 36/119 f. 79rv, LP 12 i no. 1013; for background on Cresswell at Court, Hoyle, Pilgrimage of Grace, 318–19.

  77. [Henry VIII], Ansvvere made by the Kynges Hyghnes to the Petitions of the Rebelles in Yorkeshire, sig. A4v. Another addition to the list of non-noble councillors here was Sir William Kingston; it is difficult to read the significance of this.

  78. Gervase Clifton to Mr Banks, 11 November [1536], SP 1/111 f. 56, LP 11 no. 1042. On Clifton, see HC 1509–1558 1, 660–61, and for Cromwell’s old involvement with Banks and Stanley wardship business, Laurence Starkey to Cromwell, 27 July ?1526, SP 1/39 f. 3, LP 4 i no. 2347.

  79. Aske to Darcy, c. 21 November 1536, LP 11 no. 1128. Cromwell was among those councillors writing to the Duke of Norfolk from Richmond on 2 December: BL MS Harley 6989 f. 60, LP 11 no. 1228, and divided his time between there and London for the rest of the month. On Richmond at this time, Colvin (ed.), History of the King’s Works 4, 228.

  80. [Henry VIII], Ansvvere made by the Kynges Hyghnes to the Petitions of the Rebelles in Yorkeshire, sigs. A2v–A3r.

  81. G. E. Corrie (ed.), Sermons by Hugh Latimer . . . (Parker Society, 1844), 25–32; for Latimer’s own defensive report of how well the sermon had gone down, Latimer to Cromwell, 27 December [1536], SP 1/113 f. 32, LP 11 no. 1374.

  82. SP 1/111 f. 144 (and other copies elsewhere), LP 11 no. 1110. For context, see P. Marshall, ‘The shooting of Robert Packington’, in Marshall, Religious Identities in Henry VIII’s England (Aldershot, 2006), 61–79, and MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer, 171–2.