NOTES

Author’s Note

I have retained the original spelling and punctuation of quotations when these are short and easily understood. For longer quotes, and those where the original spelling and punctuation makes them less comprehensible, I have modernised them.

A Note on Cromwell’s Coat of Arms, Displayed on Title Page

The lions of England surround a Tudor rose, which is flanked by two Cornish choughs – distinctive birds with black plumage and brightly coloured legs, feet and bills. This central strip was taken from the arms of Cromwell’s first patron, Cardinal Wolsey.

INTRODUCTION

  1. Foxe, Book III, p.645.
  2. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.313–14.
  3. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, no. 399.
  4. Merriman, Vol. I, p.87.

CHAPTER 1: ‘A great traveller in the world’

  1. Foxe, Book III, p.645.
  2. Ibid., pp.645ff.
  3. A survey of Wimbledon Manor taken in 1617 supports this notion because it describes on that spot ‘an ancient cottage called the smith’s shop, lying west of the highway from Richmond to Wandsworth’. Walford, E., ‘Putney’, Old and New London, Vol. 6 (1878), pp.489–503.
  4. Fulling is the cleansing of cloth or wool to remove oils, dirt and other impurities, and to make it thicker. The process involved soaking wool in vats of human urine.
  5. This was according to the Imperial ambassador Chapuys. How he knew this is not clear, as there is no other reference to it in contemporary sources. Letters and Papers, Vol. IX, no. 862.
  6. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.468. He made the remark during the debate about Henry VIII’s ‘Great Matter’ and whether Catherine of Aragon was still capable of bearing a living son.
  7. Calendar of the Close Rolls ... Henry VII, p.18.
  8. Williams, C.H., pp.188–90.
  9. In order to prevent the sale of bad beer, an ale-taster was appointed to pass or condemn as unfit all the brewing in a parish.
  10. Hornsey, pp.321–2.
  11. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.3–4.
  12. Ibid., pp.2–4.
  13. Foxe, Book III, pp.645ff.
  14. Letters and Papers, Vol. IX, no. 862.
  15. Anon., Life of Thomas Lord Cromwell, p.3; Williams, C.H. pp.190, 196; Holinshed, p.951.
  16. Payne, p.107.
  17. Foxe, Book III, pp.645ff; Merriman, Vol. I, p.23.
  18. Anon., ‘Life and Death of Thomas Lord Cromwell’ p.351.
  19. Williams, C.H., p.189.
  20. Foxe, Book III, pp.645ff; Merriman, Vol. I, p.23.
  21. Payne, pp.106–7.
  22. Foxe, Actes and Monuments, Book II, pp.419–34. This is repeated in Holinshed, p.951.
  23. Payne, p.107.
  24. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.18–19.
  25. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 1218; Merriman, Vol. I, p.11. The Syngsson Mart was one of the foremost markets in the Netherlands.
  26. Letters and Papers, Vol. I, Part i, no. 1473.
  27. Ibid., Vol. IX, no. 862.
  28. Muller, p.399.
  29. Letters and Papers,Vol. I, no. 3195.
  30. Merriman, Vol. I, p.303.
  31. Foxe, Book III, pp.645ff; Merriman, Vol. I, p.23.
  32. Holinshed, p.951.
  33. Letters and Papers,Vol. IV, no. 6346.
  34. The account, recorded by Pole in 1538, recalled a conversation that had taken place during the 1520s. The timing has prompted doubt about its authenticity because Il Principe was not published until 1532. But given Cromwell’s connections, the theory that he obtained an early manuscript edition is plausible. Indeed, Pole claims that Cromwell had offered to lend it to him, provided he promised to read it.
  35. Williams, C.H., p.190.
  36. Ibid., p.196.
  37. Holinshed, p.951.
  38. Anne is also referred to as Alice in the contemporary sources.
  39. It has been incorrectly asserted that Gregory entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1528. This has led some historians to assert that his date of birth could have been as early as 1514. In fact, Gregory was appointed a Tutor from Pembroke College in 1528, but did not go there himself. See below, p.73.
  40. Pratt, Vol. V, pp.363–5.
  41. There is some evidence to suggest that Cromwell undertook two visits to Rome on behalf of the Boston guild: one in 1510 and the other in 1517/18. There were two sets of payments in the Boston account books. However, the date of 1510 is cited only by Foxe, and it is at least equally possible that the confusion over dates in Cromwell’s early career led to an assumption that he made two visits, rather than one.
  42. Pratt, Vol. V, p.364.
  43. Hall, pp.838–9.
  44. Pratt, Vol. V, p.365.

CHAPTER 2: The Cardinal

  1. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, p.7.
  2. Tyndale, p.307.
  3. Weir, Henry VIII, pp.1–2, 19.
  4. Ibid., p.2.
  5. Williams, C.H., p.389; Weir, Henry VIII, p.3.
  6. Hall, p.712.
  7. Starkey, Reign of Henry VIII, p.3.
  8. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, pp.11–12.
  9. Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. I, Part i, p.6.
  10. Hume, p.1.
  11. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, pp.11–12; Tyndale, p.307.
  12. Brown, Vol. I, pp.139, 155; Letters and Papers, Vol. II, Part ii, Appendix, no. 12.
  13. Williams, C.H., p.402.
  14. Letters and Papers, Vol. II, Part i, no. 1959.
  15. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, p.12.
  16. A useful summary of this debate is provided in Ward, pp.23–4.
  17. Letters and Papers, Vol. IX, no. 862.
  18. Foxe, Book III, p.648.
  19. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.14–15.
  20. Williams, C.H. pp.388–9.
  21. Payne, p.108.
  22. Letters and Papers, Vol. III, no. 2441.
  23. See for example Letters and Papers, Vol. III, no. 2624.
  24. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.145.
  25. His constituency has not been identified.
  26. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.30–44. 27.
  27. Ibid., pp.313–14.
  28. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6262.
  29. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. IV, Part II.ii, p.752.
  30. Letters and Papers, Vol. III, no. 2394. Creke (also spelled Creak) may have been a clerk of the hanaper. This was an office (now abolished) in the department of the chancery. The clerk, also known as warden of the hanaper, was paid fees and other moneys for the sealing of charters, patents, writs, etc.
  31. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.313–14. 32.
  32. Ibid., p.314.
  33. BL Cotton MS Galba B x fo.9r.
  34. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, no. 247.
  35. See for example Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6429.
  36. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, no. 247.
  37. Richardson, p.18.
  38. See for example Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6429.
  39. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6429.
  40. Ibid., no. 6744.
  41. Ibid., no. 4107.
  42. Ibid., Vol. V, no. 247.
  43. Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. V, p.93.
  44. Foxe, Book III, p.650.
  45. Sampson, p.203.
  46. Roper, pp.11–12.
  47. Foxe, Book III, p.648.
  48. Stow, p.190.
  49. I am indebted to Dr Nick Holder for sharing his fascinating and detailed research on Austin Friars, which is encapsulated in his thesis: ‘The Medieval Friaries of London’.
  50. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, no. 1509.
  51. Ellis, H. p.125; Merriman, Vol. I, p.314; Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, Appendix, no. 57.
  52. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 1768.
  53. Knox, J., First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, first published 1558 (New York, 1972), pp.9–10.
  54. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.56–63.
  55. See below, pp.284–7.
  56. Black, p.140.
  57. Ibid., p.156.
  58. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.590; Vol. VI, Part I, p.17.
  59. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, no. 1509; Vol. IX, no. 862; Weir, Henry VIII, p.307.
  60. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 3197. See also Holder.
  61. Holder, p.161.
  62. Ibid.
  63. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, nos. 819, 840, 855; Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 782.
  64. Robertson, ‘Thomas Cromwell’s Servants’,pp.101–2.
  65. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.569.
  66. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 1732.

CHAPTER 3: ‘Not without sorow’

  1. Ashdown, D.M., Ladies in Waiting (London, 1976), pp.23–4.
  2. Strickland, A., Lives of the Queens of England (London, 1851), Vol. II, p.572.
  3. Turnbull, no. 491.
  4. Hume, p.105.
  5. Cardinal’s College was later re-founded by Henry VIII as Christ Church.
  6. Hume, p.25.
  7. Merriman, Vol. I, p.318.
  8. Ibid., pp.323–4.
  9. Foxe, Book III, p.585.
  10. Williams, C.H., p.422. 11.
  11. Ibid., p.423.
  12. Ibid., p.422.
  13. Merriman, Vol. I, p.319.
  14. Foxe, Book III, pp.645ff.
  15. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 3334.
  16. Merriman, Vol. I, p.19.
  17. Hume, pp.25–6.
  18. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, p.126.
  19. Merriman, Vol. I, p.47.
  20. The date of Anne’s birth was not recorded, but it is estimated at around 1500 or 1501. Elizabeth I’s seventeenth-century biographer, William Camden, claimed that Anne was born in 1507, as did other sources of that time. But this would have made her no more than six years old when she entered Margaret of Austria’s service in 1513, an impossibly young age.
  21. Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. IV, p.365.
  22. In reality, this was little more than a second nail growing on the side of one of her fingers. Anne was so self-conscious about it that she took to wearing long-hanging oversleeves, which instantly became fashionable among court ladies.
  23. Wyatt, in Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, pp.424, 441.
  24. Foxe, J., Actes and Monuments, edited by Clarke, A (London, 1888), p.209.
  25. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, Part II i, no.1467.
  26. Ibid., p.1468.
  27. Henry VIII sought to end his marriage to Catherine through an annulment, not a divorce. However, I have mostly referred to it as the latter, partly for ease of comprehension but partly also because that is how many contemporaries and subsequent historians have termed it.
  28. State Papers, Vol. I, p.194.
  29. Leviticus, chapter 20, verse 21.
  30. Letters and Papers, Vol. II, p.ccvii.
  31. Norton, pp.105–6. 32.
  32. Ibid., p.106.
  33. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, Part ii, no. 4468.
  34. A number of more recent sources cite her death as occurring at Stepney, although there is no corroborating evidence for this in the contemporary sources.
  35. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 5772; Merriman, Vol. I, pp.56–63. Joan later married John Williamson, an old friend of Cromwell, who became prominent in his service.
  36. Letters and Papers, Vol. XII, Part ii, nos. 35, 100–1.
  37. Foxe, Book III, p.648.
  38. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, no. 19.
  39. Ibid., no. 17. For Margaret’s correspondence with Cromwell, see Erler, pp.88–106.
  40. Ibid., Vol. IV, no. 4560. Gregory had been temporarily moved from Cambridge to the countryside because of the onset of plague in the city.
  41. Ibid., no. 4561.
  42. Ibid., no. 6457.
  43. Ibid., nos. 4916, 6219, 6722.
  44. Ibid., Vol. VI, no. 696.
  45. Ibid., Vol.IV, no. 6722.
  46. Ibid., no. 4916.
  47. Ibid., nos. 4433, 5757, 6219.
  48. Norton, p.65.
  49. A full transcript of this is provided in Merriman, Vol .I, pp.56–63.
  50. They were living with him by November 1532, when Thomas Alvard reported to an absent Cromwell after a visit to Austin Friars that they were both well. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, no. 1509; Vol. VI, no. 696.
  51. Merriman, Vol. I, p.61.
  52. Ibid., p.325.
  53. Hall, p.772; Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. IV, Part I, p.189.
  54. Hall, p.759.
  55. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6019.
  56. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, p.102.
  57. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6030.

CHAPTER 4: ‘Make or marre’

  1. Shakespeare, W., Henry VIII, Act III, scene ii.
  2. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, pp.169, 170.
  3. Ibid., p.105.
  4. Ibid., p.112.
  5. Norton, p.277.
  6. Mathew, p.70.
  7. Hall, p.764.
  8. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6112.
  9. Ibid., no. 6447.
  10. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, p.119.
  11. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6036.
  12. Ibid., no. 6058.
  13. Ibid., nos. 6080, 6098.
  14. Ibid., nos. 6114, 6076.
  15. Ibid., no. 6114.
  16. Although he had made the most of his illness, it was genuine. Less than a month later, his physician, Dr Augustine, wrote in panic to Cromwell, urging him to secure leeches and a ‘vomitive electuary’ from the king’s doctors. Ibid., no. 6151.
  17. Ibid., nos. 6115, 6181.
  18. Ibid., nos. 6076, 6199.
  19. Ibid., Vol. X, no. 601.
  20. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. IV, Part II.ii, p.819.
  21. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, p.126.
  22. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6112.
  23. Elton, Tudor Revolution in Government, p.88.
  24. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.56.
  25. Ibid., Part I, p.298.
  26. Merriman, Vol. I, p.373.
  27. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. IV, Part II.ii, p.759.
  28. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6554.
  29. Ibid., no. 6196.
  30. Ibid., nos. 66, 5034.
  31. Wood, Vol. II, p.66.
  32. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6420; Elton, Tudor Revolution, p.85.

CHAPTER 5: ‘The frailty of human affairs’

  1. Weir, Henry VIII, p.27; Starkey, Reign of Henry VIII, p.17.
  2. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 601; Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, pp.81–2.
  3. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, nos. 6076, 6181, 6203.
  4. Ibid., no. 6203.
  5. Ibid., nos. 6213, 6214.
  6. Ibid., no. 6076.
  7. Ibid., no. 6226.
  8. Ibid., no. 6076.
  9. Ibid., nos. 6199, 6344, 6335.
  10. See for example ibid., no. 6262.
  11. Ibid., nos. 6076, 6571.
  12. Ibid., no. 6076; Merriman, Vol. I, p.327.
  13. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, p.126.
  14. State Papers, Vol. I, no. 362; Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, nos. 6076, 6524.
  15. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6076.
  16. Ibid., nos. 6076, 6554.
  17. Ibid., nos. 6076, 6571; Merriman, Vol. I, p.331.
  18. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6110.
  19. Ibid., nos. 6100, 6699.
  20. Ibid., no. 6720; Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, pp. 174, 178–9; Holinshed, p.951.
  21. State Papers, Vol. VII, no. 213; Norton, p.149.
  22. Foxe, Book III, pp.645–55.
  23. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.17–18; Hume, pp.31, 87.
  24. Foxe, Book III, p.645.
  25. Hume, p.95; Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, pp.207, 239.
  26. Cavendish, Metrical Visions, Vol. II, p.52.
  27. Holinshed, p.951.
  28. Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol.IV, pp.294–5.
  29. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.20, 23.
  30. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 2387.
  31. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.357–8.
  32. The so-called ‘Reformation Parliament’ was first summoned in 1529 and was finally dissolved in 1536. It had several breaks in between.
  33. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, no. 628.
  34. Merriman, Vol. I, p.92. 35.
  35. Ibid., pp.90–1.
  36. Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. I, Part i, p.316.
  37. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, nos. 15, 18.
  38. Ibid., no. 17.
  39. State Papers, Vol. I, p.380.

CHAPTER 6: The King’s ‘Great Matter’

  1. Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. IV, p.287.
  2. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, Part i, no. 24.
  3. Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. IV, p.288.
  4. Ibid., pp.57, 288.
  5. Letters and Papers, Vol. IX, no. 861.
  6. Ibid., Vol. VI, Part i, no. 324.
  7. Ibid., no. 805.
  8. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.484.
  9. Merriman, Vol. I, p.343.
  10. Ibid., pp.134–5; Letters and Papers, Vol. IX, no. 725(1).
  11. Merriman, Vol. I, p.135; Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, no. 1554; Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. V, p.26.
  12. Merriman, Vol. I, p.135.
  13. Ibid.; Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, no. 1554.
  14. Bray, p.59.
  15. Ibid.
  16. Lehmberg, Reformation Parliament, p.146.
  17. Hall, p.788.
  18. Sampson, p.240.
  19. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.257.
  20. Merriman, Vol. I, p.62.
  21. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, nos. 6076, 6391.
  22. Ibid., no. 3197.
  23. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, p.106.
  24. State Papers, Vol. I, p.384.
  25. Brigden, ‘Thomas Cromwell and the Brethren’, p.41.
  26. Foxe, Book III, p.654.
  27. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, no. 153.
  28. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.335–9; Letters and Papers, Vol. V, no. 248.
  29. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, no. 533.

CHAPTER 7: ‘The suddaine rising of some men’

  1. Letters and Papers, Vol. V, no. 1452.
  2. Ibid., Vol. IV, no. 6146; Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 782.
  3. Chapuys estimated that the new residences were ‘half a league’ away. Ibid., Vol. X, no. 351. Although it is difficult to translate a league into modern measurements accurately, it equated to around three miles.
  4. Holder, p.162.
  5. Stow, pp.191–2.
  6. Letters and Papers, Vol. IX, no. 340.
  7. The slow progress can partly be explained by the fact that in October 1536 Cromwell’s nephew Richard took eighty of the workers to Yorkshire to help suppress the Pilgrimage of Grace. Holder, pp.163–4.
  8. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 351.
  9. Stow, p.191.
  10. SP 1/85, fo.56.
  11. Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, no. 1135.
  12. Ellis, Vol. I, pp.343–5.
  13. Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, no. 1135.
  14. Ibid., Vol. VIII, no. 618.
  15. Merriman, Vol. I, p.343; Vol. II, p.137.
  16. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 290; Ellis, H., Vol. I, p.340; Noble, Vol. I, p.18.
  17. Bindoff, Vol. III, p.251.
  18. Ibid., Vol. I, p.369.
  19. Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. I, Part i, pp.561–2; Norton, pp.260–1; Letters and Papers, Vol. IX, no. 964.
  20. An excellent appraisal of Cromwell’s household is provided by Robertson: ‘Thomas Cromwell’s Servants’.
  21. Stow, p.34
  22. Merriman, Vol. II, p.267.
  23. Stow, p.34, and Foxe, Book III, p.645; Letters and Papers, Vol. IX, no. 651; Robertson, ‘Thomas Cromwell’s Servants’,p.375. The boy does not appear in the records of Cromwell’s household thereafter, so his audacity does not seem to have been rewarded.
  24. Letters and Papers, Vol. VI, nos. 696, 698.
  25. Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. I, Part I, p.221.
  26. Merriman, Vol. I, p.348. 27.
  27. Ibid., pp.353–4.
  28. Fuller, p.231.
  29. Nichols, pp.244–5.
  30. Stow, p.34.
  31. Letters and Papers, Vol. VI, no. 1365; Vol. XII, Part ii, no. 952.
  32. Elton, England under the Tudors, p.133.
  33. Letters and Papers, Vol. VI, Part i, no. 653.
  34. Ibid., Vol. VI, no. 465; Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. IV, Part II.ii, pp.669, 677.
  35. Norton, p.325.
  36. Letters and Papers, Vol. VI, no. 1510.

CHAPTER 8: ‘Hevy wordes and terrible thretes’

  1. Letters and Papers, Vol. VI, Part ii, no. 1089.
  2. Ibid., Vol. VII, Part i, no. 1112; Weir, Six Wives of Henry VIII, p.258.
  3. Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, Part i, no. 809; Vol. VI, Part ii, no. 1125.
  4. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.295.
  5. Wyatt, Collected Poems.
  6. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.438.
  7. Ibid., Vol. II, p.451.
  8. Ibid., Vol. V, Part I, pp.219–20; Part II, p.95.
  9. Ibid., Vol. IV, Part II.ii, p.752.
  10. Ibid., p.760.
  11. Ibid., Vol. V, Part I, p.126.
  12. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.360–1, 371.
  13. Ibid., p.374.
  14. Ibid., pp.373–9.
  15. Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, no. 287.
  16. Ibid., no. 575.
  17. Merriman, Vol. I, p.381.
  18. Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, nos. 1149, 496.
  19. Ibid., no.1025.
  20. Bray, pp.113–14.
  21. Merriman, Vol. I, p.389.
  22. Letters and Papers, Vol. VIII, no. 196.
  23. Merriman, Vol. I, p.154.
  24. See for example Merriman, Vol. II, pp.80–2.
  25. State Papers, Vol. II, p.553n.
  26. Ibid., p.551n.
  27. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.155–6; Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, no. 1554.
  28. Elton, Reform and Renewal, p.45.
  29. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.43–4.

CHAPTER 9: ‘Good master secretary’

  1. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.294.
  2. Ibid., Vol. IV, Part II.ii, p.841; Vol. V, Part I, pp.465–6.
  3. Stow, p.34; Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.569; Wood, Vol. II, p.268.
  4. Elton, Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics and Government, Vol. II, p.225.
  5. Norton, pp.203–5.
  6. Mary was eventually forgiven by her sister and attended Anne during her final, ill-fated pregnancy in 1536.
  7. Anon., Life of Thomas Lord Cromwell, p.18. A similar account is provided by Bandello: Payne, p.111.
  8. Payne, pp.113–14.
  9. Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. V, p.82.
  10. Payne, p.114.
  11. Merriman, Vol. I, p.362.
  12. Letters and Papers, Vol. VIII, no. 108. NB The date of the letter is incorrectly cited as 26 January 1535, but has been proven to be 1 July 1536. Erler, p.99n.
  13. Cavendish, Metrical Visions, Vol. II, p.52.
  14. Some of them would remain there even after Cromwell had been replaced as Master of the Rolls by Christopher Hales in July 1536. Robertson, ‘Thomas Cromwell’s Servants’.
  15. Letters and Papers, Vol. IX, nos. 272, 339, 340.
  16. Ibid., no. 340.
  17. An excellent analysis of Cromwell’s land and property holdings is provided by Robertson, ‘Profit and Purpose in the Development of Thomas Cromwell’s Landed Estates’, pp.317–46.
  18. In August 1538, for example, he helped arrange a large grant of land at Wimbledon, Putney and Roehampton to Walter Williams, who is cited as Cromwell’s nephew but may have been the brother-in-law of his sister, Katherine. History of Parliament online.
  19. Foxe, Book III, p.654.
  20. Williams, N., p.150.
  21. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 782.
  22. Ibid.,Vol. XIII, Part i, no. 1450; Vol. XIV, Part ii, nos. 85, 782; Robertson, ‘Thomas Cromwell’s Servants’,pp.102–3.
  23. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 782.
  24. Ibid.
  25. Ibid.
  26. Ibid., Vol. VII, no. 1554.
  27. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.402–5.

CHAPTER 10: Dissolution

  1. The high rate of infant mortality was largely responsible for life expectancy being so low. Those who survived infancy could expect to live to their fifties or early sixties.
  2. Payne, p.107.
  3. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, pp.411, 428, 436, 452.
  4. Letters and Papers, Vol. VIII, no. 121.
  5. Norton, p.288. Cromwell was later obliged to surrender one of these rooms to Jane Seymour in order to facilitate her courtship with his master.
  6. Muller, pp.60–1.
  7. Foxe, Book III, p.646.
  8. Muller, p.399.
  9. Letters and Papers, Vol. XI, no. 29; BL Add MS 25114 fos.175–7.
  10. Foxe, Book III, p.646.
  11. Elton, England under the Tudors, p.141.
  12. Foxe, Book III, p.649.
  13. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 45.
  14. Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. V, p.26. A later ambassador, Giovanni Soranzo, concurred that Cromwell was the ‘supreme ruler in England’. Ibid., p.550; Cavendish, Metrical Visions, Vol. II, p.51.
  15. Letters and Papers, Vol. VIII, nos. 609, 661.
  16. Merriman ,Vol. I, p.410; Pratt, Vol. V, pp.391, 394–6; Anon., Life of Thomas Lord Cromwell, pp.23–4.
  17. Sampson, p.258.
  18. Rogers, p.533.
  19. Ibid.
  20. Harpsfield, p.185.
  21. Ibid., pp.193, 196.
  22. Ibid., p.103.
  23. Ibid., p.104.
  24. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.417–19.
  25. More and Fisher were both canonised by Pope Pius XI in May 1935, 400 years after their deaths.
  26. Letters and Papers, Vol. VIII, no. 475.
  27. Hume, p.27.
  28. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.542.
  29. Bodleian Library MS Don.C42 fos.21–33.
  30. Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, Part ii, p.251.
  31. Norton, pp.197–8.
  32. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 901.
  33. Ibid.
  34. Starkey, Six Wives, p.584.
  35. Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, Part ii, no. 1257.
  36. Norton, p.297.
  37. Weir, Six Wives, p.345; Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 1069.
  38. SP 3/7, fo. 28r.
  39. Wright, p.156; Merriman, Vol. I, pp.167, 169; Letters and Papers, Vol. IX, nos. 509, 632.
  40. Wright, p.156.
  41. Foxe, Book III, pp.646, 649.
  42. Letters and Papers, Vol.10, no. 254.
  43. Statutes of the Realm, Vol. III, pp.575–8.
  44. Hume, p.26.
  45. Wright, pp.180–1.
  46. Ellis, Vol. III, pp.33, 34; Merriman, Vol. I, p.172.
  47. Hume, p.26.
  48. Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. V, p.543.

CHAPTER 11: ‘A more gracious mistress’

  1. Merriman, Vol. I, p.439.
  2. Ibid., Vol. II, p.1; Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, no. 1095.
  3. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.59; Letters and Papers, Vol. X, nos. 59, 351.
  4. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 141.
  5. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.228–9.
  6. Ibid., Vol. II, pp.1–2; Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 141.
  7. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 141.
  8. Merriman, Vol. II, p.3; Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 141.
  9. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, p.102.
  10. Ibid., no. 351; Weir, Six Wives, p.293.
  11. Norton, p.286.
  12. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.81.
  13. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 601.
  14. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.484; Part II, p.81.
  15. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 601; Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.81.
  16. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.484.
  17. Norton, p.325.
  18. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.484.
  19. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 699.
  20. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol.V, Part I, p.573.
  21. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 752.
  22. Merriman, Vol. I, p.414.
  23. See for example BL Cotton MS Titus B i fos.261r, 264.
  24. Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. V, p.47.
  25. Starkey, Reign of Henry VIII, p.101.
  26. Merriman, Vol. II, p.36.
  27. Ibid., pp.5–6.
  28. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 351.
  29. Ibid.
  30. Ibid.
  31. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part 1, p.125.
  32. Letters and Papers, Vol. VIII, no. 1105.
  33. Ibid., Vol. X, no. 699; Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, pp.91–3.
  34. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 699.
  35. Ibid., no. 700.
  36. Elton, Reform and Reformation, p.172.
  37. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 699.
  38. Merriman, Vol. II, p.196.
  39. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.466.
  40. State Papers, Vol. II, pp.551–3n.
  41. Ibid., p.552n.
  42. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. II, pp.453–4.
  43. Letters and Papers, Vol. VIII, no. 938.
  44. Cavendish, Metrical Visions, Vol. II, p.51.
  45. Starkey, Reign of Henry VIII, p.83.
  46. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 351.
  47. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.84.

CHAPTER 12: ‘The Lady in the Tower’

  1. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol.V, Part II, p.137.
  2. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 575.
  3. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.137.
  4. Letters and Papers, Vol. X ,no. 700.
  5. Cavendish, Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, p.30.
  6. Ibid., p.452.
  7. Hume, p.66.
  8. Weir, Lady in the Tower, p.63.
  9. Ibid., p.89.
  10. Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Reign of Elizabeth; Weir, Lady in the Tower, p.99.
  11. Weir, Six Wives of Henry VIII, p.312.
  12. BL, Cotton MS Otho C x fo.225.
  13. Hume, p.61.
  14. Ibid., p.62.
  15. Weir, Lady in the Tower, p.5.
  16. Byrne, Vol. III, no. 648; Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 909.
  17. Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.36.
  18. Hume, p.65.
  19. Wyatt, Collected Poems, p.cxlix.
  20. Hume, p.66.
  21. Muir, p.201.
  22. Hume, pp.63–4.
  23. According to the French ambassador, Cromwell remained Wyatt’s protector during the years that followed, quelling his royal master’s irritation against the courtier on at least one occasion. Kaulek, p.157.
  24. Merriman, Vol.II, pp.12, 21.
  25. Norton, p.333.
  26. Ibid., p.346.
  27. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.137.
  28. Ibid., p.196.
  29. Merriman, Vol. II, p.12.
  30. Ibid., pp.12, 21.
  31. Amyot, p.65.
  32. Merriman, Vol. II, p.12.
  33. Ibid.
  34. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, pp.361–2.
  35. Wriothesley, Vol. I, pp.37–8.
  36. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, p.330.
  37. Ibid., nos. 910, 1070.
  38. Ibid., no. 792.

CHAPTER 13: Rebellion

  1. They were not as thorough as the king might have wished. Some of the old ‘HA’ emblems can still be spotted in the great hall at Hampton Court Palace.
  2. Merriman, Vol. II, p.21; Letters and Papers, Vol. XI, no. 29.
  3. Norton, p.329.
  4. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.420.
  5. Letters and Papers,Vol. X, no. 973.
  6. Wood, Vol. II, pp.246–7; Vol. III, p.13.
  7. Letters and Papers,Vol. X, no. 1110; Merriman, Vol. II, pp.17–18.
  8. Letters and Papers,Vol. X, no. 24.
  9. Ibid., no. 1186; Wood, Vol. II, pp.250–9.
  10. Merriman, Vol. II, p.21.
  11. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.198.
  12. Letters and Papers,Vol. XI, no. 148.
  13. Wood, Vol. II, p.261.
  14. Perry, M., The Word of a Prince (London, 1990), p.23.
  15. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 351.
  16. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, pp.183–6.
  17. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 782.
  18. Merriman, Vol. II, p.21.
  19. Historical Manuscripts Commission, Rutland I, p.310.
  20. Letters and Papers, Vol. XI, p.190, no. 479.
  21. Ibid.
  22. BL Cotton MS Nero B vi, fo.135r.
  23. Starkey, Reign of Henry VIII, pp.97–8.
  24. Mayer, p.98.
  25. This is referred to in a letter from Chapuys to Charles V, 21 April 1536. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 699.
  26. Ibid.; Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.198.
  27. Letters and Papers, Vol. XI, no. 147.
  28. Hume, p.36.
  29. Anon., ‘Life and Death of Thomas Lord Cromwell’, p.368.
  30. The three sacraments promoted by the articles were baptism, the eucharist and penance.
  31. Merriman, Vol. I, p.142.
  32. Ibid., Vol. II, pp.25–9.
  33. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.500.
  34. Ibid., p.427.
  35. Merriman, Vol. II, p.30.
  36. Ibid., p.35.
  37. Letters and Papers,Vol. XI, no. 42.
  38. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.31–2, 49.
  39. Ibid., pp.131–2.
  40. Letters and Papers, Vol. XI, no. 786 (3).
  41. Ibid., Vol. XII, Part i, no. 163.
  42. Ibid., Vol. XI, no. 576.
  43. Ibid., no. 576; Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.268.
  44. Letters and Papers, Vol. XI, no. 601.
  45. LP Henry VIII Vol.XI no.714.
  46. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.36, 40–1.
  47. Hume, p.35.
  48. Ibid., Vol. I, p.137; Letters and Papers, Vol. VIII, no. 892.
  49. Letters and Papers, Vol. XII, Part i, no. 976.
  50. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, no. 268.
  51. Hume, p.36; Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part II, p.313.

CHAPTER 14: ‘Some convenyent punishment’

  1. Merriman, Vol. II, p.60.
  2. Ibid., p.57.
  3. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 782.
  4. Ibid., Vol. XII, Part i, nos. 594, 636.
  5. Ibid., no. 118.
  6. This may have been in order to give greater authority to the king’s newborn son, Edward, Prince of Wales.
  7. Lord Grey was eventually recalled to London and attainted for treason. He was executed in July 1541.
  8. Letters and Papers, Vol. XII, Part ii, no. 870.
  9. Merriman, Vol. II, p.58.
  10. Jane came to share her husband’s Catholic beliefs. Together with their daughter Alice, her husband William Whitmore and their children, the family all came to the attention of the authorities as recusant Catholics in the reign of Elizabeth I. Wark, K.R., Elizabethan Recusansy in Cheshire (Manchester, 1971), pp.153, 168.
  11. Letters and Papers, Vol. X, no. 129.
  12. Ibid., Vol. XI, no. 233.
  13. Ibid., Vol. XVI, no. 578.
  14. Merriman, Vol. II, p.53.
  15. Starkey, Reign of Henry VIII, p.83.
  16. Letters and Papers, Vol. XII, Part i, no. 678.
  17. Merriman, Vol. II, p.60.
  18. Letters and Papers, Vol. XII, Part ii, no. 97.
  19. There is no confirmed portrait of Elizabeth Cromwell. However, it has recently been claimed (with some justification) that the Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Holbein, previously thought to have been Katherine Howard, was in fact the wife of Gregory Cromwell. Wilson, D., Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man (London, 2006), p.215.
  20. Letters and Papers, Vol. XII, Part ii, no. 629.
  21. Wood, Vol. II, pp.355–6.
  22. Schofield, pp.277–9; Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 556; Wood, Vol. II, pp.267–71.
  23. Erler, pp.99–105.
  24. Wood, Vol. II, pp.271–5.
  25. Letters and Papers, Vol. XII, Part ii, nos. 143, 1049; Wood, Vol. II, pp.218– 26; Vol. III, pp.96–100.
  26. Wood, Vol. II, pp.373–8.
  27. Marshall, R.K., Queen Mary’s Women (Edinburgh, 2006), p.108.
  28. Letters and Papers, Vol. VII, p.7.
  29. Wood, Vol. II, pp.292–3.
  30. See Wood, Vols. II and III.
  31. Hume, p.73.
  32. BL Harley MS 282 fos.211–12; Merriman, Vol. II, p.94.
  33. Merriman, Vol. II, p.96.
  34. Letters and Papers, Vol. XII, Part ii, no. 972.
  35. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.96–7.
  36. See for example Merriman, Vol. II, p.122.

CHAPTER 15: ‘These knaves which rule abowte the kyng’

  1. Merriman, Vol. II, p.98; Hume, p.95.
  2. Froude, p.11.
  3. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. II, p.457.
  4. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.235–6; Calendar of State Papers, France, Vol. XIII, Part I (London, 1899), pp.995, 1147, 1355.
  5. Merriman, Vol. II, p.193.
  6. Mayer, p.78.
  7. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.84–6.
  8. Ibid., p.88.
  9. Ibid., pp.86–90; Mayer, p.136.
  10. Ellis, H., Vol. III, pp.192–4.
  11. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIII, Part i, no. 1059.
  12. Ibid., no. 1281; Ellis, H., Vol. III, pp.208–9.
  13. Wood, Vol. II, p.358; Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 782.
  14. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIII, Part i, no. 231; Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.83.
  15. State Papers, Vol. II, p.551n.
  16. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.151–4.
  17. Ibid., p.145.
  18. Ibid., pp.146–7.
  19. Williams, pp.811–14.
  20. Strype, Memorials of Thomas Cranmer, Vol. I, p.83.
  21. State Papers, Vol. I, p.540.
  22. Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.31.
  23. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 399.
  24. Norton, p.278.
  25. Elton, Thomas Cromwell, p.19.
  26. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. VI, Part I, pp.40, 53.
  27. Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. I, Part i, p.530.
  28. Merriman, Vol. II, p.162.
  29. Ibid., p.214.
  30. TNA KB 8/11/2.
  31. Hall, p.827.
  32. Wood, Vol. III, pp.67–9; Vol. III, p.112.
  33. Ibid., Vol. III, p.112.
  34. Letters and Papers, Vol.IV, Part i, no. 655.
  35. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.442.
  36. Merriman, Vol. II, p.167.
  37. Elton, Tudor Revolution in Government, p.312.
  38. Foxe, Book III, p.589.
  39. MacCulloch, Reign of Henry VIII, p.43.
  40. Merriman, Vol. II, p.307.
  41. Ibid., pp.216–19.
  42. Ibid., pp.216–22.
  43. Ibid., p.65.
  44. One of the most bitter arguments had arisen in September 1533 when Lord Lisle had attempted to introduce new measures regarding corn. Cromwell had upbraided him for angering the king and for being swayed by the advice of others, in particular his wife: ‘For although my lady be right honourable and wise yet yn soche causes as longithe to your auctoritie her advise and discresion can litle prevayle.’ The following year, he had chastised the governor for what he termed his ‘excesse in living’. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.364, 391.
  45. Bray, pp.222–3.
  46. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.128–31.
  47. Shaxton remained in custody for the rest of the year, and when he and Latimer were pardoned in spring 1540, it was only on condition that they refrain from preaching or coming near London or any of the universities.
  48. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 782.
  49. Ibid., Vol. XIV, Part i, no. 1260.

CHAPTER 16: The Flanders Mare

  1. A matrimonial alliance between England and Cleves had been proposed as early as 1530, when the duke had written to Henry VIII promising military assistance if such an alliance was forged. Eager to prove the pedigree of his house, he had assured Henry that he was ‘descended from the same stock as the kings of England’. The proposal had come to nothing. Letters and Papers, Vol. IV, no. 6364.
  2. Merriman, Vol. I, p.244n.
  3. Ibid., Vol. II, pp.174–5.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Froude, p.12.
  6. Merriman, Vol. I, p.253.
  7. Ibid., Vol. II, pp.175, 200.
  8. Ibid., Vol. I, p.262; Hume, p.88.
  9. Hume, p.89.
  10. Merriman, Vol. II, p.238; Hume, p.90.
  11. Merriman, Vol. II, p.241.
  12. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, Part ii, nos. 622, 630.
  13. Ibid., Vol. XV, no. 14.
  14. Ibid., Vol. XIV, Part ii, no. 707.
  15. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.268–76; Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, nos. 823, 824.
  16. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.268–9.
  17. Hume, p.108.
  18. Merriman, Vol. II, p.270.
  19. Ibid.; Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 823.
  20. Hume, pp.92–3.
  21. Ibid., p.94.
  22. Ibid., pp.91–2.
  23. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.269–70.
  24. Ibid., pp.270–1.
  25. Ibid., p.271; Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials,Vol.I, pp.555–6.
  26. Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. I, Part ii, p.462.
  27. Starkey, Reign of Henry VIII, pp.101–2.
  28. BL Cotton MS Titus B i.
  29. Starkey, Reign of Henry VIII, pp.98–9.
  30. Hall, p.837.
  31. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.261–2.
  32. Hume, pp.94–5.
  33. Merriman, Vol. I, p.284.
  34. Hume, pp.100–1.
  35. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIV, no. 414; Ellis, H., Vol. III, pp.258–65.
  36. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 737.

CHAPTER 17: ‘Cromwell is tottering’

  1. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 486.
  2. Ibid., no. 429.
  3. Merriman, Vol. I, p.290.
  4. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 611.
  5. Ibid., Vol. VII, no. 1554; Vol. XVI, no. 590; Hume, p.105; Merriman, Vol. II, p.60.
  6. Merriman, Vol. I, p.290.
  7. Plowden, p.101.
  8. Weir, Six Wives, p.413.
  9. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.256–9, 260–1.
  10. Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.117.
  11. Noble, Vol. I, p.11.
  12. Hume, pp.96–7, 99.
  13. Ibid., p.97.
  14. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 737.
  15. Ibid.
  16. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.263–4.
  17. Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials,Vol. I, Part II, pp.459–60.

CHAPTER 18: ‘Mercye mercye mercye’

  1. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 804. By ‘laws’ they presumably meant the Treasons Act of 1534. The Spanish Chronicle gives a different account of the controversy, claiming that Cromwell’s bonnet had blown off as he and his fellow councillors were walking to dinner before the fatal meeting. It was customary if a gentleman lost his cap for any other gentlemen present to doff theirs, but on this occasion nobody did, which aroused Cromwell’s suspicions. Hume, p.98.
  2. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 804.
  3. Anon., ‘The Life and Death of Thomas Lord Cromwell’ p.368.
  4. It included the manors and lordships of Oakham and Langham in Rutland, Clapthorne, Haculton and Pedyngton in Northamptonshire, Blayston in Leicestershire, and the manors of Northelmeham and Beteley in Norfolk. Letters and Papers, Vol. XIII, Part i, no. 1519 (2); Part ii, no. 967 (54); Vol. XVI, no. 744.
  5. Ibid., Vol. XVI, no. 578.
  6. Ibid., Vol. XV, no. 804.
  7. Ibid.
  8. Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.119.
  9. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 804; Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. V, pp.86–7.
  10. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 804.
  11. Foxe, Book III, pp.645, 654.
  12. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 766.
  13. Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. V, p.84.
  14. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 766; Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. VI, Part I, pp. 537–9.
  15. Merriman, Vol. I, p.294n.
  16. Hume, p.36.
  17. Ibid., p.99. The varying fortunes of Cromwell’s servants after his fall are described by Robertson: ‘Thomas Cromwell’s Servants’ pp.400–8.
  18. BL Cotton MS Otho C x fo.242.
  19. This story, from the apocryphal section of the Book of Daniel, tells how a fair Hebrew wife named Susanna was wrongly accused by two lecherous elders who had spied her bathing in her garden. They threatened to call her virtue into question unless she agreed to have sex with them. She refused to be blackmailed and was arrested and condemned to death for promiscuity. But Daniel prevented the sentence from being carried out by demanding that the two men be interrogated. When their stories were found to be inconsistent, they were put to death and Susanna was freed.
  20. BL Cotton MS Titus B i fos.267–9.
  21. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 803.
  22. Ibid., nos. 785, 786, 794.
  23. Merriman, Vol. I, p.300.
  24. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 842.
  25. Ibid., no. 767.
  26. Ibid., no. 770.
  27. Ibid., nos. 792, 801, 842.
  28. Hume, pp.99–100.
  29. Burnet, Vol. III, p.296. On his own arrest six years later, Norfolk demanded the same privilege. He ‘prayed the lords to intercede with the King, that his accusers might be brought face to face, to say what they had against him; and he did not doubt but it should appear he was falsely accused.’ Ibid.
  30. Hume, p.100.
  31. BL Cotton MS Otho C x fo.241; Hume, p.100.
  32. Hume, pp.100–1.
  33. Letters and Papers, Vol. XVI, no. 578. The Venetian ambassador at Charles V’s court in Bruges also reported that ‘Cromwell will be burnt, together with two other heretics.’ Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. V, p.85.
  34. BL Additional MS 48028 fos.160–5; Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 498. A transcript of the indictment is printed in Burnet, Vol. IV, pp.416–21.
  35. BL Additional MS 48028 fos.160–5; Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 498.
  36. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 804.
  37. Ibid., no.847.
  38. Foxe claims that Cromwell’s intention with this ‘violent lawe’ had been ‘for a certayne secret purpose, to haue entangled the byshop of Wynchester [Gardiner]’, but this is pure conjecture. The timing of the Act suggests that it had been an expedient to deal with Lady Margaret Pole.
  39. Cavendish, Metrical Visions, Vol. II, p.54.
  40. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 825.
  41. Norton, p.332.
  42. BL Cotton MS Otho C x fo.242; Merriman, Vol. II, pp.268–76; Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 824. Another (edited) version is provided at no. 823.

CHAPTER 19: ‘Many lamented but more rejoiced’

  1. Wood, Vol. III, p.161. Anne was to be richly rewarded for her compliance. She was given possession of Richmond Palace and Bletchingly Manor for life, together with a considerable annual income. She was later awarded some additional manors, including Hever Castle, which became her principal residence. Anne was allowed to keep all her royal jewels, plate and goods in order to furnish her new properties. She was also to be known as the king’s ‘sister’, and as such to take precedence over all his subjects, with the exception of his children and any future wife he might take.
  2. Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 898.
  3. Wood, Vol. III, p.159.
  4. Merriman, Vol. II, pp.277–8.
  5. Hume, p.103; Letters and Papers, Vol. XV, no. 926; Harrison, W.J., ‘Hungerford, Walter (1503–1540)’ Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XXVIII (Oxford, 1891), pp.259–61.
  6. Hume, pp.103–4.
  7. Ibid.
  8. Hall, p.839; Foxe, Book III, p.654.
  9. Merriman, Vol. I, p.301.
  10. Letters and Papers, Vol. XVI, no. 40; Mayer, p.254.
  11. Hall, p.839.
  12. Merriman, Vol. I, pp.303–4.
  13. Hume, p.104.
  14. Foxe, Book III, p.654; Hall, p.839. The Spanish Chronicle gives a different account, and claims that ‘the headsman succeeded in striking off the head with a single stroke of the axe.’ Hume, p.104.
  15. Galton, p.156.
  16. Merriman, Vol. I, p.56. Cromwell’s remains were excavated in the 1870s and reburied in the vaults of the chapel.
  17. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. VI, Part I, p.243; Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. V, p.87.
  18. Hall, pp.838–9.
  19. Hume, pp.103–4.

EPILOGUE: ‘A man of mean birth but noble qualities’

  1. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. V, Part I, p.436; Calendar of State Papers, Venice, Vol. V, p.346.
  2. Foxe, Book III, pp.363–5; Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. I, Part i, p.561; Holinshed, p.951.
  3. Burnet, G. and Burnet, T., Bishop Burnet’s History of his Own Time, 2 vols. (London, 1724–34), Vol. I, pp.281–2, 454.
  4. Cobbett, Vol. I, pp.157, 189.
  5. Merriman, Vol. I, p.165.
  6. Elton, Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics, Vol. III, p.373.
  7. Foxe, Book III, p.654.
  8. Ibid., pp.363–5.
  9. Ibid., p.646.
  10. Hume, p.105; Holder, p.169.
  11. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Spain, Vol. VI, Part I, p.541.
  12. Letters and Papers, Vol. XVI, no. 467.
  13. Hume, p.77.
  14. Foxe, Book III, p.654.
  15. Letters and Papers, Vol. XVI, no. 590; Kaulek, p.274.