Thomas Cromwell : the untold story of Henry VIII's most faithful servant

441 Pages·2014·7.02 MB·English

by  Borman

THOMAS CROMWELL
THOMAS CROMWELL
The untold story of Henry VIII’s
most faithful servant
TRACY BORMAN
Atlantic Monthly Press
New York
Copyright © 2014 Tracy Borman Maps © Rodney Paull
Cover photograph: Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, 1485-1540, after Hans Holbein the Younger,
oil on panel, sixteenth century, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK/© Stefano Baldini/The
Bridgeman Art Library Author photograph by Libi Pedder © Hodder & Stoughton All rights
reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical
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First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-0-8021-2317-6
eISBN 978-0-8021-9166-3
Atlantic Monthly Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
154 West 14th Street New York, NY 10011
Distributed by Publishers Group West
groveatlantic.com
Also by Tracy Borman
Witches: A tale of Sorcery, Scandal and Seduction
Matilda: Wife of the Conqueror, First Queen of England
Elizabeth’s Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen
Henrietta Howard: King’s Mistress, Queen’s Servant
CONTENTS
Introduction
1. ‘A great traveller in the world’
2. The Cardinal
3. ‘Not without sorow’
4. ‘Make or marre’
5. ‘The frailty of human affairs’
6. The King’s ‘Great Matter’
7. ‘The suddaine rising of some men’
8. ‘Hevy wordes and terrible thretes’
9. ‘Good master secretary’
Photo Insert
1. Dissolution
2. ‘A more gracious mistress’
3. ‘The Lady in the Tower’
4. Rebellion
5. ‘Some convenyent punishment’
6. ‘These knaves which rule abowte the kyng’
7. The Flanders Mare
8. ‘Cromwell is tottering’
9. ‘Mercye mercye mercye’
10. ‘Many lamented but more rejoiced’
Epilogue: ‘A man of mean birth but noble qualities’
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Notes
Picture Acknowledgements
Index
To the other Thomas (Tom),
with love.

INTRODUCTION
A portrait that hangs in the Frick Collection in New York has attracted more
attention in recent years than ever before. Painted by the celebrated Tudor
master, Hans Holbein, it depicts a man who has divided historians as much as he
did contemporaries. Reviled by many as a Machiavellian schemer who destroyed
England’s monasteries, ousted one queen and had another executed, and stopped
at nothing in his quest for power, he has recently enjoyed a rehabilitation as an
enlightened, pious and dedicated royal servant whose intelligence, wit and
hospitality endeared him to friends and enemies alike. His name is Thomas
Cromwell.
The publication of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall in 2009 and its sequel Bring up
the Bodies three years later took the world by storm. They inspired a sell-out
season of plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company, a major television
dramatisation and two Booker Prizes for the author. Mantel’s achievement has
been to create a sympathetic and utterly compelling character out of one of
history’s most unlikely heroes. Her novels give us the private man behind the
often notorious public façade. But how much can we really know about
Cromwell? The accepted wisdom of historians has for many years been that his
voluminous correspondence provides an appraisal only of the public man.
Evidence of his private life, character, beliefs and outlook is at best fragmentary.
As I discovered when researching my biography of Cromwell, this is a view at
once misleading and inaccurate. By piecing together details found in the many
letters, notes and accounts that were seized upon his arrest, a fascinating and
very personal portrayal emerges of Henry VIII’s chief minister.
It is a portrayal that was only partially captured by Holbein. By the time he
painted Cromwell around 1532, the artist had won justifiable renown for his skill
at bringing out the character of the sitter, not just their status. Among his most
celebrated works was a full-length portrait of King Henry VIII. But his portrait
of Cromwell was altogether different. It is one of the most extraordinarily
revealing portraits of the Tudor age. Far from flattering the sitter, it offers a
brutally honest appraisal. The first impression is of a pensive and rather grumpy
bureaucrat. Cromwell has a bulky frame and appears to be of middling height,
although as he is seated this is difficult to judge. Turned a little to the right, his
small, prying grey eyes stare intently at something in the middle distance. His
eyebrows are slightly raised in a questioning, vaguely cynical stance, and his
long, thin lips are pressed together in a line. The large, bulbous nose and double