Diarmaid MacCulloch - Thomas Cromwell: A Life

Diarmaid MacCulloch

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THOMAS CROMWELL

A Life

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Allen Lane is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com

First published 2018

Copyright Diarmaid MacCulloch, 2018

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Cover: medal with the armorial shield of Thomas Cromwell, 1538 The Trustees of the British Museum

ISBN: 978-0-141-96766-0

In Memoriam G. R. Elton

View of the approach to Putney Church, watercolour by an anonymous artist, 1820. Private collection

Sir Henry Wyatt, portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger. Muse du Louvre, Paris. Bridgeman Images

Thomas Cromwell, portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, 15323. Copyright The Frick Collection

Thomas Cromwell, portrait by English school, late 1530s. Private collection. Christies / Bridgeman Images

Coat of arms of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, KG/6. Chevron Tango/Wikimedia Commons

Coat of arms of Thomas Wolsey (also the arms of Christ Church College Oxford) Chevron Tango/Wikimedia Commons

Silver-gilt medallion of Cromwell, 1538. The Trustees of the British Museum, M.6792

The arms of Cromwell as augmented in 1537. College of Arms, MS Num Sch 6/40. Reproduced by permission of the Kings, Heralds and Pursuivants of Arms

The arms of Edward Seymour, augmented in 1536. College of Arms, M. 7 f. 40v. Reproduced by permission of the Kings, Heralds and Pursuivants of Arms

Wolseys Gate, Ipswich, Suffolk, 1812, engraving by J. Tyrrell after J. Conder. Reproduced by kind permission of Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich branch, PT242/92

Cardinal Wolsey, portrait by Italian school, c. 151520. Private collection. Philip Mould Ltd./Bridgeman Images

Wolsey in procession, from George Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey, 1578. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS. Douce 363, fol. 52v

Anne Boleyn, portrait by English school, c. 15336. National Portrait Gallery, London. De Agostini/Bridgeman Images

Portrait of Stephen Gardiner, sixteenth-century English school. Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk. National Trust Photographic Library/Bridgeman Images

Thomas Howard, portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1539. Royal Collection Trust. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2018 / Bridgeman Images

Thomas Cranmer, portrait by Gerlach Flicke, 15456. National Portrait Gallery, London

Sketch-plan for Anne Boleyns Coronation feast in Westminster Hall, May 1533. British Library, London, MS Harley 41 f. 12. The British Library Board, All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images

Queen Katherine of Aragon, miniature, possibly by Lukas Horenbout, c. 1525. National Portrait Gallery, London

Queen Jane Seymour, portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1536. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Bridgeman Images

Queen Anne of Cleves, portrait by Bartolomaeus Bruyn the Elder, c. 1539. The President and Fellows of St Johns College, Oxford

Queen Katherine Howard, miniature by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1540. The Royal Collection Trust. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2018/Bridgeman Images

Rycote House, watercolour by J. B. Malchair, 1773. By permission of the President and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Brooke House, Hackney, 1853. Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Gregory Cromwell, miniature by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1537. Royal Collections, the Netherlands.

Thomas Cromwell, miniature by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1537. National Portrait Gallery, London

Gregory Cromwell, miniature by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1540. Pushkin Museum, Moscow, reproduced in G. Habich, Ein Miniature Bildnis von Hans Holbein in Danzig, Zeitschrift fr Bildende Kunst (n.s. xxiv, 1913), 1946, plate 1. Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library

Portrait of a lady, probably Elizabeth Seymour, by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 153540. Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio. Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1926.57

Monument to Gregory, Lord Cromwell, at Launde Abbey, Leicestershire. By kind courtesy of Launde Abbey

Lewes Priory and Castle, coloured engraving by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck, 1737. Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove. East Sussex Record Office, H1961.17

Leeds Castle, print published by R. Ackermann, 1828. Getty Images

Thomas Wyatt the elder, portrait by Hans Holbein the younger, c. 15357. Royal Collection Trust. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2018/Bridgeman Images

Thomas Wriothesley, portrait by Hans Holbein the younger, c. 1530s. Muse du Louvre, Paris. RMN-Grand Palais (muse du Louvre) / image RMN-GP

Nicholas Carew, portrait by Hans Holbein the younger, 1527. Kunstmuseum Basel, Kupferstichkabinett, Amerbach-Kabinett, Inv. 1662.34

Ralph Sadler, portrait by Hans Holbein the younger, 1535. Royal Collection Trust. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2018/Bridgeman Images

King Henry VIII, portrait by Hans Holbein the younger, 1540. Palazzo Barberini, Gallerie Nazionali Barberini Corsini, Rome. Bridgeman Images

Title-page for Coverdales Bible, 1535. British Library, London, G.12208. British Library Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images

Title-page of the Matthew Bible, 1537. British Library, London, C.18.c.5. British Library Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images

Title-page to the Apocrypha in Cromwells copy of the Great Bible, 1539. St Johns College Cambridge, Bb.8.30. By permission of the Master and Fellows of St Johns College, Cambridge

The executions of John Fisher, Thomas More and Margaret Pole, illustration from Richard Verstegan, Theatrum Crudelitatum Haereticorum, 1587. British Library, London. British Library Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images

The execution of William Tyndale, illustration from John Foxes Book of Martyrs (Acts and Monuments), 1563. British Library, London. British Library Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images

The execution of Carthusians, by Juan Snchez Cotn, 1617. El Monasterio de Nuestra Seora de la Asuncin, Granada. akg-images/Album/Oronoz

Wooden base-block for the statue of Dderfel Gardarn, Llandderfel parish church, Gwynedd. Alamy

The martyrdom of John Forest, engraving, 1823. Alamy

The ceiling of the Chapel Royal, St Jamess Palace, c. 1540. Royal Collection Trust. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2018

Luther Fighting the Pope, print by Hans Holbein the younger, 1521, English edition printed by John Mayler, 1539. By permission of the Pepys Library, Magdalene College Cambridge, Pepys 1.16-17