Year: 2024

Wolf Hall 2: The Mirror and the Light – Did Thomas Cromwell attack the Duke of Norfolk over Cardinal Bainbridge’s Murder?

Published on by Caroline Angus2 Comments
Norfolk and Gardiner – BBC/Playground Entertainment/Nick Briggs

Welcome to another installment of the details behind Wolf Hall 2: The Mirror and the Light. Thomas Cromwell’s fall from grace has long been seen as a sudden act – one minute he is being made the Earl of Essex, next he is dead, all because King Henry thought Anna of Cleves was ugly. None of that is true, and The Mirror and the Light shows the pivotal moment where Cromwell’s fall began, a full year before his death. However, the truth of the event is very different to what is shown onscreen.

In The Mirror and the Light episode 4, we see Cromwell at a banquet dinner held at Lambeth Palace by Archbishop Cranmer. All of the Privy Council attend, and Bishop Stephen Gardiner decides to stir up trouble by discussing the murder of Cardinal Bainbridge, talking of how he was poisoned by a priest, but instead veers into fantasy land and suggests Cromwell was the killer. Cromwell lashes out at Norfolk, who is off on another tangent complaining about how Cromwell isn’t good enough to be a nobleman, and conspires against everyone. This scene is a good show of research on Cromwell’s life, but bears no resemblance to the truth.

In 1514, Thomas Cromwell went to Rome, one of several trips he took during the decade, working on behalf of a private legal client to argue the Stratford Langthorne tithe dispute. Having seen the ‘factions and manners’ of the Italians for years, and able to speak fluent Italian and Latin, Cromwell was perfect for the job. In Rome, Cromwell stayed at the English Hospice, San Tommaso di Canterbury. The English Hospice at via Monserrato 45 (now The Venerable English College), sat a block from the Tiber river, and a two-mile walk to the Apostolic Palace. The hostel had been catering to English pilgrims to Rome for almost 200  years, and after renovation and reorganisation by King Henry VII, became an important hub for English diplomats visiting the city.

On his May stay, Cromwell met Lancelot Collins, nephew to the hospice’s master Cardinal Christopher Bainbridge, Archbishop of York, and resident English cardinal in Rome. This meeting between Cromwell and Collins would spark another genuine lifelong friendship, with Collins  considered one of the kindest and most generous men in England by even cynical men. Collins valued his friendship with Cromwell for over twenty years, even when, in later life, it would threaten his safety. But Cromwell had already left Rome by 14 July 1514 when Cardinal Bainbridge was poisoned by Rinaldo de Modena, one of Bainbridge’s chaplains, and rumoured lover who had suffered a beating from the cardinal. When interrogated, Modena confessed to planning the murder with Silvester de Gigli of Lucca, Bishop of Worcester and English ambassador in Rome, however, Modena was soon murdered in prison. Bainbridge’s executors, Richard Pace and John Clerk, wanted Gigli arrested for his part in the death, but Gigli swore that Modena was insane, and no charges were brought in Rome or in England.  Either way, Gigli was not charged and he died himself a few years later. Absolutely nothing in the case had anything to do with Cromwell or Wolsey.

Back to 1539, on 2 July, King Henry, already off on progress, commanded Archbishop Cranmer to host a banquet at Lambeth Palace, with both sides of the religious divide ordered to attend, as everyone remained in London. Henry did not attend, but Cromwell, starting to return to health after three full months, could attend his first public occasion. The banquet would go down in infamy. As a man freshly recovered from a torturous illness, Cromwell was far from the calculating, charming man he portrayed at court. Cranmer’s secretary Ralph Morice recorded the evening, which formed the basis of John Foxe’s later book detailing the event. Cromwell and Cranmer were warmest friends and allies, two leaders of the Reformation in England. Morice recalled a rarely recorded argument between the pair. Cromwell muttered to Cranmer:

‘you were born at a happy hour, for do or say what you, the King will always take it well at your hand. And I must needs confess that in some things I have complained of you unto His Majesty, but all in vain, for he will never give credit against you, whatsoever is laid to your charge, but let me or any other of the Council be complained of, his Grace will most seriously chide and fall out with us.’

Whether this uncommon, disrespectful, and candid complaint came before or after the main fireworks is unknown, as Cromwell again made a scene, publicly fighting with the ever-present, ever-meddling, Duke of Norfolk. Norfolk gave a speech about King Henry’s love for Cranmer, and compared Cranmer to Wolsey, calling Wolsey ‘a churlish prelate … who could never abide a nobleman … you know well enough Lord Crumwell, for he was your master …’ Morice then put down his quill, unwilling to record the awful things Norfolk insinuated about Wolsey and Cromwell. Cromwell, only just out of his sickbed, and already surrounded by enemies and a tense meeting of religious views, stood up to defend Wolsey. Cromwell told the room he did not regret his time with Wolsey, well-paid and well-provided for during their six-year friendship. Cromwell then roundly turned against Norfolk, giving him a caustic sixteenth-century dressing down, among other things, saying:

‘I was never so far in love with (Wolsey) as to have waited upon him in Rome if he had been chosen Pope, as I understand (Norfolk) would have done’.

The exchange does not sound hostile now, but it implied Norfolk was prepared to serve the Catholic faith and the Pope over his king, which would be treason. Norfolk bellowed a denial to the claim. Cromwell, through a lack of manners and a vast memory, told everyone Norfolk received 50,000 florins to transport Wolsey to Rome in 1523 when Wolsey was in place to become the Pope. The florins were proof of Norfolk’s plan to go to Rome with Wolsey. While Cranmer and others at the banquet diffused the screaming match, which was unquestionably complemented by bountiful wine and strong egos, the match had been lit between the men. Neither needed to wear the mask of courtesy again, as the peers of the realm had seen and heard all. Cromwell did not know it, but this banquet was the beginning of his ultimate downfall. The illness he suffered that caused him to miss the parliamentary session and the passing of the Six Articles would cause Cromwell to make numerous mistakes

All sources come from The Private Life of Thomas Cromwell. My publisher might come for you if you plagiarise.

Wolf Hall 2: The Mirror and the Light – Thomas Cromwell Quick Q+A

Published on by Caroline AngusLeave a comment
BBC/Nick Briggs

Welcome to part 4 of Wolf Hall 2: The Mirror and the Light facts about moments seen in Thomas Cromwell’s life at court. Today is a quick round-up of questions asked that don’t require a whole post of explanation on their own. So let’s start –

Wolf Hall is Jane Seymour’s home. What is The Mirror and the Light?

On 28 November 1538, Cromwell wrote a letter to Sir Thomas Wyatt (Harl. MSS. 282, f. 217), who was King Henry’s ambassador to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and travelling Europe with the Emperor’s court. Wyatt was not a good ambassador, and relations between the countries were started to deteriorate. Cromwell updated Wyatt on Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter and Henry Pole, Lord Montagu, the Catholics traitors,  and asked Wyatt to get the Emperor  to intervene on several subjects were making trouble for London merchants. In the letter, Cromwell wrote of King Henry exercising his right as the supreme head of the church by burning Sacramentarian John Lambert a week earlier:

‘…undoubtedly [Emperor Charles] should have much marvelled at [King Henry’s] most high wisdom and judgement, and reputed him none otherwise, after the same, than in manner of the mirror and light of all other kings and princes in Christendom.’

King Henry is the mirror, and everyone and everything should reflect his brilliance. Henry is the shining light of princely splendour all should look up to. Being out of Henry’s light/favour is like being in the darkness. The letter is extremely flattering of Henry, since it would be read and repeated at the Emperor’s court, and could reveal nothing of reality, only a glowing picture of praise and perfection.

Was Thomas Cromwell the Lord Chancellor of England?

NO. Thomas Cromwell was never the Lord Chancellor. Thomas Wolsey was Lord Chancellor, followed by Thomas More, and then Thomas Audley. Cromwell assumed the role without title between more’s resignation in May 1532, and Audley’s appointment in January 1533, and was not always in a good mood about the position or workload. Audley was a puppet; he would do anything the king wanted, and he was easily intimidated, so Cromwell could yell at Audley whenever he made an error  and Audley would beg and grovel for forgiveness (Audley complained a lot, especially about his yearly salary of 800l or £350,000 today, plus bonuses. Cromwell always told him to shut it because it annoyed the king). Audley and his protégé Richard Rich really ran with Henry’s plan to dissolve monasteries when Cromwell didn’t want to move forward, but other than that, Cromwell had total control and authority over all matters. Audley never intervened in Cromwell’s business, despite technically being higher ranked until 1536. (Lord Chancellor was ranked second in the realm after the archbishops. In 1536, Cromwell became the Vicegerent of England, the new number one in order of precedence, putting Lord Chancellor down to third).

Thomas Cromwell was, in 1539, Lord Cromwell, Baron of Wimbledon the Vicegerent of England, Lord Privy Seal, Vicar-general of England, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Principal Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the first-ever layman Dean of Wells, and Commissioner for the Peace in seven counties, Chancellor and High Steward of Cambridge University, Master of the Jewel House, Clerk of the Hanaper, and Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster, Essex, Hertfordshire and Middlesex, the Receiver of Petitions in the House of Lords, highest ranked man in the House of Lords, Warden and Chief Justice in Eyre, Prebendary of Salisbury, Steward of Westminster Abbey and Savoy Manor, Constable of Hertford Castle, Berkeley Castle and Gloucestershire Castle, Recorder of Bristol, Commissioner for the Subsidy to print the Bible, Lordship of Edmonton, Sainsbury, Hovering and Writtle, and  master of every single powerful man in the country of Ireland. By 1540, Cromwell was also the Earl of Essex and Lord Great Chamberlain. At that point that was basically nothing left for Cromwell to control, other than being the Lord Treasurer, but Norfolk held that role and seemed to live forever.

Sometimes people write Cromwell as Lord Chancellor because it is easier to understand in modern terms. Cromwell was the only person to ever be England’s Vicegerent, and no one person will ever receive that much power again.

Did Cromwell feel guilt over Anne Boleyn?

Certainly not that he ever mentioned where it would be recorded. It would have been insanity to have expressed guilt or sympathy. Archbishop Cranmer wrote to King Henry to make sure he didn’t go down with her, and so the Reformation would be safe without Anne on the throne. Cranmer was frozen out by the king for a while for this, and had his prime lands and manors confiscated, and given to Cromwell after Anne’s death. Mortlake Manor was the traditional home of the Archbishop of Canterbury since its construction 500 years earlier, and Crowmell relatives had worked there as servants. Cromwell then owned the property and made it grander than ever.

Cromwell did say to Ambassador Eustace Chapuys that Anne Boleyn handled herself well through her trial. Everyone knew she was innocent, but no one was stupid enough to say anything. I cover the whole period about Anne’s death in my book on the subject.

Did King Henry actually say he could make Cromwell the king after himself if he wanted at the Privy Council meeting?

No, that was just an imagined scene of the king flexing his power over all the nobles. Likewise, Cromwell and Fitzwilliam never came to blows like that at a meeting. It is another piece of fiction laid out to be reflected in later episodes. I will do a separate post about Cromwell and Fitzwilliam, as their relationship was very interesting.

BBC/Playground Entertainment/Nick Briggs

Did Cromwell spend time with Dorothea Wolsey?

There is no evidence of this; ‘Dorothea’ is a just a plot-point for Cromwell’s guilt. There are letters between Cardinal Wolsey’s three children and Cromwell. Most of the letters come from Thomas Wynter, Wolsey’s eldest son, born 1510 to Joan Larke, was always travelling in Europe, and always looking for money. Cromwell was one of Wynter’s financial babysitters, and felt sorry for Wynter after his father’s death. There are extensive papers showing Wolsey’s favour towards Wynter, and Cromwell got him set up in a comfortable life in the North in the 1530s, and he later became the Dean of Wells.

Dorothy was born in 1513, her mother also Joan Larke. Her surname was Clancey, the name of her adoptive family in Dorset. She was placed in Shaftesbury Abbey for her education and upbringing where many nobles sent their daughters, and just fell under Cromwell’s ban of no one being allowed to take holy orders from age 24 or younger in 1535. Cromwell soon changed the laws, so no one under 20 could enter the church, and Dorothy could technically  become a nun. The rich and well-appointed Shaftesbury Abbey was closed in 1539, and Dorothy Clancey was given a pension. She was never heard from again, and she certainly never met Thomas Cromwell.

Wolsey’s third child was Thomas Minterne (though his mother is uncertain), born in about 1516. Minterne grew up in Sherborne, ten miles from his sister Dorothy. Wolsey sent Minterne to New Oxford College and Cromwell ensured he was made a fellow at only 17 years old in 1533. Cromwell then sent Minterne to study in Europe in 1538, and when he returned to England broke in 1542, King Henry gave Minterne a cozy job at Salisbury Cathedral, which he kept for the next 20 years or so.

(Joan Larke married George Legh and had another four children, and then married Sir George Paulet in 1530, but died giving birth two years later, though her son William survived. Joan must have been quite young when having Wolsey’s children, maximum no more than 20 years old. Joan’s baby William Paulet was cousin of John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester, who married Elizabeth Cromwell, widow of Gregory Cromwell. These people really never moved around much).

All sources come from The Private Life of Thomas Cromwell and The Letters and Remembrances of Thomas Cromwell. My publisher might come for you if you plagiarise.

Wolf Hall 2: The Mirror and the Light – Did Thomas Cromwell have feelings for Jane Seymour?

Published on by Caroline AngusLeave a comment

Screenshot from The Mirror and Light episode 4

Welcome to part 3 of Wolf Hall 2: The Mirror and the Light recap of the facts around Thomas Cromwell and the events in season 2, where Jane has given birth to Prince Edward.

Did Thomas Cromwell have feelings for Jane Seymour? This is a question that is impossible to answer. There is absolutely no evidence of any link between Thomas Cromwell and Jane Seymour, and (in my opinion) is a delightful fictional addition to Cromwell’s life story to add drama to a book/show. Those of us who work in Cromwell fiction need to add romantic details, because simply, Cromwell had none in his own life. I’m working on another Cromwell fiction myself at the moment, and there is again zero source evidence to work with. Nothing in Italy, nothing in the Low Countries, and then a marriage to Elizabeth Wyckes which was simply a convenience when she became a widow and they met through Morgan Williams (Richard Cromwell’s father). By all accounts, Cromwell and his wife were happy enough, but after she died, (apart from the quick grief rebound he had with ‘Elizabeth Gregory’), Cromwell never looked to any woman again. He was not a man into women at all.

At no stage was Cromwell ever rumoured to be in negotiations for a wife at any stage, and there were never any mistresses whispered about either. The lies about him being interested in Princess Mary and Margaret Douglas (I will do a sperate post on those rumours) bore no evidence, and if Cromwell ever muttered anything about Jane Seymour or anyone else, we simply don’t know. It does make for convenient fiction, though.

As for Jane Seymour, she was very limited in her options as well. Only one mention of a match comes up in Cromwell’s records, as a possible match for her, when Cromwell wrote (italics mine), ‘To speak with the King for Mr. Seymour’s daughter (Jane?) for (Sir Richard?) Elderton’ on 16 November 1532. Sir Richard Elrington, (often misspelled Elderton, and sometimes listed as Ralph) was the brother Edward Elrington, who had married one of the distant Seymour cousins, Grace (surname unknown), the illegitimate wealthy heiress of London Lord Mayor Thomas Seymour. Sir Richard/Ralph was twenty years older than Jane Seymour, which tracks with the astonishingly bad marriage made for Jane’s sister Elizabeth. Luckily for Jane, the marriage was never mentioned again.

Rumours of a marriage negotiations between Jane and Sir William Dormer came up in 1534, which the Dormer family quickly quashed. Sir William Dormer worked for Cromwell and went on work in royal service and parliament, and was married to Lady Mary Sidney in 1534, putting an end to overtures made by the Seymour family. Sir William’s sister Lady Jane Dormer recounted the negotiations in her autobiography that the Dormers did not wish to be linked to a scandalous family like the Seymours (meaning the scandal of Edward Seymour’s first wife cuckolding her husband twice with sons of unknown parentage).

Jane came to King Henry’s attention in late 1535 after the death of her father, who Henry had visited only months earlier on progress to Wolf Hall (his death is mistakenly listed as 1536). Edward Seymour was in the royal privy chambers by this stage, and the single Seymour sister was suddenly thrust into the royal marriage spotlight when Anne Boleyn lost her third child in January 1536.

Much like Thomas Cromwell, Jane Seymour’s romantic interests, or lack thereof, were never recorded. Marriages were rarely made in the interests of attraction to one another, making the king rare in his rash choices of some of his wives. Any kind of romantic overtures, those from men towards certain women were mentioned in letters from time to time, but women’s feelings generally go unnoticed. The people of the Tudor court were human, they would have had feelings of romance, lust, romance, affection like everyone else. But many didn’t have the financial security of being able to act on their feelings, and women’s feelings, to the men of court, didn’t seem to exist or matter at all.

As for whether Jane Seymour discussed having to handle sex with King Henry with Cromwell is entirely conjecture (but Cromwell did have an uncomfortable conversation with Anne of Cleves, so it’s not impossible). Jane’s sex life was unfortunately a public topic, as an heir meant everything to the court. Jane didn’t get pregnant until January 1537, a long time to wait with a king who was desperate for a son but no good in bed. Poor Jane indeed.

Cromwell was writing to discuss new brides for King Henry on 27 October, three days after her death. For all Henry’s kind words for Jane, and admiration for Prince Edward, there were mere days between Jane’s death and handling the security of the realm. By Christmas 1537, Cromwell had a suitable lists of brides from French princess to Dutch and German duchesses, and ready to discuss negotiations. King Henry did not need to be cajoled into these negotiations, he initiated them at every stage.

All sources from The Private life of Thomas Cromwell, The Letters and Remembrances of Thomas Cromwell, and Planning the Murder of Anne Boleyn

Wolf Hall 2: The Mirror and the Light – Did Thomas Cromwell really have an illegitimate daughter?

Published on by Caroline Angus1 Comment

BBC/Playground Entertainment/Nick Briggs

Welcome to part 2 on The Mirror and the Light, checking out the details behind some of the major plot points in Wolf Hall’s second installment. Today is Jane Cromwell, Thomas Cromwell surviving daughter. In the book trilogy and the tv series, Thomas Cromwell is confronted with Janneke, an adult daughter born in Antwerp, to a woman Cromwell once loved and left behind to return to England. But the truth about the real Jane Cromwell is significantly different.

Cromwell had made (at least) one slip-up in his otherwise reserved, virtuous, and quiet private life, as his daughter Jane was born in late 1530. Some scholars have suggested Jane was born before Gregory, a way of suggesting Cromwell never cheated on his wife, but this is unlikely. Cromwell did not cheat on his wife, at least, no suggestion ever came of this, and Jane was likely conceived after Elizabeth Cromwell’s death in October 1528.

But in 1530, Mistress Jane was born into a household of a man about to be propelled into a position of power no commoner, or layman, could ever expect to achieve in England. An illegitimate child was usually paid for and squirrelled away, but Cromwell took in his daughter, suggesting she was a soothing presence after years of distress, as Anne and Grace Cromwell had died in September 1529. Another other theory for Jane’s parentage is that she was the illegitimate daughter of twenty-year-old Richard Cromwell, and she was taken into the Cromwell household, as Richard had no household of his own. But Jane believed herself Thomas Cromwell’s daughter (and her judgemental father-in-law later believed the same). Had Jane been a daughter of a Cromwell relative, she would have been recorded as such, but perhaps the lack of detail on her birth was beneficial for all involved.

Mistress Jane Cromwell took her father’s surname, suggesting her mother never featured in her life, or because her mother wanted the girl to bear her father’s name as proof. In Cromwell’s will appears a most curious name; an Elizabeth Gregory listed as ‘sometime my servant’. Elizabeth’s role is undefined, is not connected to any family member or other servant. She bore the first name of Cromwell’s wife, and her surname is the name of Cromwell’s son, which, if a coincidence, is remarkable. Elizabeth was listed  at the bottom of the list of relatives given something in the will, just above the list of friends and servants. Elizabeth Gregory’s inheritance higher was than all other Austin Friars servants, with 20l (£about 10,000) and a household’s worth of items. Given that  Cromwell’s illegitimate daughter Jane was born around 1530, Elizabeth Gregory is perhaps Jane’s mother, who officially remains unknown to this day. Sadly, Elizabeth Gregory’s entire paragraph is crossed out, meaning she died after the 1529 will but before the new draft was created in 1532.

Jane lived in the Cromwell household during her early life, most likely in the care of Joan and John Williamson, who ran Austin Friars for their brother-in-law. When Gregory Cromwell married Elizabeth Seymour in 1537, Jane was approximately seven, old enough to leave home and start life in a new household, but stayed with Ralph and Ellen Sadler for a time. Ralph and Ellen Sadler needed all the help they could get. By 1539, they had three sons, Thomas, Edward and Henry, and a newborn daughter, Anne, all barely surviving a measles outbreak in Hackney. Jane left with Gregory in May 1539, moving to Leeds Castle when Gregory and Elizabeth reconciled in time for the birth of their second son, Edward. Gregory and Elizabeth Seymour has been estranged for a time in 1538 after the birth of their son Henry  after Gregory’s punishment for sexual crimes. Cromwell sent his daughter to Leeds with a new wardrobe worth 12l 14s 6d (almost £5,500 today), and soon after, Prioress Vernon, who had helped care for Gregory when he was still very young, wrote to Cromwell saying, ‘I hear there is a little gentlewoman with Master Sadler which I would very fain have the governance and bringing up, as it were to my comfort now in mine age.’ Having Prioress Vernon as a carer likely would have been the same care Anne and Grace Cromwell would have received had they survived their illnesses.

Jane Cromwell’s life after her father’s death remained quiet, not showing up in records until her marriage. She could stayed in the multiple homes of Gregory and Elizabeth, or with the Sadlers throughout the 1540s.  Jane Cromwell married William Hough, son of Richard Hough, a gentleman from Cheshire, and a lacklustre servant to Cromwell. Richard Hough was most upset his son had married the bastard child of Cromwell without his knowledge or blessing, and while Jane is listed as the ‘base daughter of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex,’ Hough tried to deny any association with Cromwell, which was impossible given that he had worked for Cromwell for years. William Hough had been to Oxford University, and studied under Nicholas Sander, who is now known as the man who tried his very best to blacken the name of any reformer, including all sorts of extra-fingered lies about Anne Boleyn. William Hough became a Catholic at Oxford, lived in Oxfordshire with his wife Jane, who also became a staunch Catholic, putting her at odds with the Cromwell/Sadler families.

William and Jane had a daughter, Alice in 1559. As late as 1574, Richard Hough was still mad at his son and daughter-in-law and their Catholic beliefs under Queen Elizabeth. In September 1578, Jane and William Hough, who had been threatened with excommunication from the church, were given absolution by the Archbishop of York in Neston, Chester, stating ‘It is ordered and decreed that the said Mr William Hough and his wife shall resort, once a month, to Mr Goodman or Mr Lane, preachers of the word for the better resolution in matters of religion (wherewith they are entangled), and if they be not, before Easter next, resolved in conscience by the travail, persuasion, and conference to be abided, such further order as shall be thought good to the Lord Archbishop of York and his associates.’ People who refused the Church of England and continued to be Catholic could be excommunicated, and suffer punishment from simple fines through to the death penalty under Queen Elizabeth, though Jane and William clearly saw no issue with flouting the law.

Jane died on 3 November 1580, and was buried at Neston, just months after being listed in the Hough family tree, as the uncontested daughter of Thomas Cromwell, the only document that confirms Jane’s parentage. William Hough died in 1585 after being called to be punished for his Catholic beliefs multiple times after Jane died, with his will showing that he and Jane had long left their Catholic Oxfordshire home to live permanently in Cheshire ten years earlier, living at Thorton Hough manor.

Their sole child Alice Hough was the heiress to Thorton manor and Leighton, with extensive lands and fisheries in 11 townships. Her date of birth was listed as 1550, rather than 1559 in the will. Alice married William Whitmore in 1585 and they soon had ten children – three sons, William (surviving son and heir), Richard, John (died young), and seven daughters, Jane, Elizabeth (died young), Christen, Katherine (died young), Eleanor (died young), Katherine, and Mary (died young).

Alice’s death is not recorded, though was in approximately 1600, and her husband died in 1620. Alice, like her mother Jane Cromwell, was a recusant, refusing the Church of England and continued to be Catholic despite the laws of Elizabethan England until her death. Ironic for the daughter of the man who created the English church in the first place.

All sources come from The Private Life of Thomas Cromwell. My publisher might come for you if you plagiarise.

Wolf Hall 2: The Mirror and the Light – Did ‘Bess Oughtred’ really hope to marry Thomas Cromwell?

Published on by Caroline Angus1 Comment

Photo: BBC/Playground Entertainment/Nick Briggs

Welcome to a new series about the fact and fiction of the newest series of Wolf Hall, The Mirror and the Light. Here is the real story of the marriage of Elizabeth Seymour and Gregory Cromwell.

By now you will have seen (as in the picture above) of the marriage of of Queen Jane’s sister Elizabeth Seymour to Gregory Cromwell. In the show, the character’s name is Bess Oughtred, and given the number of Elizabeths in the period, giving her a common nickname is helpful if you don’t know one Elizabeth from another.

Elizabeth Seymour had a hard early life. The eighth of the ten Seymour  children, Elizabeth was married at just 12 years of age to Sir Anthony Ughtred, then aged 52. Why her father John Seymour thought this a good idea remains a mystery. By 1530, John and Margery Seymour had lost two of their children to illness, but their three surviving sons, Edward, Thomas and Henry, had been sent to court. The younger two were put in backroom middling roles, while Edward Seymour was already circling the higher privy chambers as an attendant. But Edward’s wife Catherine had given him two sons whose parentage was dubious to say the least, so marriage prospects may have been a concern for the unmarried Seymour girls. Jane Seymour was already at court too, a lady for Queen Katharine of Aragon. Elizabeth and Dorothy Seymour were only children in 1530. Dorothy Seymour was married off at 13 in 1533, fortunately to someone only a few years older than herself, and began a state of regular pregnancy. Jane Seymour remained unmarried at court. Middle sister Elizabeth was the most unlucky of all.

The marriage of Elizabeth Seymour and Sir Anthony Ughtred surely raised eyebrows, given the bride was 40 years her husband’s junior. Even King Henry wasn’t that lecherous. Anthony Ughtred had a similar military background to Elizabeth’s father, so they were likely friends or at least court acquaintances of similar rank. After losing his first wife without children, Anthony Ughtred acquired Elizabeth Seymour, and she was styled as Lady Ughtred, and joined Anne Boleyn’s court around the same time Jane Seymour was transferred there in 1533. In late 1533, aged 14, Elizabeth gave birth to her son, Henry Ughtred (given the two-year gap between marriage and pregnancy, Ughtred may have not touched his child bride for a couple of years. We can only hope). Anthony Ughtred was the Captain and Governor of Jersey, and Elizabeth and baby Henry lived with him at Mont Orgueil Castle in Jersey, instead of returning to the royal court.

By early 1534, Elizabeth was already pregnant again, but illness came to Jersey, and Sir Anthony Ughtred died in October 1534, aged approximately 56. Elizabeth left her baby son Henry in Jersey and returned to mainland England to serve at court until she needed to retire to give birth to Margery in early 1535, at one of her late husband’s estates in Hexby, Yorkshire, 150 miles north of London. Her son Henry was moved north, and Elizabeth went back to court, leaving the children as head of the household.

Given that by age 16, Elizabeth was a widow with two children, and her sister Jane had been at the royal court without such misery, whether they were close can’t really be measured. But both sisters had to endure the fall of Anne Boleyn, and the rise of their own family, after their father died in late 1535 (his death is mislabelled 1536), and Jane Seymour caught the king’s eye. Elizabeth became one of her sister’s ladies at court, but life was not suddenly simple. In 1537, Elizabeth was 19, had two children to feed, and no money of her own. Hexby Manor, her late husband’s Yorkshire estate, was no glorious money-maker. No official grant of the lands had passed the estate from father to son after Anthony Ughtred’s death. Elizabeth needed to make a bold move. She was young, rumoured beautiful, and the pregnant queen’s sister, but that wasn’t enough to raise children.

Portrait probably of Elizabeth Seymour, c1542 by Hans Holbein

Lady Elizabeth Ughtred sent a letter from York on 18 March 1537 to Lord Cromwell. She explained that her husband had left her with next to nothing, leaving her as a ‘poor woman alone’ and begged to be granted an abbey once it was dissolved, somewhere to live with her children. It’s wild to think that despite being the queen’s sister, Elizabeth had nothing. Given that her late husband had been in service to King Henry and Cromwell, she wrote:

‘I am the bolder to sue herein, and will sue to no other. When I was last at Court you promised me your favour. In Master Ughtred’s days I was in a poor house of my own, but since then I have been driven to be a sojourner, for my living is not sufficient to entertain my friends.’

Elizabeth was resorting to moving between friends’ homes with her children to keep them alive. It is not surprising Cromwell promised to help her at court, he always helped widows and orphans, and paying favour to the queen’s sister would be an obvious courtesy at court. Cromwell likely went to speak with her brother Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp. The pair regularly gambled together and Cromwell had lost 45l (£19,000 today) to him just weeks before the letter arrived. Elizabeth soon returned to the London area, likely without her children. Baby Margery goes completely unmentioned in records, except for a note about her marriage up in Yorkshire. Henry Ughtred doesn’t feature anywhere until the 1560s either, so he was likely also north in Yorkshire.

A deal was struck between Thomas Cromwell and Edward Seymour, that Elizabeth would marry Gregory Cromwell, who was approximately 17 at the time. By 1 June, preparations for the wedding were underway as Cromwell ordered a wedding cape and dagger for his son, worth £4,000 today. There was no mistaking who the groom would be at the wedding. Cromwell held a glorious party at Mortlake Manor, the grand castle-like on the Thames usually reserved for the Archbishop of Canterbury (confiscated from Cranmer in 1536 for supporting Anne Boleyn, and given to Cromwell as a gift), Mortlake was to be Gregory and Elizabeth’s home for the time being, lavish, fully staffed, great location, and safe from passing illnesses. Cromwell order a porpoise for the dinner, minstrels to entertain, new uniforms for the staff, and various costs for both Lady Elizabeth and her brother, Sir Edward Seymour, who brought along artichokes, and even Princess Mary sent a gift of quinces. The wine alone at Mortlake for this one party would cost £170,000 today. It may have even been the wedding itself, given Mortlake had a chapel, though the news of the marriage wasn’t made public until 3 August, so that is the generally accepted date of the occasion.

If this June 1537 event was only an engagement party to seal the betrothal, Elizabeth must have felt very pleased with her position, as by the 3 August date, she was already pregnant. Henry Cromwell was born in March 1538, likely at Cromwell’s home Great Place in Stepney, and Princess Mary was his godmother. Cromwell held enormous parties at Hampton Court though February and March 1538 with the king, spent the equivalent of £20,000 today to make sure Elizabeth gave birth in comfort, for her son was the first cousin of baby Prince Edward. Cromwell spent twice as much on outfits, choreographers, horses and and performers at Hampton Court to celebrate in style with the king.

Cromwell soon took on Lewes Priory in Sussex to have it rebuilt as a manor home for his son and daughter-in-law, who got pregnant again almost immediately after giving birth. But by mid-June 1538, Gregory Cromwell was sent to be punished by Bishop Richard Sampson of nearby Chichester for a sexual crime. The Bishop wrote to Richard Cromwell about Gregory’s punishment and told him:

‘the young man has been with me this morning and scornfully refused this penance. Wherefore, I advertise you of it, praying you to weigh it as a matter that touches much the honesty of your friend. For surely if there be any business for it, I will advertise the King’s Majesty of the whole. And I doubt not but when my Lord Privy Seal shall hear the truth, he will assist me in it’.

Sampson was amid having his Chichester cathedral dissolved and its relics stripped, including the shrine of St Richard. Given Sampson needed to give out punishment to Gregory Cromwell, and Richard knew of the situation by the time this letter was written, suggests only two crimes; heresy or sexual assault. Eighteen-year-old Gregory had been
left to enjoy the high life since childhood, given everything without having to earn it, so it is not reasonable to think he may have made an off-hand comment that could have been insulting or even sound heretical to the Catholic bishop. But Gregory was no scholar, no politician like his father, and never showed any interest in religion. Also, that a heretical comment could receive a small punishment but provoke his father in such a wild manner is at odds with reality, leaving only sexual crimes. The church tended to turn a blind eye to (men’s) adultery, equally seduction or coercion without consent. Whatever Gregory did, Sampson said it would affect Gregory’s ‘honesty’, which in turn would harm the ‘reputation’ of Elizabeth, sister to late Queen Jane. Whatever sexual assault Gregory committed (and it cannot have been against Elizabeth), it was enough to potentially make a scandal of the Cromwell family. Given that sexual crimes are rarely punished even today, particularly by the Catholic church, Gregory must have done something especially heinous.

Cromwell had nurtured his only son, given him the world, gained him a noble bride, and had just finished spending countless thousands on Lewes Priory. Suddenly, the young Cromwell household needed to be broken up, Gregory whisked out of Sussex entirely. Sir John Gage nearby offered to lease the Lewes lands so Cromwell could get out at once, and now Cromwell was the largest landowner in Kent, he had somewhere to hide his useless son. Gregory was shipped up to Mortlake Manor, probably at Edward’s Seymour’s nearby home, and a letter from Elizabeth Cromwell arrived, stating she would stay half a mile from Mortlake Manor. Elizabeth wrote, ‘this letter from you is more pleasure to me than any earthly good, for my trust is now only in you …  your humble daughter-in-law’. Cromwell needed to pay for Gregory at Mortlake for Christmas and pay servants to attend Elizabeth, who was six months pregnant while she cared for ten-month-old Henry.

The young couple had reconciled by May 1539 when Edward Cromwell was born at their new home at Leeds Castle, and Thomas Cromwell was born around May 1540, Katherine Cromwell a year later, and then Frances Cromwell in 1542, named after Richard Cromwell’s wife who had recently passed away.

So while The Mirror and Light shows Bess Oughtred looking to marry a man close to the king, it was probably lucky she didn’t, though the early years as Lady Cromwell were not happy ones either. She continued to sign her name Elizabeth Ughtred until 1540 when Gregory was made a baron, but she was safe from her brother-in-law King Henry after writing him a groveling letter, disavowing her father-in-law when he was executed.  When Gregory Cromwell died in 1551, Elizabeth married Sir William Paulet, Earl of Wiltshire, and after her death in 1568, Her eldest son, Henry Ughtred, married his stepsister Elizabeth Paulet.

The eldest son of the couple , Henry Cromwell, carried on the family name as part of a string of quiet Cromwell MPs who eventually gained power in Ireland. Edward Cromwell died of illness around the same time his father Gregory died. The third son of Gregory and Elizabeth Cromwell, Thomas Cromwell, went on to be an archivist in parliament and created the first ever English-Italian dictionary, continuing his grandfather’s love of the country and language, and remained close to Ralph Sadler, while Katherine and Frances Cromwell married politicians and lived quiet lives. None of these children are ancestors of genocidal maniac Oliver Cromwell; he was the great-great-grandson of their cousin, Richard Cromwell.

All sources come from The Private Life of Thomas Cromwell. My publisher might come for you if you plagiarise.