Author: Caroline Angus

OTD with Thomas Cromwell – 12 October 1537: Cromwell tells Thomas Wyatt of baby Prince Edward

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The Death of Jane Seymour by Eugène Devéria, 1847, Valence Museum

The same morning as the birth of Prince Edward at Hampton Court Palace, Cromwell’s hastily wrote to Wyatt to tell him of the good news, addressing the letter in French. Cromwell would have been thrilled with the news; a son and heir was finally secure for the king and his realm, and it would make his own son Gregory an uncle to the future king of England.

LORD CROMWELL TO SIR THOMAS WYATT, 12 October 1537 (Harl. MSS. 282, f. 211)

A mon tresbon et asseure amy Monsieur Wyat onseille et ambassade du Roye Dangleterre esidet en La Court Lemper.

To my very good and assured friend, Monsieur Wyatt, advisor and ambassador of the King of England, resident in the court of the Emperor. After my right hearty commendations, this shall be to advertise you that since the departure of Rougecroix, who was dispatched to you in post on Wednesday last here, be no news occurring but very good news which for surety I have received this morning, that it has pleased almighty God of his goodness to send to the Queen’s Grace deliverance of a goodly prince to the great comfort, rejoice and consolation of the King’s Majesty and of all us his most humble loving and obedient subjects. Whereof, we have very great cause to thank our most benign and gracious creator, who after so long expectation has exalted our prayers and desires. I have written this letter having the opportunity of this present courier to the intent that you shall advertise the Emperor thereof. I think that with convenient diligence the King’s highness will write to him and to other prince of the same to make them participant of his great, joy and comfort. Whereof, I shall move him tomorrow at my next being with his Grace. Thus, fare you heartily well From Saint James beside Westminster this 12th of October the 28th of his most prosperous reign.

Your loving assured friend

THOMAS CRUMWELL

OTD with Thomas Cromwell – 1 October 1530: Cromwell’s last letter to Thomas Wolsey

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Wolsey arrives to die at Leicestershire by Charles West Cope, 1847. RCIN 403879

Cromwell wrote to Thomas Wolsey for the last time, with Wolsey only two weeks away from his next arrest. If Cromwell wrote to Wolsey again before Wolsey’s death on 29 November, or if Wolsey wrote back, nothing has survived. This letter itself has barely survived, a mutilated partial letter, which shows no sign of concern. Cromwell writes ‘if anything shall fall,’ suggesting that something may soon go well for the cardinal, and Cromwell talks of several people he wishes the cardinal to favour should he prove successful, including the’ Cambridge scholars’ Gregory Cromwell, Christopher Wellyfed and Nicholas Sadler. After the last few letters, with Cromwell’s suggestions to Wolsey to be humble to avoid King Henry’s wrath, this letter is far calmer. If this was the last correspondence between these two friends, it is benign after all they have been through. After Wolsey’s popularity in the North, along with his arrogant behaviour, and writing to the Pope and Queen Katharine, neither Cromwell nor anyone could save the cardinal from King Henry. But these surviving notes show that Cromwell had no part in Wolsey’s eventual treasonous behaviour, rather, that he urged Wolsey to stop his actions to reclaim his titles and money. That could be why these letters remain in the archive, as a letter dated December 1530 by Eustace Chapuys describes Cromwell becoming an official councillor to the King, and Cromwell would have needed to clear his name.[1] These surviving letters would have proved Cromwell’s innocence.

CROMWELL TO THOMAS WOLSEY, 21 October 1530 (Jesus Coll. in Bibl. Bodl. Oxon. c.74, pp. 262 ff)

. . . . even three months in Chancery, howbeit your Grace shall be so provided for that you shall be out of all doubts, for all the King’s officers in the main season…

… I most humbly beseech your Grace to be a good lord to my poor kinsman Doctor Carbott and let him have some little office under your Grace. I doubt not he be somewhat simple in appearance, yet he shall discharge himself if you put him in a place of trust and a little authority. I beseech your Grace also to be a good lord to your servant Nicholas Gifford when anything shall happen to fall which may do him good, remember him for my sake. Your Grace shall find him, in my opinion, though he be young and somewhat wild youth, disposed both to truth honest and hardiness, and he is one that will love you with all his heart…

…If anything falls, I beseech your Grace to remember my scholars in Cambridge and both they and I shall pray to our lord Jesus Christ to preserve you in long life good health with increase of honour…

…The Emperor will be at Cologne in the Feast of… without fail…

…the Parliament is prorogued until the 6th day of January. The prelates shall not appear in the premunire. There is another way devised in place thereof as your grace shall further know.

The Princes of Germany will not agree with the Emperor…

…I beseech the Holy Trinity preserve your Grace . . . in quietness and contention. I beseech your . . . for this letter . . . Written for lack of . . . haste, the xxi of October

[1] Spanish Calendar 5 i no.228

OTD with Thomas Cromwell – 30 September 1535: Cromwell writes to the Dowager Countess of Oxford

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The North-East View of Camp’s Castle, Cambridge, by S & N Buck 1730.

Cromwell wrote to Anne Howard, Dowager Countess of Oxford (sister to the Duke of Norfolk) about her property at Castle Camps. Unlucky Anne Howard married the heavy-drinking John de Vere,  Earl of Oxford, when she was 11, he 12, as her father owned his wardship, though the pair were not a couple as such until 1520. The marriage was a nightmare, and safeguards were put in place to control the ‘incompetent wastrel’ John had become, though luckily he died in 1526. Lady Anne had no children, but still had a claim Castle Camps, the Oxford estate granted by William the Conqueror, but as soon as her husband was dead, the new Earl of Oxford and his men were constantly breaking in, stealing, killing her deer, and generally being an endless, entitled pain. Cromwell had helped out Lade Anne a number of times, including letting her stay at Austin Friars. In this letter, Lady Anne had removed Mr Tirrell from his role of bailiff around Castle Camps and its parks, which he was resisting, and Cromwell wrote to Lady Anne, telling her she had to obey the King and restore Mr Tirrell. Lady Anne persevered, and lived until 1559 without a husband to bother her.

SECRETARY CROMWELL TO THE COUNTESS OF OXFORD, 30 SEPTEMBER 1535 (LP ix no 485i)

To the right honourable and my good lady my Lady Anne Countess of Oxford by this given.

In my most hearty manner, I commend me to your good ladyship. And whereas there has of long time depended between you and this bearer Master Tirrell certain controversies, as well concerning his claim to the park and Bailiwick of Camps, as a certain copy hold, which he bought in the same town, from all the which you have expulsed him, I shall most heartily desire and pray you at the especial contemplation hereof, to restore him again to the same. Which request I make not only to you because I think you have, upon displeasures conceived against him, perchance in some part by the misgivings of himself towards you, done to him, in his expulsion from the same park, Bailiwick and copy hold and your detinue (detention) thereof all together wrong and injury. But because it should be dishonourable to you, to have the same in open Court of Audience tried against you, and likewise displeasant to be, that way disappointed of your will and pleasure, which as I now friendly and frankly write to you, because that I would be glad, you should without constraint do as shall appertains to your honour, and justice. So, I am enforced to advertise to you, as your poor friend, that the king’s highness, like a prince of honour, is minded to have justice proceed without respect in that cause. Eftsoones (again) therefore, requiring your good ladyship, the rather for my sake, without any extremity to be good lady to him, who I dare affirm will be glad to do to you during his life that service and pleasure that shall lie in his little power. As knows God, who sends your good ladyship long life and fare you well. From Winchester the last day of September.

Your ladyshyppis assuryd

THOMAS CRUMWELL

OTD with Thomas Cromwell – 22 September 1524: Cromwell opens a court case for Cardinal Wolsey

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The keep of All Saints’ Church, Worthen, Shropshire

This is a very old letter of Cromwell’s, written on behalf of Thomas Wolsey, likely as a draft, as it bears no one’s signature. Cromwell wrote up the petition of yeoman Robert Leighton, the porter at the Tower, of London, against two men who assaulted his cousins in Shropshire. As it was sent under Wolsey’s signature, there is little way to find out the outcome of the case, as much of Wolsey’s work has been destroyed. John Corbett did go on to be the steward of Worthen from 1536 onwards, so clearly there was no punishment given out for the beating of Margaret Bayley. The only other recording of Margaret Bayley is of her being deceased, previously being a widow, as of 1527.

MASTER CROMWELL ON BEHALF OF CARDINAL WOLSEY TO ROBERT LEIGHTON,  22 September 1524 (LP iv no. 681)

Petition of Robert Leighton, gentleman porter of the Tower of London, and yeoman of the Crown, to Wolsey, against John and William Corbett, of Worthen parish, Shropshire, who have assaulted William Bayley and Thomas Leighton, the petitioner’s cousins, to whom he had granted the parsonage of Worthen.

On Sunday 21 August, 1524, they entered the church during divine service with 14 armed people, and would have killed Thomas Leighton and Margaret, (William) Bayley’s wife, who were in the chancel, if the parishioners had not prevented it. After that, John and William Corbett, and Joyce, wife of the former, with 12 others, went to the parsonage, pulled Margaret Bayley out of the house, and beat her, being great with child, so that she is like to die, and boasted that they would slay her husband, who was advised not to return home. He (Bayley) went to Sir Richard Herbert, steward, asking him to see the King’s peace kept. Herbert sent for the Corbetts and their accomplices, but they would not appear before him. He then sent Bayley home with servants of his own, but he dared not stay in the house, but went to the sessions at Shrewsbury, 22 September 1524, and presented bills before the judges, which were thrown out by the jury, as the foreman was Corbetts’ cousin, and several jurymen said they could not live in the country if they did otherwise.

OTD with Thomas Cromwell – 10 September 1535: Cromwell writes to Eustace Chapuys

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Charles wins Tunis for Pope Paul III by Taddeo Zuccari

Not many letters between Thomas Cromwell and Eustace Chapuys survive, so sadly their relationship can feel rather one-sided, despite all the information we can gather from Chapuys’ catalogued correspondence. This letter was written to share King Henry’s congratulation to Chapuys’ master Emperor Charles and Chancellor Granvelle, on their defeat of the Ottomans at the battle of Tunis (Tunisia), Charles had overseen an army of 60,000 men from Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Malta, and the Low Countries, and saw 30,000 Ottomans killed, 10,000 Muslims enslaved, though another 20,000 Christians were released. This was considered a huge victory for Christianity over ‘Infidels’, though like most wars, it was largely useless, as the area was plunged into multiple bloody wars every century until the early 1800s.

The first half of the letter reads like a copied propaganda pamphlet, but then Cromwell deviated to talking about Princess Mary, who was usually at the centre of all correspondence between the men, with Cromwell eager to tell Chapuys he would soon get the king’s permission to visit Mary, who was primarily moving between Hatfield and Hunsdon in 1535. Chapuys was able to get a servant to Mary about once a week, but he wanted to visit her personally. 

The letter was written in Latin, this is my own translation featured in my Cromwell book of letters. At the time of writing, Cromwell was famously visiting Wolf Hall with the king.

SECRETARY CROMWELL TO AMBASSADOR EUSTACE CHAPUYS, 10 September 1535 

Magnifico atque observando domino Eustachio Chapuysio Cesare matis oratori.

My magnificent lord and ambassador, I send hearty greetings, respect, and commendations. In the same manner, your, happy, and may show celebration, repeated by every Christian, for Emperor Charles’ success. As he had so often done before, my lord the king’s highness wishes to signify the happy news more recent than the most beautiful one adorned with the letters of the same. From the reading, that Charles planned well with Lord Granvelle and writes to the whole Christian world, of the most wholesome defeat of the Tunis. The assault portrayed is a well solid joy, and your lord the Emperor had a glorious victory, and is by no means affected by being unable to get help from anyone, and has been spared by God now, as Charles took on the issue of the best campaign that has ever been offered. It is, therefore, the victory of the whole of existence worthy of praise, and once again congratulations on the salvation of the public with Christian prayers, to whom they prayed from their hearts above others, so that if any sense on the occasion, through their own efforts, will be able to experience.

I have heard nothing from the most gracious lord the king’s highness after the last letter about Mary has previously been in vain, despite when you write sincerely so often and declared most positively. The king’s highness added, however, that the letters are now in his own hands, and to represent this, namely that there many, so far as I understand, with the goods of the king’s Majesty’s forgiveness. It is lawful from him, that you shall receive the promises to visit the Lady Mary. I begged the king’s highness, travelling in his dominions, that upon our return, the king’s highness shall grant your satisfaction in this request in this regard, as well with all my present your arguments to satisfy the expectations of most successfully. The court in the Wolf Hall, 10 September.

Ex animo amicissimus

THOMAS CRUMUELL