Cromwell, Thomas (1485–1540)

Chief minister to King Henry VIII of England and a key figure in the Protestant Reformation that established the Church of England. Thomas Cromwell was born in Putney, the son of a humble artisan. He traveled to the continent as a young man and was employed by a merchant bank of Italy as a broker in the Netherlands. He also served in Rome as an agent for an English cardinal, Reginald Bainbridge. In about 1512 Cromwell returned to England, where his abilities as a lawyer brought him to the attention of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who hired him as a secretary. Cromwell was elected a member of the English Parliament in 1523; he was favored by Henry for his support of the king's efforts to obtain a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He became a counselor to the king in 1530 and was named chief minister in 1532. Cromwell played a key role in the Reformation of England. Under his guidance, the English government threw off papal authority and placed church property under the control of the king, church courts answerable only to the pope were dissolved and replaced by royal courts, and the Church of England was founded. Cromwell wrote an important law known as the Act in Restraint of Appeals that denied anyone convicted of the right of appeal to the pope. He also guided important legislation known as the Act of Supremacy that recognized Henry as the head of the Church of England. The king appointed Cromwell as “viceregent in spirituals,” giving Cromwell the authority to investigate the religious orders and seize and distribute their property. For his role in directing the English Reformation he was rewarded with the noble title of Earl of Essex.

Cromwell ran afoul of many powerful nobles in England, however, and was also despised by many commoners for his ruthless methods in seizing church property. He incurred the anger of the king after the death of Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife. He advised the king to marry a German princess, Anne of Cleves, in order to tie England more closely to Protestant princes of northern Germany in an alliance against the Catholic emperor, Charles V. Unhappy with his German bride, however, Henry abandoned her and allowed Cromwell to be arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London at the instigation of Cromwell's sworn enemy, the Duke of Norfolk. Soon afterward Cromwell was convicted of treason and heresy and beheaded.

See Also: Henry VIII; More, Sir Thomas