Thomas Cromwell

In 1515, he married Elizabeth Wyckes, the widow of Thomas Williams, a Yeoman of the Guard, and the daughter of a Putney shearman, Henry Wykes. The couple had three children. Unfortunately his wife and two of their children died in an epidemic in 1528.

Cromwell also had an illegitimate daughter called Jane.

Over the course of his political career he had earned several enemies. Following the debacle of the king's unhappy marriage to Anne of Cleves which he had arranged, his enemies turned the king against him. Thomas Cromwell was arrested, imprisoned and condemned to death without trial and beheaded on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540.

Thomas Cromwell was born in 1485 in Putney, London, to Walter Cromwell and his wife Katherine. He had two sisters.

His father was a jack of all trades, and had worked as a blacksmith, fuller, and cloth merchant. He also owned and operated a brewery and was notorious for being a drunkard.

Several details regarding his early life are obscure.

As a young man he set out to travel and seek his fortunes. He is believed to have travelled all over Europe and lived in France, Italy and the Low Countries. He stated that he became a mercenary and marched with the French army to Italy and fought in the battle of Garigliano in 1503. These claims were not verified though.

He claimed to have worked as a banker in Italy, clerk in the Netherlands, and a lawyer in London.

In the mid-1510s Thomas Cromwell became a member of the household of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. With his hard work, dedication and intelligence he won over the older man and became one of his most trusted employees. By 1526 he had become a member of Wolsey’s council, and a few years later, his secretary.

Cromwell helped Wolsey in dissolving nearly 30 monasteries in order to raise funds to found The King's School, Ipswich (1528), and Cardinal College, in Oxford (1529). By this time Cromwell had become one of Wolsey’s senior most advisers.

Wolsey himself was the king’s chief adviser and enjoyed great success in this position. The king wanted to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and sought Wolsey’s advice. Wolsey, however, was unable to negotiate an annulment of King Henry's marriage due to which he fell out of the king’s favor and was stripped of his government titles.

Serving as chief minister to King Henry VIII of England, Thomas Cromwell was one of the strongest advocates of the English Reformation. He played a major role in helping the king gain the requisite authority to annul his own marriage to Queen Catherine of Aragon, following which the king wed his mistress.