Thomas Cromwell: The Rise And Fall Of Henry VIII's Most Notorious Minister (59 page)

Catherine of Aragon,
c
. 1525. Cromwell believed that nature had done the discarded queen a disservice by not making her a man; in her bravery, she could have ‘surpassed all the heroes of history’.

Jane Seymour, who provided Henry with his longed-for legal male heir.

Anne Boleyn, by an unknown artist, painted 1533–6. Henry’s second queen was brought down by Cromwell’s trumped-up charges of incest.

Anne Boleyn’s last letter to Henry VIII, ‘from my dolefull prison in the Tower’, 6 May 1536, and signed: ‘Your most loyal and ever faithfull wife Anne Bullen’. It was found with the papers of Thomas Cromwell after his arrest.

The Byble in Englyshe
, published in London in 1539, showing Henry VIII amidst a rejoicing population and Cromwell and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer distributing copies of the Bible. This title page design was used in subsequent editions in 1540 and 1541.

Anne of Cleves, 1539. Cromwell negotiated Henry’s marriage and alliance with Cleves but when the King met her face-to-face, he was less than enamoured with her charms. He told Cromwell before the wedding: ‘My lord, if it were not to satisfy the world, and my realm, I would not do that I must do this day for no earthly thing.’ She became the catalyst for his downfall.

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk,
c
. 1539–40, by Holbein. Norfolk stage-managed Cromwell’s arrest at a Privy Council meeting on Saturday 10 June 1540.

Stephen Gardiner, by an unknown artist: Cromwell’s jealous and implacable opponent in numerous conspiracies at Henry’s court.

Portrait of an unknown lady, probably Catherine Howard,
c
. 1540. A conspiracy by Norfolk and Gardiner used the teenager as bait to trap Henry into a new marriage.

Cardinal Reginald Pole, by an unknown artist after 1556. His open letter to Henry in May 1536 –
Pro Unitate Ecclesiae
– sent the King into an apoplectic rage. Bishop Tunstall warned him of ‘the discomfort it will be to … your mother … to see you swerve away from your prince … and also your brother.’ Cromwell arrested them.

1.
Thomas Cromwell, 1533–4, after Hans Holbein the Younger (National Portrait Gallery, London)

2.
The opening of Parliament at Blackfriars on 15 April 1523 (The Royal Collection © 2006, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

3.
A propaganda portrait of Henry VIII, by Holbein (Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid, Spain/The Bridgeman Art Library)

4.
Thomas Wolsey in his cardinal’s robes, by an unknown artist (National Portrait Gallery, London)

5.
Thomas More, Wolsey’s successor, after Holbein (National Portrait Gallery, London)

6.
Miniature portrait of Catherine of Aragon, by an unknown artist (National Portrait Gallery, London)

7.
Jane Seymour, by Holbein (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria/The Bridgeman Art Library)

8.
Miniature of Anne Boleyn, by an unknown artist, painted 1533–6 (National Portrait Gallery, London)

9.
Anne Boleyn’s last letter to Henry VIII, from her ‘dolefull prison in the Tower’, 6 May 1536 (© The British Library Board. All Rights Reserved)

10.
The title page of
The Byble in Englysh
, published in London in 1539 (© The British Library Board. All Rights Reserved)

11.
The Holbein portrait of Anne of Cleves, which so misled Henry (Louvre, Paris, France, Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library)

12.
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk,
c
. 1539–40, by Holbein (The Royal Collection © 2006, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

13.
Stephen Gardiner, Cromwell’s jealous and implacable opponent, by an unknown artist (National Trust Picture Library/J. Whitaker)

14.
Cardinal Reginald Pole, by an unknown artist, painted after 1556. (National Portrait Gallery, London)

15.
Portrait of an unknown lady, probably Catherine Howard,
c
. 1540 (The Royal Collection © 2006, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)