Thomas Cromwell: Servant to Henry VIII (33 page)

2. Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second and most controversial wife. Cromwell showed the king how to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in order to achieve the desired union with Anne.

3. Arthur, Henry VII’s first son and Henry VIII’s elder brother, from a nineteenth-century stained-glass window in St Laurence’s church, Ludlow. Arthur was briefly married to Catherine of Aragon but died young.

4. Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII’s fourth wife. Cromwell advocated this short-lived marriage.

5. Anne Boleyn’s father, Thomas Boleyn, the Earl of Wiltshire. Cromwell replaced him in the office of Lord Privy Seal after Anne’s fall.

6. Henry VII.

7. Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife, who gave Henry the son he so desired.

8. Edward, Henry VIII’s son by Jane Seymour. He would later succeed to the throne as Edward VI (r. 1547–53).

9. Erasmus in an iconic woodcut by Dürer. Cromwell spoke French, Spanish and Italian and had a good working knowledge of Latin, which he appears to have developed by memorising chunks of the Erasmian translation of the New Testament.

10.
An Allegory of the Tudor Succession
depicting the family of Henry VIII.

11. Statue of Catherine of Aragon. By 1529 Catherine was past childbearing age and had produced only one living child, a daughter named Mary.

12. Thomas Wolsey from a drawing by Jacques le Boucq. Cromwell was Wolsey’s servant from 1524 to 1530.

13. Tomb of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and uncle to both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. Norfolk was a personal enemy of Cromwell.

14. Thomas Cranmer from a painting by Gerhard Flicke. As Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer presided over the court that finalised Henry’s divorce from Catherine. He worked closely with Cromwell on religious reform following the break with Rome.