This companion presents the main events, places and themes rendered in Mantel’s monumental trilogy; however, with such a vast dramatis personae, not every character makes an appearance. And while Mantel’s Cromwell may have written ‘the book called Henry’, this work is not concerned with the monarch, but rather the court and the people whose lives revolved around him, aiming to enrich the reader’s understanding of Mantel’s works and the history beneath it, while threading through the historical narrative of this endlessly fascinating period.
CROMWELL’S EARLY LIFE
In a generation everything can change.
(Wolf Hall)
In August of 1485, likely the very year Thomas Cromwell was born, two men fought at the heads of their armies on Bosworth Field in Leicestershire: King Richard III of the House of York and his challenger, Henry Tudor. Within hours, Richard III lay dead on the battlefield, his 10,000-strong army scattered. The battle followed Richard’s victory over the House of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses, the dynastic struggle that had plunged the country into civil war for decades. Appreciating the gravitas of the moment, Lord Stanley, Henry’s step-father, rushed to his side and placed the golden circlet that had been attached to Richard’s helmet on his head, thereby proclaiming him Henry VII, King of England and Wales.
Rewards and titles would flow to those whose exceptional valour had won this victory, but Henry required a new age for England. Although he and later historians would defend the legitimacy of his claim to the throne, he recognized that only a successful kingship would truly justify his seizing the crown. For now he needed to secure the best counsel around him, not just from the ranks of the nobility that had served previous kings, but men of talent and education, chosen on merit rather than birth, to lead his government and bring peace and prosperity to his kingdom. Henry VII’s new way of doing business opened up career opportunities to many in the Tudor equivalent of a civil service. These new men serving the Tudors rose from amongst the middle ranks of town and country to become some of the most famous Tudor personalities.
Under Henry’s son, Henry VIII, the court became a stock exchange for courtiers craving advancement where they could list their personal value and demonstrate their skills; a change in their status could bring power, estates and titles. Yet even in a world of opportunity, few could have imagined that Thomas Cromwell of Putney, son of a blacksmith and brewer, would become indispensable to the king.
As discussed in the introduction, exactly how this happened is something of a mystery, for Thomas Cromwell’s trajectory from the grimy streets of Putney to the Privy Council is not well documented; he was guarded about his early life, leaving us with few textual traces from which we can construct his backstory, but from which, in the right hands, an interesting fictional narrative might be woven.
Cromwell is an Anglo-Saxon name, originating in Ireland and Nottinghamshire, and it is likely our Thomas was distantly related to the Lords Cromwell who owned the beautiful moated, red-bricked Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire. The Cromwell name even graced royal records, as in Ralph de Cromwell, third Baron Cromwell, who fought alongside Henry V when he defeated the French at the famous battle of Agincourt. In 1420 he was one of the commissioners who assisted Henry V in the negotiations for the Treaty of Troyes, which ensured that upon the death of Charles VI of France, the French crown would pass to the English king. During the reign of Henry VI, he was appointed Lord Treasurer of England. So, the family had consorted with those of power and prestige at the English court, and our Cromwell would not be the first of his name to achieve success.
Cromwell’s particular line, however, was of the yeoman class, forever struggling to break through class barriers. Their moment came when Cromwell’s grandfather, John Cromwell, a successful business owner from Ireland, moved the family including his two sons John and Walter to Putney in London.
With Cromwell, there was a degree of gentility mixed with the mercantile; he enjoyed describing himself as a former ruffian, cultivating an image of a low-born man made good, something his enemies would later sneer at and use against him. Although Cromwell may have wanted to retain an air of mystery about his life, we have four key sources, individuals who, as we shall see, took a keen interest in his progress and were able to flesh out his early years: ambassador Eustace Chapuys, who served for almost two decades at the Tudor Court; Matteo Bandello, a contemporary Italian writer, soldier, monk, and sometime bishop; Cardinal Reginald Pole; and protestant martyr John Foxe.
Eustace Chapuys was sent to act as Katherine of Aragon’s divorce lawyer by Charles V, her nephew, to mediate between Queen Katherine and King Henry. His official position at Henry’s court was Imperial ambassador so it is surprising that, as we shall see, he and Cromwell developed a close personal relationship.
Chapuys was a prolific letter writer, sometimes completing up to ten a day. Many were to Charles V and to Charles’ aunt, Margaret of Austria, and others including his friend and confidant, Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle, a politician and ambassador from Burgundy.
Chapuys, like all ambassadors, had to be well-informed about the convictions and motives of courtiers, especially those who held sway over the monarch. Assembling fragments of Cromwell’s life and
