Cromwell was well aware that while Henry tarried, his two rivals, Charles and Francis, were on the brink of securing what looked like a lasting peace agreement, leaving the excommunicated Henry out in the cold. We know that Cromwell urged Wyatt to remain involved in the negotiations to ensure England played some small part, but when the news of the agreement broke in England, it was clear that the truce of Aigues-Mortes had no role for Henry. Crucially, it also emerged that Henry’s cousin, Reginald Pole, had been involved in the negotiations, which Henry believed was evidence that an invasion of England, with a potential new king at the helm, was imminent.
Amidst the marriage game, in May 1538, Henry fell dangerously ill. It is believed that a blood clot had lodged in his lung, and for almost two weeks it was unclear whether Henry would recover. Mantel’s Cromwell asks himself who he should ride to or from, should Henry die.
C
ROMWELL
S
TRIKES
Cromwell was determined to stamp out any rival claims to the throne and the Poles were at the top of his list. In August of 1538 Cromwell made his move knowing that Geoffrey was in contact with his older brother, Reginald.
Geoffrey was kept in a damp cell in the Tower for two months in order to break him, and it worked. Geoffrey revealed the family’s secrets, implicating his older brothers as well as Henry Courtenay, one of Henry’s oldest friends. On 4 November Henry Courtenay and Hugh Pole were beheaded on Tower Hill alongside accused co-conspirator Sir Edward Neville. Geoffrey was eventually released, but there is evidence to suggest that he was never the same again.
In the New Year, another conspirator was sent to the Tower, but one which surprised those at court – Sir Nicholas Carew, Master of the Horse, and another of Henry’s close friends. The reasons for his imprisonment were not exactly clear – although he had always maintained links with the Pole family and corresponded with both, this was not a secret. He also sat on the jury which indicted Pole and Courtenay, and expressed scepticism of their guilt, which could have been a factor. Carew was executed in March 1539. Several months later, Cromwell brought a bill of attainder against Margaret Pole and Gertrude Courtenay, and both were sent to the Tower. Cromwell was clearing the chessboard.
NEW ALLIANCES AND ANNE OF CLEVES
Cromwell’s political vision for England in 1539 was unprecedented. He had tired of the same chessboard and the same pieces – Charles, Francis and Henry. When Anne Boleyn had been in power, he had entertained the notion of strengthening ties with reformers from German states and had been in secret communication with them through his agent, Thomas Tebold, the much doted on godson of Thomas Boleyn. He was particularly interested in the Schmalkaldic League, a military alliance founded by two of the most powerful protestant princes, Philip I and John Frederick of Saxony.
England began making overtures to the German states in 1531, but by 1539 Cromwell knew that an alliance with the German duchy of Cleves, a noble family whose lands in the north of Saxony bordered those of Charles V, could be of use. The Cleves family also enjoyed family ties to the Schmalkaldic League, which would also give Charles pause should he consider invading England. In The Mirror and the Light Cromwell and Wriothesley are already quietly discussing the possibility of Henry marrying one of the Duke of Cleves’ daughters – Amalia or her sister, Anne.
Cromwell first became aware of Anne and her sister Amalia in a letter from one of his agents, John Hutton, in December of 1537, but only in 1539 did Cromwell seriously entertain the idea of one of them as a candidate as Henry’s queen. Anne was born sometime in 1515, the second daughter of John III, Duke of Cleves and Maria, Duchess of Jülich-Berg. Henry had not been her first suitor – in 1511 she had been betrothed to the son and heir of the Duke of Lorraine, but the match had fallen through in 1535. As soon as Henry agreed to consider the alliance, Cromwell dispatched Holbein to the paint both Anne and Amalia.
During this period, Cromwell was plagued by ill health and suffered from an intermittent fever, which kept him away for court for days at a time. He also suffered from anxiety, believing his enemies whispered poison in the ear of the king, and perhaps he had cause, for Henry had a habit of believing the last person he spoke to. When Cromwell came back to court he found Stephen Gardiner had also returned after a three-year embassy to France, and was back in favour. Much as Wolsey once tried to have an audience with Henry in private, and found himself having to deliver his news in public, now the conservative Gardiner stood at Henry’s side. While Cromwell had been away, the Duke of Norfolk had argued convincingly against Cromwell’s proposed religious reforms. In 1539–40, Gardiner achieved a major victory over his reformist opponents: The act of the Six Articles was passed, confirming the supremacy of particular rights within the church of England, such as the role of the Eucharist and celibacy amongst the clergy. Cromwell had banked on royal support, but Henry, who had always been Catholic at heart, showed every intention of returning to the old ways.
But Cromwell was hopeful when Holbein’s portraits of the Cleves sisters arrived in England and Henry fell for Anne’s. Events still moved interminably slow for Cromwell, but Henry had accepted the match and the marriage treaty was agreed to in October 1539. Anne would not be like any of Henry’s other wives: she had not received a formal education, she did not play an instrument, she did not hunt, nor
