Thomas Cromwell by Diarmaid MacCulloch

Author:Diarmaid MacCulloch
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141967660
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2018-09-06T16:00:00+00:00

This was open-ended musing rather than ringing defence. It positively invited denunciation of those unnamed, and could not have been written with Cromwell anywhere near the King’s chamber. In fact he was not in permanent residence at Windsor at this time, but commuting from Mortlake or The Rolls; so Thomas Heneage and Fitzwilliam had to write to him urgently from Windsor on 5 November, telling him to intercept Ellerker and Bowes after they had left the castle, to stop them going north from London.75 Cromwell was sometimes away for days at a time at this crucial juncture, causing another Pilgrim emissary at Court, Percival Cresswell, looking round the Council board at Windsor, to conclude that he had been dismissed from their number.76 For a day or two, there was a real possibility that this might happen. At least Cromwell had Ralph Sadler to keep him informed of danger – and, in the end, this first version containing the King’s betrayal of all the Lord Privy Seal’s service never reached the North. Was it the very text taken from Ellerker and Bowes when they were intercepted?

Berthelet’s printed version, among several expansions, reveals a major addition amid the King’s discussion of his Council. Cranmer’s name was inserted to head the names of the bishops, and there then followed a strong character reference for two other figures hated by the rebels:

And for because it is more than necessary, to have some of our Privy Council learned in the laws, and acquainted with the policies and practices of the world, we, by the advice of our whole Council before named, did elect and choose into our Privy Council, and also into their rooms, Sir Thomas Audley knight, our Chancellor, and the Lord Cromwell, Keeper of our Privy Seal, thinking them men in all our opinions most meet for the same rooms.77

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