Thomas Cromwell

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, KG (/ˈkrɒmwəl/ or /ˈkrɒmwɛl/;c. 1485 – 28 July 1540), was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540.

Cromwell was one of the strongest and most powerful advocates of the English Reformation. He helped to engineer an annulment of the king's marriage to Queen Catherine of Aragon to allow Henry to marry his mistress Anne Boleyn. After failing in 1534 to obtain the Pope's approval of the request for annulment, Parliament endorsed the King's claim to be head of the breakaway Church of England, thus giving Henry the authority to annul his own marriage. Cromwell subsequently plotted an evangelical, reformist course for the embryonic Church of England from the unique posts of vicegerent in spirituals and vicar-general.

During his rise to power, Cromwell made many enemies, including his former ally Anne Boleyn; he played a prominent role in her downfall. He later fell from power after arranging the King's marriage to a German princess, Anne of Cleves. Cromwell hoped that the marriage would breathe fresh life into the Reformation in England, but because Henry found his new bride unattractive, it turned into a disaster for Cromwell and ended in an annulment six months later. Cromwell was arraigned under a bill of attainder and executed for treason and heresy on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540. The King later expressed regret at the loss of his chief minister.

Thomas Cromwell (disambiguation)

Thomas Cromwell was an English statesman and chief minister of King Henry VIII. Thomas Cromwell may also refer to:

See also

Thomas Cromwell (Parliamentary diarist)

Thomas Cromwell (c. 1540 – c. 1611), was an English Member of Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. His diaries of proceedings in the House of Commons are an important source for historians of parliamentary history during the period when he was a member, and Sir John Neale draws heavily upon them in his ground-breaking two-volume study of Elizabeth I and Her Parliaments (1953-1957).

Family

Thomas Cromwell was the third son of Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell and Elizabeth Seymour, sister to Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII. He was the grandson of statesman Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, chief minister to Henry VIII. He was born, probably at Launde Abbey in Leicestershire, around 1540. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge where he matriculated in 1553.

Career

Earl of Essex

Earl of Essex is a title in the Peerage of England which was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title has been recreated eight times from its original inception, beginning with a new first Earl upon each new creation. Possibly the most well-known Earls of Essex were Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485-1540) (sixth creation), chief minister to King Henry VIII, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565–1601) (eighth creation), a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I who led the Earl of Essex Rebellion in 1601.

For about 260 years, from the ninth creation, the title was associated with Cassiobury House in Watford, Hertfordshire until it was demolished in 1927. The current holder of the earldom is Paul Capell, 11th Earl of Essex (b. 1944), a retired school teacher from Caton, Lancashire.

Viscount Malden is used as the courtesy title by the heir apparent to the earldom (when one exists).

Early creations

The title was first created in the 12th century for Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex (d. 1144). Upon the death of the third earl in 1189, the title became dormant or extinct. Geoffrey Fitz Peter, who had married Beatrice de Say, granddaughter of the first earl's sister and eventual heir to the Mandeville honour, gained the earldom in 1199 at its second creation by King John. The Essex title passed to two of Fitz Peter's sons before again becoming extinct after the death of the second, William, the 6th Earl of Essex, who had taken the surname de Mandeville.

List of The Tudors characters

The following is a list of character from the Showtime television series The Tudors.

Characters

The main cast are listed in credits order.

Recurring

Notes

External links

Thomas Cromwell (jurist)

Thomas Albert Cromwell (born May 5, 1952) is a Canadian jurist and current Puisne Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada. On September 5, 2008, Cromwell was nominated to succeed Michel Bastarache on the Supreme Court of Canada by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He assumed office on December 22, 2008.

Early life and education

Cromwell was born in Kingston, Ontario, remaining there to attend Queen's University where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 1973 and a law degree in 1976. He then earned a Bachelor of Civil Law degree from the University of Oxford in 1977. He also earned an ARCT Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1974.

Career

He practised law in Kingston from 1979 to 1982 and was a sessional lecturer in civil procedure at the Queen's Law School from 1980 to 1982. He was a professor of law at Dalhousie University from 1982 to 1992 and again from 1995 to 1997; between these two periods he was Executive Legal Officer in the chambers of then-Chief Justice of Canada Antonio Lamer. In 1997, Jean Chrétien appointed him to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal as a direct appointment (meaning he did not serve on a lower court).

Thomas Cromwell (antiquary)

Thomas Kitson Cromwell (1792–1870) was an English dissenting minister and antiquary.

Life

Born on 14 December 1792, at an early age he entered the literary department of Messrs. Longmans, the publishers.

Brought up a member of the Church of England, of which his elder brother was a clergyman, Cromwell became about 1830 a Unitarian; and, being ordained, was from 1839 minister of Newington Green Unitarian Church, where he officiated for twenty-five years. He also held during the greater part of his ministry the office of clerk to the local board of Clerkenwell, from which he retired with a pension.

In 1864 he resigned the pulpit at Stoke Newington, and soon afterwards took charge of the old presbyterian congregation at Canterbury, over which he presided till his death on 22 December 1870. He was buried on the 28th of that month in the little cemetery adjoining the chapel. During the last two years of his life he had acted as honorary secretary of the Birmingham Education League. By his wife, the daughter of Richard Carpenter, J.P. and D.L. for Middlesex, he had no issue.