Thomas Cromwell - Early Life

Early Life

Thomas Cromwell was born around 1485 in Putney, Surrey, the son of Walter Cromwell, a blacksmith, fuller, and cloth merchant, and owner of both a hostelry and a brewery. Thomas's mother, Katherine, was the aunt of Nicholas Glossop of Wirksworth in Derbyshire. She lived in Putney in the house of a local attorney, John Welbeck, at the time of her marriage to Walter Cromwell in 1474. Cromwell had two sisters. The younger, Elizabeth, married a farmer, William Wellyfed. The elder, Katherine, married Morgan Williams, a Welsh lawyer. Katherine and Morgan's son Richard was employed in his uncle's service and changed his name to Cromwell. Richard's great-grandson was Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector.

Little is known about Thomas Cromwell's early life. It is believed he was born at the top of Putney Hill, on the edge of Putney Heath. In 1878, his birthplace was still of note: "The site of Cromwell's birthplace is still pointed out by tradition, and is in some measure confirmed by the survey of Wimbledon Manor, quoted above, for it describes on that spot 'an ancient cottage called the smith's shop, lying west of the highway from Richmond to Wandsworth, being the sign of the Anchor.' The plot of ground here referred to is now covered by the Green Man public house." Putney Heath was a noted haunt of highwaymen, and few brave souls ventured across it at night.

Cromwell made a declaration to Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer that he had been a "ruffian...in his young days". As a youth, he left his family in Putney and crossed the Channel to the continent. Accounts of his activities in France, Italy, and the Low Countries are sketchy and contradictory. It is alleged that he first became a mercenary and marched with the French army to Italy, where he fought in the battle of Garigliano on 28 December 1503. While in Italy, he entered the household of the Florentine merchant banker Francesco Frescobaldi.

Later he visited leading mercantile centres in the Low Countries, living among the English merchants and developing an important network of contacts while learning several languages. At some point, he returned to Italy. The records of the English Hospital in Rome indicate that he stayed there in June 1514, while documents in the Vatican Archives suggest that he was an agent for Archbishop of York, Cardinal Christopher Bainbridge, and handled English ecclesiastical issues before the Roman Rota. At some time during these years, Cromwell returned to England, where around 1515 he married Elizabeth Wyckes (1489–1527). She was the widow of Thomas Williams, a Yeoman of the Guard, and the daughter of a Putney shearman, Henry Wykes, who had served as a Gentleman Usher to King Henry VII. The couple had a son, Gregory, and two daughters, Anne and Grace. Neither daughter survived childhood. Notwithstanding his family having grown, he twice (in 1517 and 1518) led an embassy to Rome to gain from Pope Leo X a Papal Bull of Indulgence, for the town of Boston in Lincolnshire

By 1520, Cromwell was firmly established in London mercantile and legal circles. In 1523, he obtained a seat in the House of Commons, though the constituency he represented at that time has not been identified. After Parliament had been dissolved, Cromwell wrote a letter to a friend jesting about the session's unproductiveness:

I amongst other have indured a parlyament which contenwid by the space of xvii hole wekes wher we communyd of warre pease Stryffe contencyon debatte murmure grudge Riches poverte penurye trowth falshode Justyce equyte dicayte opprescyon Magnanymyte actyvyte foce attempraunce Treason murder Felonye consyli … and also how a commune welth myght be ediffyed and a contenewid within our Realme. Howbeyt in conclusyon we have d as our predecessors have been wont to doo that ys to say, as well we myght and lefte wher we begann.

In 1524, Cromwell was elected as a member of Gray's Inn and entered the service of Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cardinal Wolsey. In the mid-1520s, Cromwell assisted in the dissolution of nearly thirty monasteries to raise funds for Wolsey to found The King's School, Ipswich (1528) and Cardinal College in Oxford (1529). In 1526, Wolsey appointed Cromwell a member of his council; by 1529, Cromwell was one of Wolsey's most senior and trusted advisers. However, by the end of October of that year, Wolsey had fallen from power. Cromwell had made enemies for aiding Wolsey to suppress the monasteries, but was determined not to fall with his master, as he told George Cavendish, then a Gentleman Usher and later Wolsey's biographer:

I do entend (god wyllyng) this after none, whan my lord hathe dyned to ride to london and so to the Court, where I wyll other make or marre or I come agayn, I wyll put my self in the prese to se what any man is Able to lay to my charge of ontrouthe or mysdemeanor.

Cromwell's efforts to overcome the shadow cast over his career by Wolsey's downfall were successful. By November 1529, he had secured a seat in Parliament as a member for Taunton and was reported to be in favour with the King. At some point, during the closing weeks of 1530, the King appointed him to the Privy Council.