Thomas Cromwell by Hans Holbein the Younger
On the 28th July 1540, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s chief minister, was executed for treason and heresy on Tower Hill.
I wanted to share part of a letter Cromwell wrote to Henry VIII on 30 June 1540 from his cell in the Tower of London, effectively begging for mercy.
Most merciful King, and most gracious sovereign Lord, may it please the same to be advertised that the last time it pleased your benign goodness to send unto me the Right Honourable Lord Chancellor, the Right Honourable Duke of Norfolk and the Lord Admiral, to examine and also to declare to me divers things from your Majesty, amongst the which one special thing they moved, and thereupon charged me, as I would answer before God at the dreadful day of judgement, and also upon the extreme danger and damnation of my soul and conscience, to say what I knew in the marriage concerning the marriage between your Highness and the Queen. To the which I answered as I knew, declaring to the m the particulars as nigh as I then could call to remembrance. Which when they had heard, the, in your Majesty’s name, and upon like charge as they had given me before, commanded me to write to your Highness the truth, as much as I knew in that mater; which now I do…[A long description of the Cleves marriage fiasco follows]…
If I have not, to the uttermost of my remembrance, said the truth, and the whole truth in this matter, God never help me…beseeching Almighty God…so he now will vouchsafe to counsel you, preserve you, maintain you, remedy you, relieve and defend you, as may be most to your honour, wealth, prosperity, health and comfort of your heart’s desire. For the which, and for the long life and prosperous reign of your most royal Majesty, I shall during my life, and while I am here, pray to Almighty God, that he of his most abundant goodness will help, aid and comfort you, and after your continuance of Nestor’s years, that the most noble imp, the Prince’s Grace, your most dear son, may succeed you to reign long, prosperously, feliciously to God’s pleasure: beseeching most humbly your Grace to pardon this my rude writing, and to consider that I am a most woeful prisoner, ready to take the death, when it shall please God and your Majesty; and yet the frail flesh inciteth me continually to call to your Grace for mercy and pardon for mine offences; and thus Christ save, preserve and keep you. Written at the Tower this Wednesday, the last of June, with the heavy heart and trembling hand of your Highness’s most heavy and most miserable prisoner and poor slave,
Thomas Cromwell
Most gracious Prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy!
(Starkey, Pg. 100)
Source Starkey, D. Rivals in Power: Lives and Letters of the Great Tudor Dynasties, 1990.
I have just finished season three (again) of The Tudors and the actor portraying Cromwell (James Frain) actually used some of these words in the episode that Cromwell is executed, is it also fact that Cromwells execution was actually rather a botched affair?
I think I have read that before Tracey but I am unsure if it’s historically accurate. What is fact is that the axe was never a ‘nice’ bringer of death and usually required a few strokes…:(
Oh, I do not like Cromwell and this just shows what a snivelling coward he was—I hate to say it, but I think he deserved his fate! He certainly had no qualms about killing Anne Boleyn and 5 innocent men, not to mention the priests etc. What goes around comes around! Thanks!
I am sure he got his karma, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. But I would have thought that every thing he did, he did with the full approval of the King, he wanted out of his marriage, yet again, and Cromwell had to find a way, fair means or foul, does that excuse what he did, no, but who could refuse Henry, and at the end of the day it was he who signed the death warrent, and it was he who could have dismissed the charges against Anne
I think we forget that Cromwell was a very astute, intelligent man, who worked his way up though the ranks, as many did, not caring who they stepped on, on the way up, that’s a reflexion of the time. He was loyal to the King, till death. Shame the loyalty wasn’t returned. Fine payment for pandering to Henry’s ever whim…
What do we know of the remains of Thomas’s Cromwell’s last letter. Does it survive?
I believe the original of the letter quoted above is part of the collection kept at Hatfield House. I saw a facsimile of the letter on display there recently.