Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life

by Diarmaid MacCulloch

Overview

The long-awaited biography of the genius who masterminded Henry VIII's bloody revolution in the English government, which reveals at last Cromwell's role in the downfall of Anne Boleyn

"This a book that - and it's not often you can say this - we have been awaiting for four hundred years." —Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall

Since the sixteenth century we have been fascinated by Henry VIII and the man who stood beside him, guiding him, enriching him, and enduring the king's insatiable appetites and violent outbursts until Henry ordered his beheading in July 1540. After a decade of sleuthing in the royal archives, Diarmaid MacCulloch has emerged with a tantalizing new understanding of Henry's mercurial chief minister, the inscrutable and utterly compelling Thomas Cromwell.

History has not been kind to the son of a Putney brewer who became the architect of England's split with Rome. Where past biographies portrayed him as a scheming operator with blood on his hands, Hilary Mantel reimagined him as a far more sympathetic figure buffered by the whims of his master. So which was he—the villain of history or the victim of her creation? MacCulloch sifted through letters and court records for answers and found Cromwell's fingerprints on some of the most transformative decisions of Henry's turbulent reign. But he also found Cromwell the man, an administrative genius, rescuing him from myth and slander.

The real Cromwell was a deeply loving father who took his biggest risks to secure the future of his son, Gregory. He was also a man of faith and a quiet revolutionary. In the end, he could not appease or control the man whose humors were so violent and unpredictable. But he made his mark on England, setting her on the path to religious awakening and indelibly transforming the system of government of the English-speaking world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143132929
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/29/2019
Pages:	752
Sales rank:	668,667
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Diarmaid MacCulloch is Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University. His books include Thomas Cranmer: A Life, which won the Whitbread Biography Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, and the Duff Cooper Prize; The Reformation: A History, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Wolfson Prize; and Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, a New York Times bestseller that won the Cundill Prize in History. An Anglican deacon, knighted in 2012, he has presented many highly celebrated documentaries for television and radio. He lives in Oxford, England.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Maps xiii

Acknowledgements xxii

Introduction 1

Part 1 Journeys

1 Ruffian 9

2 The Return of the Native 22

3 In the Cardinal's Service: 1524-1528 54

4 Managing Failure: 1528-1529 75

5 Serving two Masters: 1530 104

Part 2 New Wine

6 Council and Parliament: 1531 131

7 New Year's Gifts: 1532 156

8 Making a Difference: 1532 182

9 A Royal Marriage: 1532-1533 205

Part 3 Touching Pitch

10 Treason in Prospect: 1533-1534 233

11 Spirituals: 1534-1535 260

12 Deaths for Religion: 1535 277

13 Progresses and Scrutinies: 1535-1536 292

14 Surrenders and the Scaffold: 1536 318

Part 4 Power and its Reward

15 Summer Opportunities: 1536 345

16 Grace for the Commonwealth: 1536 372

17 The Reckoning: 1537 398

18 The King's Uncle? 1537-1538 422

19 Cutting Down Trees: 1538 442

Part 5 Nemesis

20 Shifting Dynasties: 1538-1539 471

21 Stumbling Blocks: 1539 487

22 Downfall: 1539-1540 506

23 Futures 532

Abbreviations and Conventions Used in Bibliography and Notes 553

Bibliography 557

Notes 583

Index 703

Editorial Reviews

Thomas Cromwell has famously defied his biographers, but no more. Diarmaid MacCulloch’s book is subtle, witty and precisely constructed. He has sifted the vast archive to clear away the accumulated error, muddle and propaganda of centuries, allowing us to see this clever and fascinating man better than ever before, and in the mirror of his times. This a book that—and it’s not often you can say this—we have been awaiting for four hundred years.” —Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies

“Thomas Cromwell is a wonderfully rich, detailed and demanding account of an extraordinary career....It’s a book to satisfy academic historians and the general reader alike. Nothing so dramatically and persuasively conveys the reality of life in these blood-soaked years.”—Wall Street Journal

"MacCulloch threads Cromwell’s notes and other contemporary sources along with modern historians’ work to recreate his motivations. This comprehensive biography is ideal for passionate devotees of Hilary Mantel’s historical novels."—Publishers Weekly

"A landmark portrait of a complex, confounding man.”—Booklist (starred review)

“MacCulloch’s monumental biography brings Henry VIII’s notorious minister to vivid, detailed life….A must-read biography of a man whose role in shaping English and Protestant history has long been misunderstood.”—Library Journal (starred review)

"Triumphant and definitive… This is a masterpiece of documentary detective work, which buzzes with the excitement of a great historian immersed in archives. Acute, elegant and devastating.” —Dan Jones, Sunday Times
 
“This biography is a major work of scholarship of the type that will reset academic understanding of Tudor politics for a generation … and golly, can MacCulloch make a Tudor paper trail seem exciting.”  —Financial Times



Praise for Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years

“Immensely ambitious and absorbing.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

“A landmark contribution . . . It is difficult to imagine a more comprehensive and surprisingly accessible volume than MacCulloch’s.” —Jon Meacham, The New York Times Book Review

“A prodigious, thrilling, masterclass of a history book. MacCulloch is to be congratulated for his accessible handling of so much complex, difficult material.” —John Cornwell, Financial Times

Praise for Silence: A Christian History

“In MacCulloch’s hands, reading about Christianity often feels as soulful, as silently consuming, as prayer itself.” —Tom Bissell, Harper’s Magazine

“Silence is excellent: beautifully written, factually dense, intellectually sophisticated.” —Kathryn Schulz, New York magazine

“Enjoyable and intelligent . . . MacCulloch is a gifted scholar and his ideas are always worth hearing.” —The Economist

From the Publisher

08/20/2018
This meticulously researched biography of Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to King Henry VIII of England, from professor and historian MacCulloch (Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years) highlights Cromwell’s legal abilities and the complicated—and often fatal—relationship between Tudor advisers and king. These advisers toiled away as Henry gained notoriety for his numerous wives, removing legal and societal obstacles from Henry’s path to a legitimate male heir. An astute protégé of his predecessor Thomas Wolsey, Cromwell earned royal trust by contributing to the redefinition of his monarch’s religious role—ushering in the English Reformation—and helping Anne Boleyn become Henry’s second wife. MacCulloch’s densely packed narrative argues for a more sympathetic view of Cromwell; in his portrayal, Cromwell’s personal religious views dovetail sincerely with the Reformation, and crafting legal arguments around the mercurial Henry’s whims was difficult. But this characterization is undercut by Cromwell’s central role in the dissolution of monasteries, the execution of dissenters, and the destruction of Anne Boleyn despite their shared theological views. Cromwell’s personal thoughts are largely lost to history due to a shortage of surviving letters, but MacCulloch threads Cromwell’s notes and other contemporary sources along with modern historians’ work to recreate his motivations. This comprehensive biography is ideal for passionate devotees of Hilary Mantel’s historical novels, which also paint Cromwell in a forgiving light, and Tudor history buffs. Agent: Felicity Bryan, Felicity Bryan Associates (U.K.). (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 10/01/2018
MacCulloch's (Silence: A Christian History) monumental biography brings Henry VIII's notorious minister to vivid, detailed life, revealing a brilliantly innovative statesman whose accomplishments significantly altered the course of English history. MacCulloch reveals Thomas Cromwell (1485–1540) as a man of contradictions: fiercely loyal to his first patron, the Catholic Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, yet dedicated to the principles of the Protestant Reformation. Indeed, MacCulloch contests the long-held picture of Cromwell as a Machiavellian schemer whose primary motivation was personal gain, presenting instead a man of sincere faith who used the turmoil of Henry's marital woes to push forward the Reformation in England, sometimes under the very nose of his volatile, less committed monarch. Combing through correspondence, memoranda, and draft legislation, the author finds ample evidence of Cromwell's improvisatory skill in seizing opportunities, streamlining administrative processes, and revolutionizing the use of Parliament to accomplish the king's business. Yet, MacCulloch makes a convincing argument that it was Cromwell's single-minded advocacy of religious change, more so than his consolidation of power or accumulation of personal wealth, that led to his violent downfall. VERDICT A must-read biography of a man whose role in shaping English and Protestant history has long been misunderstood. [See Prepub Alert, 4/23/18.]—Sara Shreve, Newton, KS

Library Journal

2018-08-13

One of the leading historians of the English church offers a nuanced and appreciative but not hagiographic portrait of the Tudor politician and religious reformer who served—and then was sent to execution by—Henry VIII.

In this significant biography of Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485-1540), MacCulloch (History of the Church/Oxford Univ.; All Things Made New: The Reformation and Its Legacy, 2016, etc.), the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Wolfson Prize, among other awards, explores every aspect of his subject's life, including his thoughts about his son Gregory's education, his relationships with Thomas Wolsey and Anne Boleyn, his hope that the government would formulate a systematic strategy for alleviating poverty, and the sometimes-risky expenditures he made to promote his career. But the book is most notable for the author's insistence that Cromwell's motives were not, as some have sketched them, coldly Machiavellian but rather deeply religious. MacCulloch argues that Cromwell craftily promoted an evangelical religious agenda while giving outward appearances of support for a more traditional form of Christianity. The author discusses Cromwell's role in the dissolution of the monasteries, his secret lending of support for the publication of an English Bible, and his pressing of the clergy to preach on the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments and make the texts available in English so that children could learn them. He also intriguingly connects Cromwell's religious instincts to reformers in Italy. The biography culminates in a sensitive treatment of Cromwell's downfall, a moving reading of his last speech, and the suggestion that he is key to understanding English Protestantism and the English empire into the 18th century. The few false notes—the prose sometimes has the feel of an awkward fairy tale ("A time there was when a son was born to humble parents…"), and the penultimate sentence's foreshadowing of the decline of the United States is out of place—can be forgiven.

A deeply researched, important biography that will set the standard for future Cromwell studies.

Kirkus Reviews