This was Henry’s version of his minister’s disgrace, and there was, beyond doubt, an element of truth in it, but the immediate irritating cause of Henry’s displeasure was, as we shall presently see, Cromwell’s guilt in providing him with a wife whom he disliked, and his inability to release him from a bond, for the forming of which he was mainly responsible. Meanwhile, Marillac gives an interesting description of Cromwell’s arrest:—
“To begin with the day of his taking, in the Council Chamber of this King’s house at Westminster—as soon as the Lieutenant of the Tower declared the charge he had received from the King, to take him prisoner, the said Cramvel, moved with indignation, took off his cap and threw it on the ground in a rage, saying to the Duke of Norfolk, and others of the Privy Council there assembled, that this then was the reward of his good services towards the King, and that he appealed to their consciences as to whether he was a traitor; but as he was treated thus, he renounced all the mercy and pardon that might be done to him, as one who never thought to have offended, and that all he asked of the King his master, if he had such an opinion of him was, not to let him languish long. Thereupon, some said he was a traitor, others that it was meet he should be judged by the laws he had himself made, which were so bloody, that often words which had been spoken inadvertently, with a good intention, he had constituted high treason. The Duke of Norfolk, having reproached him with some villanies done by him, snatched off the order of St. George, which he wore round his neck, and the Admiral, to show himself as great an enemy in adversity, as he had been thought a friend in prosperity, untied the Garter. Then by a door which opens upon the water, he was put into a boat, and taken to the Tower, without the people of this city suspecting it, until they saw all the King’s archers under Mr. Cheyney at the door of the prisoner’s house, where they made an inventory of his goods, which were not of such value as it was thought, although too much for a fellow of his cloth. The money was £7,000 sterling, equal to 28,000 crowns of our currency, and the silver plate, including crosses, chalices, mitres, vases and other spoils of the Church, might amount to rather more. These moveables were taken before night to the King’s treasury, which is a sign that they will not be restored. The next day, were found several letters which he had written to, or received from the German lords who adhered to the doctrines of Luther. I have not been able to learn their contents, except that this King was so embittered against the said Cramvel, that he will no longer hear him spoken of, but desires as soon as possible to abolish all memory of him, as the meanest wretch ever born in England. To begin, this King at once distributed all his offices as it pleased him, and had it proclaimed that no one should call him Lord Privy Seal or by any other title of estate, but only Thomas Cramvel, Shearman, depriving him of all his privileges and prerogatives of nobility, which he had before given him, dividing his less valuable effects among the servants of the prisoner, who were commanded no longer to wear their master’s livery. Wherefore it is inferred, Sire, that the said Cramvel will not be judged according to the solemnity used to the great of this country, nor beheaded as they are, but will be dragged along like an ignoble person, and afterwards hanged and quartered. A few days will show, especially as they have resolved to empty the Tower at this Parliament, which finishes with this month.”[242]
Cromwell’s tone of indignation, real or pretended, changed to one of the humblest entreaty for mercy as soon as he was lodged in the Tower. His letters to the King were contemptible. Henry replied to them by ordering him to write an account of all he knew about his marriage with Anne of Cleves, and having had ample experience of his ex-minister’s complaisance in his matrimonial affairs, he was justified in thinking that Cromwell would not stick at trifles now. The result was a detailed story of the whole matter, with the very words that had passed between himself and the King, the day after the marriage, most of which is unfit to print.[243] But nothing that he could write or say availed to save him; the axe that he had so long held over the heads of the nation fell at last on his own head, the only favour granted to him being the manner of his death, for he had been condemned to be hanged. According to the proceedings which he had himself instituted, he was attainted in Parliament in his absence, and convicted without a hearing. Hated by every member of the Council, feared throughout the realm, disliked and suspected abroad, he was regretted by none. Cranmer who had been his only friend, styling him, “Mine own entirely beloved Cromwell,” did as he had done on Anne Boleyn’s arrest, and wrote to Henry that he stood amazed and grieved, but was glad as a loyal subject, that Cromwell’s treasons had been discovered![244]
The nation once more breathed freely, and even on the continent considerable relief was felt. The Constable of France said that “every honest man was much bound to God and Henry, that Christendom should be dispatched of such a ribald who thought to have my lady Mary in marriage”; and the Portuguese ambassador in France was heard to say that Henry was like to have made Cromwell a duke, and then have given him his daughter, as he had given his sister to the Duke of Suffolk, and that therefore Cromwell did his best to break every marriage proposed for her. He swore he could not remember who first told him, “but the bruit was common among ambassadors two years past”.[245]
Meanwhile, the new Queen had been sent to Richmond, ostensibly to be out of reach of the plague, and it was given out that Henry would follow her there in a few days. But proceedings for a divorce had been already instituted in Parliament, and in an incredibly short space of time her marriage with the King was declared null, by reason of her pre-contract with the son of the Duke of Lorraine. She was endowed with lands, to the value of £4,000 annually, with two houses to live in, one at Richmond, the other at Bletchingly.
With this arrangement Anne was perfectly content. She expressed her willingness to be divorced, and had desired the Duke of Cleves’ messenger “to commend her to her brother and say she was merry and well entreated. This she did with such alacrity and pleasant gesture, that he may well testify that he found her not miscontented. After she had dined, she sent the King the ring delivered unto her at their pretended marriage, desiring that it might be broken in pieces, as a thing which she knew of no force or value.” Henry sent her many gifts and tokens, “as his sister and none otherwise,” in which capacity she was to be the first lady in the realm, next after the Queen and the King’s children. In his letters Henry exhorts her to be “quiet and merry,” which injunction she seems to have obeyed, without any great effort, and he subscribes himself “Your loving brother and friend”. A douceur was administered to the Duke of Cleves, and all parties concerned were as well pleased and friendly as possible. After Henry’s fifth marriage, Anne was spoken of as “the old Queen, the King’s sister”.
Whatever others said of these startling events, Mary apparently said nothing. Not a single remark of hers is chronicled that might be an indication of her feelings on the fall of Cromwell. He had been her greatest foe, but had seemed in later years to befriend her, and she believed that she owed her father’s restored favour to his intercession. Whether he really aspired to her hand, and whether she knew of it, must remain one of the mysteries of the reign. That he had worked with Henry on her behalf is certain, and perhaps her fear of him was balanced by gratitude, a sentiment which Mary alone of all the Tudors seems to have cherished. Many of her appeals to Cromwell had been penned in charitable solicitude for servants of her own and her mother’s, for she never forgot a service rendered, and never hesitated to become importunate, where the welfare and comfort of her dependants were concerned. Among a number of such appeals is one of the year 1537, in which she desires him to have in remembrance “mine earnest suit made unto you for mistress Coke, my mother’s old servant, touching the farm of Rysbridge, belonging to the new college in Oxford, the warden whereof hath neither used you nor me, as I think gently therein. And therefore, as my sheet-anchor, next the king’s majesty, I recommend it wholly unto you, and even so beseech our Lord to send you no worse to fare than I would myself.”[246]
In December 1540, Henry married Katharine Howard, grand-daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, whose reputation was already so bad, that it is impossible to believe him to have been ignorant of it. She complained to Henry of not being treated by Mary with the same respect as she had shown to the two preceding Queens. An attempt was made about the same time to remove from the Princess’s household two of her maidservants, a petty piece of persecution which it was thought came from the new Queen’s hostility. Some means of conciliation was however found, and the two maids were allowed to remain, but this was not the only trouble of the kind, for Chapuys, writing to the Queen of Hungary, says that Mary is well in health, “though exceedingly distressed and sad, at the death of one of her damsels, who has actually died of grief at having been removed from her service by the King’s order”. Nevertheless, Mary had been too well schooled in adversity to indulge in resentment, and she sent Katharine a New Year’s present, with which Henry was much pleased, as well as with her present to him, and sent her messenger back to her with two magnificent gifts from himself and the Queen. She still contrived to hold herself aloof from the court, but the deposed Queen Anne seems to have had no such scruple, and Marillac gives a description of her New Year’s visit to the King and her rival, which is too amusing to be passed over. In a letter to Francis he says:—
“Sire, to omit nothing that may be written about this country, Madame Anne, sister of the Duke of Cleves formerly Queen of England, passed the recent festivities at Richmond, four miles from Hampton Court, to which place, the King and also the Queen sent her on the first day of the year rich presents of clothes, plate and jewels, valued at six or seven thousand crowns. And on the second day, she was summoned to appear at Hampton Court, where she was very honourably conducted by several of the nobility, and being arrived, this king received her very graciously as did also the queen, with whom she remained nearly the whole afternoon. They danced together, and seemed so happy that neither did the new queen appear to be jealous or afraid that the other had come to raise the siege, as it was rumoured, nor did the said lady of Cleves show any sign of discontent at seeing her rival in her place. Moreover, Sire, if it please you to hear the end of this farce, that evening and the next, the two ladies supped at the King’s table together, although the lady of Cleves sat a little backward in a corner, where the Princess of England, Madame Mary is wont to be; and the following day, the said lady of Cleves returned with the same escort to Richmond, where she is visited by all the personages of the court, which makes people think that she is about to be reinstated in her former position.”[247]