The Ascent of a King’s Man

The 1530s marked a pivotal decade in English history, where religious reformation and royal marital drama intertwined to reshape the nation. At the center stood Thomas Cromwell, whose meteoric rise from Wolsey’s protege to Henry VIII’s chief minister by 1536 seemed unstoppable. Having entered royal service in 1530, Cromwell masterfully navigated the treacherous waters of Tudor politics, engineering legislative reforms that would permanently alter England’s religious landscape. His influence reached unprecedented heights as he persuaded Parliament to pass revolutionary acts consolidating the break from Rome while maintaining the king’s unwavering favor.

This period also witnessed the dramatic decline of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second queen. Despite brief moments of triumph, her position remained precarious after failing to deliver the promised male heir—only producing the future Elizabeth I in 1533, followed by at least two devastating miscarriages. By early 1536, however, renewed hope emerged when Anne announced another pregnancy, coinciding with the death of her formidable rival, Catherine of Aragon, on January 7.

A Court Divided: The Death of Catherine and Its Aftermath

Catherine’s passing removed a persistent obstacle for both Cromwell and Anne. As Henry’s first wife and aunt to Emperor Charles V, she had symbolized resistance to the royal supremacy and garnered widespread public sympathy. Cromwell’s gleeful correspondence with Bishop Gardiner revealed his relief, subtly referencing Catherine’s “sin” in marrying her brother-in-law—the theological justification for annulling her marriage. Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys, however, suspected foul play, noting Catherine’s sudden illness after consuming Welsh ale and the suspicious circumstances of her autopsy, which allegedly revealed a blackened heart.

Though poisoning rumors frequently surrounded high-profile deaths, Chapuys’ insinuations against Cromwell gained traction among contemporaries and later historians. The minister’s own 1534 threat—that the deaths of Catherine and her daughter Mary would resolve England’s disputes with Charles V—lent credence to these suspicions. Yet modern medical analysis suggests Catherine’s symptoms align with cancer, the same illness that would claim Mary years later.

Anne’s Precarious Position and the Seymour Intrigue

Anne’s initial jubilation at Catherine’s death proved short-lived. On January 29—the very day of Catherine’s funeral—she suffered a catastrophic miscarriage of a male fetus. Chapuys reported Henry’s bitter remark that “God would not give him male children,” while Anne allegedly blamed her husband’s infatuation with Jane Seymour for the tragedy. The king’s visible withdrawal from Anne signaled her impending doom.

Cromwell, ever the political pragmatist, began distancing himself from the queen he had helped crown. Their alliance, always uneasy due to Anne’s disdain for his lowborn status, fractured over the dissolution of smaller monasteries. Anne opposed redirecting monastic wealth to the crown rather than charitable causes, while Cromwell saw her as an obstacle to his reform agenda. The rupture became public on April 2 (Good Friday 1536), when Anne’s almoner John Skip delivered a thinly veiled attack comparing Cromwell to the villainous Haman from the Book of Esther.

The Conservative Counterattack and Cromwell’s Gambit

Recognizing Anne’s vulnerability, Cromwell aligned with conservative factions led by Nicholas Carew, who sought to replace Anne with the more pliable Jane Seymour. This unlikely alliance—between lowborn reformer Cromwell and aristocratic traditionalists—highlighted the minister’s ruthless adaptability. Carew strategically housed Jane at his Surrey estate, where Henry could discreetly visit, while encouraging Princess Mary to “be of good cheer” for her enemies’ downfall.

Simultaneously, Cromwell pursued a pro-Imperial foreign policy against Henry’s balancing act between France and the Habsburgs. His secret meetings with Chapuys in April 1536—where he allegedly vowed to “lose his head” rather than harm Charles V’s interests—ended disastrously when Henry publicly rebuked both men. This episode revealed the limits of Cromwell’s power: for all his influence, he remained the king’s servant, not his master.

The Machinery of Downfall

By late April, Cromwell moved decisively against Anne. Exploiting Henry’s obsession with Jane Seymour and Anne’s diminishing favor, he orchestrated charges of adultery, incest, and treason against the queen. Key evidence came from Mark Smeaton, a court musician tortured into confession, and the coerced testimonies of Anne’s own brother George Boleyn and courtiers Henry Norris and Francis Weston.

The speed of Anne’s demise—arrested May 2, tried May 15, executed May 19—testified to Cromwell’s ruthless efficiency. Her death cleared the path for Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour on May 30, just eleven days after the execution. Cromwell’s triumph, however, contained the seeds of his eventual downfall: having demonstrated how easily a queen could be destroyed, he had also established a precedent that would haunt him when his own favor waned in 1540.

Legacy of Revolution

Cromwell’s 1536 campaign against Anne Boleyn marked both the apex of his power and a turning point in English history. The dissolution of monasteries redistributed vast wealth while eroding medieval religious structures. The establishment of royal supremacy over the Church of England reshaped national identity. Yet his methods—show trials, engineered evidence, and the manipulation of Henry’s paranoia—created a template for Tudor political destruction that would ultimately consume Cromwell himself.

Modern scholarship continues to debate Cromwell’s motivations: was he a principled reformer, a Machiavellian opportunist, or something in between? His correspondence reveals a man deeply invested in Protestant theology yet unflinching in service to his mercurial king. The 1536 crisis exemplifies this duality—a year where Cromwell simultaneously advanced revolutionary change and participated in the judicial murder of a queen, all while navigating the capricious tides of Henry VIII’s court.