Hello, and welcome to the Renaissance English History podcast. I'm your host, Heather Tesco.

Last episode, I spoke about two of the four very important

Thomases in Henry the Eighth's political life, Thomas Woolsey and Thomas Moore. Today, I'll

talk about another two Thomases, Cromwell and Cranmer. These men were both influential advisors

to Henry, who would not only shape his political beliefs, but also the direction of the country.

Thomas Cromwell was born around 1485, and rose from poor beginnings to serve as Henry the 8th's chief minister from 1532 to 1540. Cromwell is most remembered for attempting to modernize

government at the expense of the privileges of the nobility and church, which made him

a lot of powerful enemies. He was one of the strongest advocates of Henry breaking away from

the Roman Catholic faith. After the King's supremacy

over the Church of England was declared by Parliament in 1534, Cromwell managed the church as

vicar general. Cromwell was born in Putney, and there are not many details of his early life. Before

1512, he was employed by the Frescobaldes,

a powerful Florentine merchant banker family in cloth dealings in the Netherlands. Documents from

archives of the Vatican City indicate that he was an agent for Cardinal Reginald Bainbridge

and handled English ecclesiastical issues before

the Papal Rota, which was the highest appellate tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church. Cromwell was

fluent in Latin, Italian, and French. After Bainbridge died in 1514, Cromwell returned to England.

He was employed by Cardinal Thomas Woolsey,

Chief Minister to Henry VIII, and placed in charge of ecclesiastical business, despite being a layman.

By 1519, he had married Elizabeth Wicks and had a son, Gregory, and two daughters, Anne and Grace,

who died of the plague in 1527, the same year as their mother.

After studying law, Cromwell became a member of the English Parliament in 1523 and continued

...