biography
| name: |
Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of Essex
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (c.1485–1540)
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| biography:
| English statesman, born in London, known as malleus monachorum, ‘the hammer of the monks’. He served as a soldier on the European mainland (1504–12), then entered Wolsey's service in 1514, and became his agent and secretary. He arranged Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragón, and put into effect the Act of Supremacy (1534) and the dissolution of the monasteries (1536–9). He became privy councillor (1531), Chancellor of the Exchequer (1533), secretary of state and Master of the Rolls (1534), vicar-general (1535), Lord Privy Seal and Baron Cromwell of Oakham (1536), Knight of the Garter and Dean of Wells (1537), Lord Great Chamberlain (1539), and finally Earl of Essex (1540). In each of his offices, he proved himself a highly efficient administrator and adviser to the king; but Henry's aversion to Anne of Cleves, consort of Cromwell's choosing, led to his ruin. He was sent to the Tower and beheaded. |
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