[5][6][7] Gregory's father Thomas Cromwell rose from obscurity to become the chief minister of Henry VIII, who attempted to modernize government at the expense of the privileges of the nobility and church.

In his report to his former pupil, Dowes noted that "your comaundemente hath fully persuaded me you to be nott a litle desyrous to receyve knowledge after what sorte he behaved himselfe, aswell concernyng his Recantation, as also the reste of thinges conteyned in his saide Sermon.

[61] Vives' devotional work, The Introduction to Wisdom, a companion piece to the Instruction, was translated into English by Sir Richard Morison in 1540 and dedicated to the son of Thomas Cromwell.

[64] In a letter to Thomas Cromwell, Henry Dowes, Gregory's preceptor, details how his son studied French, Latin, English, accounting, music and Roman and Greek history.

"[67] At that time, young children practised reading from religious texts, the primer, containing the Paternoster, Ave Maria, Creed and other common prayers and liturgical works like the antiphonal and the psalter.

Henry Dowes wrote to Cromwell in September 1534[69] explaining that he had used every effort to advance Gregory in his studies, but "forcause summer was spent in the service of the wild gods, it is so much to be regarded after what fashion youth is brought up".

Dowes reported to Cromwell in September 1535, that his son "for his recreation he useth to hawke and hunte, and shote in his long bowe, which frameth and succedeth so well with hime that he semeth to be therunto given by nature.

[74] It is evident that Cromwell's son was a capable scholar, who besides mastering Latin, French and accounting, had learned to play the lute and virginals and excelled in the outdoor pursuits of riding, hunting with the longbow and hawking.

Sir Arthur Darcy had written to her on 15 June, regretting his loss: "If I do tarry here in the country, I would have been glad to have had you likewise, but sure it is, as I said, that some southern lord shall make you forget the North.

[81][82] Historian Derek Wilson has observed that in marrying his son Gregory to the then queen's younger sister, Thomas Cromwell became "related by marriage to the king, an event well worth recording for posterity by a portrait of his daughter-in-law.

[98] Shortly after the baptism, Gregory and his wife left for Lewes in Sussex, arriving with a large retinue at the former Cluniac Priory of St Pancras,[115] recently acquired by Thomas Cromwell.

He describes his impressions at the first sight of Calais, how he has seen the castle and the blockhouses and other fortresses and recounts the delights of the feasting, entertainments and jousting while waiting for Henry VIII's new bride.

[131][132][133][134] Gregory also wrote to his wife from Calais, addressing her as his "loving bedfellow", describing the arrival of Anne of Cleves, and requesting news "as well of yourself as also my little boys, of whose increase and towardness be you assured I am not a little desirous to be advertised.

When she came to the Lantern Gate, she stayed and viewed the king's ships, the Lion and the Sweepstake, decked with 100 banners of silk and gold, wherein were 200 master gunners and mariners and 31 trumpets, "and a double drum that was never seen in England before"; and so her Grace entered into Calais.

The high winds and rough seas continued until Saturday the 27th, when the weather was favourable for the crossing and Anne of Cleves finally arrived in England, landing at Deal, in Kent.

They were led by a forest of pike-men, bowmen and gunners in the thousands, and followed by weaponry drawn on carts, moving through the city to parade past Henry VIII at Westminster.

[149] In March, during a virtual witch-hunt against 'heretical' preachers by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, Gregory Cromwell requested Henry Dowes to write a letter detailing the recantation of William Jerome, Vicar of Stepney.

Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, a traditionalist conservative, was determined to destroy his arch-enemy, Cromwell, by accusing him of supporting heretical preachers, thereby undoing his programme of religious reforms.

At the same time, Cromwell's political rival and religious conservative, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, who had pushed hard for the Act of Six Articles to be passed in Parliament, was rising in favour and fast becoming a threat.

"[166][167][168] Thomas Cromwell was arrested suddenly at a council meeting at 3.00 p.m. on the afternoon of 10 June 1540, on trumped-up charges of treason and heresy, taken to the Tower of London and his possessions seized.

The Duke of Norfolk having reproached him with some "villennyes" done by him, snatched off the order of St George which he bore on his neck, and the Lord High Admiral, to show himself as great an enemy in adversity as he had been thought a friend in prosperity, untied the Garter.

It is highly probable that Elizabeth's brother, Edward Seymour, then Earl of Hertford, interceded with the king on the couple's behalf, gave them advice, and provided them with a place to live, and that Sir Ralph Sadler was secretly sending news to Gregory about his father.

Gregory's marriage to Elizabeth—the sister of the late Queen Jane and his connection to Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, now a favourite of Henry VIII—may have afforded him a degree of protection from the King's wrath.

[7][188] In July 1540, fearing for her family's future security, Elizabeth wrote the following letter of submission to Henry VIII: "After the bounden duty of my most humble submission unto your excellent majesty, whereas it hath pleased the same, of your mere mercy and infinite goodness, notwithstanding the heinous trespasses and most grievous offences of my father-in-law, yet so graciously to extend your benign pity towards my poor husband and me, as the extreme indigence and poverty wherewith my said father-in-law's most detestable offences hath oppressed us, is thereby right much holpen and relieved, like as I have of long time been right desirous presently as well to render most humble thanks, as also to desire continuance of the same your highness' most benign goodness.

[193] Richard Hilles, a merchant, wrote in a letter dated 28 February 1541, "some think it was a like artifice in the King to confer his title and many of his domains while he was yet in prison upon his son Gregory, who was almost a fool, in order that he might the more readily confess his offences at execution.

For hap away hath rentOf all my joy the very bark and rind:And I, alas, by chance am thus assign'dDaily to mourn, till death do it relent.But since that thus it is by destiny,What can I more but have a woful heart;My pen in plaint, my voice in careful cry,My mind in woe, my body full of smart;And I myself, myself always to hate,Till dreadful death do ease my doleful state.Sir Thomas WyattAt the time of his arrest in 1540, Thomas Cromwell was one of the wealthiest landowners in England.

[210][211] Marillac wrote to Montmorency that Thomas Wyatt "was led to the Tower so bound and fettered that one must think ill, for the custom is to lead them to prison free" noting that it "must be some great matter for he has for enemies all who leagued against Cromwell, whose minion he was.

[214][215] Sadler must have provided some very persuasive evidence to his interrogators in the Tower, sufficient not only to secure his own release, but enough to convince the King to question his late chief minister's fate.

In Wolf Hall, a novel by Hilary Mantel, which offers a sympathetic portrayal of the rise of Thomas Cromwell, Gregory is depicted as a childlike, slightly inept but lovable young man.

[245] In Bring Up the Bodies, Mantel's acclaimed sequel to Wolf Hall, the portrayal is of a young man coming of age with confidence – still naïve, but with potential; he is played in the BBC television adaptation by Tom Holland.