[5] In February 1547, when the news of the death of Henry VIII reached Italy, Thomas was at Bologna, where, in the course of a discussion with some Italian gentlemen, he defended the personal character and public policy of the deceased king.

There is a copy in the British Library bearing the title, II Pellegrino Inglese ne'l quale si defende l' innocente & la sincera vita de'l pio & religioso re d' Inghilterra Henrico ottauo.

He also wrote, but did not publish, an English version, to which he added a dedication to the Italian poet Pietro Aretino, and a copy of this, possibly in Thomas's own writing, is preserved among the Cottonian MSS.

It is not free from mistakes, but the Victorian historian James Anthony Froude wrote of it that it had "the accuracies and the inaccuracies" which might be naturally expected "in any account of a series of intricate events given by memory without the assistance of documents".

[7] From Bologna Thomas appears to have gone to Padua, whence on 3 February 1549 he forwarded to his "verie good friende Maister [John] Tamwoorth at Venice" an Italian primer which he had undertaken at his request.

This Tamworth showed to Sir Walter Mildmay, who, approving of it, "caused it to be put in printe",[8] under the title of Principal Rules of the Italian Grammer, with a Dictionarie for the better understandynge of Boccace, Petrarcha, and Dante, gathered into this tongue by William Thomas.

[1] On 19 April 1550, partly owing to his knowledge of modern languages, but chiefly perhaps for his defence of the late king, Thomas was appointed one of the clerks of the privy council, and was sworn in on the same day at Greenwich.

[14] The new clerk had "his fortunes to make",[15] and, though not a spiritual person, he 'greedily affected a certain good prebend of St. Paul's', which, doubtless at his instigation, the council on 23 June 1550 agreed to settle on him.

[19] These were in addition to a sum of £248 previously given him "by waie of rewarde", 7 January 1551[19] In April 1551 he was appointed member of the embassy which, with the Marquis of Northampton at its head, proceeded in June to the French king, to negotiate the marriage of Princess Elizabeth of France to Edward.

[21] The nature of this teaching may be gathered from a series of eighty-five questions drawn by Thomas for the king, and still preserved, along with a prefatory letter, in his own writing at the British Museum;[22] they were printed in Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials.

[29] He also dedicated to the king as "a poore newe yeres gift", probably in January 1551, an English translation from the Italian of Josaphat Barbaro's account of his voyages to the east, which had been first published in Venice in 1543.

[41] When, however, Thomas's own trial came on at the Guildhall on 8 May, he was found guilty of treason; and, on the 18th, was drawn upon a sled to Tyburn, where he was hanged, beheaded, and quartered, making "a right godly end",[42] saying at his death that "he died for his country".