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unusual facts about Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex



Charles de Marillac

He is known to have sent dispatches back to France detailing events such as the king's first meeting with Anne of Cleves and the demise of Thomas Cromwell.

Christopher Barnewall

His father, a close associate of Thomas Cromwell, was a key figure in the Irish administration between about 1535 and 1542: initially opposed to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, he turned in time to profit handsomely, acquiring Grace Dieu in Dublin and Knocktopher in Kilkenny.

Christopher St Lawrence, 5th Baron Howth

He was on bad terms with the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Leonard Grey, 1st Viscount Grane, but evidently on good terms with Thomas Cromwell; Ball argues that a letter to Cromwell in 1537 concerning a lawsuit between Howth and the Archbishop of Dublin suggests that Cromwell thought highly of him.

Cornish Rebellion of 1497

The protagonist of the book, Thomas Cromwell, is a young boy in London during the panic caused by the approach of the rebels; he also remembers the events later in the book.

Earl of Essex

William Jennings Capell, a retired grocery clerk from Yuba City, California and distant cousin of the 11th Earl, is the heir presumptive to the Earldom of Essex.

The heir presumptive is the present holder's fourth cousin once-removed William Jennings Capell (b. 1952).

Elizabeth Boleyn, Lady Boleyn

In 1536 five women were appointed to serve Queen Anne while she was imprisoned in the Tower and to report to Sir William Kingston, the Lieutenant of the Tower, and through him to the King's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, all that the Queen said.

Elizabeth Southwell, Lady Cromwell

The Barony of Cromwell has a patent, granted in 1540 to Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell of Oakham (and his heirs male), son of Henry VIII's Minister Thomas Cromwell, after his father's fall and execution.

Elizabethan government

This appears true in the later section of her reign, post-Armada, when fractions led by the Earl of Essex, and the Cecils, argued over which way the war against Spain should proceed.

Fire in the Abyss

Numerous, as well as humorous, notable individuals from 16th century England populate this section, including Nick Udall, headmaster of Eton College, and Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief minister who was beheaded.

Francesco Geminiani

After a brief return to Lucca, in 1714, he set off for London, where he arrived with the reputation of a virtuoso violinist, and soon attracted attention and patrons, including William Capel, 3rd Earl of Essex, who remained a consistent patron.

Francis Darcy

In 1591 he served under the Earl of Essex at Rouen and was knighted at the siege of Rouen in that year.

Great Cefnyberen

He was Keeper of the Jewels to Henry VIII and was a close associate to Thomas Cromwell in the dissolution of the Monasteries and the sequestration of their property, becoming Treasurer of the Court of Augmentations.

John Bale

He obtained the living of Thorndon, Suffolk, but in 1534 was summoned before the Archbishop of York for a sermon against the invocation of saints preached at Doncaster, and afterwards before John Stokesley, Bishop of London, but he escaped through the powerful protection of Thomas Cromwell, whose notice he is said to have attracted by his miracle plays.

John Colicos

He also gave memorable performances in 1966 in The Secret Storm, as the unscrupulous Thomas Cromwell in the 1969 film version of Anne of the Thousand Days and as the governor of Umakran in the episode "The Goddess Calabra" from the 1973 TV show The Starlost.

John Fillian

Very few of his engravings exist, notably a portrait of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, published by P. Stent in 1658, a good work; a portrait of his master, Faithorne, from a drawing by himself; a copy of J. Payne's portrait of Paracelsus; ‘Dr. Michael,’ after Guido Reni; and the frontispiece to P. Heylyn's ‘Cosmography,’ published in 1669.

John Norreys

Some of his troops transferred to the Earl of Essex's force in Normandy, and Norreys' campaign proved so indecisive that he left for England in February 1592 and did not return to Brittany until September 1593, when he seized the great fortress of Crozon outside Brest, defended by 200 Spanish troops.

John Robartes, 1st Earl of Radnor

He is said by some, especially William Sanderson, to have persuaded the Earl of Essex to make his ill-fated march into Cornwall in 1644; he escaped with the earl from Fowey after the defeat of the parliamentary army in the first days of September 1644.

Lostwithiel Stannary Palace

In September 1644 AD, the English Civil War was at its height and the town of Lostwithiel was taken by the Earl of Essex who made it his headquarters.

Lower Catesby

Thomas Cromwell's commissioners inspected the priory in September 1535 and May 1536, and reported that the prioress and her nine nuns were of good faith and blameless character.

Miler Magrath

While at court he accused Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley of treason, with the "most indecent and contumelious words", and Lee's cousin, Thomas Lee (a captain in the Irish service who was later hanged for his involvement with the coup attempt of the Earl of Essex), wrote to Cecil seeking the opportunity to meet the charges.

Municipal Borough of Wimbledon

A black double headed eagle refers to the legend that Julius Caesar once made camp on the common, a sheaf of corn is borrowed from the arms of the Cecil family and the two Cornish Choughs above the crown are taken from the arms of Thomas Cromwell.

Myles Coverdale

He returned to England in 1539, living briefly in Newbury, but on the execution of Thomas Cromwell (who had been his friend and protector since 1527) in 1540, he was compelled again to go into exile and lived for a time at Tübingen where he received the Doctorate of Divinity, and, between 1543 and 1547, was a pastor and schoolmaster at Bergzabern (now Bad Bergzabern) in the Electorate of the Palatinate, and very poor.

Principal Solicitor for Ireland

The office was apparently created on the initiative of Thomas Cromwell in 1537, in an effort to heal the Barnewall-Cowley feud, which he saw as weakening the position of the Crown in Ireland.

Ralph Sadler

Sadler is one of the major characters in Hilary Mantel's 2009 novel Wolf Hall, which gives a fictional portrayal of Sadler's youth and early manhood in the household of Thomas Cromwell.

Rewley Abbey

Abbot Nicholaus Austen, early in 1536, offered Thomas Cromwell £100 to save the monastery if only by converting it into a college, (fn. 20) but it was useless, and Abbot Nicholas was pensioned off and retired to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, to study.There is a Catholic Priest who has the title of Abbot of Rewley Abbey.

Robert Sempill, 4th Lord Sempill

On 12 December 1595 he wrote to the Earl of Essex from Rouen, with this uncertain but "constant bruit", saying that he would come to London and kiss Queen Elizabeth and the Earl's hands.

Sir William Shelley

He was hostile to the Protestant Reformation, and is said to have suffered from Thomas Cromwell's antipathy; but his name appears in important state trials of the period: in that of the Carthusian monks and John Fisher (1535), of Weston, Norris, Lord Rochford, and Anne Boleyn (May 1536), and Sir Geoffrey Pole, Sir Edward Neville, and Sir Nicholas Carew (1538–9).

St Augustine's Tower Hackney

In Tudor times, many members of the court used the church, including Ralph Sadleir (Bryck Place), Thomas Sutton (The Tan House), Thomas Cromwell and the Earl of Northumberland (Brooke House).

Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton

Southampton is a character in Hilary Mantel's novels on Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, (nicknamed Call-Me Risley for the pronunciation of the family name), and in Margaret George's novel, The Autobiography of Henry VIII

Viscount Palmerston

His son Sir William Temple (1555–1627) was secretary to Sir Philip Sidney and the Earl of Essex and afterwards provost of Trinity College, Dublin.

Watford tube station

Their ambition to drive a tunnel under Cassiobury Park, recently purchased by the borough council from the Earl of Essex, was opposed by local politicians.

Whitefriars, Bristol

Writing to Thomas Cromwell in 1538, Richard Yngworth, one of the commissioners or visitors charged with inspecting monastic houses, reported that the contents of the friary only just met the debts owed by the friars.


see also