Thomas Cromwell & Me

A few weeks ago I finished Wolf Hall, a door-stopper sized book (and Booker Prize Winner) by Hilary Mantel. It took me awhile to read, but it was one of the best books I've read in the past six months, or ever. It tells of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief minister for 8 years, and one of his most trusted advisors. Cromwell grew up the son of a poor blacksmith who beat him, and he was one of the very few members of the court without an illustrious lineage. He was smart, canny, and knew how to choose the winning side--although he worked for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey for many years (and liked him), after Wolsey's fall and death he allied himself with the Protestant cause, and agitated for Anne Boleyn to become queen.

What I like about Thomas Cromwell is that while he was a go-getter he also cared about his family and even his enemies--Mantel plays up the differences between Thomas More and Cromwell, and you get a real sense of his remorse when More is executed. A scene from Cromwell's childhood where he witnesses a Loller being burned at the stake will stick with me for a very long time. Cromwell was also fluent in French, Italian, and Latin, and had many friends in Antwerp. He did some shady work in Italy after fleeing his father, and he had military training. He liked pets and children and treated them respectfully. He consorted with ambassadors, painters, astronomers, and kings. This was a person who lived. Mantel is very good at giving the reader a sense of 17th century England, and the mannerisms of the court, the clergy, and the common folk--from the bitter Duke of Norfolk to the heretic nun.

I found myself at the Frick Collection recently, and turning a corner, I saw the portrait of Thomas More by Hans Holbein, to the left of the fireplace. I was excited, as I know a bit more about him now, but my excitement grew as I looked to the other side of the fireplace and there he was: Cromwell.

(Thomas More, 1527) (Thomas Cromwell, 1532-33)
Both works by Hans Holbein, and both images from the Frick Collection Online.

Here is part of the description from Wolf Hall, discussing the portrait:
"He sees his painted hand, resting on the desk before him, holding a paper in a loose fist. It is uncanny, as if he had been pulled apart, to look at himself in sections, digit by digit. Hans made his skin smooth as the skin of a courtesan, but the motion he has captured, that folding of the fingers, is as sure as that of a slaughterman's when he picks up the killing knife...He had time to think while Hans drew him, and his thoughts took him far off, to another country. You cannot trace those thoughts behind his eyes.
He had asked to be painted in his garden. Hans said, the very notion makes me sweat. Can we keep it simple, yes?"
(Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel, p. 430)

This gave me pause--imagine that you used a mirror occasionally, but your main sense of personal appearance came from what others said about you (in Cromwell's case, that he looked like a murderer.) And suddenly, you have been painted and you are looking at yourself, really looking, for the first time. What an odd experience that must have been. In a way, Cromwell looks, well, ordinary, especially compared to More's green curtain and royal chain, not to mention the velvet sleeves. The turquoise ring was bequeathed to him by Wolsey, and it is his only ornamentation. The furnishings are wealthy, to be sure, but more in the realm of a prosperous merchant, and not the right hand man of the king.

The Frick does not have wall labels, so you listen to the descriptions and information about the works on free audio guides. I held it to my ear, and heard much about Cromwell's reforming spirit, when suddenly came this phrase: "executed in 1540." I had no idea, as Wolf Hall finishes in 1535. I gasped, audibly enough that a guard came over and asked if I was ok. A deep sense of loss, one that I really was not expecting, came over me, for a man who worked so hard and did so much, whose wife and daughters died of the plague, whose enemies fought him and connived and finally entrapped him. Henry VIII approved his execution mainly because Cromwell orchestrated the marriage to Anne of Cleves, who Henry refused to copulate with, and which resulted in some messy alliance-making stuff. Henry claimed to his death that he was remorseful for Cromwell's killing, which I can just about believe--the impression I got from the book was that Henry VIII really did admire and respect him...but kings can be changeable.

Thomas Cromwell was anything but simple. He lives on, and for one short moment on a sunny Thursday afternoon, I saw him in his study, surrounded by his books, shuffling his papers, with his sons and apprentices shouting outside. He straightens his back, pulls tighter his fur-lined coat, jokes with Hans, and goes out to face whatever comes.