Thomas Cromwell [Child 171]

DESCRIPTION: (Someone) makes a request of (the King), who offers anything short of his crown. The petitioner asks the head of Thomas Cromwell. The king orders the earls of Derby and Shrewsbury to fetch Cromwell and have him executed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: trial execution royalty nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 10, 1540 - Arrest of Thomas, Lord Cromwell at the order of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk.
July 28, 1540 - Execution of Cromwell by Henry VIII. (His fifth wife Katherine Howard, the Duke of Norfolk's niece, is said to have put him up to it)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 171, "Thomas Cromwell" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 127-129, "Thomas Lord Cromwell" (1 fragment)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 55
Roud #4002
NOTES [273 words]: According to David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio. And even that copy is only a fragment. There is a ballad in Percy's Reliques called "On Thomas Lord Cromwell," but it is not the same piece.
Cromwell (c. 1487-1540) was one of Henry VIII's chief ministers; he held power for many years as a result of his willingness to serve his master's needs. As such, he was one of the main forces behind the Anglican Revolution (though Cromwell probably didn't have strong feelings on the issue either way).
Born in obscurity, he entered Wolsey's service in 1514, and grew steadily in important and influence thereafter, being elected to parliament in 1523, then entering Henry's service in 1530. Among his productions was the 1534 Act of Supremacy (making the King of England head of the English church).
Made Earl of Essex in 1540, he arranged Henry's marriage with Anne of Cleves (wife #4); when this marriage proved an instant disaster, Henry sent him to the tower. Catherine Howard (wife #5) and her family probably helped secure his execution -- indeed, Hales and Furnivall suggest that she is the person who denounced Cromwell as the traitor (the song says that the person who asks for Cromwell's head is female, although she is not named in the surviving portion). But Hales and Furnivall also note that the fragment is inaccurate.
Ironically, Cromwell's great-great-nephew Oliver Cromwell would later pull down a King (though Charles I, of course, was not a descendent of Henry VIII). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C171

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