#i think complicity is often conflated with...how to say...friendliness ? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fideidefenswhore · 4 months ago

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I just finished reading The Mirror and the Light, and wanted to know your opinion on the dynamic portrayed between Cromwell and Wyatt. Why do you think it was written in the way it was? It seemed like he didn't blame him at all for Anne's death.

Mm, I mean...cynically, that was a cynical approach (the only person the text even suggests, that seems to believe Anne's death wasn't deserved, was Cranmer). I don't think it's made explicit, really.

Beyond the evidence of their professional relationship, it's likely that the Spanish Chronicle was the inspiration (selective...inspiration...since the report from the same source that Cromwell tortured Smeaton is rather derisively dismissed):

Amongst all these gentlemen he noticed Master Wyatt, the gentleman who had been imprisoned for the affair of Queen Anne ; and he called him, and said, "Oh, gentle Wyatt, good-bye, and pray to God for me." There was always great friendship between these two, and Wyatt could not answer him for tears.

#anon #the spanish chronicle #there is the letter from wyatt's father to cromwell thanking him; of course #but that doesn't necessarily mean that wyatt's personal feelings towards cromwell were...warm.#or vice versa #yes he was released; but so was francis bryan; and i don't think bryan's personal feelings towards cromwell were necessarily warm either #particularly in regards to the downfall of his friends in the exeter conspiracy #i think complicity is often conflated with...how to say...friendliness ?#like geoffrey pole was complicit also. i don't think this meant that he regarded cromwell warmly .#it means they made the calculation that to cooperate with a person of great influence and power was in their own best self interest #no more and no less

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