#trivia + HF meme

[fideidefenswhore]

☕️ thomas cranmer (love your blog btw!!)

cheers!

cranmer was one of nine siblings, he had a sister that lobbied both mary i and reginald pole for his release, despite that her own religious beliefs were quite different to her brother's (it's been assumed that this was alice, his sister that was a nun, whom he later installed as prioress, but DM stated in his biography we cannot be certain of that)

a chaplain to bishop clerk of bath and wells said "he trusted to see the day his lord of canterbury would be burned" (1533)

catherine of aragon referred to him as "a shadow” 1534

the curate to one of catherine's chaplains referred to him as a "hostler" (a hostler was a man that took care of horses at an inn, the rumor of this origin seems to have come from his brief marriage that took place somewhere between 1515-1519, at which point he had to forfeit his fellowship and became the 'common reader at buckingham college', lost his housing at jesus college and lodged his wife joan at the dolphin inn)

hostile londoners hung up bundles of hay at his gates once he was ordained as an archbishop, in relation to the "hostler" rumor

he once said "of all sorts of men, i am daily informed that priests report the worst of me" (1534)

brought “revolutionary liturgical change” by “[asserting] in the text of his 1549 marriage service [....] that marriage could be ‘fun’”

after his first, half-hour interview with henry viii, referred to him in a letter to a friend as “the kindest of princes” (1527)

wolsey was fond enough, or admiring enough, of cranmer as a scholar and theologian to attempt to “tempt him from cambridge to cardinal college, oxford”

he was lodged at thomas boleyn’s residence at durham place by 1530 at the latest

anne boleyn was crowned and anointed by cranmer with the crown of st edward the confessor on whit sunday (1 june, 1533)

issued the marriage license for henry’s final marriage on 10 july, 1543 (”in any church, chapel, or oratory without the issue of banns”)

was godfather to both the future elizabeth i and edward vi

had a “fashionably elegant wardrobe”, including a “chammer (a rich gown that opened at the front) of scarlet faced with crimson satin”, “a gown of russet furred with lamb and faced with martens”, and “a short riding jacket of worsted linen with cotton”

mary i would not pay in full the bailiff’s reimbursment in the case of cranmer in her lifetime, the “faggots, stakes, and labour” that had gone into the burning of cranmer was an outstanding debt of the crown until the protestant bishops of elizabeth’s reign finally paid it in full ("the case is miserable, the debt is just”, wrote the regius professor of divinity to archbishop parker)

[fideidefenswhore]

☕️ + anne of cleves

Well, you’re probably aware of this if you’re tuned in to Tudor news anyway, but apparently she spent much more time in Hever than was previously thought! And added considerably to the development:

“The research also reveals Anne of Cleves’ significant contribution to the Castle after the lease was given to her as part of her divorce to Henry VIII. Previously it was believed that Thomas Boleyn added the Long Gallery, but Simon Thurley’s work brought to light that it was actually Anne of Cleves’ vision. Cleves also added the Staircase Gallery on the floor below, connecting the two wings of the house, and remodelled the ceiling in the Dining Hall. These significant additions demonstrate that Anne of Cleves clearly spent a lot more time at Hever Castle than has previously been accounted for.”

[fideidefenswhore]

☕️ + Catherine Parr ❤️

Parr continued to perform her maundy after Henry's death

Wrote that “Somerset ‘deferred’ answering her requests, a ‘lesson’ he learned from his wife, ‘for it is her custom to promise many comings to her friends and to perform none’”

Was “not a punctual payer” to her silkwoman

Margaret Douglas was trainbearer at Catherine’s wedding (1543)

Her father died of the plague when she was five years old

Described her conversion to Protestantism as one of her “stony, obstinate, intractable heart”

Wriothesley wrote of her: “for virtue, wisdom, and gentleness, most meet for his Highness, and I am sure his Majesty had never a wife more agreeable to his heart than she is”

During the year of her marriage to Henry, it was decided Mary should formally live at court and Elizabeth should live in Edward's household

Hosted the Duke of Najera in her presence chamber, sat under her cloth of estate “dressed from top to toe in cloth of gold”, “lightly sprinkled with diamonds and pearls” (1544)

Parr received Hanworth and houses at Chelsea and Mortlake in 1544

[fideidefenswhore]

☕️ + Thomas Cromwell

Was permitted to live in St James' Palace, after the death of Fitzroy, who had previously lived there (1536)

The first Master of the Revels (not an official title, persay, until 1544) had been a Cromwell protege (Cromwell, being, well, party king, means this adds up)

To wit: “ "Also of [Cromwell’s] housekeeping, it is showed me there is never an Englishman, the King's grace except, that doth keep and feast Englishmen and strangers as [he] do[es]." (1532)

Wolsey’s building projects early on (thereabouts 1515) were first run by Robert Cromwell, a cousin of Thomas (it’s possible this was the connection that introduced him into his service later on)

Once Henry took over York Place, Cromwell was the one that handled the transactions of buying up the neighbouring private properites.

Cromwell was Wolsey’s property lawyer, negotiating terms for his colleges at Ipswich and Oxford

Once he was made Master of the Jewel House (April 1533), set up shop in the Jewel House at the Tower near the Great Hall

Claimed his mother had him at 52, which...while possible, seems unlikely (the context of this claim is also Chapuys trying to convince him to get Henry to return to Catherine as his wife, and have children by her, very late in the game, 1534-5 iirc, so he might have just been humoring him)

Wrote an aide-memoir to himself “To show the King the patterns for the the embroidery for the Queen” (October 1533)

Led Henry and Anne through the royal lodgings of the Tower to check the progress made thus far, after their return from Calais (December 1532)

Had rooms at Greenwich 'to which the king can go by certain galleries without being perceived'

There was a shift in the structure of counsel after Cromwell's execution, from that point on Henry created two positions of Secretary of State, one who would stay with the Privy Council and the other to follow the King around the country.

Valor Ecclesiasticus was twenty-two volumes

Cromwell established the Court of Augmentations, an administrative oversight committe of sorts for the land and cash that came from the Church, it received £1.3 million in Henry's reign (not in today's money...but theirs)

Was appointed the King's principal secretary (1534)

Chapuys would report that he "stood above everyone except the Lady, and every one considers he has more credit with his master than Wolsey had” (1535)

The livery of his retainers was “of grey marble” (Lacey Baldwin-Smith referred to this as ‘an imitation of the aristocracy’, but actually, it seems to have been an imitation of Henry VIII specifically...’marble cloth’ was the livery issued to officers of the Privy Chamber, first noted 1527, last noted 1539, when they were worn for the first meeting with Anne of Cleves)