December 21: Christmas with the Cromwells
Thank you so much to author Caroline Angus for contributing our Tudor treat today. Cromwell and Christmas, a winning combination!
Thomas Cromwell’s enduring personal legacy is the image of a dour, black-clad administrator. People are regularly quick to lay the blame at the feet of this polymath, keen to find a scapegoat for crimes and decisions made by the less-rational nobility. For all Thomas Cromwell’s many qualities, of being exceedingly intelligent, plainspoken, admired, charismatic, and enigmatic, what he also had was a thriving private life and family outside the royal court. Time and bitterness meant that much of Cromwell’s life has been destroyed but surviving accounts from later in life give an insight to how Thomas Cromwell and his family, natural and adopted, celebrated the season.
By the time Cromwell entered royal court, he had only one surviving legitimate child, Gregory, and his illegitimate daughter Jane was born around the same time as Cardinal Wolsey’s death in 1530, a decade after her half-brother. While Cromwell did all he could so his son could be a successful and wealthy young man, it was Richard Cromwell, his nephew born to his sister Katherine, who routinely took top spot in Cromwell’s affections. Richard was the son any man could wish for; talented, loyal, capable, and supportive. Occupying the third spot as a son was Ralph Sadler. Richard and Ralph were born just a few years apart, and grew up with Cromwell as a second father, both boys taking full advantage of their good fortune. Ralph and Richard’s fathers worked with Cromwell for Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset in the 1510s and 1520s, and the Cromwell family consisted of a tight-knit group of friends and extended relatives.
This closeness was equally reflected in Christmas celebrations in the wide Cromwell household. The year 1536 could be seem like a disaster for Cromwell, having to behead his queen and suffer the wrath of the Pilgrimage of Grace, yet they all still took time to celebrate the season. The relatives and friends in the Cromwell household all shared a love for jewellery, particular gold, which were shared among the favourite members of family and court. Christmas celebrations usually began preparation in late November, with household and royal staff preparing items, with Cromwell’s favourite falconers organising birds to be sent between manors or given as luxurious gifts, his favorite jeweller John in Antwerp was laden with tasks and Hans Holbein received a list of miniatures to paint, being paid £37 (or £15,000 today) in early 1538 on delivery of a series of miniatures of Cromwell and his sons.
Cromwell had to spend festive seasons at Greenwich with the king (and whatever queen he had at the time) but would take barges between court and his homes for private celebrations. December was spent at Austin Friars in London, before the family migrated to Cromwell’s manor at Stepney in time for Christmas and the epiphany in early January. Gifts would come and go, many from the Sadler household in later years, and the season would last through until mid-February for Candlemas, where Cromwell would hold a party at court for the king, bringing in dancers and singers for masques (in which Cromwell participated) for the king’s entertainment. But Christmas and New Year were a family affair, with Cromwell’s nephews and niece, the Williams brothers Richard, Walter and Gregory, and with Wellyfed children Christopher, William and Alice would be be given gifts and would travel home for the season. Between the parties, lavished with porpoise centerpieces, capons, oranges and apples, fish, venison and specially ordered and prepared puddings of marzipan, the Cromwell family generally received gifts of money from their uncle and friend, particularly the Wellyfed trio, who were constantly making monetary requests. With surrogate sons Ralph Sadler and Richard Cromwell successful by the 1530s, they no longer needed Cromwell’s assistance, but teenaged Gregory was regularly bestowed with sumptuous clothing, infinite capes, shoes and jewellery, plus horses, harnesses, and saddles. Once Gregory married Elizabeth Seymour in August 1537, she too was spoiled with jewellery, gowns, and money, as was Cromwell’s young daughter Jane, who lived with Elizabeth at Mortlake, Lewes, or Leeds Castle.
Thomas Cromwell also liked giving to his friends at Christmas. Many men claimed to be an agent for Cromwell, though only a few attendants could honestly be called a favourite. Thomas Avery, Thomas Thacker, Stephen Vaughan, Thomas Wriothesley, Brian Tuke, Richard Pollard and John Gostwick were the ones to call themselves personally close to their master, all receiving gifts among the myriad Cromwell gave out at home and court. Hundreds of pounds worth of gold and silver were offered as gifts, including many magnificent silver spoons with the Cromwell arms would go out every season, along with gold cups for King Henry and Princess Mary without fail every season, along with velvet purses filled with gold for the often-exiled royal daughter. Cromwell would think nothing of spending £300 (or £130,000 today) on gifts of spoons, chains, and brooches at court. He held parties in his court rooms and at his homes, and was known for his spectacularly bad gambling skills, regularly losing more than £30 (£25,000) in a single session of dice or cards, often to Edward Seymour.
Thomas Cromwell may have cut a figure of a man in black, stalking the halls of court and parliament, making enemies in every direction, but the homes of the Cromwell extended family was one of faithfulness, revelries, amusements, and a garden filled with games between beavers, falcons, elk, canaries, dozens of adored spaniels and even a leopard. International diplomacy carried on through festive seasons alongside royal household members laughing and betting against games of ten-pin bowling in the Austin Friars garden. Cromwell and dear ally Thomas Cranmer could be hard at work on the English bible alongside visits from Cromwell’s plethora of godchildren. The man in black at court would be wearing bright coats of vibrant purple, forest greens or shining yellows, and his closest friends and servants constantly received increasingly sophisticated and rich uniforms. Cromwell’s separate and cheerful home life could well have been the thing that kept him grounded at the royal court, filled with alliances based on the grasp for power, and endless letters of sycophantic flattery. Cromwell’s life was content long before royal life came calling, and Cromwell continued to support his friends after fortune beckoned, and the few precious surviving accounts show an insight to the luxurious festive seasons of an often-overlooked family.
The Private Life of Thomas Cromwell will be released in 2022. My Hearty Commendations, the Letters and Remembrances of Thomas Cromwell is available now, along with the Thomas Cromwell Queenmaker fictional series.
Caroline Angus is a New Zealand-based author raising four sons. Caroline studied History at Universitat de València, Spain, spending ten years dedicated to the Spanish Civil War and the resulting dictatorship. Caroline went on to study with King's College London, specialising in Shakespeare and British royal history.
After a decade of writing fiction, including the Secrets of Spain series, focusing on the lives of Valencian interviewees between 1939 - 1975, and the more recent Queenmaker Trilogy, eleven years of Thomas Cromwell and his fictional attendant Nicòla Frescobaldi, Caroline is now creating non-fiction works on the surviving papers of Thomas Cromwell.