Cromwell and Cranmer were two of the most pivotal figures in the English Reformation, working together to lay the legal and theological foundations of the Church of England. While Henry VIII often takes the spotlight, it was Cromwell and Cranmer who, behind the scenes, implemented the critical reforms that would forever change English religious life.
Cromwell, with his sharp political maneuvering, and Cranmer, with his deep theological insights, formed an unlikely but effective partnership. However, when Cromwell fell from grace in 1540, it was Cranmer who risked everything to defend him, demonstrating a remarkable act of loyalty.
This story of Cromwell and Cranmer reveals the depth of their relationship and their enduring influence on the course of English history.
Transcript of Cromwell & Cranmer: Acts of Loyalty:
Today, we’re going to talk about the relationship between Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell. This is another kind of Wolf Hall-adjacent video. Last night in the U.S. was the finale of The Mirror and the Light on PBS. This was actually the second time I’ve watched it—I saw it when it aired in the U.K. in the fall and did a whole series of Wolf Hall reaction videos, which you can check out.
So yes, this was my second time watching it, and I cried a lot the first time. I cried again this time. There’s just something about the pacing and the way it builds up. That ending, showing all of the different activities and reactions—Katherine Howard getting dressed in her wedding gown, Princess Mary’s look of mild disgust, Rafe Sadler crying and having his breakdown, even Call-Me-Risley was having a hard time. Just all of these people reacting as Cromwell is being led to the scaffold—it gets you.
One thing I realized the last time I did those reaction videos is that I haven’t talked a whole lot about the relationship between Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell. These two men were really the architects of Henrician Reformation—Henry’s break with Rome. One laid down the legal framework, and the other the theological one.
In the finale, they show Cranmer writing a letter in support of Cromwell. Cromwell is actually kind of surprised by it—he says it’s about as good as he could have hoped for. The show does a great job illustrating the support Cranmer gave Cromwell at the end and his emotional reaction. So I thought I’d take a few minutes to talk about these two men and how Thomas Cranmer reacted to Thomas Cromwell’s arrest and execution. Let’s get into that.
When people think about the English Reformation, they usually picture Henry VIII, who was of course larger th an life. But behind him stood two much quieter men who, in their own way, did more than anyone else to actually build the new Church of England.
And that would be Cromwell and Cranmer—the two Thomases. I think I did an episode very early on in my podcast, I think it was around episode seven or something from 2009, and it was called A Tale of Two Thomases: Cranmer and Cromwell. I think I did another one, A Tale of Two Thomases: Part Two, and it was Wolsey and More.
Anyway, Cromwell and Cranmer—the two Thomases. These men didn’t start off as natural allies. Cromwell came from the rough streets of Putney, the son of a brewer or a blacksmith, depending on who you asked. He made his way up through the hard school of European mercenary camps, merchant banking, and then legal work.
Cranmer, by contrast, was a Cambridge scholar—mild, bookish, and very cautious by nature. Their paths first really crossed in the 1530s during Henry’s increasingly desperate efforts to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, so, very early 1530s, Cranmer—who had been involved in theological studies about marriage and divorce—caught Henry’s eye when he proposed using university scholars to back up Henry’s case instead of relying on the Pope.
Cromwell, who was already working under Cardinal Wolsey and then directly for Henry after Wolsey’s fall, saw Cranmer’s usefulness immediately. They weren’t close friends—they didn’t spend evenings drinking together or playing cards—but they trusted each other’s judgment. And more importantly, they needed each other.
Cromwell could manipulate Parliament and the law to force through the changes Henry wanted. Cranmer could give those changes the religious cover—he was the theological side of things. They shared something even deeper: they shared a belief that England needed religious reform, and that it had to happen carefully if it was going to survive Henry’s unpredictable moods.
The English Reformation wasn’t something that happened with a lightning strike. You didn’t just go to bed one night and wake up the next morning Protestant. It took decades—four monarchs, actually. You could make a case that even the English Civil War was a continuation of the Protestant Reformation in England.
And there were phases. There was the first phase with Cromwell and Cranmer—and that’s what we’re going to talk about. Then there was the Elizabethan Settlement, the Counter-Reformation under Mary I, and Edward’s Protestant moves. So, it happened in multiple stages. It was a very dynamic process. It didn’t just happen overnight.
Cromwell and Cranmer were behind nearly all of the initial steps in the 1530s. Cromwell was Henry’s Vicegerent in Spirituals—the man put in charge of church affairs. He handled the dirty work: forcing monasteries to close, reorganizing church finances, and writing laws like the Act of Supremacy in 1534 that formally declared Henry the Head of the Church of England.
Meanwhile, Cranmer laid the intellectual groundwork. As the Archbishop of Canterbury, he quietly steered English religious thought away from Rome. It was Cranmer who oversaw the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon. It was Cranmer who helped ease Henry’s shifting theological positions into something vaguely Protestant—without ever making Henry feel like he was becoming a Lutheran.
They worked almost in tandem. Cromwell managed the politics and the practicalities. Cranmer crafted the religious arguments. And together, they pushed forward reforms like placing the English Bible in parish churches, making changes to liturgy, and initiating doctrinal shifts such as the rejection of papal authority.
You can even see this dynamic in the Great Bible that Henry released. In its imagery, Henry receives the word from the Lord and then passes it—on one side to Cranmer, who gives it to the clergy, and on the other side to Cromwell, who passes it to the nobility. From there, it trickled down through the different layers of society to the people at the bottom. Neither man moved faster than Henry allowed, but behind the scenes, they were building something far more radical than Henry probably even realized.
In the summer of 1540, after years of carefully surviving Henry’s moods, Cromwell finally misstepped. The marriage he arranged between Henry and Anne of Cleves was a disaster from the moment Henry met her.
By that point, Cromwell had also made too many enemies. Powerful nobles resented his low birth and rapid rise, and conservatives at court were eager to roll back his Protestant-leaning reforms. On June 10th, Cromwell was arrested during a council meeting—dragged away without even being allowed to speak in his own defense.
Most of his so-called allies scattered immediately. But Cranmer, normally the most cautious man at court, took an enormous risk. He wrote a letter directly to Henry VIII, almost pleading for Cromwell’s life. In the letter, he didn’t just defend Cromwell’s character—he reminded Henry of how much Cromwell had done for him, pointing out that no one had served the king’s wishes with more energy or loyalty.
But it was also like, “You know, I believed him to be this—but if he’s really that, then who can you even trust anymore?” In fact, I’ll read you part of the letter now. He says:
“I heard yesterday in your Grace’s Council that he [Cromwell] is a traitor. Yet who cannot be sorrowful and amazed that he should be a traitor against your Majesty? That he, who was so advanced by your Majesty; he, whose surety was only by your Majesty; he, who loved your Majesty—as I ever thought—no less than God; he, who studied always to set forward whatever was your Majesty’s will and pleasure; he, who cared for no man’s displeasure to serve your Majesty; he, that was such a servant, in my judgment, in wisdom, diligence, faithfulness, and experience, as no prince in this realm ever had; he, that was so vigilant to preserve your Majesty from all treason, that few could be so secretly conceived but he detected the same in the beginning. If the noble princes of memory—King John, Henry II, and Richard II—had had such a counsellor about them, I suppose that they should never have been so traitorously abandoned and overthrown as those good princes were. I loved him as my friend, for so I took him to be; but I chiefly loved him for the love which I thought I saw him bear ever towards your Grace, singularly above all others. But now, if he be a traitor, I am sorry that I ever loved him or trusted him, and am very glad that his treason is discovered in time. But yet again, I am very sorrowful—for whom shall Your Grace trust hereafter, if you must not trust him? Alas, I bewail and lament Your Grace’s chance herein. I pray God continually, night and day, to send such a counsellor in his place—whom Your Grace may trust, and who, for all his qualities, can and will serve Your Grace like he did, and who will have so much solicitude and care to preserve Your Grace from all dangers, as I ever thought he had.”
For a man like Cranmer, who was so cautious, that was a really big deal—to have said all of that, to have defended Cromwell’s character, and to have reminded Henry how much Cromwell had done for him. In some ways, Cranmer was almost putting his own neck on the line for this man who had been branded a traitor. Cranmer was really the only person who stuck up for Cromwell like that.
Henry ignored it, of course. Cromwell was executed on July 28, 1540. Cranmer’s letter remains, and it’s a record of true loyalty at a court where most people were really only ever loyal to their own survival. Of course, like Cromwell said in the episode itself, he has to temper all of the good stuff with: “But if it’s not true, then he’s a traitor.” Then, of course, he says, essentially, I’m very glad you found out about it—but he certainly went out of his way to list all the good that Cromwell had done first.
So after Cromwell’s death, Cranmer must have known he was more exposed than ever. The man who had protected the reformers—who could steer Henry’s anger away from them—was gone. Cranmer survived, but he did so in a much more precarious world.
Still, that letter to Henry shows something very rare—not just political calculation, but something real. Cranmer and Cromwell had built the English Reformation side by side, brick by brick. In the end, Cranmer couldn’t save him. But he sort of tried—when almost no one else did. And in Henry’s world, that kind of loyalty was almost unheard of.
So I’d love to know what you think: was Cranmer’s loyalty genuine, or was it a survival strategy? Should he have done more? Could he have done more? Let me know in the comments what you think. And I’d also love to know what you thought about the series as well. I just love it—it’s just poetry. It’s so beautiful.
Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop.
She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 30 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history (how exciting when she got to interview Alison for the first time!). In addition to history, she is passionate about travel, and has lived in 3 countries and 4 states (not counting her perpetual state of confusion), and her family (who help her host her YouTube channel occasionally).
