Editing Thomas Cromwell (section)

===Anne Boleyn===
From 1527, Henry VIII sought to have his marriage to Queen [[Catherine of Aragon]] annulled, so that he could lawfully marry [[Anne Boleyn]].{{sfn|Bucholz|Key|2004|p=65}} At the centre of the campaign to secure the annulment was the emerging doctrine of royal supremacy over the church. By the autumn of 1531, Cromwell had taken control of the supervision of the king's legal and parliamentary affairs, working closely with [[Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden|Thomas Audley]], and had joined the inner circle of the council. By the following spring, he had begun to exert influence over elections to the House of Commons.{{sfn|Leithead|2008}}

The third session of what is now known as the [[English Reformation Parliament|Reformation Parliament]] had been scheduled for October 1531, but was postponed until 15 January 1532 because of Henry's indecision as to the best way to proceed towards his annulment. Cromwell favoured the assertion of royal supremacy over the recalcitrant Church, and he manipulated support in the House of Commons for the measure by resurrecting anti-clerical grievances, the "supplication against the [[Ordination|ordinaries]]" expressed earlier, in the session of 1529.{{Sfn|Borman|2014|p=133}} Once he achieved his goal of managing affairs in Parliament, he never relinquished it.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=156}} In March 1532, speaking without royal permission,{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=162 |ps= &nbsp;"Cromwell['s][…]preoccupations[…]were not a perfect fit with the concerns of his royal employer."}}{{sfn|Bucholz|Key|2004|pp=74–75}} he urged the House of Commons to draw up a list of clerical abuses in need of reform. On 18 March 1532, the Commons delivered a supplication to the King, denouncing clerical abuses and the power of the ecclesiastical courts, and describing Henry as "the only head, sovereign lord, protector and defender" of the Church. On 14 May 1532, Parliament was [[prorogation|prorogued]]. Two days later, Sir [[Thomas More]] resigned as [[Lord Chancellor]], realising that the battle to save the King's marriage to Catherine was lost. More's resignation from the Council represented a triumph for Cromwell and the pro-Reformation faction at court.{{sfn|Leithead|2008}}
 
The King's gratitude to Cromwell was expressed in a grant of the [[Lord of the manor|lordship of the manor]] of [[Rumney, Cardiff|Romney]] in the [[Welsh Marches]] (recently confiscated from the family of the executed [[Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Robertson |first1=Mary L. |title=Profit and Purpose in the Development of Thomas Cromwell's Landed Estates |journal=Journal of British Studies |date=1990 |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=317–346 |doi=10.1086/385964 |jstor=175406 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/175406 |issn=0021-9371}}</ref>) and appointment to three relatively minor offices: [[Master of the Jewel Office|Master of the Jewels]] on 14 April 1532, [[Hanaper#Clerk of the Hanaper|Clerk of the Hanaper]] on 16 July, and [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] on 12 April 1533.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|pp=210–212}} None of these offices afforded much income, but the appointments were an indication of royal favour, and gave Cromwell a position in three major institutions of government: the royal household, the [[Court of Chancery|Chancery]], and the [[Exchequer]].{{sfn|Leithead|2008}}
[[File:Anneboleyn2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Queen [[Anne Boleyn]]]]

Henry and Anne married on 25 January 1533, after a secret marriage on 14 November 1532 that may have taken place in Calais.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=220}}

On 26 January 1533, Audley was appointed Lord Chancellor and his replacement as [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)#Early history|Speaker of the House of Commons]] was Cromwell's old friend (and former lawyer to Cardinal Wolsey) [[Humphrey Wingfield]]. Cromwell further increased his control over parliament through his management of by-elections: since the previous summer, assisted by [[Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton|Thomas Wriothesley]], then [[Clerk of the Signet]], he had prepared a list of suitably amenable "burgesses, knights and citizens" for the vacant parliamentary seats.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=214}}

The parliamentary session began on 4 February 1533, and Cromwell introduced a new bill restricting the right to make appeals to Rome, reasserting the long-standing contention that England was an "empire" and thus not subject to external jurisdiction.{{efn|At this time an ''empire'' was considered to be "an extensive territory under the control of a supreme ruler", an alternative meaning to its modern usage of "an extensive group of subject territories".<ref>{{OED|empire 1.2.a.}}</ref>}}{{sfn|Scarisbrick|2008|p=314}}<ref>[[24 Hen. 8]]. c. 12: ''An Act that the appeals in such cases as have been used to be pursued to the see of Rome shall not be from henceforth had nor used but within this realm''.</ref> On 30 March, [[Thomas Cranmer]] was consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury and the [[Convocation of the English Clergy|Convocation]] immediately declared the King's marriage to Catherine unlawful. In the first week of April 1533, Parliament passed Cromwell's bill into law, as the [[Ecclesiastical Appeals Act 1532]] ([[24 Hen. 8]]. c. 12), ensuring that any adjudication concerning the King's marriage could not be challenged in Rome.{{sfn|Bucholz|Key|2004|pp=74–75}} On 11 April, Archbishop Cranmer sent the King formal notice that the validity of his marriage to Catherine was to be the subject of an ecclesiastical court hearing. The trial began on 10 May 1533 at [[Dunstable Priory]] (near to where Catherine was staying at [[Ampthill#Ampthill Castle|Ampthill Castle]]) and on 23 May the Archbishop pronounced the court's verdict, declaring the marriage "null and invalid...contrary to the law of God". Five days later he pronounced the King's marriage to Anne to be lawful, and on 1 June, she was crowned queen.{{sfn|Leithead|2008}}{{sfn|Froude|1856|pp=426–428}}

In December, the King authorised Cromwell to discredit the papacy. The minister organised a campaign throughout the nation, attacking the Pope in sermons, pamphlets and plays mounted in parish churches.{{sfn|Leithead|2008}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beushausen |first1=Katrin |title=Theatre and the English public from Reformation to Revolution |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |isbn=978-1-107-18145-8 |page=33}}</ref> In 1534 a new Parliament was summoned, again under Cromwell's supervision, to enact the legislation necessary to make a formal break of England's remaining ties with Rome. Archbishop Cranmer's verdict took statutory form as the [[Succession to the Crown Act 1533]] ([[25 Hen. 8]]. c. 22), the [[Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533]] ([[25 Hen. 8]]. c. 21) reiterated royal supremacy and the [[Submission of the Clergy Act 1533]] ([[25 Hen. 8]]. c. 19) incorporated into law the clergy's surrender in 1532. On 30 March 1534, Audley gave royal assent to the legislation in the presence of the King.{{sfn|Leithead|2008}}