Cromwell’s curbs on monks ‘more comical than cunning’

THOMAS CROMWELL was not the powerful mastermind portrayed in the Hilary Mantel novels, but instead oversaw the “farcical” closures of monasteries, research has found.

Henry VIII’S chief minister is popularly imagined as a wily fixer but new historical records have cast a new light on how he directed religious reform.

His advice to henchmen travelling the country expelling nuns and monks was unclear, contradictory, or nonexistent, which led to mistakes and confusion, according to the first major book on the subject for 50 years.

Professor James Clark of the University of Exeter claims the government used “spin” to claim it was a success and said “you have to move away from the official records to see what was really going on”.

The book, called The Dissolution of the Monasteries: a New History, included research from local archives, which painted a new picture of events. Clever locals often got their hands on treasure and materials the government planned to plunder before officials arrived, leading to “comic” and “farcical” scenes.

The Reformation often led to “limbo” rather than rapid change, the book claims. Prof Clark said: “Henry and Cromwell [did] not have total control

‘Henry and Cromwell struggled to control the process of the Reformation from the beginning’

over what happened, in fact the government lost its grip pretty quickly.

“Time and again provincial England fought back from the changes which others tried to impose on them.

“Henry and Cromwell struggled to control the process of the Reformation from the beginning.

“There was a [gap] between the ambition of the Tudor government and what is was able to deliver on the ground.”