The Earldom of Essex was first created in the twelfth century by King Stephen – and in 1540, the title was a formidable symbol of…
Writer of Grants and Historical Fiction
Tag: Thomas Cromwell
This was a big deal. The two men had a major public fight in front of Henry, and their enmity would never be fully contained…
On the one hand, this is just a letter from a random petitioner making a request to Thomas Cromwell – the kind of thing that…
So my original plan had been to write an On-This-Day post about the execution of the Holy Maid of Kent (Sister Elizabeth Barton, an English…
Almost a year into Jane’s reign, her widowed sister Elizabeth wrote to Cromwell from her house in York. Several local abbeys were scheduled to be…
The execution of Sir Nicholas Carew is actually the opening scene of The Path to Somerset: it was the perfect backdrop to set the tone…
Specifically, Henry said he felt old enough that “he doubted whether he should have any child by the Queen.” We know he said it because…
On April 1, Eustace Chapuys wrote a long, newsy letter to Charles V reporting what was going on at the English court. The most interesting…
December 9, 1539 – Gregory Cromwell writes to his wife. A bit of a feel-good post on www.janetwertman.com
October 1537 – within a week after Jane Seymour’s death, Henry VIII is ready to marry again. Read Cromwell’s letter asking about French brides on www.janetwertman.com