Downfall and execution
During 1536, Cromwell had proved himself an agile political survivor. The gradual movement towards Protestantism at home and the King's ill-fated marriage to Anne of Cleves, which Cromwell engineered in January 1540, proved costly. Some historians believe that Hans Holbein the Younger was partly responsible for Cromwell's downfall because he had shown the King a flattering portrait of Anne, which may have deceived him and that, when Henry finally met her, the King was reportedly shocked by her plain appearance. Cromwell had passed on to Henry some exaggerated claims of Anne's beauty. However, Nicholas Wotton, one of the envoys sent to Cleves, considered Holbein's portrait a good likeness; according to the depositions of witnesses assembled for Henry's divorce hearing, it was this first disastrous meeting with Anne that caused him to dislike his fourth wife.
Henry VIII confided in Cromwell that he had been unable to consummate the union with Anne and he allowed Cromwell to impart this information to William FitzWilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton, who, as Lord High Admiral, had conveyed Anne from Calais. Back home at Austin Friars, and uncertain how to deal with this new problem, Cromwell also told Thomas Wriothesley, his principal secretary (who also served the King in various important positions). When Henry's humiliation became common knowledge, Southampton (who was anxious to avoid the King's displeasure for his part in bringing Anne to London), or possibly Wriothesley's close friend Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, made sure that Cromwell was blamed for the indiscretion. Wriothesley, the Bishop, and the Lord Admiral were erstwhile friends of Cromwell and their self-serving disloyalty indicated that the minister's position was already known to be weakening.
A long-mooted Franco-Imperial alliance (contrary to England's interests) had failed to materialise. The King had sent the Duke of Norfolk to the French King Francis I to offer Henry's support in his unresolved dispute with Emperor Charles V, and the mission had been received favourably. This changed the balance of power in England's favour and demonstrated that Cromwell's earlier foreign policy of wooing support from the Duchy of Cleves had unnecessarily caused his King's conjugal difficulty. Furthermore, the possibility of war was arising between the Duke of Cleves and Charles V and, if this materialised, Henry would be trapped by his new alliance with Cleves into declaring war on France, an unwelcome reversal of previous policy.
Early in 1540 Cromwell's religiously conservative, aristocratic enemies, headed by the Duke of Norfolk and supported by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester (given the nickname "Wily Winchester" by polemical historian John Foxe for his mischievous counsels to the King) decided that the country's trend towards "doctrinal radicalism" in religion, as expressed in a series of parliamentary debates held throughout that spring, had gone too far. They saw in Catherine Howard, Norfolk's niece, "considerately put in the King's way by that pander, her uncle of Norfolk", an opportunity to displace their foe. Catherine's assignations with the King were openly facilitated by the Duke and the Bishop and as she "strode...towards the throne" the two conspirators found themselves edging once more into political power. It would have been a simple matter for Cromwell to arrange an annulment of Henry's marriage to the tractable Anne, but this would have put him in greater jeopardy as it would clear the way for Catherine to marry the King. At this point, however, cynical self-interest may have made Henry hesitate to act immediately against Cromwell, as the minister was guiding two important revenue bills (the Subsidy Bill—whereby Cromwell sought to extend the principle that taxation could be levied for general government purposes rather than a specified objective—and a bill to confiscate the assets of the Order of St John) through Parliament; Henry was anxious that any unpopularity caused by the measures would fall on Cromwell and not himself.
Cromwell was arrested at a Council meeting at Westminster on 10 June 1540 and accused of various charges. "Cromwell may have been arrested for his promotion of religious reformation, but few could doubt that Henry was also punishing Cromwell for the humiliation of his latest marriage." His enemies took every opportunity to humiliate him: The Duke of Norfolk snatched the St George's collar (insignia of the Order of the Garter) from Cromwell's shoulders, saying: "A traitor must not wear it", while the prisoner's former friend Sir William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton untied the ceremonial garter of the Order. His initial reaction was defiance: "This then is my reward for faithful service!" he cried out, and angrily defied his fellow councillors to call him a traitor. He was taken by barge to the Tower and imprisoned.
A bill of attainder containing a long list of indictments, including supporting Anabaptists, corrupt practices, leniency in matters of justice, acting for personal gain, protecting Protestants accused of heresy and thus failing to enforce the Act of Six Articles, and plotting to marry King Henry's daughter Mary, was introduced into the House of Lords a week later. It was augmented with a further charge of sacramentarianism, for which the Six Articles allowed only the death penalty, two days after that. It passed on 29 June 1540.
All Cromwell's honours were forfeited and it was publicly proclaimed that he could be called only "Thomas Cromwell, cloth carder". The King deferred the execution until his marriage to Anne of Cleves could be annulled; Cromwell was being spared for the time being in case he was needed to give evidence of the King's distaste for Anne. Anne, however, agreed to an amicable annulment (and was treated with great generosity by Henry as a result). Hoping for clemency, Cromwell wrote in support of the annulment, in his last personal address to the King. He ended the letter: "Most gracious Prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy."
Cromwell was condemned to death without trial, lost all his titles and property and was publicly beheaded on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540, on the same day as the King's marriage to Catherine Howard. Cromwell made a prayer and speech on the scaffold, professing to die "in the traditional [Catholic] faith" and denying that he had aided heretics. This was a necessary disavowal, to protect his family. Two contemporary sources report that he addressed the poet Thomas Wyatt from the scaffold, asking Wyatt to pray for him. The circumstances of his execution are a source of debate: while some accounts state that the executioner had great difficulty severing his head, others claim that this is apocryphal and that it took only one blow. Afterwards, his head was set on a spike on London Bridge.
Edward Hall said of Cromwell's downfall,
Many lamented but more rejoiced, and specially such as either had been religious men, or favoured religious persons; for they banqueted and triumphed together that night, many wishing that that day had been seven years before; and some fearing lest he should escape, although he were imprisoned, could not be merry. Others who knew nothing but truth by him both lamented him and heartily prayed for him. But this is true that of certain of the clergy he was detestably hated, & specially of such as had borne swynge [beaten hard], and by his means was put from it; for in deed he was a man that in all his doings seemed not to favour any kind of Popery, nor could not abide the snoffyng pride of some prelates, which undoubtedly, whatsoever else was the cause of his death, did shorten his life and procured the end that he was brought unto.
Henry came to regret Cromwell's killing and later accused his ministers of bringing about Cromwell's downfall by "pretexts" and "false accusations". Over important issues and policies, he had always been liable to be manoeuvred into a hasty decision by the intrigues of the factions within his court. On 3 March 1541, the French ambassador, Charles de Marillac, reported in a letter that the King was now said to be lamenting that,
under pretext of some slight offences which he had committed, they had brought several accusations against him, on the strength of which he had put to death the most faithful servant he ever had.
Cromwell's sudden and catastrophic demise has not been satisfactorily explained. In April 1540, just three months before he went to the block, and less than two months before he was arrested, he was created Earl of Essex and Lord Great Chamberlain. However, by the end of his reign Henry had become so bloodthirsty and suspicious that any far-fetched and ridiculous story of Cromwell's treachery (such as his planning to marry princess Mary to become king himself) could be exploited by the minister's enemies in order to destroy him.
