Thomas Cromwell
Henry VIII’s secretary and later lord privy seal. An Act of 1539 names him the king’s vicegerent for the church; he was beheaded in 1540.
William Roper names “Secretary Cromwell” among the commissioners at Lambeth before whom Thomas More was called to take the oath (Roper, Life of More the oath at Lambeth). An Act of 1539 on the seating of the House of Lords says that the king, as supreme head of the Church of England, had made Thomas Lord Cromwell, lord privy seal, his vicegerent for the administration of justice in all ecclesiastical causes and for the reform of errors, heresies and abuses, and it places him above the archbishop of Canterbury (Statutes of the Realm, 31 Hen. VIII c. 10). See England Breaks with Rome.
A London chronicler records that Cromwell, by then earl of Essex, was beheaded on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540 (Wriothesley, Chronicle vol. 1, p. 120).
In the timeline
- 1534, firm dateEngland Breaks with Rome
Parliament forbids appeals to Rome and in 1534 declares Henry VIII the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England. John Fisher and Thomas More, who deny the title, are beheaded in 1535.