3-057-477 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

'Remembrance' of Thomas Cromwell, 1539. Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief minister during the 1530s, was responsible for the implementation of the chief ecclesiastical reforms of Henry's reign and also made some important administrative innovations. This is one of a series of aide-memoires or 'remembrances' which Cromwell made to remind him of outstanding business. It is concerned with arrangements for the trials of the recalcitrant Abbots of Reading and Glastonbury in 1539. The last two paragraphs read: 'It(e)m the abbott Redyng to be sent down to be tryed & executed at Reding w (with) his complycys. It(e)m the Abbott of glaston(bury) to be tryed at glaston(bury), and also executed ther w his complycys'. Cromwell himself was executed the following year after falling foul of the king.