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Online adoptions 2013: Manuscripts
Adopt a New Acquisition
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Henry Must Have
Thomas Cromwell. Letter signed to Dr. Nicholas Wotton. Manuscript, 8 November 1539
Adopt for: $22,250
Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, 1485?–1540. Letter signed from Thomas Cromwell, London, to Nicholas Wotton, November 8, 1539
Cromwell discusses Henry VIII’s frustration at the delays in ratifying his impending marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, in this letter to the king’s resident ambassador in Cleves. This short-lived marriage, intended to create an alliance between England and Protestant Germany in the wake of the Reformation, was largely orchestrated by Cromwell, and its failure was a factor that led to Cromwell’s execution. The king did not “a lytle muse and marvayl” that he had heard nothing about the final arrangements, and “nowe the tyme of the ratification approcheth and also certain other thynges of Importance daylly occurring hath moved his hieghnes the more to marvayle at this your long protracted silence.” Within two weeks of receiving this impatient letter, Wotton accompanied Anne of Cleves on her journey to England, where the king saw her for the first time on New Year’s day. Henry VIII was unhappy with her appearance, and although they wed on January 6, 1540, the marriage was annulled on July 9. The king married his fifth wife, Katherine Howard, on July 28, the same day that Cromwell was executed for treason and heresy.
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