Thomas Cromwell in 1540

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The claim that Thomas Cromwell carried out a revolution in Tudor government was generated by the historian Elton, the success of Cromwell as minister in his aims of sovereignty, Parliament and bureaucracy under King Henry VIII. Elton’s claims are met with many sceptic opponents such as Starkey and Guy, criticising that Cromwell’s work up to 1540 was anything but revolution, it was a mere pragmatic approach to fulfilling the king’s wishes which led to his escalation of power and a lucky set of consequential changes in government. The criticisms seem plausible when taking into consideration that Cromwell’s reformations within the Tudor government were not permanent, his work was quickly undone after his death. The work of Cromwell in government was hardly a revolutionary movement as it failed to deeply imprint itself upon England but it is undeniable that he made significant changes to England at the peak of his professional career.

Elton proposes that sovereign revolution was achieved under Cromwell; this claim seems to stand strongly, as evidence in form of the fact is that England remains sovereign from the Holy Roman Empire until this present moment which undoubtedly supports Elton. Under Cromwell, sovereign England was further strengthened as Wales was joined with England and placed under the rule of its Supreme King, Henry. The changes which Cromwell successfully administered were all permanent thus revolutionary, these changes were able to withstand the whole Tudor dynasty and more. Revolution was achieved by Cromwell with his skilful crafting of the parliamentary bills which ensured the Resolution of the Great Matter as well as the supremacy and absolutism of the King. Supremacy, sovereignty and Henry’s divorce were unl...

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...olitical needs of the time, which was the divorce of Henry from Catherine of Aragon in 1533, in order for Cromwell to fulfil his king’s wish; he pragmatically detached the problematic Pope and his Holy Roman Empire from England to resolve the Great Matter by having to (not wanting to) reform the Parliament, consequentially morphing England into a sovereign state. The bureaucratic reformation which is argued by Elton to be a part of the revolution in Tudor government once again boils down to Cromwell’s loyal servitude to the king, addressing the financial problem of Henry’s with a series of solutions which would certainly benefit the King in the long term. The work of Cromwell was not revolutionary as it failed to survive the several changes of monarchy (excluding the work achieving sovereignty) and did occur in a swift manner how revolution realistically would occur.

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