As a young man, blacksmith's son Thomas Cromwell lived abroad, working as a soldier, accountant and merchant. When he returned to England in about 1512, he trained as a lawyer and then became legal secretary to Cardinal Wolsey.
Somehow he managed to escape Henry VIII's anger at Wolsey for not arranging the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. While Wolsey died in disgrace, Cromwell made himself increasingly invaluable to his sovereign – not least by 'persuading' the archbishop of Canterbury to accept Henry as head of the Church at the 1531 Convocation. By 1532, he was the king's chief minister – in essence, Henry's thug, always ready to do the unpopular tasks as long as they increased his own power.
Between 1536 and 1539, Cromwell and his army of ruthless agents carried out the dissolution of the monasteries with awesome efficiency and thoroughness. The hatred he attracted because of this soon erupted in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Henry felt differently: as a reward for all his efforts, Cromwell was created earl of Essex in 1540.
He didn't have long to enjoy his elevation to the aristocracy. He had enthusiastically recommended that Henry, who had recently lost his third wife Jane Seymour, marry Anne of Cleves to effect an alliance with Protestant German princes. Anne was the only one of his wives that the king did not meet beforehand and the result was a disaster: Henry disliked her on sight and the marriage had to be annulled for non-consummation.
Cromwell was charged with treason, convicted and beheaded. It is said that Henry arranged for him to be killed by a trainee executioner: it took the boy three attempts before successfully severing his head from his body.
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 Thomas Cromwell
http://englishhistory.net/tudor/citizens
/cromwell.html
Looks at the life of the statesman, his revolution in government and his execution.
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Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell by Roger Bigelow Merriman (Oxford University Press, 2000, first published 1929)
Contents include the ancestry and early life of Cromwell, his relationship with Henry VIII, the dissolution of the monasteries and the Pilgrimage of Grace, plus a section on Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Calais.
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