Alice Wellyfed

Alice Wellyfed, Thomas Cromwell’s niece, is part of the extended household through which he extends both care and practical protection. Her brief appearances reveal her as attentive and perceptive: she helps watch Elizabeth Barton during the inquiry into the nun’s prophecies, sees the distress beneath Barton’s defiance, and confides in Cromwell about a marriage proposal of her own.

Place in Cromwell’s Household

Alice appears among the young people and relatives living within Cromwell’s busy household. When Thomas Cranmer visits, she brings in lights and explains that the children are still awake, racing Gregory Cromwell’s greyhounds through the hall. Her ease in speaking with a senior churchman reflects a household where children are not routinely whipped and are expected to learn by example, even if the adults do not always set a quiet one.

During the inquiry into Elizabeth Barton, Alice is assigned a more serious responsibility. She sits near the door in case the nun faints or becomes upset, although Alice judges Barton unlikely to faint. The placement makes Alice a witness to the proceedings as well as a member of the household’s working network.

Witness to the Inquiry into Elizabeth Barton

Alice later tells Cromwell that Barton is close to breaking. In public, she presents herself as brave; at night, she cries because she knows she is a fraud, and even then watches to see what effect her tears are having. Alice’s account gives Cromwell a view of Barton outside the formal questioning, while also distinguishing emotional distress from innocence.

Cromwell explains that he prolonged the inquiry because he wanted to discover who would respond to Barton’s prophecies. Among those who came to her were Lady Exeter, Bishop Fisher, monks, priests, and many others whose names remained unknown. He hopes the king will punish few of them and says he is trying to incline the king toward patience. Alice asks what will happen to Barton; Cromwell promises consideration rather than imprisonment, though he says charges will be framed. Alice wants to see Barton again before the case is over, showing that her role in the inquiry has not made her indifferent to the person at its centre.

Her Own Future

The private conversation also exposes Alice’s own anxiety. She tells Cromwell that Thomas Rotherham wants to marry her, but that he feared asking her directly and expected Cromwell to judge him. Cromwell sees that the proposal is not the real source of her tears: Alice is an orphan and feels she must seek her uncle’s permission. Her parents had died during the previous year, while Cromwell was away with the king and news of the illness could not reach him in time.

Cromwell responds by pointing out that Rotherham owns substantial land in Bedfordshire and that his estates are prospering under Cromwell’s care. He says he could not object if Alice and Rotherham like one another, and reassures her that her parents would have been pleased. He then tells her to find Rotherham and end his uncertainty, freeing her from the expectation that she must remain at Lambeth the next day to attend Barton. Alice accepts the decision to meet her suitor but still asks whether she may see Barton again.

Character and Narrative Role

Alice’s scenes connect the political investigation of prophecy with the ordinary obligations of Cromwell’s household: tending a prisoner, caring for children, and seeking an uncle’s consent to marry. Her observations are practical rather than grand. She can identify Barton’s performed courage and private fear, yet she is also herself emotionally exposed by bereavement and uncertainty about marriage.

The account places Alice within Cromwell’s wider pattern of kinship and guardianship. He is not only a political investigator but also the relative whose approval Rotherham seeks and whose judgment Alice trusts. Her presence makes visible the household’s dual nature as a place of affection and protection, and as a network of people whose lives are bound up with Cromwell’s power and responsibilities.