Thomas Cromwell—Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk

Thomas Cromwell’s relationship with Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, is an unstable partnership in which mutual usefulness repeatedly overtakes distrust without resolving it. Norfolk helps bring Cromwell into Parliament and gives him access to the king, but he also seeks Wolsey’s wealth and position, distrusts Cromwell’s independence, and periodically threatens him. Their cooperation over Wolsey’s departure and the king’s policies shows how court influence depends not on settled allegiance but on negotiation between men who remain alert to each other’s power.

An alliance formed around Wolsey’s fall

When the Great Seal is taken from Thomas Wolsey, Norfolk and the Duke of Suffolk are among the powerful peers who come to York Place to carry out the seizure. Norfolk’s sideways grin and unexplained invitation to Cromwell, telling him to come when he has mended his manners, make the encounter less a straightforward offer of patronage than the opening of a test. Cromwell does not yet know what Norfolk wants, but the cardinal’s fall has brought them into one another’s orbit.

Norfolk’s intentions become clearer when Rafe Sadler reports that the duke believes Wolsey has buried treasure and suspects Cromwell knows where it is. Norfolk has secured Cromwell a seat for Taunton, with the king’s assent, and expects him to take instructions in Parliament from both king and duke. Cromwell asks whether their instructions will be the same; Norfolk scowls rather than reassuring him. His support offers Cromwell political standing, but also implies an expectation of obedience.

The bargain is complicated by Norfolk’s attitude to the cardinal. He wants Wolsey’s money and the place beside the king that Wolsey once occupied, yet his religious convictions make him wary of condemning a churchman outright. He calls Wolsey’s household a nest of vipers, then draws back from the comparison as if it might be spiritually dangerous. Cromwell recognizes the tension: Norfolk wants the material and political rewards of Wolsey’s fall while fearing the consequences of treating the cardinal as an enemy of the Church.

Different ideas of power and service

Norfolk’s view of political life is markedly unlike Cromwell’s. He distrusts reading and letter-writing, considers books an affectation at court, and holds that Scripture is unnecessary for laypeople. He is also hostile to Wolsey’s reliance on diplomacy and negotiation. For Norfolk, the claim that England owns France makes war an obligation even when victory is unlikely and the cost in money, men, horses, and ships is severe. Cromwell answers from the opposite direction: negotiation is cheaper, and England cannot win the war he is being urged to fight.

Their difference is sharpened by the men’s backgrounds. Norfolk asks whether Cromwell is a butcher’s son and imagines that a man’s understanding of war must come from English service. Cromwell corrects him: his father was a blacksmith, and he fought with the French at Garigliano before making money in the cloth trade. The disclosure surprises Norfolk, who had sensed something about Cromwell without identifying it. Their exchange turns an assumed social distinction into a moment of recognition: Norfolk does not adopt Cromwell’s politics, but he can acknowledge the experience behind them.

The duke nevertheless treats Cromwell’s independence as a problem. He calls him a “person” and objects to the presence he brings into a room, even though Cromwell knows how to remain unobtrusive when it suits him. Norfolk warns that Henry VIII remembers Cromwell’s earlier opposition to war with France and is preparing to quarrel with him. The advice is also a warning from a man who expects Cromwell to understand the dangers of serving a king whose memory can turn past disagreement into present liability.

Threats, negotiation, and Wolsey’s journey north

As Wolsey is pressed to leave, Norfolk’s hostility becomes overt. He orders Cromwell to tell the cardinal to set out north, threatening to go to him and tear him with his teeth if he refuses. Cromwell asks whether he may substitute “bite” for the more violent wording. Norfolk rejects the amendment and insults him, but Cromwell does not yield to the intimidation. Their exchange establishes a recurring pattern: Norfolk applies pressure through rank and threat; Cromwell answers with controlled language and practical resistance.

Yet the two men also work together to move the cardinal out of the immediate reach of his enemies. Cromwell plans a slow journey that will let Wolsey be seen along the way, with a stop at Peterborough for Holy Week and a later move to Southwell, where arrangements can be made for his progress toward York. When Cromwell asks Norfolk whether he wants Wolsey gone, the duke agrees to approach the king with him. They wait together for an audience, and Norfolk’s unease in Henry’s presence becomes apparent. The scene places Cromwell beside him not as a subordinate carrying out a threat but as a partner in a delicate political appeal.

Their audience produces limited assistance rather than a restoration of Wolsey’s power. Henry avoids discussing the cardinal until Norfolk has been dismissed, then privately asks Cromwell about a thousand pounds for Wolsey. Cromwell kneels to receive the king’s message and understands the money as only a beginning toward the much larger sum Wolsey is owed. Henry tells him not to inform Norfolk and asks that Wolsey pray for him. Cromwell’s handling of the matter depends on keeping the king’s private gesture separate from the duke’s presence, showing that their cooperation does not give Norfolk control of every channel between Cromwell, Wolsey, and Henry.

Cooperation amid court rivalries

The relationship persists as Cromwell’s influence grows, but it remains exposed to the shifting alignments of the court. Anne Boleyn tells Cromwell that her father and Norfolk are busy seeing ambassadors from France, Venice, and the Emperor’s court. Cromwell suspects that these meetings are intended to entrap Wolsey. Anne questions whether Cromwell is working for himself, and he privately recognizes a likeness between them without saying so. Norfolk’s political activity thus appears within a wider contest in which Cromwell must read not just the duke’s stated demands but the interests of the Boleyn family and foreign diplomacy.

Cromwell later helps the king distinguish supporters from opponents in Parliament. When he brings forward a bill to suspend annates paid to Rome, he calls for a division of the Commons, an unusual procedure that reveals members’ positions while Henry watches. The tactic does not work in the Lords, where the king must argue in person. The episode presents Cromwell’s strength as procedural and strategic: he uses parliamentary action to identify and divide opposition rather than relying on Norfolk’s style of aristocratic command. Their shared service to Henry therefore does not erase their different methods or political constituencies.

At another point, Cromwell offers Thomas Wriothesley a position at the Signet if he himself is confirmed in office, while advising him to seek a better offer from Stephen Gardiner and hedge his bets. This is not a direct negotiation with Norfolk, but it clarifies the political world in which their relationship operates: offices, access, and service are continually bargained over, and even loyalty is treated as something that must be tested against competing offers. Norfolk’s early sponsorship of Cromwell belongs to this same unstable economy of patronage.

Continuing rivalry and conditional cooperation

Later, Norfolk and Cromwell clash over Ireland. The king proposes sending Norfolk there, but the duke resists returning to a territory where he has already spent months without success. Cromwell criticizes the council’s approach and suggests sending Henry Fitzroy as an apprentice king, making a show and spending money. Richard Williams says he would like to campaign; Cromwell replies that his own campaigning days are over. Here again, their disagreement concerns both policy and the performance of power: Cromwell proposes a conspicuous royal presence, while Norfolk refuses the assignment.

The two men’s positions also reflect differing relations to law and hierarchy. Norfolk still has serfs on his lands and expects payment even where the courts move to free them. Cromwell’s account places this practice beside the broader political struggle over what the king’s authority can change, though it does not show the duke simply abandoning his interests when royal policy turns against them. Their cooperation is therefore never equivalent to agreement about the reach of government or the privileges of rank.

In a later visit, Norfolk complains of persistent illness and says his niece Anne wants neither his company nor his counsel. He plans to return to Kenninghall, leaving Henry to seek him there, and gives Cromwell a papally blessed medal. The gift is a small gesture of personal regard, but it does not turn their old rivalry into uncomplicated friendship. Cromwell’s household still remembers Norfolk’s earlier threat against Wolsey, while the duke remains a political actor whose loyalties and interests can change with circumstances.

Norfolk’s role in the proceedings against Thomas More reveals the practical importance of their partnership at its most consequential. As the duke presides over More’s trial, Cromwell explains that the earlier counts will be dropped and that the prosecution will rely on evidence from Richard Riche. He warns Norfolk against repeating the mistake made in the Dacre case and stresses the need for a jury capable of deciding the charge. Norfolk listens, comments on the proposed strategy, and accepts Cromwell’s account of the proceedings. Their cooperation here is neither warm nor equal in every respect: Norfolk holds the presiding role, while Cromwell supplies the legal and political plan.

The relation is thus best understood as a durable but conditional accommodation. Norfolk can sponsor Cromwell, threaten him, consult with him, and preside over proceedings that Cromwell has helped shape. Cromwell, in turn, can use the duke’s access and rank while resisting his demands and preserving other channels of influence. Their exchanges make court politics tangible: power lies not in a settled alliance but in repeated acts of bargaining, where assistance and antagonism may occupy the same relationship.