I recently came across a few passages talking about a rumor that soon after the fall of Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell was secretly plotting to marry Princess Mary. Could Cromwell have really been contemplating a match with the Princess, against whose interests he had worked so hard for so long?
In the summer of 1536 things were looking a bit better for Princess Mary. Her mother was gone, but so was Anne Boleyn. Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, had also left this world soon after Anne Boleyn’s execution. So we have a new queen, Jane Seymour, and Mary and Elizabeth.
Cromwell was working to bring Mary back into the fold by having her acknowledge that her parents were never truly married, and admitting her own illegitimacy. When she did finally sign the document agreeing that she was illegitimate, her father welcomed her back into the fold.
The rumor of the potential match comes to us via Chapuys – as so many juicy rumors do – in this letter he wrote to the French diplomat Thomas Perrenot de Granvelle on 23 July 1536. It opens with a wonderful jab at the English: “I have always thought the more these people are pressed the more they grow stubborn like donkeys.”
But then, later in the letter, he says: “Of late Cromwell got a gold ring made, on one side of which is, in relief, the figure of the King and Queen, on the other that of the Princess; and round about was a writing in Latin, which you will see by the enclosed bill. Cromwell meant to make a present of it to the Princess, but the King wishes to have the honor of it himself, and Cromwell will have to find other presents. The King is also getting his goldsmith to make a little two-headed eagle with plenty of jewels. I know not what he means to do with it. They have begun appointing the household (dresser l’estat) of the Princess, and I think she will be magnificently provided for. London, 23 July 1536.”
The inscription of the ring says: “Obedientia unitatem parit, Unitas animi quietem et constantiam; Constans vero animi quies thesaurus inestimabilis. Respexit humilitatem Qui in Filio nobis reliquit Perfectum humilitatis exemplar. Factus est obediens Patri, Et ipsa etiam natura parentibus Et patrie obediendum docuit.”
It urges her to be obedient and humble to her father, and Queen Jane, which isn’t something you would normally write to someone you were courting. Also, that’s a LOT of writing to go on a ring, no?
Footnote #315 from Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, Vol. 1 of 2, by Roger Bigelow Merriman concludes: “The episode should have been sufficient to show that even if Cromwell had any idea of marrying the Princess, the King’s opposition to the plan would prove insurmountable. The inscription on the ring, moreover, surely indicates that the gift was intended rather as a reminder to the Princess of her duty towards her father, than as a preliminary to a matrimonial proposal.
But more evidence that this wasn’t actually a token of love comes in the Diarmaid MacCulloch biography Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life where he says that the translation was incorrect (the old manuscript is in Vienna), and it had to be some type of medal. Which makes sense with that amount of inscription and detailed carvings.
Later rumors of Cromwell and Mary would come out during Cromwell’s downfall when his old friend Thomas Wriothesley turned on him, and gave evidence to the Council that not only did Cromwell make jokes about Henry’s inability to consummate his marriage with Anne of Cleves, but he also wanted to marry Princess Mary and make himself king. Not really the kinds of things you would expect the assiduous Cromwell to do. But it helped bring him down nonetheless.
So the short answer is no, Cromwell likely wasn’t planning to marry Princess Mary. Maybe the idea hit him for, like, a second. But he married his son into the Seymour family, and so became related to the King that way, and for him, that was enough.
Read more:
The original letter is here – scroll down to the 23 July one:
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol11/pp54-73
Or read Tracy Borman’s biography: Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII’s Most Faithful Servant
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop. She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.