The current BBC production of Wolf Hall: the Mirror and the Light, the last of Hilary Mantel’s novels charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, is a reminder that Cromwell’s dynasty did not end with him on the block. In this post, Dr Robin Eagles considers the careers of some of the direct heirs and how Cromwell’s descendant, Elizabeth, attended the coronation of Queen Anne when she probably should not have done so.
The death of Thomas Cromwell, late earl of Essex, in 1540 brought to a dramatic end the extraordinary rise of someone who had been born in obscurity but progressed at Court to become Henry VIII’s chief minister. Subject to an act of attainder, all of Cromwell’s titles were stripped from him, leaving his heir, Gregory, without a peerage to inherit. Just as suddenly, though, the king determined to make amends for bringing down his former favourite [Graves, 35]. Just a few months after Thomas Cromwell’s execution, then, Gregory, described in stark contrast to his brilliant father as ‘rather slow but diligent’, if rather helpfully married to Jane Seymour’s sister, was created, once more, Baron Cromwell. As such, he attended the Lords until his death in 1551 with a degree of diligence that bore out his old tutor’s earlier assessment. [Graves, 225]
For the next century or more, there would be Lords Cromwell in Parliament – kinsmen of the more famous Oliver, who was himself a descendant of Thomas Cromwell’s nephew, Sir Richard Williams alias Cromwell.
By the 17th century, changing fortunes had left the Cromwells more Irish than English magnates. Edward, 3rd Baron Cromwell, had entangled himself in the Essex Rebellion in 1601, but was luckier than his ancestor. Although charged with treason, he got away with a hefty fine rather than the loss of his head. He was, though, forced to sell most of his English lands and relocate to County Down. His heir, Thomas, 4th Baron Cromwell, followed in the family tradition as a capable soldier and in 1645 was created earl of Ardglass in the Irish peerage (having previously been made an Irish viscount) in return for his support for the king in the Civil War.
If capable soldiers, none of the earls of Ardglass came near to the eminence of the original Thomas Cromwell. They did, however, exhibit considerable capacity to survive, sometimes at the expense of others. Thomas, 3rd earl of Ardglass, was probably the last person one wanted to spot on the passenger list for the packet service to Ireland. He was one of 23 survivors of a boat going down in 1672, and three years later was widely blamed for causing the loss of another packet ship, which foundered with the earl of Meath on board. The ‘drunken’ Ardglass, who was transporting several bottles of wine at the time, was believed to have plied the captain and crew with too much of his excess supply, leaving them incapable of carrying out their duties. He survived.
Along with surviving shipwrecks, Ardglass’s other party trick was granting protections to people unconnected to him. At that time, peers were allowed to offer limited protection from arrest to their immediate family and servants, but many abused the system. Queried by the Lords, Ardglass claimed he was not aware of there being any problem with the protections he had handed out, but promised to abide by the rules thereafter. He died without heirs, probably not much regretted, and was succeeded by his uncle, Vere Essex Cromwell, as the last of the earls of Ardglass.
Like many of the family, the new earl had been a soldier and was principally based in Ireland, but he attended the House of Lords at Westminster on James II’s accession and proved fairly diligent in his attendance of Parliament for the remainder of his brief career. On his death in November 1687 the earldom became extinct, as almost certainly did the barony of Cromwell, though that did not prevent it having an intriguing afterlife.
On the extinction of Thomas Cromwell’s honours in 1540, one of the titles to go was the original barony of Cromwell, which had been created by writ. The later title conferred on Gregory in the winter of 1540 was by patent, and so not communicable to heirs general. That did not stop the last earl of Ardglass’ daughter, Elizabeth, assuming the title Baroness Cromwell, though. As such she walked in the funeral procession of Queen Mary (1695) and at the coronation of Queen Anne (1702), when she should not have been at either – or at least not in the guise of a peeress.
Confusion over the nature of the original creation may have led contemporaries to believe that Elizabeth had inherited the peerage, but some clearly understood the distinction. A portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller at Kings Weston, depicting her striking a pose in a maritime setting and with (pace her kinsman, the 3rd earl) a small sailing boat in the distance, is subscribed ‘Lady Eliz. Cromwell’, as is an engraving likely based on the same image, which was produced after her father’s death (in the latter case her name is given in full). This suggested, correctly, that she was styled Lady Elizabeth as the daughter of an earl; not the holder of a title in her own right.
In 1704 Elizabeth married Edward Southwell, secretary of state for Ireland: ‘a particularly polished example of the class of middling administrators who… served with exemplary skill and industry’ [HP Commons 1690-1715], having rejected the advances of a planter from Virginia. At some point she also seems to have attracted the attention of Lord Raby (later earl of Strafford), as around the time of her death in 1709 Lady Wentworth informed him of the death of his ‘old mistress’, leaving behind ‘three lovly boys… and a dismall mallancolly husband…’ That confusion over the Cromwell barony still persisted, though, was suggested by Lady Wentworth’s comment that Elizabeth’s ‘eldist son will be Lord Crumwell, but som say he will not.’ [Wentworth Papers, 70]
The ‘mallancolly husband’ survived his wife for over two decades [Wentworth Papers, 462] and Elizabeth’s son, another Edward Southwell, chose not to claim the title, satisfying himself with a seat in both the Irish and British House of Commons instead. It was left to his heir, also Edward Southwell, to reclaim the family’s seat in the Lords. Having sat as MP for Bridgwater and Gloucestershire, following a thoroughly independent line, he finally took advantage of an opportunity of promotion to the peerage towards the end of his career. Like his father, though, he made no effort to revive the Cromwell barony, rather establishing his claim as the 20th Baron de Clifford following the death of his maternal great-aunt.
The 26th Baron was the last peer to be tried before the Lords for manslaughter (he was acquitted). A descendant of the 20th Baron, and hence of Thomas Cromwell, Miles Southwell Russell, 28th Baron de Clifford, still sits in the Lords as a cross-bencher.
RDEE
Further Reading:
David Grummitt, ‘Cromwell, Edward, third Baron Cromwell’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Michael Graves, The House of Lords in the Parliaments of Edward VI and Mary I: an institutional study (Cambridge, 1981)
William Montgomery, The Montgomery Manuscripts: 1603-1706, ed. George Hill (Belfast, 1869)
Notes and Queries (4th ser. vi. 1870)
The Athenaeum, No. 885 (1844)
The History of Parliament: the Commons 1690-1715, ed. D.W. Hayton, S.N. Handley and E. Cruickshanks (Cambridge, 2002)
The History of Parliament: the Lords 1660-1715, ed. Ruth Paley (Cambridge, 2016)
