This is a long oneshot about Thomas Cromwell's thoughts of Anne Boleyn's death. We often think how it can be possible that Anne became Cromwell's sworn enemy if they used to be such close friends who shared passion for the religious reforms in England and had many other common interests. You are going to find answers to these questions in this story.

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Musings Of Executioner

Anne Boleyn, the former Queen of England and the Marquess of Pembroke, was dead. Yesterday, Thomas Cromwell watched the execution of the notorious lady: he heard Anne's last passionate speech she had addressed to the common people and he saw her severed tumble to the wooden scaffold after the cold French steel had taken had touched her slender neck and life had left her beautiful body.

Anne Boleyn was utterly and completely dead. She was destroyed by him, by Thomas Cromwell, who had once been her close friend but finally became her sworn enemy and her executioner. He didn't regret that he had plotted against her and succeeded in removing her from his way: she was his sworn enemy and she outlived her usefulness for King Henry and for England. Anne deserved her death and she had dug her own by failing to give a healthy so to the King of England, Cromwell thought.

Thomas Cromwell was calm for the first time in many months. His position was stronger than ever, and everything seemed to be going well for him. Anne Boleyn and the Boleyns were out of the way. King Henry was content in his new marriage to Jane Seymour. Cromwell was in great favor with the King who listened to him, publicly praised him, and trusted him much more than his many other counsellors.

The future promised to be brilliant for Cromwell. He thought that it was the right time to prove to the King how useful his chief minister was. He was anxious to show the Duke of Norfolk and the old English nobles that his status had been no worse than their position. An ambitious and hardworking man, Cromwell dreamed of concentrating more power in his hands and for the factions that shared his passion for religious reforms and Protestant beliefs.

Religious reforms were the first thing on the agenda. Cromwell had a fanatical dream – to utterly destroy the Roman Catholic Church in England. The Ten Articles, which were prepared by the reformers, included Protestant teachings on sacraments and justification and Catholic beliefs regarding saints and purgatory. Cromwell, Cranmer, and the Boleyns thought that if Catholic and Protestant beliefs had been muddled and some of the teachings were revised, the golden mean would have been achieved, which would be a sort of compromise for the adherers of Protestantism and Catholicism.

The Church of England was supposed to be neither purely Protestant nor devotedly Catholic, and it could easily be called the Henrician Church. Over time, Cromwell hoped to make the Church of England more Protestant than Catholic. The minister especially hated the so-called "idolatry" of Catholicism and initiated the extensive campaign to attack and to destroy statues, roods, and images at the monasteries and the abbeys.

In 1535, the parliament enacted the Suppression of Religious Houses Act or the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act, which was worked out on the basis of the reports of impropriety and corruption which were received by Cromwell.

The inspection of the religious houses was conducted in accordance with the so-called Valor Ecclesiasticus, which was the full-scale program explaining the methods of assessment for how much property was owned by the church in England and in Wales. That act gave King Henry a legal right to dissolve corrupted religious houses that failed to maintain a proper religious life and monasteries with annual incomes of less than two hundred pounds. It was also said that the King could exempt any religious house from the dissolution at his pleasure and discretion.

A year ago, Cromwell sent out commissioners to inspect religious houses of all kinds; he also dispatched many commissioners to close the small houses, dispersing the inmates and turning their wealth to the Crown. Cromwell advocated the strategic necessity of the systematic dissolution of both large and small monasteries, and he intended to propose it to the King. His idea was that the large monasteries must have shared the fate of the small ones and that everything must have been dissolved because of the feckless and ungodly lives of the monks.

Now he planned to send more commissars to the monasteries, each of them loyal to him and to their purpose; they needed to accelerate the suppression of religious houses in order to completely root out Catholicism in England.

Cromwell knew that there were still many supporters of the Catholic Church among the nobility and the common people, but it didn't really matter for the reformists as long as the King of England wanted monasteries and nunneries to be dismantled, having their lands and wealth confiscated by the Crown. The wealthier the King became from the dissolution of the monasteries, the more eagerly he would support the continuation of the Reformation in England.

Cromwell knew Henry very well, understood his strengths and weaknesses and was able to easily read his mind. The minister could effortlessly realize what Henry wanted at a particular time and distinguish when the King hesitated to make a decision. He always embarked on the realization of every task Henry charged him with, without any questions and with great eagerness.

Cromwell strived to provide the King with more wealth and to let him taste absolute power, while at the same time subtly and quietly correcting the King's decisions and manipulating his sovereign in case of any necessity. King Henry needed to be told what should have been done, not what must have been done, but that "should" in reality masked "must".

Cromwell had helped to murder Anne Boleyn because she had evolved from being his close friend and staunch ally to his mortal enemy and constant threat to his plans. They had been great friends at the beginning, and it was Cromwell who supplied Anne with a couple of forbidden books written by the fervent advocates for the English Reformation. Anne brought those books to the King's attention, and Henry thanked Cromwell, making him the King's secretary and chief minister by 1534. However, later, many differences arose between Anne and Cromwell. The Dissolution of the Monasteries was the point at which the roots of Anne's disagreement with Cromwell took hold.

While Cromwell wanted to dissolve all the monasteries in the Kingdom, ruining the church, Anne was an adherer of a wiser dissolution and supported moderate reforms. Anne thought the monasteries had provided orphans and widows, the sick and invalid with shelter, food, and medical help; Cromwell ignored the role of the monasteries in the life of the poorer population, affirming that all the proceeds from the dissolution must belong to the King. Anne didn't forget about the interests of the common people even though they hadn't had any positive feelings towards her; while Cromwell disregarded the opinion and needs of the commoners who hated him and labeled him a heretic. Anne wanted religious reforms; Cromwell aimed at the destruction of the Catholic Church. Anne was rather conservative in her religious beliefs; Cromwell was a radical Protestant.

Anne even asked her chaplain, John Skip, to sermonize about Queen Esther and King Xerxes, whose evil adviser Haman wished to destroy the Jews and the Kingdom. It was an analogy between Cromwell's plans and Haman's motivations, which in sober fact meant that Anne had accused Cromwell of giving the King bad advice and, more strictly speaking, trying to destroy the heritage of the common people and England's legacy.

Having realized that Anne and he opposed each other in religious matters, Cromwell began to perceive Anne as a dangerous threat. He also disliked Anne's tantrums and how she had once sworn she would have him executed if he proceeded with his planned reforms. Another time she interfered with the minister's standing with the King. He knew that if given the chance, her threats would materialize. All those hostile and hot arguments were the most fatal mistakes Anne committed at the court; they cost her Cromwell's support and friendship and made her position much more vulnerable.

Besides they also disagreed on foreign policy. Anne wished for an Anglo-French alliance and to advance France's interests while Cromwell preferred an Anglo-Imperial alliance.

Cromwell renewed negotiations with the Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys in February 1536. Chapuys informed him that the Emperor was ready to negotiate the alliance agreement, on condition that England would give him material support in his wars with the Ottomans and would support him against France in the Italian wars. The Emperor wished Lady Mary Tudor, the bastardized princess, to be re-legitimated and at a minimum not to be obviated from the line of succession. The Emperor was ready even to support the continuation of Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn.

Although the Emperor wanted Henry to return to the Catholic communion, it wasn't the most important issue for him at that moment as he needed an alliance with England against France and the Ottomans, which was especially important in the light of the new Franco-Ottoman alliance that had concluded in early 1536 that could dramatically shift the balance of power in Europe. Chapuys even gave a sweetener, promising that the Emperor would patch up England's relations with the pope.

In the foreign policy, King Henry preferred to play a neutral role in the balance of power games of the European monarchs. Henry considered the existing options and had a practice of negotiating the opposite alliances – with the King of France against the Emperor, with the Emperor against the King of France, and with the German Protestant princes against both of them.

After the certain level of understanding had been reached between Cromwell and Chapuys, the chief minister had a private audience with King Henry and told him about the opportunity to form an Anglo-Imperial alliance and the terms of it.

Yet, Cromwell didn't predict that the King would be so moody on that day. Henry demanded that the Emperor's offer must be put in writing, scolding the Emperor and asking him for an apology for his treacherous practices of the last years. The audience was finished, and Cromwell didn't have time to inform Henry that the Emperor was ready to support the King's marriage to Anne in case of an alliance. Later Cromwell was relieved that he had refrained from declaring the Emperor's words about Anne.

The situation turned troublesome for Cromwell because he had advocated the policy that was so harshly rejected by his master. The minister's enemies worked against him, treating him as prey, with Anne Boleyn taking the lead as she viewed the tilt toward pro-Imperial policy as an attack upon herself and the Boleyns. Raised in France, Anne liked everything French and personally sympathized with King François, although he hadn't formally acknowledged her as the Queen of England. After Catherine's death, Anne anticipated that King François would support her and that she would be able to negotiate Elizabeth's marriage to François' second surviving son – Prince Charles de Valois.

Anne wasn't popular at the court, but she still was the queen, and if she openly turned against Cromwell, then the Boleyn faction, Archbishop Cranmer, and other adherers of the Boleyns would also turn against the minister. Cromwell also had other enemies such as the courtiers, who had signed the Oath of Supremacy, but in fact were against the Reformation and Cromwell as its architect.

Another trouble was that many English nobles who despised Cromwell for his low birth expressed their disapproval of an Anglo-Imperial alliance, fearing that such an alliance would preclude the Dissolution of the Monasteries while they expected significant enrichment from the participation in the dissolution. At that moment, the situation looked rather dangerous for Cromwell: he wanted an Imperial alliance with England, but his major enemy – Anne Boleyn – was in favor of French alliance; he had enemies and few true allies. There was a possibility he would lose favor with the King and possibly be replaced.

The alienation between Cromwell and the Boleyns was growing. The Boleyns stood in the way of Cromwell's political preferences and even in the way of the dissolution of religious houses. Either the minister or the Boleyns would win, and the losing party risked everything, even their own life. At last, the purposes and motives of Cromwell and Anne, the former friends and allies, turned out to be so incompatible that Anne became Cromwell's sworn enemy. Cromwell made up his mind that he would take the first opportunity to make Anne fall from the King's grace and to destroy his foe.

When King Henry raised the matter of Anne's possible infidelities and charged Cromwell with the task to investigate, the minister comprehended that it was a good chance to get rid of Anne Boleyn and the influential Boleyn faction at the court. Cromwell saw the depth of King Henry's involvement with Lady Jane Seymour, whom the King would have gladly married if he had been free from the woman whom he had no longer loved. Taught by her family how to act to seduce the King, Jane positioned herself as a decent and demure English rose, the opposite of the dark and frivolous French-looking Anne. Knowing that the King wished Jane Seymour to wear a crown, Cromwell helped Henry get rid of Anne.

The minister knew that the King would be immensely grateful to anyone who helped him achieve his goal. Henry was used to getting his own way sooner or later, and the question was who would help him to set Anne aside. Having his own reasons to organize Anne's downfall and ultimately arrange her death, Cromwell invented the method of having the King's way out of the despicable marriage by murdering Anne: he fabricated the trumped-up charges of adultery, incest, and treason against Anne.

Knowing the King's nature, Cromwell wasn't mistaken in assuming Henry would persuade himself Anne was guilty. The minister was also correct in gaining the King's gratitude after Anne Boleyn's death; Henry appeared to like and respect Cromwell even more than he had done in the past. Cromwell was pleased with what he had done and was convinced that he had made the right decision to usurp Anne Boleyn and organize her fall from heaven to hell on Earth. His ministerial job was to please the King by helping him achieve what he wanted, while the alternative was to suffer the consequences of failure.

Cromwell was overwhelmed with happiness. He got what he wanted and now nobody stood on his way. His only mission was to please the King and gain more royal favor. He planned to accumulate more power and become one of the most important men in the realm. Everything else didn't matter for him.