Thomas Cromwell, from Showtime’s The Tudors

On June 12, Thomas Cromwell wrote his first letter to Henry VIII from his cell in the Tower. It was a letter like so many of the others he must have read to the King during his career – asserting his innocence and loyalty, pleading for understanding and mercy – and offering his side of the offenses that he assumed had provoked the King’s anger: the fact that he had shared a personal communication, and that he had retained more servants than he was allowed by law (a person’s rank determined not only what colors and fabrics they could wear, but also how many servants they could employ…).

This is the full version of the letter, the one from Cromwell’s Letters and Papers, not from the more official source, Letters and of Henry VIII. L&P is an amazing resource, but it represents a summary of the contents it describes – a very good one…