Danny is heading back to London to find out more about his famous ancestor just
about to pull into the Gulf now Hampton Court Palace of course is Hampton Court
Palace
my 15-times great-grandfather yeah
he's come to meet Thomas cromwell's biographer Tracy Borman welcome to Port
pleasure welcome you're related to the most controversial man in British
history Oh most controversial I think so yeah in recent times we've grown to love
Thomas Cromwell but he was always the villain of history was he the man you
love to hate yes a bit like mom what was he exactly so this is a sort of place
where Cromwell would have been literally burning the midnight oil as he was
working for the king this is the Great Hall the centrepiece of Henry the
eighth's Palace built to impress as you can see yeah
you have a right raven here can you buy buy and that's exactly what they did and
Cromwell would have been at quite a few of them
she'd like to see it I'd love to see smudge of him well this was painted by
the most famous portrait painter of the age Holbein and I think actually there
is more than a passing resemblance I have to say yep I do
I think around the nose if you were to look a little bit get that bit yeah yeah
what do you think of him total arches grab as well what the jowls
yep the Cromwell yeah this one well jobs I'm gonna call it now yeah that man I've
got his blood running through my veins excites me a lot although I don't know
that much about him so well this portraits got a lot to answer for
because it's I think largely due to this that people see him as a villain because
he does look into pretty sinister they're looking at somebody like he's
about to maybe have them executed or you won't mess with him would you certainly
not no certainly not he wasn't of noble birth he had very
humble origins he was born in about 1485 in Putney and obviously today Putney is
a nice part of London it wasn't in the late 15th century when Cromwell was born
not the sort of place you'd want to find yourself after dark it was full of
cutthroats and criminals and one of the worst of all was
Cromwell's father Walter he was a blacksmith and he was a brewer he had
his own pub and he was always in trouble with the law and so he's managed this
unbelievable rise from where he came from
yeah it's have to be sitting with Henry from the slums yes sir there I mean
wasn't much more small comparison I'm from the slums if you like 99% of
the people at Henry's court were from wealthy backgrounds he was extraordinary
you know he was an absolute phenomenon it's ridiculous that's what it is
it is I never thought I'd meet anybody who was related to Thomas Cromwell
that's extraordinary historians have speculated what was it
about this blacksmith's son that appealed to Henry and certainly Henry
recognized cromwell's great talent he was by this time he'd he was self-taught
lawyer by this time he was an exceptionally sharp man I've always
thought there was more to it than that I think what appealed to Henry her back
from well he was cheeky he would make the King laugh and Henry loved that
because it was a difficult fencing made the King laugh I think yes and if you
ever said the mark with a king you you know you were brown bread he was cheeky
he was known to be funny he would make even his enemies laugh but it's not all
plain sailing between Henry and Cromwell they're two quite big personalities so
you can imagine they clash and we got a letter here written by a courtier so the
King behave of him twice a week mm-hm and sometime knock him well about the
pate that's a head yeah and yet when he have been well pummeled about the head
and shaken up as it as it were a dog he will come out into the great chamber
shaking of the bush with as merry a countenance as though he mounts rule all
the roost oh I see so so it takes a clump in yes let me just
I'm so much more cozy of young Samana absolutely so what a baton the he's
proof is for everyone he is the alpha male absolutely and it's funny you
should say that about power you know by the middle of the 1530s Cromwell is the
most powerful man in England there's only the king who's above him he is
Henry the eighth's Chief Minister he's running the show he is in charge of
everything and then the serve highest that he rises is in 1540 and I think
you'll like this he is made Earl of Essex and this is his heraldry as the
Earl of Essex it is which is where I live
mm-hmm so in a way I'm sort of the Earl of Essex yep by descent I think it's
gonna change me as a human being not a bad way
yeah but in a way of thinking yeah yeah yeah definitely
in a positive way yeah I can imagine surely be given more confidence
so Cromwell at this point of his career seems utterly invincible but I'm afraid
things are about to go very horribly wrong of course they are of course they
are I suppose he's getting very cocky he's starting to push it too far maybe
all these noblemen and well-educated people and he starts him up then I was
in Italy absolutely and I'm afraid he's about to pay
tracy has led Danny to the Tower of London she'll take me into a dungeon
aiya I'm afraid so which is where in June
1540 Danny's 15 times great-grandfather Thomas Cromwell was brought on charges
of treason and heresy it was really a coup by his enemies at court
particularly the Duke of Norfolk he'd always hated this base born boy from
Putney and he managed to convince Henry the eighth
that Cromwell was plotting treason plotting to supplant the king himself to
marry the king's daughter Mary and the charges were ridiculous kamo couldn't
get into his head now because he was quite clever getting into his head and
all of a sudden he couldn't anymore he's only chance of survival was to
persuade Henry to change his mind he wrote three letters to Henry and we have
a copy of the last letter here BCG and most humble your grace to pardon this my
rude writing and to consider that I am a most woeful prisoner ready to take the
death when it shall please God and Your Majesty most gracious Prince I cry for
mercy mercy mercy so my 15 times great-grandfather really
is desperate on the morning of the 28th of July 1540 Thomas Cromwell was taken
from his cell private executions within the walls of
the tower were reserved for those of blue blood tower Hill with its huge mobs
was for the commoners like Cromwell it takes three blows of the axe to sever
cromwell's head and that head is then set on a spike and put on London Bridge
alongside all the heads of all the traitors there for everyone to see it's
a weird feeling do you think that one of my own sisters you know would have
suffered this hmm so he's born a commoner yeah and he died a commoner
absolutely when he had that mad period in between hmm he did but a few years
previous to his execution he'd done something so clever that it was
feathering the nest of the Cromwell's for a long time to come and that is to
arrange an extraordinarily prestigious marriage for his son Gregory now this
may be a portrait of the young Gregory to the sister of Jane Seymour this was
the wife whom Henry was said to have loved more than all the others because
she gave him a son so you can imagine what an alliance for the Cromwell's
they're now marrying into the royal family it was a brilliant move on
Cromwell's part so Danny you're descended from the first born son of
Gregory whom they named in honor of the king he was Henry that's a bittersweet
fact I think there is bits where you know
Danny has discovered that his 14 times great-grandfather gregory Cromwell was
married to Elizabeth the sister of Queen Jane Seymour Henry the eighth's third
and favorite wife to find out who I was related to it was a lot for me to take
in and I've woke up today and I really want to find out about the Seymours so
that's why I'm today I think that's that that's the path I'm sort of chose
you