There
are two other Cromwells that may have had some sort of relations
to Caldwell. First would be Thomas Cromwell, Earl Of Essex, Baron
Cromwell Of Okeham.
Encyclopedia
Britannica states:
"Cromwell's
early life is obscure. It appears that he went abroad at an early
age and spent some time in Italy. For several years after 1510
he was resident in the Low Countries, and he seems to have been
closely connected with the London Merchant Adventurers. By 1520
he had entered Cardinal Wolsey's service as his solicitor, and
from that time his career is well documented. Wolsey employed
him in 1525 in the dissolution of some lesser monasteries, in
which work he earned a good deal of dislike. The Cardinal, however,
continued to favour him, and Cromwell soon became his confidential
adviser.
When
Wolsey fell into disgrace in 1529, Cromwell entered Parliament,
where his remarkable ability attracted the notice of the King.
For nearly three years he worked his way up in the royal favour,
entering Henry's service early in 1530. He was sworn into the
council toward the end of that year and reached the inner circle
of confidential
advisers a year later. All the time, he was establishing his
ascendancy in the House of Commons. In 1532 he obtained office
as master of the jewels. Other offices soon followed: principal
secretary and master of the rolls in 1534 and lord privy seal
in 1536. The last office was combined with a peerage, and he took
the title of Lord Cromwell of Wimbledon.
Cromwell's
part in the English Reformation has been much debated. At one
time he was credited with supplying Henry with a complete plan
of action as early as 1529; later it became usual to see in him
nothing but the King's most competent executive agent. The truth
seems to be that he was in no way in charge until early in 1532,
taking over when the King's policy of forcing the Pope to come
to terms had proved to be a failure. It was, to all appearances,
Cromwell who then came forward with a clear notion of how to achieve
Henry's purpose without the Pope. His policy consisted in making
a reality of some large and vague claims to supreme power that
Henry had uttered at intervals. He proposed to destroy Rome's
power in England and to replace it by the royal supremacy in the
church. He was behind the first attacks on the papacy (1532) and
the act against the payment by bishops of their first year's revenue
to Rome. He secured the submission of the clergy to the King in
matters of legislation, and in 1533 he secured the passage of
the Act in Restraint of Appeals to Rome, preventing appeals to
Rome in matrimonial and testamentary cases. Its preamble embodied
his political theory of the sovereign national state. Thereafter
he was in complete control of the government, though he remained
careful to pretend to be acting on the King's authority. In 1534
he completed the erection of the royal supremacy with the passage
of the Act of Supremacy.
Because
political and financial reasons made expedient an attack on the
monasteries, Cromwell was appointed the King's vicar general with
powers to visit and reform all monastic institutions. Despite
serious opposition, especially in the north, the task was carried
out relentlessly. During 1536–40 the surrender of the greater
houses was obtained by pressure and persuasion, and by 1540 all
monastic institutions had ceased to exist and their property had
been vested in the crown. Cromwell and other crown officials obtained
valuable grants as rewards, but while the minister lived, the
new wealth was not squandered.
In
1536, as a newly created baron, Cromwell was also appointed the
King's deputy as head of the church. Cromwell's own religious
views have been in much doubt. They certainly were not very strong,
and his essentially secular temper subordinated religious to political
considerations. Nevertheless, he came to be firmly associated
with a radical policy of reform and Reformation. In the main,
this resulted from difficulties abroad. While hostility between
France and Spain had prevented foreign intervention during the
critical years of the Reformation, 1533–36, there seemed
a danger of an alliance against England after that date. Cromwell,
whose forthright and clear-sighted temper was less well suited
to the conduct of foreign affairs than was Henry VIII's skillful
opportunism, involved himself in projects of a Lutheran alliance
distasteful to the King who wished to stand on Catholic orthodoxy.
In 1539 Cromwell made the mistake of trying to force the King
to his side by compelling him to marry Anne of Cleves. The King
from the start hated his fourth wife, and by February 1540 it
was clear that the alliance with the German princes that she represented
was unnecessary. Thereafter, Cromwell's fall came quickly. He
fought back for a few months, being created earl of Essex and
lord great chamberlain in April 1540, but early in June his enemies
persuaded Henry that his vicegerent was a heretic and a traitor.
He was arrested on June 10, condemned without a hearing, and executed
on July 28. His fall did not end the Reformation, but it marked
the end of competent government and purposeful policy in Henry's
reign."
I
have not researched Thomas Cromwell to the level that I can make
any conclusions regarding his parentage or descendants. There
may be an "Ann of Caldwell" in there somewhere, however
"Caldwell Myth" refers to Oliver Cromwell and not Thomas.
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