Authority Cited: [Lord] Cromwel[l] to King Henry
Author name and dates: Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex (1485?-1540)
BKG Bio-tweet: Promoted dissolution of the monasteries; unpopular advisor to Henry VIII; executed
Categories (list of works cited – preliminary) [BKG Note: one Lord Cromwell cite in 1755 Dict. vol. 1. No additional Lord Cromwell cites identified in 1773 Dict.]
For the which, and for the long life and prosperous reign of your most royal Majesty, I shall during my life, and while I am here, pray to Almighty God, that he of his most abundant goodness will help, aid and comfort you, and after your continuance of Nestor’s years, that the most noble imp, the Prince’s Grace, your most dear son, may succeed you to reign long, prosperously, feliciously to God’s pleasure: beseeching most humbly 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; and yet the frail flesh inciteth me continually to call to your Grace for mercy and pardon for mine offences; and thus Christ save, preserve and keep you. Written at the Tower this Wednesday, the last of June, with the heavy heart and trembling hand of your Highness’s most heavy and most miserable prisoner and poor slave,
Thomas Cromwell
Most gracious Prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy!
Author name and dates: Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex (1485?-1540)
BKG Bio-tweet: Promoted dissolution of the monasteries; unpopular advisor to Henry VIII; executed
Categories (list of works cited – preliminary) [BKG Note: one Lord Cromwell cite in 1755 Dict. vol. 1. No additional Lord Cromwell cites identified in 1773 Dict.]
- Lord Cromwell to King Henry; imp
- Dict.: That noble imp, your son.
- The text SJ used is unknown. The letter appears as June 30, 1540 letter, #349 in Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Bigelow Merriam, ed., Clarendon Press, 1902; vol. 2, p.272; Impe [See image below]
For the which, and for the long life and prosperous reign of your most royal Majesty, I shall during my life, and while I am here, pray to Almighty God, that he of his most abundant goodness will help, aid and comfort you, and after your continuance of Nestor’s years, that the most noble imp, the Prince’s Grace, your most dear son, may succeed you to reign long, prosperously, feliciously to God’s pleasure: beseeching most humbly 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; and yet the frail flesh inciteth me continually to call to your Grace for mercy and pardon for mine offences; and thus Christ save, preserve and keep you. Written at the Tower this Wednesday, the last of June, with the heavy heart and trembling hand of your Highness’s most heavy and most miserable prisoner and poor slave,
Thomas Cromwell
Most gracious Prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy!
