Tudor Court pastimes: Music (i)

       King Henry VIII loved music of all kinds and was skilled with the lute, the organ, flute and other keyboard instruments.  Until the Reformation the most widely-heard music in England, at least in the counties, was liturgical choir-singing of motets and five-part masses.
Generous with his stipend the King attracted the finest English musicians and as a 
self-styled Renaissance prince he was able to entice musicians from abroad, chiefly from Italy, France, Flanders and Germany. Of these the most popular was the Italian organist named Denis Memmo, a Venetian friar who Henry VIII appointed as his chief musician in 1516 for which Memmo was able to command a high salary.

The King himself was a prodigous composer of ballads including the two motets O Lord the maker of all things and Quam pulchrea es, composed in 1530 and still regularly sung. (Williams, pp. 36-38)

The traditional English folk song Greensleeves is popularly-associated with the Henrician era however it did not appear until later, in 1580 when the ballad was formally dedicated to Lady Grene Sleves and presented by Richard Jones. Legend persists however that Greensleeves was a romantic song composed in honour of Henry's tender enchantment with Anne Boleyn, and hence it is still associated with all of the Tudor monarchs. The song is mentioned twice by William Shakespeare in "The Merry Wives of Windsor"  (Weir, p. 131)

                                              Greensleeves - Henry VIII (Classical)
                           Greensleeves – Keyboard; Mozart, Richard Jones

                                                                                                    Inspired Music

                                                                                                    Published on Jul 24, 2012

 -  Weir, A. Henry VIII: The King and His Court. New York: Ballantine Books. 2002. p. 131.

 -  Williams, N. Henry VIII and His Court. London: Weidenfield & Nicholson. 1973. pp. 36 -40.

“Evil be to him who evil thinks thereof”

On the 26^th of August, 1537 Thomas Cromwell was installed as a Knight of
the Order of the Garter in St George’s Chapel, Windsor.  Appointments are made at the Sovereign’s sole discretion. Membership of the Order is limited to
the Sovereign, the Prince of Wales and no more than 24 members, or
Companions.

As the King’s Chief Minister he was second only to the monarch and now as a Knight of the Garter Cromwell had reached the pinnacle of his career. It was astonishing that the son of a Putney alehouse brewer and sometime-blacksmith could even enter the Chapel, let alone be initiated into England’s highest order of chivalry by King Henry VIII.
After their installation members are each assigned a stall in the chapel choir above which his or her heraldic devices are displayed.

A member's sword is placed below a helm which is decorated with a mantling and topped by a crest, coronet or crown. Above this, a member's heraldic banner is flown emblazoned with his or her arms. When Cromwell the blacksmith's son was granted a coat of arms, he adopted the emblem of his former patron Cardinal Wolsey, the Cornish chough; for 10 years after Wolsey's death, the little black birds tweeted defiantly at the Duke of Norfolk and all Wolsey's other antagonists.

Thomas’ membership of the hereditary nobility was now sealed.
His progression in public offices had been rapid: -
1531 - member of the privy council
1532 - Master of Court of Wards and Master of Jewel House
1533 - Chancellor of the Exchequer
1534 - King's Secretary and Master of the Rolls
1535 - Vicar-General
1536 - Lord Privy Seal and Baron Cromwell of Oakham
and now, 1537 - Knight of the Garter and Dean of Wells

His rise from a low-born son of an obscure Putney family had been one of the most stunning in the history of England and to locate that astonishing path we return to Brewhouse Lane, Putney,  in around 1485.

- MacCulloch, D. “Thomas Cromwell, A Thug in a Doublet?”, BBC History Magazine,
March 2013.  http://www.historyextra.com/feature/tudors/thomas-cromwell-thug-doublet

- Bindoff, S.T. ed. “Cromwell, Thomas (by 1485 – 1540), of London.”  The History of Parliament:
The House of Commons 1509 – 1588. The History of Parliament Trust, 1982.
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/cromwell-thomas-1485-1540

a fashionable home for the budding lawyer and his family

London, the City ca 1576. 

- In 1522 Thomas Cromwell and his young family moved into their new home at Broad Street, a house located against the gates of the Catholic priory of Austin Friars.
By all accounts it was a friendly household where Thomas could host small parties and also
discuss business over dinner.
The house was gradually enlarged as his prestige and influence in the King's court developed. 

Here he entertained his acquaintances of merchants, officials, reformers and creative intellectuals.
An affluent neighbourhood surrounded him with nearby tenements leased to wealthy Italian merchants, Ambassador Eustace Chapuys, and even Erasmus (who eventually moved out without paying his rent.)

Thomas retained the church and bishopric in the adjoining premises, i.e., where the ancient friary had first been established in the 1200s.

From 'Wolf Hall'. Elizabeth Cromwell (Natasha Little) with
                                                          Anne and Grace, at Austin Friars.         [BBC-2/PBS]                                                                                     

Austin Friars is situated within the ancient London wall and although the home would later be lost after Cromwell's spectacular fall from grace in 1540, it was a remarkable achievement for a man who had risen from the obscurity of his parent's house at Putney, several miles to the southwest in Wimbledon Manor.
That dwelling and his early life were a universe away from St James Palace and Westminster, and a son of a ne'er-do-well alehouse proprietor could not have made this astonishing leap into the City without first taking himself to the Continent. From the age of about nineteen he would spend some nine years in Europe in various roles including as a mercenary in Italy, an agent of a wealthy Florentine banker, and as a thriving wool merchant in Antwerp. When Thomas returned to England he personified the Age of the Renaissance.

                                       [present-day City of London. Copyright Google Images]

Sources:
- Beckingsale, B.W. Thomas Cromwell, Tudor Minister. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd,  1978. pp. 5-7.
- Loades, D. Thomas Cromwell: Servant to Henry VIII. Gloucestershire: Amberley              Publishing, 2014. p. 47.
- Patton, M. 'The Wards of Old London: Broad Street - Thomas Cromwell and his Neighbours', July 31st, 2016.                http://mark-patton.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/the-wards-of-old-london-broad-street.html

                                          ~ an introduction at Austin Friars ~

The sunshine of mid-April is temperate on our faces, a cooling breeze from
the River away to the south. The parks are a magnificent green on this glorious Spring day and now at five o’clock there is full light  as the season approaches the longest day of all, on April the 30^th.
We begin our walk here at the cathedral of St Paul's where the accustomed crowd gathers for the evening Mass.
This is Europe’s largest cathedral, with its spire the tallest landmark in the south of England.
Our journey is almost a mile exactly and the going is comfortable in the wide streets of London’s City.

Our appointment is privileged and our arrival is eagerly-anticipated at around the half-hour.
West along the streets of Cheapside at a comfortable pace, with cautious steps for the horses have been here. People are about, making their way homeward at the end of a
working day, though not as crowded now having left the shadows of St Paul’s. We will return there many times in the months and years ahead.
Here and there a glow of a hearth or fire behind house-windows as the evening suppers are prepared in this thriving metropolis of near-200,000 in the ever-expanding boroughs of London.
Our destination is hard-by the ancient City wall to the south-east of Moorgate.

Children and adults enjoy the new season’s warmth, and the timbered-houses and streets have been cleansed anew by the thunderstorms of last night.  The largest homes, mostly of three-storeys front the streets but in-between, the gloomy alleyways a maze of lesser dwellings. Ale-houses are cheerful with light and the casual laughter of a thousand revellers although no persons are rowdy and our walk is unhindered. We exchange smiles with the curious; our conversation being unusual although not that of strangers. A sense of gladness is everywhere now that the monarch is preparing the Treaty that we all know will safeguard an enduring peace both in the realm and abroad.

Our progress is slower here, having swung left into the arc of Broad Street.
Our hosts’ grand house is unmistakable. The family moved here five years ago and have gradually expanded the three-story mansion to include fourteen rooms, an inner courtyard, gentle gardens to the sides and a candle-lit chapel close to the entrance. Here the house-porter greets us as friends and respected guests, and from within the big home the ring of the girls' laughter carries through the gables.
From the entry we go into the parlor where young Anne, 11, and Grace, now 9 years-old, smile eagerly. Summer evenings are for entertainments here and dinner-guests are embraced inside this happy home.
A timber doorway reveals a second parlor which is being converted to a study, its walls lined with texts, their titles flashing gold in the setting-sun alighting through the open windows to the west. This is the home and workplace of one of the City’s most thriving lawyers and he has now been gathered by the prestigious Gray’s Inn, one of London’s four Inns of Court.

In the hall, Elizabeth is fine and quietly enthralling, and her husband Thomas moves forward to receive our hands in gentle, sincere welcome.
The year is 1527 and we have arrived in Austin Friars, the London mansion of Thomas Cromwell.

Sources:
- Borman, T. Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's most Faithful Servant. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 2014. pp. 46-48.
- Schofield, J. London 1100-1600: The Archaeology of a Capital City. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2011