I've been looking at this website about Anne Boleyn and there was a list of tags so I was looking through the posts about Cromwell and it annoys me how, just because it's an Anne Boleyn site, everyone on there seems to hate him. And, from what I've read in the comments, most of the people who don't like him, only feel that way because of different historical fiction media (and I doubt that's true about everyone, but it seems like, a lot of the time, what is portrayed in media is taken as fact, when, really, most books and TV shows and movies based off of a historical event twist the facts around to make the story more interesting to the audience; not always, but a good majority of the time). I mean, I didn't like him at first, and, yes, my opinion of him was changed mostly because of Wolf Hall, but I did research after reading the book because I wanted to know what actually happened (although Wolf Hall is kind of the exception to the rule because it's very well-researched and more accurate than most historical fiction books).
On one of the posts, after reading through a bunch of hate comments, someone pointed out that all the people who didn't like Cromwell because he was the reason for Anne's beheading, were thinking of what happened in 21st century standards. It's so easy to think "oh, well, that's not what I would've done" and not try to put yourself in the shoes of the person in history. Yes, he was the reason she was beheaded, but if you think about it, did he really have a choice? I mean, it's very likely that, had he refused to accuse Anne of treason, Henry would've beheaded him, as well. People don't seem to understand that Henry VIII was not the uberly romantic guy he's made out to be in the media. If something didn't happen the way he wanted it to, or if one of his wives wasn't able to give him a son like he wanted, he got rid of them. There were no second chances with him. You have to think about the risk that all these people took by trying to get close to him because one mistake could cost you your life. And it was really all because he got his way with Katherine of Aragon. I think if he hadn't found a way to divorce Katherine, none of this would've happened. I think that, in the end, it was just that he was king and he was used to getting what he wanted and having people fear him and by the time he'd married Anne, people really had begun to fear him because they had seen what he had done to Katherine and how he was willing to do anything just to marry Anne.
And, in my opinion, Cromwell was the type of person who wanted power and would do anything to get it. I also think that, because of the fact that he wasn't nobility or anything like that, his situation was even more risky because he didn't have the advantage of coming from a family that had a long background and other connections to other nobility. And since he didn't have that, there wasn't really anyone to help him if he fell out of favour with Henry. So, he was kind of own his own, which kind of sucked for him, in the end.
Lastly, I just want to say that I don't like the way Cromwell is portrayed in The Tudors, anyway, so it's annoying when people take everything that is said on there as fact and don't consider other, more accurate, sources before forming their opinions. I mean, I can understand if people get that feeling from the show, because their portrayal of Thomas More made me feel like I wouldn't really like him, but I'm trying to back up this statement by learning as much as I can about him and looking at other sources with opinions from people who do like him or that are neutral, so that I can really say whether or not I like him, as a historical figure. I think it's fine to say "I hate the character _______ in The Tudors or whatever book/movie/TV show you've seen/read", but it's a totally different thing to say "I hate _______ because they did ________ in The Tudors or whatever book/movie" because you don't know that the people/persons who wrote the book/movie have done any research or that they're portraying the character in a way that is true to what the person was really like.
So, that's my rant for today. I feel like it's sort of biased, so try to take it all with a grain of salt, please. I'm not saying anyone's right or wrong or anything like that, just stating my opinion :). Because I actually like watching The Tudors and I certainly don't know everything there is to know about the reign of Henry VIII. In the end, at least people are getting interested in history and learning stuff and that's what matters. Of course, this is coming from a future teacher.
--Sir Lancelot the Unicorn.
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