Thomas Cromwell Historical Timeline
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| c.1485 | Born at Putney in Surrey |
| 1503 - 28 December | Serves as a soldier with the French army when they are defeated by the Spanish at the Battle of Garigliano in Italy |
| c.1512 | Works as a secretary to English merchants based in Antwerp in the Low Countries |
| Before 1516 | Marries Elizabeth Wykes, daughter of a clothworker in Putney. A son, Gregory, is born |
| 1520 | Advises Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in legal matters, and members of the nobility on financial issues |
| 1523 | Becomes a Member of Parliament under Wolsey's patronage |
| 1524 | Admitted as a lawyer at Gray's Inn and becomes Wolsey's solicitor and counsellor |
| 1525 - 4 January | Appointed to investigate five small monasteries to establish their wealth, and becomes Wolsey's agent in their suppression |
| 1526 - 1529 | Suppression of 29 'decayed' minor monasteries and priories to fund Cardinal Wolsey's foundation of two colleges at Oxford and Ipswich |
| 1527 - October | Purchases the manor of Tolleshunt D'Arcy n Essex; his accumulation of lands and property has begun |
| 1528 or 1529 | His wife Elizabeth and his two daughters--Anne and Grace--all die. Their deaths are probably due to the sweating sickness epidemic (Thomas is aged c. 44) |
| 1529 - 9 October | The fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey |
| 1529 - 3 November | Becomes Member of Parliament for Taunton |
| 1530 | Enters the service of King Henry VIII as parliamentary manager and ad hoc legal advisor |
| 1539 - 29 November | Cardinal Thomas Wolsey dies |
| 1531 - January | Sworn in as junior member of the King's Council |
| 1532 | Appointed Receiver General. Also becomes supervisor of the lands at Oxford belonging to Wolsey's former Cardinal's College |
| 1532 - March | Commons passes 'Supplication Against the Ordinaries,' an anti-clerical petition |
| 1532 - 14 April | Appointed Master of the King's Jewel House (a shared position) |
| 1532 - 16 July | Appointed Clerk of the Hanaper and Master of the Court of Wards |
| 1533 - 25 January | King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn secretly marry at Westminster |
| 1533 - March | Act for Restraint of Appeals passed; it becomes the foundation stone of the English Reformation |
| 1533 - 12 April | Appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer |
| 1533 - 23 May | Archbishop Thomas Cranmer grants annulment of Henry and Queen Katherine of Aragon's marriage |
| 1533 - 8 August | Appointed Recorder of Bristol |
| 1533 - 7 September | Princess Elizabeth Tudor is born |
| 1533 - 12 September | Appointed Steward of Westminster Abbey |
| 1534 - 27 February | Appointed Joint Constable of Hertford Castle and Hertingfordbury, as well as Keeper of the Park there |
| 1534 - 23 March | First Act of Succession passed |
| 1534 c. 15 April | Appointed Chief Secretary to King Henry VIII |
| 1534 - 20 April | The Nun of Kent and her accomplices are executed |
| 1534 - September | Appointed Joint Constable of Berkeley Castle and Keeper of the Park, Master of the Game, and Keeper of the Woods |
| 1534 - 8 October | Appointed Master of the Rolls until July 10, 1536 |
| 1534 - 12 October | Pope Paul III succeeds Pope Clement VII |
| 1534 - November | Act of Supremacy passed |
| 1534 - 3 November | Treasons Act passed |
| 1535 - 1 January | Appointed Vicar General and Visitor General of Religious Houses |
| 1535 - 21 January | King Henry VIII commissions a General Visitation of churches, monasteries and clergy in England and Wales |
| 1535 - 4 May | Execution of three Carthusian Priors, a Bridgettine priest, and another priest, all for denying Henry's Supremacy |
| 1535 - 14 May | Appointed Steward of the Manor of the Savoy and Bailiff of Enfield, Middlesex Appointed Chancellor of the University of Cambridge |
| 1535 - 16 May | Appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Manors of Edmonton and Sayesbury, Middlesex |
| 1535 - 20 May | Pope Paul III creates Bishop John Fisher of Rochester a Cardinal |
| 1535 - 19 June | Three Carthusian monks executed for denying the King's Supremacy |
| 1535 - 22 June | Bishop John Fisher executed for treason |
| 1535 - 6 July | Sir Thomas More executed for treason |
| 1536 -7 January | Queen Katherine of Aragon dies |
| 1536 - 24 January | King Henry VIII injured in a jousting accident; five days later Anne Boleyn miscarries a male child |
| 1536 - March | Act for the Dissolution of Minor Monastic Houses is passed; it is supervised by Cromwell |
| 1536 - 24 April | Court of Augmentations set up to control the Dissolution |
| 1536 - 17 May | George Boleyn, Henry Norris, Francis Weston , Mark Smeaton, and William Brereton are executed for adultery (incest) with the Queen Thomas Cranmer declares the marriage between Henry and Anne Boleyn nullified |
| 1536 - 19 May | Anne Boleyn is executed |
| 1536 - 30 May | Henry marries Jane Seymour |
| 1536 - 9 June | Appointed Chief Steward of the Manor of Writtle, Essex and Keeper of the Park |
| 1536 - June | Second Act of Succession passed |
| 1536 - 1 July | Appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal, with fees of 20 shillings a day |
| 1536 - 9 July | Created Baron Cromwell of Oakham |
| 1536 - 18 July | Appointed Vicar General and Vice Regent of the King in Spirituals (religious issues); also knighted |
| 1536 - 2 October | Start of the rebellions known as the Pilgrimage of Grace |
| 1537 - January | Rebellions are suppressed |
| 1537 - 26 August | Installed as a Knight of the Order of the Garter, at Windsor |
| 1537 - September | Appointed Dean of Wells Cathedral, Somerset |
| 1537 - 12 October | Prince Edward Tudor is born |
| 1537 - 24 October | Jane Seymour dies of puerperal fever |
| 1537 - December | Appointed Commissioner of the Peace for many Ridings; Warden and Chief Justice for all royal forests, parks, chases and warrens north of the Trent ;and Master of Deer Hunting in those forests |
| 1538 - 22 May | Execution of John Forrest for heresy at Smithfield |
| 1538 - September | Thomas Becket's shrine at Canterbury is looted and destroyed |
| 1538 - November | Appointed Captain of the Isle of Wight |
| 1538 - 16 November | Royal proclamation controlling the purchase and use of Bibles in English |
| 1538 - 22 November | Execution of John Lambert at Smithfield for heresy |
| 1538 - 9 November | Exeter, Montague and Nevill executed for treason |
| 1538 - 17 December | Pope Paul III prepares to promulgate Bull of Excomminucation against Henry |
| 1539 - 4 January | Appointed Constable of Leeds Castle, Kent |
| 1539 - 12 January | Francis I and Charles V sign the Treaty of Toledo |
| 1539 - June | Statute of Proclamations passed |
| 1539 - 28 June | Statute of Six Articles against Protestant practices is passed |
| 1539 - July | Dissolution of major religious houses begins |
| 1539 - 6 October | Agreement of marriage of Henry to Anne of Cleves |
| 1539 - 14 November | Execution of the Abbot of Reading for denying the King's Supremacy |
| 1539 - 15 November | Execution of the Abbot of Glastonbury for treason |
| 1539 - 20 December | More apppointments |
| 1540 - 6 January | Marriage of Henry to Anne of Cleves Appointed Steward of the despoiled Monastery of Furness |
| 1540 - 17 April | Created Earl of Essex and Lord Great Chamberlain |
| 1540 - 10 June | Arrested at Privy Council meeting at Westminster |
| 1540 - 9 July | Marriage of Henry and Anne of Cleves dissolved |
| 1540 - 28 July | Beheaded on Tower Hill (aged c. 55) Marriage of Henry VIII to Katherine Howard |
| Sources: Robert Hutchinson's Thomas Cromwell. 2007 |