minervacasterly: “In December of 1543, Thomas Cranmer endured the personal tragedy of his pala

minervacasterly:“In December of 1543, Thomas Cranmer endured the personal tragedy of his palace at Canterbury being destroyed by fire. One of his brothers-in-law and several of his faithful servants were killed. Saved from the fire was a precious box owned by the archbishop, the contents within unknown. This in turn evolved into a story commonly enjoyed and told repeatedly by Roman Catholics during the reigns of Queens Mary and Elizabeth Tudor. Margarete Cranmer, “the pretty nosbe”, was hiding in that box –dragged along in the back of a wagon wherever the archbishop travelled. In reality, a complete silence wrapped around Margarete Cranmer during her stay in England throughout the 1530s. For all intents and purposes, she was invisible. For the politically naïve Thomas Cranmer, this was an outstanding accomplishment. In fact, the feat was “astonishing”, claims historian Diarmaid MacCulloch. With conservative detractors seeking any way possible to upend him for good, Cranmer’s ability to keep his wife and later also his daughter safe speaks to his steadfast commitment to his family and his remarkable resourcefulness.Unfortunately, even with Thomas Cranmer’s great caution, by 1539 it became too dangerous for his wife Margarete and their young daughter Margaret to remain in England. The risk to his family now untenable, he arranged for their exile in Europe. Thus, Thomas Cranmer was separated from his family for the remaining eight long years of King Henry VIII’s reign.”~Thomas Cranmer in a nutshell by Beth von StaatsThomas met his wife while he was visiting Germany, specifically the city of Nuremberg where he became influenced with Protestant ideas. Staats points out that he started as a devoted Catholic whose views changed over time, especially during the King’s quest for a divorce. He and Margarete lived openly as man and wife during Edward VI’s reign. Edward VI as it’s been pointed out before, was a staunch Protestant and he didn’t agree with his father’s Six article which kept some of the Catholic dogma, especially when it came to priests. It maintained that priests were forbidden to marry and had to be chaste. This all changed now, Cranmer praised Edward and compared him to several biblical old Testament prophets. One of Cranmer’s greatest accomplishments were the Book of Common Prayer and the Act of Uniformity of 1549. The former was rewritten three years later in 1552, the latter was also revised.The rest as we know is history with Cranmer meeting a tragic end at the reign of England’s first Queen and penultimate Tudor monarch, Mary I. He was burned at the stake.In “The Tudors” he mysteriously disappears after the second season and he’s never seen or heard from again, so we assume he’s dead or swallowed by a black hole. There isn’t any mention of his secret wife either. -- source link

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