Thomas Cromwell, a Onetime Right-Hand Man of Henry VIII

choi

Allan Massie, Bring up the Biography; Cromwell engineered the king’s divorce--and, in turn, Anne Boleyn’s execution. Wall Street Journal, Mar 21, 2015
www.wsj.com/articles/book-review ... y-borman-1426882627
(book review on Tracy Borman, Thomas Cromwell; The untold story of Henry VIII's most faithful servant. Atlantic Monthly, 2015)

Note:
(a) “it was unusual for a layman like [Thomas] Cromwell, who as a young man had been a mercenary soldier, merchant and jobbing lawyer, to make it to the top.”
(i) Thomas Cromwell
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cromwell
(c 1485 – 1540; Cromwell declared to Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer that he had been a "ruffian ... in his young days")
(ii) jobbing (adj): “chiefly British :  working occasionally at separate short jobs”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jobbing

(b) "Wolsey, Henry’s chief minister, was expected to solve the problem. He failed and was discarded and disgraced."

Thomas Wolsey
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wolsey
(c 1473 – 1530; section 4 Downfall)
(c) “By 1536, Henry had tired of Anne, who had miscarried a baby boy, and turned his attentions to one of her ladies in waiting, Jane Seymour. Cromwell was again required to find the means to rid Henry of a wife.“

Jane Seymour (c 1508 – 1537 (died 12 days after giving birth)