Along with millions of other viewers I recently enjoyed watching the BBC’s series “Wolf Hall” which, according to the BBC iPlayer, follows “The irresistible rise of Thomas Cromwell – who defied and defined an era. Mark Rylance leads the acclaimed adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s tales from the dark heart of Tudor history”.
Thomas Cromwell’s “irresistible rise” to a position of great power and influence in the court and government of King Henry VIII can be largely credited to the likely mentoring and ongoing friendship of a prominent lawyer and politician with a connection to St. Alban’s Court in Nonington, namely Sir Christopher Hales.
Christopher Hales was a native of Kent and received a legal education at Gray’s Inn, where he became an ancient in 1516 and Autumn Reader in 1524. He served briefly as the Member of Parliament for Canterbury in 1523 but was barred from standing for re-election because of his acceptance of office under the Crown. Disqualified from re-election by his office Hales was summoned to the next three Parliaments by writ of assistance and in the last of them he was named a trier of petitions. He also undertook commissions on behalf of
During his service to the Crown Hales served as Solicitor General, deputy to the Attorney General, from August of 1525 and then became became Attorney General himself in June of 1529. On the elevation of Thomas Cromwell to the office of Lord Privy Seal on the 10th July, 1536, Hales succeeded him as Master of the Rolls on and was knighted shortly after taking up the office. During his time in these offices Hales appeared for King Henry VIII in the trials of Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, John Fisher, and Anne Boleyn, the wife of Henry VIII. The trial of Anne Boleyn and her co-accused took place during the last few months of his tenure in office as Master of the Rolls. Anne was found guilty of treason and other crimes, the consequences of which were that on 17th May, 1536, her marriage to King Henry VIII was annulled by Archbishop Cranmer and four of co-accused who had been found guilty were executed at the Tower of London on the same day. Anne herself was beheaded at the Tower two days later.
Christopher Hales and Thomas Cromwell appear to have been well acquainted by the time Hales became solicitor general in 1526, and it’s widely held that around 1530 Hales recommended Cromwell to the King’s service. Correspondence between the two men show that they had a warm and fairly close friendship and in the 1530’s Hales married Elizabeth Caulton, the sister of Cromwell’s servant, Nicholas Caulton.
King Henry VIII began his dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530’s and Sir Christopher Hales, by then Master of the Rolls, astutely used his position and influence to his own benefit and betterment and acquired a large number or properties and manors in Kent. One of these was “Seynte Albons Courte”, later known as St. Alban’s Court in Nonington, which Hales purchased from the Abbot of the Abbey and Convent of St. Alban’s in 1538.
Sir Christopher also looked after his own interests in Parliament. In 1539 an act of Parliament assuring him [confirming his ownership] of the grant of “Seynte Albons Courte” by the Abbot of St. Albans was introduced in the House of Lords by Hales’ friend Thomas Cromwell. This sponsorship by the by now all powerful Cromwell lead to the act being read in the Lords three times on the same day before it was passed by the House of Commons and subsequently given the Royal assent. Sir Christopher Hales was also one of the named beneficiaries of the Act of the same year (31 Hen. VIII, c.3) freeing lands in Kent from gavelkind, dis-engavelled land being of greater benefit to the owner.
In 1540 Sir Christopher Hales along with Thomas Cranmer, Lord Chancellor Rich, and other commissioners undertook the task of re-organising the foundation of Canterbury Cathedral, the new foundation coming into being in April of 1541
In 1540 Cromwell, although only recently created Earl of Essex, dramatically fell from Royal favour and was beheaded on the King Henry VIII’s orders on Tower Hill on 28th July, 1540. Hales, despite his friendship with Cromwell, suffered no ill consequences from Cromwell’s death but did not outlive his deceased friend for long.
Sir Christopher Hales died on 20th April in 1541, leaving John, his nine year old son, as his heir. John died soon after his inheritance leaving his three sisters as co-heiresses. Margaret, one of the co-heiresses sold the “Manor of Esole at Seynte Albons Courte in thoccupying of Thomas Hamon holden of the Kinge as of the Castell of Dover by Knights service” to John Culpepper, Esqire.
