Elizabeth Wyckes

Elizabeth Wyckes, also spelled Wykes, was the daughter of Henry Wyckes of Putney and became the wife of Thomas Cromwell before his spectacular rise in Henry VIII’s service. She had previously been married, and her marriage to Cromwell formed part of the commercial and household world from which he advanced into law, administration and royal government.

Elizabeth and Thomas Cromwell had several children, including Gregory Cromwell. She died in 1529, before her husband reached the height of his political power and before the upheavals of the Henrician Reformation made the Cromwell name nationally prominent.

Carol McGrath’s Mistress Cromwell places Elizabeth at the centre of the story, using the sparse surviving evidence about her life to imagine the domestic, commercial and emotional world behind Thomas Cromwell’s early career.