Person:Elizabeth Wyckes (1)

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Elizabeth Wyckes, Wykys, or Wykes (died c. 1528) was the wife of Thomas Cromwell (1485–1540), 1st Earl of Essex, and Chief Minister to King Henry VIII of England.

Wyckes was the daughter of Mercy Prior, and Henry Wyckes, who was a well-to-do clothier from Putney, Surrey. She was first married to Thomas Williams, a Yeoman of the Guard. There are no known children from this union, and the marriage did not last for long before Williams' untimely death. In approximately 1513, Elizabeth remarried, this time to Thomas Cromwell, who had recently returned to England after travelling across the continent of Europe. There is evidence to suggest that Cromwell had recently taken over the running of Henry Wyckes's business. Together, Thomas and Elizabeth had three surviving children: Gregory (b 1514), Anne (c 1516), and Grace (c 1518).

Very little is known about Elizabeth Wyckes, or her marriage to Thomas Cromwell, a problem made more opaque due to the fact that she died early in his career at Court, long before he reached his zenith. The one surviving letter from Thomas to his wife suggests a normal, happy marriage. He also sent her a buck that he had downed while hunting.

Elizabeth Wyckes died c.1528, of what was probably the sweating sickness that had been sweeping the country at that time. The last known reference to her is in a letter from Richard Cave to the Cromwells, dated June 1528.

She was survived by her three children (although both Grace and Anne died of sweating sickness approximately one year later), her husband, and her mother, Mercy Prior.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Elizabeth Wyckes, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. (Online: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.).