Wriothesley and Rich - Henry VIII's Evil Councillors

The Tudor Chest - The Podcast

With Wolf Hall Series 2 having completed filming and hopefully on our screens soon, I thought the time would be right to explore the lives of two of the men who owed much of their success to Cromwell, but would eventually go on to turn against him, these men being Thomas Wriothesley and Richard Rich. Both would become infamous for their unscrupulous and frankly cruel behaviour, using whatever means possible to reach their goals, both famously turned the wheel of the rack when Anne Askew was subjected to torture, but who were these two men, what were their early lifes like, how did they come to Cromwells service and why are they viewed as such major Tudor villains?