Maybe I should've voted for Anne Boleyn, as without her England would have remained clouded in popery and superstition. Plus, she didn't cost Thomas his head but rather the other way around. She was also a fascinating, highly intelligent and cunning figure in her own right, and as The_Doctor points out she gave us Good Queen Bess.
Yes, that would have been much more in character for a heretic like you.
I'm very aware of what happened to Cromwell as a result of the Cleves marriage, yes. The third book in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy, last year's The Mirror and the Light, is all about Thomas's tragic downfall. A terrific book and series by the way, which I'd highly recommend reading. I think you might actually like Thomas if you got to know him a little better. He was extremely fond of Italy and Italian culture, and the years he spent there as a young man deeply impacted him for the rest of his life.
I don't doubt it, I think a lot of wealthy English people in that era were pretty fond of Italy and Italian culture. There is something slightly creepy in you repeatedly calling him by first name though.
There's a lot to admire about Thomas Cromwell once you get past, well, the obvious, but Battista Minola relying on Hilary Mantel to present that to him would be a little like relying on you to do so.
Hahahaha funnily my mother actually owns and has read Mantel's
Bring Up the Bodies.