Cromwell As A Precursor To Modern Meritocracy

Abstract

The Thomas Cromwell Trilogy (Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light) by Hilary Mantel provides a drastic rearrangement of the power structure of the Tudor period by turning Thomas Cromwell into a professional and bureaucratic figure. In this paper, I will argue that Mantel Cromwell is a prelude to contemporary meritocracy, and represents a transition between aristocratic privilege and government by expertise, flexibility, and administrative rationality. The work is based on New Historicism, Weberian theories of bureaucracy and the ideas by Bourdieu of cultural and symbolic capital in order to discuss the manner in which the rise of Cromwell disrupts feudal hierarchies, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, enables the application of lawful violence and institutional surveillance. Although Mantel foregrounds are a progressive force that allows social mobility, in the trilogy, the ethical ambiguities of meritocratic power are also revealed, as meritocratic power turns out to be coercive and exclusionary. The ultimate demise of Cromwell highlights the vulnerability of meritocracy in a society that was still heavily obsessed with lineage. The trilogy is therefore a place where early modern England can be seen as a place of political modernity, which provokes a critical reevaluation of the origins and contradictions of meritocracy.