Trinity College prayer book belonged to Thomas Cromwell

The Hardouyn Hours, a jewelled fifteenth-century prayer book in Trinity College Library belonged to Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to King Henry VIII, new research has found. Thomas Cromwell painted by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1532-3. The Frick Collection Credit: © The Frick Collection / Photo Michael Bodycomb The most exciting Cromwell discovery in a generation - if not more. Tracy Borman Hever Castle curator, Alison Palmer, recognised the bejewelled, silver gilt binding of Trinity's Book of Hours from the famous portrait of Thomas Cromwell painted by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1532-3, which hangs in the Frick Collection in New York. Palmer then worked with colleagues Kate McCaffrey and Dr Owen Emmerson to uncover the mystery of the book's ownership. The researchers followed a provenance trail that links the book from its donor, Dame Anne Sadleir, directly back to Thomas Cromwell. A team of experts have reviewed the new evidence and are confident that this is the very same book in the Holbein painting and that it belonged to Thomas Cromwell.