Two factlets from New York

Brought to me by the NYRB rather than Hilary Mantel.

First, a sister of Thomas Cromwell, the Tudor civil servant, was great grandmother or some such to Oliver Cromwell, the Stuart regicide. A connection I had not known about.

Second, the grand sarcophagus that Wolsey had had made with himself in mind, wound up housing the remains of Admiral Nelson in St. Paul's Cathedral, having been gifted for the purpose by George III, from the royal attic, having been confiscated by Henry VIII at the time of Wolsey's death more than two hundred years previously. With the sarcophagus being an Italian job. See reference 1.

Reference 1: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/119543.html.