‘Wourshipfull Sir it may please you to be aduertised that a litle before the receipte of your lettere I cam from the courte where I spake with Mr. Gage and according to your commaundement moved him to speke vnto my lorde of Norffolk for the burgeses Rowme of the parlyament on your behalf And he accordingly so dyd without delay lyke a faythfull Frende, wherevppon my saide lorde of Norffolk answered the saide Mr. Gage that he had spoken with the king his highnes and that his highnes was veray well contented ye should be a Burges So that ye wolde order yourself in the saide Rowme according to suche instructions as the saide Duke of Norffolk shall gyue you from the king Aduertesing you ferther that the saide Duke in any wise willeth that ye do speke with his grace to morow for th[at] purpose. In token whereof his grace sent you by mr. Ga[ge] your Ryng with the turques, Whiche I do now sende you by this berer. As touching mr. Russhe I spake with him also at [the] courte if I then had knowen your pleasure I could now haue sent you answere of the same. Howbeit I will speke with him this night god willing and know whether ye shalbe Burges of Oxforde or not And if ye be not elect there I will then according to your ferther commaundement repayre vnto Mr. paulet and requiere him to name you to be one of the Burgeses of one of my lordes townes of his busshopriche of Wynchester accordingly. Sir me thinketh it were good, So it may stonde with your pleasure, that ye did repayre hither to morowe assone as ye conuenyently may for to speke with the Duke of Norffolk by whom ye shall knowe the king his pleasure how ye shall order yourself in the parliament house Assuring you that your Frendes wolde haue you to tary with my lorde there as litle as might be for many consideracions as Mr. Gage will Shew you who moche desireth to speke with you. the king his grace wilbe to morow at night at yorke place. Other newes at the courte I here none but dyuers of my lorde his seruauntes as Mr. Aluarde Mr. Sayntclere Mr. Forest, Humfrey lisle Mr. Mores & other ben elect and sworne the king his seruauntes. Mr. Gifforde & I cam from the courte togither but when we cam into london he departed from me I knowe not whither. Newes I inquiered of him but he sayed he knew none other then as I haue wrytten you here, which Mr. Gage also shewed him. Humblie beseching you, if it be your pleasure, to make spede hither. And thus I most hertely beseche our lorde god to sende you your hertes Desire and to induce and bring all your good purposes and affairees to good effecte. From london in haste this present all Saynctes Day at iiij of the clocke after none by

Your most humble Seruaunte
Rafe Sadleyer.’

From this letter then it seems probable that Cromwell obtained his seat in the Parliament of 1529 through the influence of the Duke of Norfolk. He was keen-sighted enough to see that at Wolsey’s fall all the royal favour had been transferred to this man and to Gardiner. Both of these were Wolsey’s enemies, and Cromwell, whose name was coupled everywhere with that of the Cardinal, saw that to gain influence at Court, it was necessary at all costs to do away with their hostility, which he must have incurred as Wolsey’s agent. Thus Cromwell’s first move at the time of his master’s disgrace was to take steps to get himself into favour with Norfolk. Cavendish’s account is explained by the fact that Cromwell would not have been very likely to tell Wolsey how he had gone straight over to his bitterest enemy, but far more probably sent back to Esher the incomplete tale about Rush and his son, which the honest and simple-minded biographer probably never suspected for an instant. One can hardly doubt that Cromwell would not have been elected to this Parliament had he not secured the consent of the Cardinal’s worst foe. He had thus killed two birds with one stone; he had gained his position in the House of Commons where his influence would be felt, and he had successfully escaped the odium of the chief person at the Court, which would have naturally fallen upon him as Wolsey’s servant, and turned it into at least a temporary friendship.

From the contents of the letter above quoted, we may also suppose that Cromwell’s doings in the Parliament of 1529 were ‘ordered’ by the King. The bill of attainder or ‘boke of artikels’ against the Cardinal was the first business that lay before the House. It had passed the Lords and was sent down to the Commons, but it was so violent and so false, that even Henry and Norfolk relented. It had probably been very clearly hinted to the Parliament that the King did not wish it to pass, and royal ‘hints’ at this period of English history were generally respected and obeyed. Cavendish tells us that when Cromwell had obtained his seat in Parliament, and the attainder was brought forward, he consulted with Wolsey ‘to know what answer he might make in his behalf; insomuch that there was nothing alleadged against my lord but that he was ready to make answer thereto,’ and he inveighed against the bill ‘so discreetly and with such witty persuasions and depe resons that the same could take none effect,’ so that ‘at length his honest estimation and earnest behaviour in his master’s cause grewe so in every man’s opinion, that he was reputed the most faithful servant to his master of all other, wherein he was greatly of all men commended[151].’

This is all doubtless true, but whether or not he was alone in the stand he made against the bill is quite another question. Henry was perfectly satisfied with humbling the Cardinal to the extent that he had already done, and did not wish him to suffer any more; in fact the opposition, consisting of most of the nobles led by Norfolk and Anne Boleyn, were in constant fear up to the day of Wolsey’s death, lest he should regain the King’s favour. If Cromwell had gone openly over to the other side at this juncture, he would have gained nothing, and incurred the odium due to a deserter. He took the only generous and right side, but in serving his master he served himself far more[152]. Wolsey, as we have seen, had made a written confession of all his misdeeds as soon as the first blow had been struck against him[153]. This confession was produced by Cromwell, and it gave the proposers of the bill of attainder an excuse for dropping it. Cromwell supplied the pretext for abandoning a measure displeasing to the King, and consequently impossible to carry through this very subservient Parliament; by so doing he gained the praise of a saviour of his master in his extremity.

This was the first step: the second was to win the favour of other nobles, while still preserving the appearance of loyally serving his fallen master. It was scarcely less important than the first, and was carried through by Cromwell with the greatest rapidity and success. His method of accomplishing it, however simple, was eminently characteristic, and merits description.

It has already been shown how thoroughly Cromwell realized the importance of money as a political force. Though the traditional reproach of parsimony and stinginess so often cast at Henry VII.[154] is in great measure unmerited, it is undeniable that his careful financial management and accurate audits had served to surround his government with an atmosphere of ostensible frugality. Henry VIII., on the contrary, delighted in outward splendour and magnificence; his Court was by far the most brilliant that England had ever beheld, and nobody could play his part there who was not prepared to lavish vast sums upon his outfit. But the greater part of the nobles were quite unable to do this. It had been an important part of the plan of Henry VII. for establishing a strong kingship to keep all possible rivals of the Crown in a state of financial dependence. Many items in the State Papers of his son’s reign bear witness to the complete success of these schemes of impoverishing the nobility[155]. Only by pawning and selling lands, estates, goods and chattels could the nobility obtain sufficient sums to make a good appearance at the brilliant Court of Henry VIII.

Such a state of affairs was a golden opportunity to a man in Cromwell’s position and of Cromwell’s talents. To Wolsey, whose mind had been intent on the larger schemes of his foreign policy, the notion of staving off the hatred of the influential people about the King by gifts of money, would never have occurred. Cromwell hit upon the scheme in a moment, as the only sure road to favour at the Court[156]. Now that Wolsey had surrendered himself almost wholly to the counsels of his painstaking, watchful, close and wholly unscrupulous adviser, Cromwell immediately persuaded him to grant annuities to the Court favourites. The casual reader must not deceive himself into thinking that this was done at Wolsey’s own suggestion; the measure was too evidently Cromwellian to leave any room to doubt its originator, and if any further proof be needed, it is furnished by evidence in the Cardinal’s papers. In a letter to Cromwell written in December, 1529, Wolsey says, ‘Yf the desspleasure of my lady Anne be [some]what asswagyd, as I praye God the same maye be, then yt shuld [be devised t]hat by sume convenyent meane she be further laboryd [for th]ys ys the only helpe and remedy. All possyble meanes [must be used for] atteynyng of hyr favor . . . . . . . . . . I comyt me to yower wyse handling[157].’ In the same month Cromwell made out the draft of a grant by Wolsey to George Boleyn, Knight, Viscount Rochford, son and heir apparent of Thomas Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, bestowing on him an annuity of £200 out of the lands of the bishopric of Winchester, and a similar gift of £200 out of the abbey lands of St. Albans[158]. Another letter from Wolsey to Cromwell in January, 1530, says that, according to his servant’s advice, he has had Mr. Norris’s fee increased from £100 to £200, and would like to have Sir John Russell’s annuity of £20 made 40 or 50, if Cromwell thinks it expedient[159].

It is thus clear that these and other similar gifts were bestowed at Cromwell’s advice and suggestion, and that the inevitable consequence was that the advantage resulting from them accrued to a far greater extent to the Cardinal’s agent than to the Cardinal himself. Wolsey, in his confinement at Esher, was forced to trust himself implicitly to the shrewd and selfish counsellor, who moved about among those whom it was most important for him to propitiate, and soon found means to make it appear that Wolsey’s favours in reality emanated from him. Cromwell’s selection of those to whom the presents were made seems also to hint that he was working in his own interest more than in his master’s. He must have known that the members of the Boleyn party, to whom the greater part of the grants were made, hated Wolsey himself too thoroughly to permit them to forget their grudge for the sake of a few hundred pounds, but the sums bestowed were sufficiently large to make the recipients of them very friendly to the Cardinal’s agent, who to all intents and purposes appeared to be the real giver. Hints of all this must indeed have reached Wolsey’s ears. Though throughout all the period of the attainder his gratitude, as expressed in his many letters, was, in view of the real facts, most unnecessarily effusive[160], he later writes to Cromwell that he hears ‘he has not done him as good offices as he might, in connexion with his colleges and his archbishopric.’ But Cromwell had by this time got everything into his own hands, so that Wolsey was forced to do exactly as he was bidden. Whenever the Cardinal undertook anything on his own responsibility, without asking his servant’s advice, it was greatly resented. If Wolsey dared to hint that Cromwell was not wholly devoted to his interests, the latter sent back a complaining and half-threatening reply[161]. The Cardinal was even forced to write a humble apology to his agent for sending Edmund Bonner on some mission without his advice[162]. The less able Wolsey became to help himself, the more harsh and imperious was his all-powerful counsellor. With the whole control of his master’s interests at the Court in his own hands, it was exceedingly simple for a man of Cromwell’s peculiar talents to dispose the funds committed to his care in such ways as tallied best with his own interests, while casual onlookers simply regarded him as an honest servant of his fallen master; and Wolsey, unable to learn the true state of affairs at Court, was kept practically ignorant of his real designs. Cromwell had thus succeeded in attaining a most enviable position, which was aptly described in a letter which he received from Stephen Vaughan, who took the opportunity to congratulate him, and also to warn him against over-confidence in the following words:—‘A mery semblance of wether often thrustithe men into the Daungerous sees, not thinking to be sodaynly opprest wythe tempest when vnwares they be preuented and brought in great ieopardie. The Wyndes arn mutable vnsure and will not be caryed in mennys handes to blow at a becke. Parell euerywhere followithe men, from the birthe to the Dethe, And more thretenethe them whiche entreprise Difficult and vrgent matters, then those whiche only sekethe easy and light matters ye thoughe they have great apparance of vertue, such is thinstabilitie of the worlde, wher we find undique miseriam[163].’