Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
The summer of 1540 in England witnessed an event which proved a turning-point in the history of the country. The fall of Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex was the outcome of a long struggle between Gardiner and Cromwell, the two servants of Cardinal Wolsey who after their master's death led rival factions in the Council. As one result of the crisis a reconciliation with Rome was expected by foreign observers, a step that would have left the Emperor and the French King free to form independent alliances with England. At home those who dared not contemplate such a reconciliation could at least prevent the further spread of new doctrines by enforcing the doctrine of the Six Articles. But all who welcomed Cromwell's fall as the signal for a religious revolution were soon to realise that there was a king in England who would be head both of State and Church.
page 295 note 1 Translated for the Parker Society (Cambridge, 1846. Original Letters, No. cv.).
page 298 note 1 This name has no connection with the baronial family of Croum (Crohom, Craon, Creon, Credun), of Continental origin, though equally of East Anglian occurrence. It is found in the French version of the Latin Garcio, ‘le Grome,’ and in the English equivalent during the fifteenth century, with a particular application to the scale of rank in the later feudal household. It is also necessary to distinguish this name from the place-name ‘Cromer’ or ‘Crowmere,’ as well as from an abbreviation of Abercrombie in use at the Court of Henry VIII.
page 298 note 2 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., iv. No. 1288.
page 298 note 3 Select cases of the Court of Requests (Selden Soc.), p. cxv, n.
page 299 note 1 Lord Chamberlain's Books, Ser. I. p. 791.
page 300 note 1 The numeration of the following articles is not found in the MS.