The cosmopolitan European traveller had a fairly limited acquaintance with his own country: largely London, Surrey and Essex and the ports of Southampton and Bristol. Now he was given the chance to roam widely (on travel expenses) across the whole of lowland England, and used his considerable charm to make all sorts of interesting friendships. This meant that, just at the moment when the kingdom was beginning to divide on religious lines under the influence of the Reformation in mainland Europe, Cromwell came to the King’s service on the fall of Wolsey equipped with a range of acquaintance on
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