Stories of Cromwell’s marital intentions did not go away, resurfacing in particular around the months of his fall in 1540. It is not entirely implausible that this was in his portfolio of possible outcomes, given the astonishing further ascent which we will trace, but if so it was one of the most dangerous thoughts he ever entertained. There were more immediate rewards for securing Mary’s submission. After years of anomaly between his real power and its lack of outward expression, he now gained a peerage and one of the highest secular offices in the land, that of Lord Privy Seal, then the
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