And so on 15 January 1532 Parliament opened once more. By the time it was prorogued four months later, Cromwell had been prominent in drafting and seeing through to royal assent a good many pieces of worthy and useful legislation from both government and local interests, ranging from a long-lasting new framework for ‘commissions of sewers’ to administer flood defences and waterways through to a prohibition on selling horses to Scotsmen.10 Yet any management he attempted of the most politically important and contentious proceedings was largely ineffective.
