Geoffrey Elton saw this change as part of Thomas Cromwell’s ‘Revolution in Government’, formalizing executive power and taking it ‘out of Court’. That puts the matter the wrong way round. Until the fall of Anne Boleyn in 1536, Cromwell thrived on indeterminacy in government, which allowed full rein to his improvisatory skill. After that, his own position crystallized much more clearly into office and formal honour, and the Pilgrimage was at least in part an expression of fury at that development.
