The towns and cities of the Low Countries staged great fairs at certain seasons of the year, to which merchants and manufacturers flocked from southern and northern Europe alike. Thomas Cromwell made his first way in the world amid such commerce. Out of this trade came huge profits for producers and entrepreneurs, and the English economy hinged on the relationship. That was ample reason for the English monarchy to seek the best of relations with whoever ruled the Low Countries. Currently that ruler was the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor; since the 1490s the Habsburgs had been locked in
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