Thomas Cromwell did so much in a decade. He served his king with careful attention to what Henry wanted, and an even more careful attention to insinuating his own plans and hopes into the King’s proceedings. Partly he wanted to forward a religious revolution; partly his aim was more predictably to forward his own family’s dignity in the realm, and his success in that respect was astonishing: the grandson of a Putney brewer married the sister-in-law of a king.
