King was as far away from London as Greenwich, or when such
ill-wishers as the Duke of Norfolk were in the King's neighbourhood,
Cromwell never slept far out of earshot from the King's rooms. It was
said indeed that never once since he had become the King's man had he
passed a day without seeing his Highness once at least, or writing him
a great letter. But he contrived continually to send the nobles that
were against him upon errands at a distance--as when Bishop Gardiner
was made Ambassador to Paris, or Norfolk sent to put down the North
after the Pilgrimage of Grace. Such errands served a double purpose:
Gardiner, acting under the pressure of the King, was in Paris forced
to make enemies of many of his foreign friends; and the Duke, in his
panic-stricken desire to curry favour with Henry, had done more
harrying, hanging and burning among the Papists than ever Henry or his
minister would have dared to command, for in those northern parts the
King's writ did not run freely. Thus, in spite of himself the Duke at
York had been forced to hold the country whilst creatures of Privy
Seal, men of the lowest birth and of the highest arrogance, had been
made Wardens of the Marches and filled the Councils of the Borders.
Such men, with others, like the judges and proctors of the Court of
Augmentations, which Cromwell had invented to administer the estates
of the monasteries and escheated lords' lands, with a burgess or two
from the shires in Parliament, many lawyers and some suppliants of
rank, filled the anterooms of Privy Seal. There was a matter of two
hundred of them, mostly coming not upon any particular business so
much as that any enemies they had who should hear of their having been
there might tremble the more.

Cromwell himself was in the room that had the King's and Queen's heads
on the ceiling and the tapestry of Diana hunting. He was speaking with
a great violence to Sir Leonard Ughtred, whose sister-in-law, the
widow of Sir Anthony Ughtred, and sister of the Queen Jane, his son
Gregory had married two years before. It was a good match, for it made
Cromwell's son the uncle of the Prince of Wales, but there had been a
trouble about their estates ever since.

'Sir,' Cromwell threatened the knight, 'Gregory my son was ever a
fool. If he be content that you have Hyde Farm that am not I. His wife
may twist him to consent, but I will not suffer it.'

Ughtred hung his head, which was closely shaved, and fingered his
je