had sat as mitred abbots
among the lords, were charged with a denial of the King's supremacy and
hanged as traitors. But Cromwell relied for success on more than
terror. His single will forced on a scheme of foreign policy whose aim
was to bind England to the cause of the Reformation while it bound Henry
helplessly to his minister. The daring boast which his enemies laid
afterward to Cromwell's charge, whether uttered or not, is but the
expression of his system--"In brief time he would bring things to such a
pass that the King with all his power should not be able to hinder him."

His plans rested, like the plan which proved fatal to Wolsey, on a fresh
marriage of his master; Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, had died in
childbirth; and in the opening of 1540 Cromwell replaced her by a German
consort, Anne of Cleves, a sister-in-law of the Lutheran Elector of
Saxony. He dared even to resist Henry's caprice when the King revolted
on their first interview from the coarse features and unwieldy form of
his new bride. For the moment Cromwell had brought matters "to such a
pass" that it was impossible to recoil from the marriage, and the
minister's elevation to the earldom of Essex seemed to proclaim his
success.

The marriage of Anne of Cleves, however, was but the first step in a
policy which, had it been carried out as he designed it, would have
anticipated the triumphs of Richelieu. Charles and the house of Austria
could alone bring about a Catholic reaction strong enough to arrest and
roll back the Reformation; and Cromwell was no sooner united with the
princes of North Germany than he sought to league them with France for
the overthrow of the Emperor.

Had he succeeded, the whole face of Europe would have been changed,
Southern Germany would have been secured for Protestantism, and the
Thirty Years' War averted. But he failed as men fail who stand ahead of
their age. The German princes shrank from a contest with the Emperor,
France from a struggle which would be fatal to Catholicism; and Henry,
left alone to bear the resentment of the house of Austria and chained to
a wife he loathed, turned savagely on his minister.

In June the long struggle came to an end. The nobles sprang on Cromwell
with a fierceness that told of their long-hoarded hate. Taunts and
execrations burst from the Lords at the council table as the Duke of
Norfolk, who had been intrusted with the minister's arrest, tore the
ensign of the garter from