the intrigue that accompanied
his sister's elevation, though after the marriage he naturally rose higher
than before in the favour of the King. He was a clever and superficially
brilliant, but ostentatious and greedy man, of no great strength of
purpose, whose new relationship to the King marked him out as a dominating
influence in the future. The Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, upon whom Henry
had depended as generals, were now very old and ailing, and there was no
other peer but Cromwell of any ability in the Councils.

Even thus early it was clear that Seymour's weight would, notwithstanding
the circumstances of his sister's rise, be thrown on to the anti-Papal
side when the crucial struggle came. He was, moreover, a new man; and as
such not welcomed by the older nobility, who, though desirous of retaining
their Church plunder, were yet bound by their traditions against
bureaucrats such as Cromwell, and the policy of defiance of the Papacy
that he and his like had suggested and carried out. Cromwell's own
position at this time (1536-37) was a paradoxical one. It was he who had
led Henry on, step by step, to entire schism and the plunder of the
Church; it was he who not only had shown how to get rid of Katharine, but
how to destroy her successor; and it was he whom the Catholic party hated
with a whole-hearted detestation, for the King's acts as well as his own.
On the other hand, he was hardly less distrusted by the reforming party;
for his efforts were known to be directed to a reconciliation with the
Emperor, which could only be effected conjointly with some sort of
arrangement with the Papacy. His efforts to please the imperialists by
siding with the Princess Mary during her dispute with her father led him
to the very verge of destruction. Whilst the young Princess was being
badgered into making her shameful and insincere renunciation of her faith
and birthright, Cromwell, the very man who was the instrument for
extorting her submission, sat, as he says, for a week in the Council
considering himself "a dead man," because the King believed that he was
encouraging Mary to resist. Cromwell, therefore, like most men who
endeavour to hold a middle course, was distrusted and hated by every one;
and it must have been obvious to him that if he could ensure the adhesion
of the rising Seymour interest his chance of weathering the storm would be
infinitely improved. His son had recently married Jane Seymour's sister,
and this b