ABSTRACT
Tudor privy councils and Tudor principal secretaries. Admittedly, too, his personal standing prevented the complete emergence of the privy council which only in August 1540, soon after Cromwell's death, met to appoint an active clerk and inaugurate its register. But it was Cromwell who created the typical governing board of Tudor and early Stuart times, which in tum was to produce the modern cabinet. This reform resulted in the first institutional split in the king's council, so that for a few years we hear of ·ordinary' councillors-eouncillors who are not members of the privy council. By the reign of Elizabeth, however, the privy council was the sole survivor of the old council, except for the court of star chamber (itself largely composed of privy councillors) which achieved institutional separation as a result of the setting up of this small, tightly organisedt and efficient conciliar board.
