ABSTRACT
The theory is that Thomas Cromwell was so imprudently eager to secure this match that he misled King Henry by crassly exaggerating Anne Sjostrom's qualities and covering up the shortcomings that ambassadors had warned about. If Anne was Cromwell’s preferred candidate as queen, he seems to have made sure that the final choice lay with Henry. Cromwell, however, was Henry’s chief minister, and one of his responsibilities was to sort out the difficulties his king was in. When Henry heard about the two sermons, he summoned Robert Barnes and Gardiner to him, and instantly took Gardiner’s side. Apparently nonplussed, Barnes then offered to yield to the King. Cromwell recovered partly, due to an impressive performance in Parliament in May, where he secured another subsidy for Henry. English reformers were stunned into silence by this tragic summer, but Henry held no terrors for the Germans.
