Editing Thomas Cromwell (section)

==Lawyer, Member of Parliament, adviser to Wolsey==
[[File:Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Wolsey|Cardinal Thomas Wolsey]]]]
By 1520, Cromwell was firmly established in London mercantile and legal circles.{{sfn|Leithead|2008}} In 1529, he obtained a seat in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] as a [[Burgess (title)|burgess]],{{Sfn|Everett|2015|p=44}} though the constituency he represented has not been identified with certainty.{{sfn|Leithead|2008}} He prepared a daring speech against King Henry's declared intention of leading an invasion of France, although it was expressed tactfully in terms of concern for the King's safety while on campaign and fear of the costs such an overbold policy would entail; it was the latter point that embodied Cromwell's true concern. There is no record of when Cromwell actually delivered the speech in the chamber and some modern historians, including Michael Everett and Robert Woods, have suggested that the whole episode was no more than a ploy, sanctioned by Henry himself, to allow him to withdraw graciously from his rash threat of war.<ref name=Gairdner/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Woods |first1=Robert L. |title=Politics and Precedent: Wolsey's Parliament of 1523 |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |date=August 1977 |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=297–312 |doi=10.2307/3817353 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania|jstor=3817353 }}</ref>{{sfn|Everett|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tWzbBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA155 155]}}

After Parliament had been dissolved, Cromwell wrote a letter to a friend, jesting about the session's lack of productivity:<blockquote>I amongst other have indured a parlyament which contenwid by the space of xvii hole wekes wher we communyd of warre pease Stryffe contencyon debatte murmure grudge Riches poverte penurye trowth falshode Justyce equyte dicayte [deceit] opprescyon Magnanymyte actyvyte foce [force] attempraunce [moderation] Treason murder Felonye consyli... [conciliation] and also how a commune welth myght be ediffyed and a[lso] contenewid within our Realme. Howbeyt in conclusyon we have d[one] as our predecessors have been wont to doo that ys to say, as well we myght and lefte wher we begann.{{sfn|Leithead|2008}}</blockquote>

For a short while early in 1523 Cromwell became an adviser to [[Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset]], drafting a parliamentary bill to relieve his sponsor of taxation on some property in [[Cumberland]]. Although the bill was not introduced in the 1523 session of Parliament, this may indicate that the unidentified seat for which Cromwell was returned in that year was [[Carlisle (UK Parliament constituency)|Carlisle]], Cumberland, to present the Marquess's bill.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=50}} Early in 1524 he became a member of the household of [[Lord Chancellor]] Cardinal [[Thomas Wolsey]] although, initially, he maintained his private legal practice; in that year he was elected a member of [[Gray's Inn]], a lawyers' guild.{{sfn|Leithead|2008}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|pp=71; 79; 81}}  Cromwell assisted in the dissolution of nearly thirty monasteries to raise funds for Wolsey to found [[Ipswich School|The King's School, Ipswich]] (1528), and [[Christ Church, Oxford|Cardinal College]], in Oxford (1529).{{sfn|Leithead|2008}} In 1527 Wolsey appointed Cromwell a member of his personal council, as one of his most senior and trusted advisers.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=56}} By the end of October of that year, however, Wolsey had fallen from power.{{sfn|Leithead|2008}} Cromwell had made enemies by aiding Wolsey to suppress the monasteries, but was determined not to fall with his master, as he told [[George Cavendish (writer)|George Cavendish]], then a Gentleman Usher and later Wolsey's biographer:<blockquote>I do entend (god wyllyng) this after none, whan my lord hathe dyned to ride to london and so to the Court, where I wyll other make or marre, or ere [before] I come agayn, I wyll put my self in the prese [press] to se what any man is Able to lay to my charge of ontrouthe or mysdemeanor.{{sfn|Leithead|2008}}</blockquote>

Cavendish acknowledges that Cromwell's moves to mend the situation were by means of engaging himself in an energetic defence of Wolsey ("There could nothing be spoken against my lord{{nbsp}}... but he [Cromwell] would answer it incontinent[ly]"<ref name=Cavendish>{{cite book |last1=Cavendish |first1=George |author-link1=George Cavendish (writer) |editor1-last=Singer |editor1-first=Samuel Weller |editor1-link=Samuel Weller Singer |title=The Life of Cardinal Wolsey |date=1641 |publisher=Harding and Lepard |location=London |oclc=78945163 |edition=1825|volume=1|page=274}}</ref>), rather than by distancing himself from his old master's actions, and this display of "authentic loyalty" only enhanced his reputation, not least in the mind of the King.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|pp=98; 102}}