pp. 71, 72.]

[Footnote 713: _Narratives of the Reformation_,
Camden Soc., pp. 295, 296.]

[Footnote 714: _Cf._ Duchess of Norfolk's letter to
John Paston, 8th June, 1455 (_Paston Letters_, ed.
1900, i., 337), and in 1586 Sir Henry Bagnal asked
the Earl of Rutland if he had a seat to spare in
Parliament as Bagnal was anxious "for his
learning's sake to be made a Parliament man"
(_D.N.B._, Suppl., i., 96).]

[Footnote 715: _L. and P._, xiv., 645; _cf._
Hallam, 1884, iii., 44-45.]

[Footnote 716: Foxe, ed. Townsend, vi., 54. There
are some illustrations and general remarks on
Henry's relations with Parliament in Porritt's
_Unreformed House of Commons_, 2 vols., 1903.]

[Footnote 717: At Reigate, says the Duke, "I doubt
whether any burgesses be there or not" (_L. and
P._, x., 816); and apparently there were none at
Gatton.]

But these nominations were not royal, and there is no reason (p. 254)
to suppose that the nominees were any more likely to be subservient to
the Crown than freely elected members unless the local magnate happened
to be a royal minister. Their views depended on those of their patrons,
who might be opposed to the Court; and, in 1539, Cromwell's agents
were considering the advisability of setting up Crown candidates
against those of Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.[718] The curious
letter to Cromwell in 1529,[719] upon which is based the theory that
the House of Commons consisted of royal nominees, is singularly
inconclusive. Cromwell sought Henry's permission to serve in
Parliament for two reasons; firstly, he was still a servant of the
obnoxious and fallen Cardinal; secondly, he was seeking to transfer
himself to Henry's service, and thought he might be useful to the King
in the House of Commons. If Henry accepted his offer, Cromwell was to
be nominated for Oxford; if he were not elected there, he was to be
put up for one of the boroughs in the diocese of Winchester, then
vacant through Wolsey's resignation. Even with the King's assent, his
election at Oxford was not regarded as certain; and, as a matter of
fact, Cromwell sat neither fo