exaltation of his prerogative. It was
thoroughly in keeping with his policy that the parliamentary system
expanded concurrently with the sphere of the King's activity. Berwick
had first been represented in the Parliament of 1529,[1020] and a
step, which would have led to momentous consequences, had the idea, on
which it was based, been carried out, was taken in 1536, when two
members were summoned from Calais. There was now only one district
under English rule which was not represented in Parliament, and that
was the county of Durham, known as _the_ bishopric, which still
remained detached from the national system. It was left for Oliver
Cromwell to complete England's parliamentary representation by
summoning members to sit for that palatine county.[1021] This was not
the only respect in which the Commonwealth followed in the footsteps
of Henry VIII., for the Parliament of 1542, in which members from
Wales and from Calais are first recorded as sitting,[1022] passed an
"Act for the Navy," which provided that goods could only be (p. 369)
imported in English ships. It was, however, in his dealings with
Scotland that Henry's schemes for the expansion of England became most
marked; but, before he could develop his plans in that direction, he
had to ward off a recrudescence of the danger from a coalition of
Catholic Europe.

[Footnote 1019: _L. and P._, xvi., 28; _cf._
Leadam, _Court of Requests_, Selden Soc., Introd.]

[Footnote 1020: _Official Return of Members of
Parliament_, i., 369.]

[Footnote 1021: See G.T. Lapsley, _The County
Palatine of Durham_, in _Harvard Historical
Series_.]

[Footnote 1022: There are no records in the
_Official Return_ for 1536 and 1539, but Calais had
been granted Parliamentary representation by an Act
of the previous Parliament (27 Hen. VIII., Private
Acts, No. 9; _cf. L. and P._, x., 1086).]

* * * * *

In spite of Henry's efforts to fan the flames of strife[1023] between
the Emperor and the King of France, the war, which had prevented
either monarch from countenancing the mission of Cardinal Pole or from
profiting by the Pilgrimage of Grace, was gradually dying down in the
autumn of 1537; and, in order to check the growing