Politics and Profit
A Study of Sir Ralph Sadler 1507–1547

In the reign of Henry VIII a lay, as distinct from a clerical, staff of administrators was rapidly emerging as an essential instrument of government.

Arthur Joseph Slavin (Author)

9780521089333, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 November 2008

256 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.38 kg

In the reign of Henry VIII a lay, as distinct from a clerical, staff of administrators was rapidly emerging as an essential instrument of government. To a remarkable degree the Crown depended on the servants of great ministers to supply the deficiencies of a formal bureaucratic structure. Thomas Cromwell's regime is perhaps the outstanding example of this phenomenon and, within his household staff, Ralph Sadler and Thomas Wriothesley emerged as the most capable servants. Sadler, the son of a man with some government connections but without pretensions to membership of the gentry, quickly rose in Cromwell's service and by 1535 began to appear as something more than Cromwell's man. In fact, he functioned as an ambassador linking Cromwell and Henry VIII.

1. Heir to a Fair Inheritance
2. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
3. Between Cromwell and the Crown
4. Master Secretary
5. The High Road to Scotland
6. The English Wooing of Scotland in 1543
7. The Politics of Survival
8. Place and Profit: The Exploitation of Office
9. Place and Profit: Sadler and the Henrician Land Market
10. The Paradox of Sadler's Position.

Subject Areas: History [HB]