Welsh Journals

not vanished, is rapidly receding out of sight. Where now is this Wales of bards and gentlemen, of worthy clergy and devout congregations, of men of vision and men of independence? It is certainly hard to recognize its unselfconscious goodness and solidity in the ranks of the Welsh Language Society, or its generous realism among the self-promoting leaders of trades unions. Are we coming to the point where rugby football stands out as the last recognizable popular culture of Wales? The trouble is that the more a nation snatches at its history, driven by rootlessness, the less likely is it to get that history right or give substance to its nationhood. Professor Williams, who believes in the Welsh nation like another Fluellen, has much to teach it in an age which has seen well-bred assurance perverted into strident bigotry, and which would like to abuse history for its own short- sighted ends. Clare College, G. R. ELTON Cambridge THOMAS CROMWELL, TUDOR MINISTER. By B. W. Beckingsale. London, Macmillan, 1978. Pp. 181. £ 8.95. This is the first attempt at a biography of Thomas Cromwell which seeks to take account of the controversial reassessments of the last generation of historians. Mr. Beckingsale writes with the detachment of a non-combatant and at a certain remove from the original evidence. Based throughout on printed sources and secondary authorities, the book relies heavily on the scholarship of, among others, Professors Elton, Dickens and Scarisbrick. Mr. Beckingsale has no axe to grind and he does not wield the dart. In forming his own synthesis he is content to sift the arguments and adopt those which appeal to him as most convincing. The composite picture which emerges from this derivative but eclectic approach is coherent and plausible, even if it is unlikely to receive universal acceptance. It is a portrait of Cromwell the public figure, a driven but principled man of affairs who energetically applied his talents to reform in church, realm and commonwealth. While recognizing his subject's unique importance as the wise counsellor rather than the evil genius of Henry VIII, he makes no large claims for Cromwell's originality as reformer or thinker. The empha- sis is on the rediscovery of the historic rights of kingship by a minister whose contribution to the 'imperial theme' was not necessarily innovative. In central administration 'his alterations remained in the bureaucratic tradition of piecemeal change' (p. 59), for which the label 'revolution' is a misnomer. These qualifications are worked into a crowded story, told in brief compass and in an allusive style which sometimes slips into obscurity and which, alas, betrays some blind spots. In the chapter on 'The Governance of the Realm', Mr. Beckingsale assumes rather than argues Cromwell's responsibility for a concerted strategy directed at pacifying and settling border regions. The legal stamp of Cromwell's mind is continually brought out, yet it should be acknow- ledged that others exercised their legal skills in the drafting of bills: Lord Chancellor Audley, for one, is known to have played a part in preparing