therefore make a careful attempt to glean from their very confusing statements the more probable facts concerning him. None of the different accounts sheds any light upon the date of Cromwell’s birth, but it is doubtful if it occurred later than 1485, in view of his probable age at the time of his sojourn abroad. That he had a quarrel with his father seems very likely: Bandello’s statement that he came to Italy, ‘fleeing from his father,’ and Chapuys’ assertion that he was ill-behaved when young, together with the many entries in the rolls concerning the tempestuous and disorderly conduct of Walter Cromwell, all point to the truth of this story[22]. Foxe moreover asserts that Cromwell told Cranmer in later years ‘what a ruffian he was in his younger days.’ Pole informs us that he soon became a roving soldier in Italy, a statement which is borne out by the tales of Bandello and Foxe that he was at the battle on the Garigliano (Dec. 28-29, 1503), in the service of the French army[23]. The well-known story of the Italian novelist about Cromwell and Frescobaldo the Florentine merchant, may well have some foundation in fact: there are several mentions of Frescobaldo in the State Papers of the years 1530-1540, which prove that Cromwell was intimate with an Italian of that name[24]. Some scholars have gone so far as to refuse to believe that Cromwell ever went to Italy at all; but this must be the incredulity of madness in face of the fact that all our contemporary witnesses agree that he went there, and of the evidence afforded by his wide acquaintance with Italians, and by his knowledge of their language and literature.