As a reward for his success in the management of domestic affairs, the King conferred on him the many dignities and titles which, in 1536, marked the height of his power. He had been raised to the offices of Privy Councillor, Master of the Jewels, Clerk of the Hanaper, and Master of the King’s Wards in 1531 and 1532. The Chancellorship of the Exchequer had followed in 1533. He became Principal Secretary to the King in 1534, Master of the Rolls in the same year, Vicar-general and Visitor-general of the Monasteries in January, 1535, Lord Privy Seal, Vicegerent of the King in Spirituals[312] in July, 1536. He was also created Baron Cromwell of Okeham in the same month, and Knight of the Garter in August, 1537. During the last seven years of his ministry he was granted no less than nineteen minor offices, through which his income must have been very greatly increased[313]. Just prior to the outbreak of the Pilgrimage of Grace, Cromwell’s position was almost that of a despot. He was supreme in Convocation, Privy Council, and Parliament; he enjoyed paramount authority in the direction of internal affairs, and next to the King was by far the most important man in the realm. A letter of Chapuys in the summer of 1536[314], soon after Anne Boleyn’s execution, tells us that it was even rumoured that Cromwell might marry the Princess Mary, but the Imperial ambassador himself was too shrewd to be misled by such an improbable report[315]. Had Cromwell seriously entertained the idea of a union with the daughter of the divorced Queen, he would scarcely have permitted himself to be made use of by the King as an instrument for breaking down her resolution: he could scarcely have written her such a brutal letter as that of June 10, 1536[316]. But the inequality in rank is certainly in itself sufficient proof of the absurdity of the proposition. Cromwell was about the last man in the world to become reckless with success; he never for a moment forgot his low birth, and the imprisonment of the brother of his rival the Duke of Norfolk for presuming to wed the King’s niece was a warning of the danger of such a proceeding, which could not have been lost on him[317]. If such a proposition were put forward at all, and we cannot believe that it was, it could only have been as a pretext to prevent the Princess from leaving the realm and joining with her cousin the Emperor in an attempt to dethrone the King.