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Thomas Cromwell's Doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Conrad Russell
Affiliation:
The Institute of Historical Research London

Extract

IN attending a conference on ‘The Eltonian Legacy’, most of us are here to pay tribute to a teacher or a patron. I am here for the no less heartfelt, but rather trickier, task of paying tribute to a much-missed sparring partner. My first encounter with Geoffrey Elton was at long range, through his review of The Crisis of Parliaments, which I can now describe, recollecting it in tranquillity, as my first encounter with Test Match bowling. It was a bit like taking guard in one's first Test to find oneself facing Curtly Ambrose. Like many such encounters, it gave rise to a firm, but always competitive, friendship.

Type
The Eltonian Legacy
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1997

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References

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