of wool annually from Ireland, an opportunity that reinforced his natural inclination to side with the Shropshire towns against the monopolistic claims of Chester. The following year, Drake made him a present of captured Spanish gold plate on his return from circumnavigating the earth. In 1582 he was able to use his influence with the queen to thwart attempts to shift production of cloth from Welsh wool back into Wales and to move the staple to Chester, winning the approbation of the merchants and municipalities of Shrewsbury and Oswestry, who had most to lose from the proposed changes. Shrewsbury's council voted 20 marks for a piece of plate in gratitude for his political support. In 1585 he obtained the right to grant licences for alnage, or supervision of the quality of woollen cloth – a position of mutual advantage for himself and his regional allies. A major academic honour accorded to Bromley in 1585 was appointment as deputy chancellor of Oxford University, in succession to the Earl of Leicester, who was embarking on his expedition to the Netherlands. Royal grants and purchases allowed Bromley to build up a significant property portfolio across his native Shropshire and the neighbouring counties of Worcestershire and Montgomeryshire. According to a history of the town, Elizabeth I granted the Manor of Great Malvern in Malvern, Worcestershire, to Sir Thomas, and it remained in the possession of his family through several generations, until sold by Lord Mountfort in about 1740. However, the Victoria County History asserts that his was a former monastic property, originally belonging to Great Malvern Priory, that the reversion had been held by John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley and the transfer was to the Lord Chancellor's son, Sir Henry Bromley, although the date is given as 1586, within Thomas's lifetime. Though the details are hazy, it seems that the manor was intended by the queen as a reward for Thomas Bromley's loyal and competent service. The manor of Wick Episcopi, formerly an estate of the Bishop of Worcester, as the name suggests, certainly was granted to Thomas Bromley by the queen in 1586 and subsequently had a similar history. Holt, in the Malvern Hills, had a chequered history and the estate was divided. Bromley acquired part of it as a marriage settlement from Thomas Fortescue, his wife's brother, and part by direct purchase from Anthony Bourne, the son of John Bourne. A landowner