Bacon. The queen then took the seal into her own custody and gave it to Burleigh or Leicester alternately, with Walsingham substituted when Leicester was away. The reason for the delay was probably the internal debate and manoeuvring over the succession. Gilbert Gerard had been made Attorney General in 1559, immediately after the queen's coronation, and there is a tradition that he had been her lawyer during the reign of Mary. He was senior to Bromley in every way: a distinguished and highly respected lawyer of great experience. However, Campbell states that he was "awkward and ungainly in his speech and manner, and not considered fit for such a place of representation and dignity." Although very reliable, Gerard was known to be on good terms with recusants in his native Lancashire and his wife and daughters were Catholics. Bromley seems to have been entirely untroubled by ideological and theological concerns and was certainly happy to ally himself with the more radically Protestant grouping around Leicester. He also had the support of the Inner Templar Christopher Hatton, a chronically indebted courtier, who had the ear of the queen. Bernardino de Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador reported home that Leicester and Hatton had recommended Bromley, hoping to use him as a supporter of the proposed marriage of the queen to Francis, Duke of Anjou, who was sympathetic to the Huguenot cause. The alliance was evidently cemented with money, as Bromley had promised a pension to Leicester and Hatton. Bromley was duly appointed both Keeper of the Great Seal and Lord Chancellor, over the head of Gerard, who was compensated two years later with the post of Master of the Rolls. Bromley was knighted in May 1579. Important cases In 1581 Bromley played an important part in securing a judgment in Shelley's Case, which was for centuries a leading case in property law, although now superseded by legislation. Although the judgment was generally accepted, along with Bromley's part in it, the immediate motivation for it was political. The roots of the case went back more than 30 years: Sir William Shelley, the purchaser of the estates at issue had died in 1549. The queen instructed Bromley to assemble the judges to make a definite ruling. The defendant, Henry Shelley, who was successful, was a committed Protestant: the lessor of the plaintiff, Richard Shelly had been imprisoned as a Catholic the previous year. The 1582