A long-mooted Franco-Imperial alliance (contrary to England's interests) had failed to materialise: Cromwell had caused the Duke of Norfolk to be sent to the court of the French king Francis I to offer Henry's support in his unresolved dispute with Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the mission had been received favourably. This changed the balance of power in England's favour and demonstrated that Cromwell's earlier foreign policy of wooing support from the Duchy of Cleves had unnecessarily caused his king's conjugal difficulty.