Free Republic

On this date in 1510, the new king Henry VIII had his dad’s most hated tax collectors beheaded on Tower Hill. When Henry Tudor conquered Bosworth Field to emerge from the War of the Roses as King Henry VII, he brought the baggage of being the son of some Welsh squire. His shaky legitimacy exposed the newborn Tudor dynasty to existential threats from every quarter; even putative allies proved liable to turn against him. Henry consequently looked for every opportunity to centralize power away from institutions that could check or threaten him and into his own hands — nowhere more...

Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley would both earn themselves the reputation as Henry VII's hatchet men -- which is fair enough; but in addition they would be characterised by Polydore Vergil and others to characterize as extortioners... on Henry VII's death in 1509, Dudley was a fall guy for what was essentially his master's policy. He was tried in London in July 1509 and convicted of treason; the ludicrous accusation was that he planned to "hold, guide and govern the King and his Council" with a force of men. He probably did assemble a force of men given the political...