404 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 



moneys, and did not his diligence to examine and 

 beat it out who were the offenders. For this and 

 some other things laid to his charge, he was con 

 demned to pay two thousand pounds ; and being a 

 man of stomach, and hardened by his former troubles* 

 refused to pay a mite ; and belike used some unto 

 ward speeches of the proceedings, for which he was 

 sent to the Tower, and there remained till the king s 

 death. Knesworth likewise, that had been lately 

 Mayor of London, and both his sheriffs, were for 

 abuses in their offices questioned, and imprisoned, 

 and delivered upon one thousand four hundred 

 pounds paid. Hawis, an alderman of London, was 

 put in trouble, and died with thought and anguish, 

 before his business came to an end. Sir Lawrence 

 Ailmer, who had likewise been Mayor of London, 

 and his two sheriffs, were put to the fine of one 

 thousand pounds. And Sir Lawrence, for refusing 

 to make payment, was committed to prison, where 

 he stayed till Empson himself was committed in his 

 place. 



It is no marvel, if the faults were so light, and the 

 rates so heavy, that the king s treasure of store, that 

 he left at his death, most of it in secret places, under 

 his own key and keeping, at Richmond, amounted, 

 as by tradition it is reported to have done, unto the 

 sum of near eighteen hundred thousand pounds 

 sterling; a huge mass of money even for these times. 

 The last act of state that concluded this king s 

 temporal felicity, was the conclusion of a glorious 

 match between his daughter Mary, and Charles, 

 Prince of Castile, afterwards the great emperor, both 



