#tudor

Athelhampton House, Dorset

On This Day (17 Aug) in 1510, Edmund Dudley and Sir Richard Empson, notorious financial agents of Henry VII, were both executed at Tower Hill.

Lawyers Dudley and Empson had gained unpopularity towards the end of Henry VII's reign, due to their roles in collecting and managing taxes. In the days following the king's death, and the accession of his son Henry VIII, both men were arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Months later they were both charged with constructive treason, with Dudley being accused of amassing an arsenal of weapons at his home, with the intent "to deprive the king of his rule and government". A trial held at the City of London's Guildhall in Jul 1509 found Dudley guilty and sentenced to a traitor's death; Empson was found guilty of similar charges at his own trial at Northampton Castle.

After 16 months of imprisonment, in Aug 1510 Henry VIII signed the men's death warrants, reportedly due to "lingering animosity" towards the pair from those he met in the southern counties of Dorset and Hampshire, whilst on his summer progress.

Just after dawn on 17 Aug 1510, the condemned men were led out the Tower, to nearby Tower Hill, a large area of open land overlooking the medieval fortress, where a permanent scaffold had been erected. Empson, holding higher social status, was executed first, and Dudley soon shared his fate, their sentences having been commuted to simple beheadings.

Dudley's decapitated body, along with his head, were buried in the churchyard within Blackfriars Priory, less than a mile from the Tower. reportedly within 3 days of his death, whilst Empson was buried at the nearby Whitefriars.

Dudley was succeeded by his widow Elizabeth Grey and his four children - Elizabeth, John, Andrew and Jerome. Eldest son John's wardship was granted to Edward Guildford, in whose Kent home he was raised, whilst Elizabeth remarried in Nov 1511 to Arthur Plantagenet, the illegitimate son of Edward IV.

More than 40 years later, two more generations of Dudley men would go on to lose their lives on the scaffold - son John and teenage grandson Guildford.