He had summoned a parliament at Westminster;[**] and he soon persuaded them to grant him a considerable subsidy.[***] But this supply, though voted by parliament, involved the king in unexpected difficulties.
The counties of Durham and York, always discontented with Henry's government, and further provoked by the late oppressions under which they had labored, after the suppression of Simnel's rebellion, resisted the commissioners who were appointed to levy the tax.

The commissioners, terrified with this appearance of sedition, made application to the earl of Northumberland, and desired of him advice and assistance in the execution of their office.

That nobleman thought the matter of importance enough to consult the king; who, unwilling to yield to the humors of a discontented populace, and foreseeing the pernicious consequence of such a precedent, renewed his orders for strictly levying the imposition.

Northumberland summoned together the justices and chief freeholders, and delivered the king's commands in the most imperious terms which, he thought, would enforce obedience, but which tended only to provoke the people, and make them believe him the adviser of those orders which he delivered to them.

[****] * Argentre Hist, de Bretagne, liv.