In vain did the people look for protection from the parliament, which was pretty frequently summoned during this reign.
{1504.} That assembly was so overawed, that at this very time, during the greatest rage of Henry's oppressions, the commons chose Dudley their speaker, the very man who was the chief instrument of his iniquities.
And though the king was known to be immensely opulent, and had no pretence of wars or expensive enterprises of any kind, they granted him the subsidy which he demanded.

But so insatiable was his avarice, that next year he levied a new benevolence, and renewed that arbitrary and oppressive method of taxation.
{1505.} By all these arts of accumulation, joined to a rigid frugality in his expense, he so filled his coffers, that he is said to have possessed in ready money the sum of one million eight hundred thousand pounds; a treasure almost incredible, if we consider the scarcity of money in those times.[**] * Bacon, p.

629, 630.

Holingshed, p.504.Polyd.Virg.

p.
613, 615.
** Silver was during this reign at thirty-seven shillings and six pence a pound, which makes Henry's treasure near three millions of our present money.