He stooped to add to the gold which his confiscations amassed by trading on a vast scale; his ships, freighted with tin, wool, and cloth, made the name of the merchant-king famous in the ports of Italy and Greece.

Henry was as adroit and as shameless a financier as his predecessor.

He was his own treasurer, he kept his own accounts, he ticked off with his own hand the compositions he levied on the western shires for their abortive revolts.
[Sidenote: Suspension of Parliamentary life] With peace and a full treasury the need for calling Parliament together was removed.

The collapse of the Houses was in itself a revolution.

Up to this moment they had played a more and more prominent part in the government of the realm.