• General Notes

  Alias:<ALIA> Chancellor of the /Exchequer/
  Edmund Dudley, lawyer and statesman, was the son of John Dudley, Esq. of
  Atherington, in Sussex County, and Elizabeth Bramshot. His father was a
  younger son of the famous John, Baron Dudley, Knight of the Garter, and
  was a wealthy man with extensive land holdings. Although his father was
  not a member of the nobility, he was sheriff of Surrey and Essex, steward
  of the King's lands and manors in Berkshire and Hampshire and a member of
  Parliament from Essex. Edmund was born about 1462 , probably in Sussex,
  and was beheaded on Tower Hill on August 15, 1510.
  Being a very intelligent youth from a prosperous family, Edmund was sent
  to Oxford in 1478 (age 16) and afterwards studied law at Gray's Inn*,
  where the arms of the Barons Dudley were emblazoned on one of the windows
  of the hall. His legal knowledge attracted the attention of Henry VI I on
  his accession in 1485 and he was made a privy councilor at the age of 23.
  Note that Edmund's grandfather, the powerful Baron Dudley, was still
  alive and was in the King's good graces, which no doubt helped the young
  Edmund get his career off to a strong start.
  In 1492, Edmund was serving with the English army in France, at which
  time he advised King Henry VII to sign the Treaty of Boulogne, which he
  had helped to negotiate. The treaty was signed 11/6/1492. This may have
  been one of the most significant events in Edmund's early political life,
  as the treaty provided for a large annual tribute to be paid by France to
  Henry. The tribute continued to be paid for many years and helped to
  enrich the king. This set the pattern for Edmund's career.
  Edmund's first wife Anne Windsor, sister of Andrews, lord Windsor** died
  before 1494, when Edmund obtained the wardship and marriage of Elizabeth,
  daughter of Edward Grey, Viscount Lisle and sister and coheiress of John
  Grey.
  Edmund Dudley became undersheriff of London in 1497. At this time, he was
  fully in the King's confidence and had formulated a policy to check the
  lawlessness of the barons, whom the protracted wars of the roses had
  completely demoralized. In carrying out the policy, Dudley became
  associated with Sir Richard Empson, who also lived near him in St.
  Swithin's Lane in London. They required the great landowners to enter
  into recognizance's to keep the peace, and all taxes and feudal dues were
  to be collected with the utmost rigor.
  The official positions of Dudley and Empson are difficult to define: they
  probably acted as a sub-committee of the privy council. They certainly
  were not judges of the exchequer, nor of any other recognized court. It
  has been asserted by their contemporaries that they habitually indicted
  guiltless persons of crimes and extorted great fines and ransoms as a
  condition of staying further proceedings. They are said to have
  occasionally summoned persons to their private houses and extorted fines
  without any pretense of legal procedure. Pardons for outlawry were
  invariably purchased from them, and juries were terrorized into paying
  fines when giving verdicts for defendants in crown proceedings.
  In 1504, Edmund was chosen speaker in the House of Commons. In the
  Parliament over which he presided, many small but useful reforms were
  made in legal procedure. In 1506, he became steward of the rape of
  Hastings, Sussex. In the last year of Henry VII's reign, Edmund Dudley
  and Sir Richard Empson were nominated as special commissioners for
  enforcing penal laws. Their unpopularity greatly increased at about that
  time.
  On 4/21/1509, Henry VII died. The king had amassed about £4.5 million in
  coin and bouillon while Dudley directed his finances. The revenues Dudley
  secured by the sale of offices and extra-legal compositions was estimated
  at £120,000 per year.
  Henry VIII had no sooner ascended the throne than he yielded to the
  outcry against Dudley and Empson and committed both 

Details of Edmund's family with Elizabeth De Grey