Edmund Dudley (a. 1462 - August 17, 1510), minister of Henry VII of England, was a grandson of John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley.
After studying at Oxford and at Gray's Inn, Dudley came under the notice of Henry VII, and is said to have been made a privy councillor at the early age of twenty-three. In 1492 he helped to negotiate the treaty of Etaples with France and soon became prominent in assisting the king to check the lawlessness of the barons. He and his colleague Sir Richard Empson were promintent councillors of the Council Learned in the Law, a special tribunal of Henry VII's reign, where they collected debts owed to the king, etc.
Dudley was speaker of the House of Commons in 1504.
In addition to collecting money for Henry, Dudley amassed a great amount of wealth for himself, and possessed large estates in Sussex, Dorset and Lincolnshire. When Henry VII died in April 1509, Dudley was inprisoned and charged with the crime of constructive treason. Dudley's nominal crime was that during the last illness of Henry VII he had ordered his friends to assemble in arms in case the king died, but the real reason for his charge was doubtless his unpopularity stemming from his position in the Council Learned. He was attainted and after having made a futile attempt to escape from prison, he was executed on the 17th or 18th of August 1510.
During his imprisonment Dudly sought to gain the favour of King Henry VIII by writing a treatise in support of absolute monarchy called The Tree of Commonwealth. However, this may never have reached Henry VIII as it was not published until 1859, when it was printed privately in Manchester.
Edmund Dudly married (1) Anne Windsor, sister of Andrews Windsor, 1st Baron Windsor with whom he had one daughter:
- Elizabeth, married William Stourton, 7th Baron Stourton
His second wife was (2) Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Lisle with whom he had four children:
See Francis Bacon, History of Henry VII, edited by JR Lumby (Cambridge, 1881); and JS Brewer, The Reign of Henry VIII, edited by James Gairdner (London, 1884).
Last updated: 05-27-2005 01:35:41
