It was not until 1505 that the City succeeded in getting its charter(1009) from Henry, and then only on payment of the sum of 5,000 marks. The terms of the charter, moreover, were far from satisfactory, and an attempt was made to get them altered and obtain an abatement of the fine,(1010) but to no purpose.
Henry continued his high-handed policy towards the City up to the day of his death, and thereby greatly increased his treasure. His chief instruments were Empson and Dudley, who took up their residence in the city, occupying two houses in Walbrook, whence each had a door into a garden of the Earl of Oxford's house in St. Swithin's Lane.(1011) There they used to meet and concert measures for filling the king's purse and their own. In 1506 Henry removed Robert Johnson, a goldsmith, from the shrievalty within three days of his election, and put William Fitz-William in his place. Johnson took the matter so much to heart that he died.(1012) In the same year Thomas Kneseworth, the late mayor, was committed to the Marshalsea, together with the sheriffs who had served under him, and only regained his liberty on payment of a large sum of money.(1013) In 1507 Sir William Capel, Alderman of Walbrook Ward, who had already fallen a victim to Empson and been heavily fined under an obsolete statute, was again attacked and fined £2,000 for supposed negligence during his mayoralty. Rather than submit to such extortion he went to prison, and remained there until the king's death, when he obtained his freedom and was soon afterwards re-elected mayor.(1014) Lawrence Aylmer, another mayor, was also a victim of Henry's tyranny, and was committed to the compter, where he remained for the rest of the reign.(1015)
In the meantime the Archduke Philip happened to fall into Henry's hands (Jan., 1506). Whilst crossing the sea to claim the kingdom of Castile in right of his wife, he was driven by stress of weather into Weymouth. Henry was too shrewd a politician not to make the most of so lucky an event, and detained him in a species of honourable captivity, until Philip had promised him the hand of his sister Margaret with a large dower. This marriage alliance was destined never to be realised. Another scheme, however, was subsequently proposed and met with more success. This was a marriage of Henry's own daughter with Philip's son Charles, Prince of Castile. News of their engagement was conveyed to the mayor and aldermen of the City by a letter from the king himself (25 Dec., 1507), in which he expatiated on the benefits, political and commercial, likely to arise from the match.(1016)