is exactions upon the people.
Henry was a covetous mean prince, and entirely devoted to the
council of Emson and Dudley, who then were very justly reckoned the
caterpillars of the state. The King demanded a large subsidy to bestow
on his eldest daughter, who was then about to be married to James IV.
of Scotland. Sir Thomas being one of the burgesses, so influenced the
lower house by the force of his arguments, (who were cowardly enough
before not to oppose the King) that they refused the demands, upon
which Mr. Tiler of the King's Privy-Chambers went presently to
his Majesty, and told him that More had disappointed all their
expectations, which circumstance not a little enraged him against
More. Upon this Henry was base enough to pick a quarrel without a
cause against Sir John More, his venerable father, and in revenge to
the son, clapt him in the Tower, keeping him there prisoner till he
had forced him to pay one hundred pounds of a fine, for no offence.
King Henry soon after dying, his son who began his reign with some
popular acts, tho' afterwards he degenerated into a monstrous tyrant,
caused Dudley and Emson to be impeached of high treason for giving bad
advice to his father; and however illegal such an arraignment might
be, yet they met the just fate of oppressors and traitors to their
country.

About the year 1516, he composed his famous book called the Utopia,
and gained by it great reputation. Soon after it was published, it
was translated both into French and Italian, Dutch and English. Dr.
Stapleton enumerates the opinions of a great many learned men in its
favour. This work tho' not writ in verse, yet in regard of the fancy
and invention employed in composing it, may well enough pass for an
allegorical poem. It contains the idea of a compleat Commonwealth in
an imaginary island, (pretended to be lately discovered in America)
and that so well counterfeited, that many upon reading it, mistook it
for a real truth, in so much (says Winstanly) that some learned men,
as Budeus, Johannes Plaudanus, out of a principle of fervent zeal,
wished that some excellent divines might be sent hither to preach
Christ's Gospel.

Much about the same time he wrote the history of Richard III. which
was likewise held in esteem; these works were undertaken when he was
discharged from the business of the state.

Roper, in his life of our author, relates that upon an occasion in
which King Henry VIII. and the Pope were parties in