Sir Richard Empson (died 17 August 1510), minister of Henry VII, King of England, was a son of Peter Empson, an influential inhabitant of Towcester.
Educated as a lawyer he soon attained considerable success in his profession, and in 1491 was a Knight of the Shire for Northamptonshire in parliament and speaker of the House of Commons.
Early in the reign of Henry VII he became associated with Edmund Dudley in carrying out the king’s rigorous and arbitrary system of taxation, and in consequence he became very unpopular. Retaining the royal favour, however, he was knighted by sword at the creation of Prince Henry as Prince of Wales, on the 18th February, 1504 and was soon High Steward of the University of Cambridge,[1] and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; but his official career ended with Henry VII's death in April 1509.
Thrown into prison by order of the new king, Henry VIII, he was charged, like Dudley, with the crime of constructive treason, and was convicted at Northampton in October 1509. His attainder by parliament followed,[2] and he was beheaded on the 17th or 18 August 1510. Empson left by his wife, Jane, so far as is known, a family of two sons and four daughters, and about 1513 his estates were restored to his elder son, Thomas.
One of his granddaughters, Elizabeth Sothill, (1505–1575) married Sir William Drury, Kt., M.P., P.C., (c1500 - 1558), a son of Sir Richard Empson's successor as Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Robert Drury, Kt., of Hawstead.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam |
Speaker of the House of Commons 1491–1492 |
Succeeded by Sir Robert Drury |
| Preceded by Sir John Mordaunt |
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1505–1509 |
Succeeded by Henry Marney |
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.