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In 1491 Henry invaded France but at the Treaty of Etaples, signed the following year, he agreed to withdraw English forces in return for a large sum of money. This was Henry at his best. He was always thinking of ways to improve the royal finances. His Lord Chancellor, who was also the Archbishop of Canterbury, was a man called John Morton. He developed a tax policy which was to be known as “Morton’s Fork”. This was because the policy had two prongs and, whoever you were, you couldn’t win. Morton would say that "If the subject is seen to live frugally, tell him because he is clearly a money saver of great ability, he can afford to give generously to the King. If, however, the subject lives a life of great extravagance, tell him he too can afford to give largely, the proof of his opulence being evident in his expenditure." In others words if you didn’t seem to have much money, you must be saving it and if you seemed to spend a lot, you could easily give some of that to the King.
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