DUDLEY, EDMUND (1462-1510), a celebrated lawyer and statesman in the reign of Henry VII., who with Sir Richard Empson, another lawyer of the same stamp, assisted in filling that rapacious monarch's coffers by arbitrary prosecutions of the people on old penal statutes. On the accession of Henry VIII., Dudley and Empson were attainted of high treason, and beheaded, Aug. 18, partly in order to pacify the clamours of the people for justice.