Getting and Spending - Corruption in the Elizabethan Ordnance

Roger Ashley uncovers the story of William Painter and the creative accounting which he employed as a clerk in one of Elizabeth's major spending departments

Look what I speak, my life shall prove it true:
That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles
In name of lendings for your Highness' soldiers,
The which he hath detain'd for lewd imployments,
Like false traitor, and injurious villain;
William Shakespeare: 'Richard II,' Act 1, Scene I (written c. 1594-95)

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