Morton’s Fork

History Archives - Futility Closet · Sep 21, 2026

John Morton, Lord Chancellor under Henry VII, used a universal argument to demand gifts for the royal treasury:

If a man lived well, he was obviously rich.

If a man lived modestly, he obviously had savings.

Either way, he could afford the tax. Francis Bacon wrote, “There is a tradition of a dilemma that Bishop Morton … used to raise up the benevolence to higher rates; and some called it his Fork.”