From the Plus ça change Department

'The effect of [the bill before King Henry V and Parliament] was that the temporal lands (... [whose proceeds were] disordinately spent by religious and other spiritual persons) should be seized into the king's hands, sith the same might suffice to maintain ... an hundred almshouses for relief only of the poor, impotent, and needy persons.

'...[T]he religious sort ... thought best to try if they might move the king's mood with some sharp invention, that he should not regard the importunate petitions of the commons...' (So they told him, 'Dude, we just now figured out that you're the rightful king of France'; and Henry went, 'Ooh, shiny.') 

 

[Holinshed's Chronicle iii.545]

 

Humans, ladies and gentlemen! Let's give 'em a big hand.