TAUGHT A KING ECONOMY

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4319, 19 September 1921, Page 3

TAUGHT A KING ECONOMY

When King James was not yet James 1.-of England, but still only James VI. of Scotland, a letter was written which was extant in 1817 and was printed in Blackwood’s (Edinburgh) Magazine in December of that year. It was a remarkable letter in its way, because it testified to the poverty which might even then '‘.hedge" a king. James wrote his cousin:

“I pray you, lend me thy pair of silken hose in order to grace my royal person at the reception of the Spanish ambassador." But if James was once poor, and perhaps all his life a little fearful of swords, he became very rich and prodigal in his expenditures, and brave in facing the complaints of the keeper of the royal purse. The lord treasure: 1 of England was often in despair when favourites presented him with orders for large sums. He determined to teach the king a lesson if he could do so in a diplomatic way. The Earl of Somerset’s appearance before the lord treasurer with a royal order for 100,000, was the opportunity which the treasurer seizupon. To make the king aware of how great were the sums he was squandering on Somerset, the lord treasurer invited James to an entertainment.’ In a room through which the king must pass the treasurer laid out four tables. On each table he piled 25,000 dol. The king was astonished by the four immense heaps of money. He had never before seen such sums with his own eyes. He stopped at sight of them, and demanded the reason for this amazing display. He was told that was the money which he had ordered to be paid to Somerset.

“Zounds, man!” James cried. “One of these heaps of glittering coins is enough to serve his turn.”