Royal Excess

In these times of fiscal austerity it’s perhaps worth contemplating the excesses of British Royal Courts of both the Tudors and Stuarts. When the Earl of Danby introduced measures to restore the fiscal credit of Charles II’s regime there was one area he failed to penetrate; the royal household. Charles was especially generous to his favourite mistress Barbara Palmer, the Countess of Castlemaine and the 1st duchess of Cleveland. The Countess was awarded her salary as a lady of the queen’s bedchamber of at least £200 pounds a year; in other words Charles forced his wife to accept his favourite mistress as a lady in waiting. He also paid her:

• Ten thousand pounds a year out of customs revenue;

• Ten thousand pounds a year out of the beer and ale excise;

• Five thousand pounds a year out of the post office;

• A thousand pounds a year out of first fruits and tenths (a tax which used to go from the clergy to the Pope).

• Individual debts which were amounts that ranged up to thirty thousand pounds. These were mostly gambling debts.

• Grants of royal lands and the right to dispose of and sell places in the customs.

Castlemaine was only the most prominent of an army of mistresses, courtier and household servants, all of whom had their hands in Charles's pockets. You might say it’s a good thing we don’t still operate this kind of system. Imagine having to pay a subsidy to Camilla Parker Bowles or Monica Lewinsky every time you send a letter or buy a pack of beers. Mind you there was that Tory MP who claimed for the £1,645 duck house.

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