By George! The King Knows How to Handle Money

When we left off Mr. Al was telling us that George IV had run into a bit of trouble with money.  Again.   Take it away Mr. Al.

His Majesty informed the Prince that he could not consider asking Parliament to bail him out without first knowing how much was owed. He appointed one Colonel Hotham to go over the receipts. Even with a staff, it took him over a month to come up with a figure. The total was 269,878 Pounds, 6 Shillings, 7 1/2 Pence. Gulp!

The average ANNUAL wage of a semi-skilled farm laborer at this time, a group that made up a big part of the population, was approximately 40 Shillings. And that was for a 10 to 12-hour day of manual labor, six days a week. The average life expectancy of these fellows was 19. The women didn’t last much longer. Just a little something to give you some perspective.

Although most of Hotham’s figure was construction and home furnishings, a fair amount was also gambling debts. The Prince’s stable contained a large number of very expensive racehorses. Unfortunately, he didn’t win enough races with them to cover his expenses. It was not unknown for his Highness to drop thousands of pounds on a single race.

This was the expense that really burned dad’s britches. Spendthrift was one thing; at least he had Carlton House to show for it. Gambling was money thrown into the gutter. He demanded that the Prince justify his behavior and swear solemn oaths that he would mend his ways. The Prince felt rather put-upon to receive such a demand from his father, even if he was the King.

In a snit, the Prince wrote to his dad that he would not have the Prince of Wales to kick around anymore. He wrote that he had, “No reason to expect either at present or in the future the smallest assistance from His Majesty.”  Dad’s reply? Tough noogies boy! What are you gonna do? Get a job? If only! You’ve made your bed, sonny-boy, now sleep in it. Or words to that effect.

He was not totally devoid of feelings for his son’s situation however. He told the Prince that if he were to seriously consider getting married he would do what he could to get Parliament to vote him a subsidy. Dad had chosen not to believe the wild rumors about his son being secretly married to a Catholic.  God’s whiskers! Not even the Prince was that daft!

What dad wanted was a marriage to a nice German princess. Protestant, of course. Never! Cried the Prince. Let Prince Frederick get married and produce heirs to the throne. He wanted nothing to do with German princesses and babies! Dad came back with a counter-offer. I’ll consider paying your bills if you dump your Whig buddies. Especially that Fox guy. Dump him and I’ll pay your bills.

The Prince was affronted that dad would even suggest such a gross act of betrayal. Why, he was so affronted that he decided to do something rash. Something that would show dad, hell, show the world, that the Prince had his principals.