“1662(-3), January. An account of the money owing on a balance of account, from the King to the Marquis of Newcastle, amounting altogether to 9240£.”
But this must have included interest at a very high rate, which no doubt Newcastle had had to pay himself; for a year later we find this letter:—
“W. Marquis of Newcastle to his Son, Viscount Mansfield, in London.
“1663(-4), January 20. Welbeck. I have heard from Mr. Loving that he cannot promise any allowance for the money due to me from the King, but only the principal money, which is 3500£., and that I must have a privy seal for so much as some others have, and no allowance for interest, which I have paid ever since the debt was contracted. I have ordered him to forebear taking out any such privy seal.”
Apparently one of the King’s idiosyncrasies was a prejudice against “six per cent. at Use upon Use”. Finding that he could not get repaid even a comparatively small sum lent to the King, much less any of the larger losses which he had suffered for the Royalist cause, Newcastle would seem to have bethought him that a Dukedom might be better than nothing, and, from the following letter written by the King, it is quite clear that Newcastle must have asked for one in so many words.[149]
[149] Welbeck MSS., p. 145. The date June 7, 1664, must be wrong, unless the Patent was drawn up for a considerable time before it was issued, as it is dated 16 March, 1664.
“King Charles II. to the Marquis of Newcastle.
“1664. June 7. Whitehall. I have received yours by your son, and am resolved to grant your request. Send me therefore word what title you desire to have, or whether you will choose to keepe your old and leave the rest to me. I do not tell you I will despatch it to-morrow; you must leave the time to me, to accommodate it to some other ends of myne; but the differing it shall not be long, nor with any circumstance that shall trouble you. I am glad you enjoy your health for I love you very well. Signed. Signet.”
Newcastle was that year advanced to the dignities of Earl of Ogle and Duke of Newcastle.
Charles II must have found this a cheap method of settling accounts with, what he calls in the preamble to the Patent, his “most beloved and faithful cousin and councillor,” and of preventing that cousin and councillor from worrying him with any more requests for repayments of money. As he had now promoted Newcastle to the same position on which he was soon to place some illegitimate children, what more could Newcastle want?