Hampton Court and
Greenwich, busily
inventorying precious royal
goods they would never have
expected to look on in their lifetime.
Most of the trustees were modest working
people – skinners, drapers, tailors, even
itinerant poets – who were now asked to
put a price on the monarchy. The team that
entered the deserted Whitehall Palace
inventoried more than a thousand items,
everything from the regal and luxurious to
the domestic and mundane. Tapestries,
carpets, jewels, silver and gold plate,
curtains, swords, chairs, cushions, clocks,
globes and royal regalia lined with silk and
sable were discovered alongside basins,
ewers, spoons, fruit dishes, trencher plates,
candlesticks, snuffers and chamber pots.
The palace’s kitchens yielded six brass pots
valued at £18, ten brass pans at £14, three
dripping pans at 6s (shillings), 18 spits at £2
10s, one large frying pan at 8s, one pair of
scales and weights at 10s, three copper pans
at £45, and a pair of iron racks at £1 10s.
The contents of just one domestic room
were valued at £147 15s 6d (6 old pence).
Other rooms revealed stranger objects,
including “one clock with 12 bells” valued
at £100, “three hundred tons of stone” at
£150 and “95 pair of stag’s horns” at £23
15s. At the other extreme, tapestries were
valued at over £4,000, with paintings and
statues priced any where from £1 to £600.
All across London, palaces were
inventoried and goods packed up. It took
weeks to complete. The trustees used their
professional expertise to evaluate the
goods, some of which were laden with
regal significance, but most of which were
everyday household goods, valued at a
few shillings. By the autumn of 1649
everything was ready for a public sale at
Somerset House – the queen’s former
residence. Unfortunately for parliament,
the sudden flood of goods combined with
scarcity of money, not to mention people’s
reticence in buying a dead king’s goods,
meant that business was slow. The sale was
also badly handled. One Dutch observer
was astonished at the “number of beautiful
things”, but also complained that it was
“all so badly cared for and so dusty that it
was a pitiable sight”.For sale, one careful owner
Military veterans and parliamentarians
bought at the higher end of the market.Once lavishly refurbished by Charles I and
his queen, Somerset House became the
venue for the sale of their treasures in 1649They included Colonel John Hutchinson
who spent £930 on three paintings by
Titian. Considering an MP’s average
annual income was around £500, this
was a staggering investment. Unlike most
individuals, who on salaries of £40-50
a year bought household goods for their
practical value, buyers like Hutchinson
capitalised on inside political knowledge
to speculate on the future value of Titians,
like today’s futures traders. Hutchinson
clearly held no religious scruples in buying
erotic paintings of semi-clad Venuses
and Madonnas, claiming instead he was
reclaiming the works for the new republic,
as well as swelling its coffers.
However, after nearly a year the sale
had only managed to raise £35,000, as
public criticism of the lack of financial
redistribution grew. Parliament took
the decision to hand over royal goods to
needy creditors that equalled the debts
they claimed against the former royal
household. In October 1651, parliament
authorised the distribution of goods valued
at over £70,000 to consortia, or “dividends”
of creditors. Orphans, widows, plumbers
and vintners received the king’s blankets,
chairs and portraits. One creditor near