Pince Charles pays off royal debt...'350 yrs late'

Melbourne, June 11 : Prince Charles has repaid a debt the British Royal family incurred more than 350 years ago.

He paid over 453 pounds and 15 pence, which King Charles II failed to pay to the Clothiers Company in Worcester, central England, in 1651. He was, however, spared the accumulated interest, which could have been some tens of thousands of pounds. The debt was incurred when King Charles II had commissioned uniforms for his troops to fight the republican forces of Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester in the same year. Prince Charles repaid the debt during a visit to the former headquarters of the royalist troops in the Faithful City, named so because of its loyalty to his ancestor during the English Civil War.

"It seems that members of the Clothiers Company have a long memory,'' news.com.au quoted him as saying.

"By long I mean nearly 400 years. Nevertheless, as a gesture of good will I come today prepared to honour this debt of 453 pounds and three shillings. I suspect that it will not have escaped your notice, however, I am resisting the immense temptation to pay the debt with full interest. I was not born yesterday," he added.

Philip Sawyer, the high commissioner of the Clothiers Company, accepted the money, and gave Charles a receipt.

ANI