Whitehall Palace

‘Sunday 3 February 1666/67

(Lord’s day). Up, and with Sir W. Batten and [Sir] W. Pen to White Hall, and there to Sir W. Coventry’s chamber, and there staid till he was ready, talking, and among other things of the Prince’s being trepanned, which was in doing just as we passed through the Stone Gallery, we asking at the door of his lodgings, and were told so. We are all full of wishes for the good success; though I dare say but few do really concern ourselves for him in our hearts..’.

In Samuel Pepys’s Diary, Prince Rupert of the Rhine was a topic of discussion in the Stone Gallery; Whitehall Palace on February 3rd.  These two subjects play a role in Walter Scott’s “Peveril of the Peak” as well, though the setting is ten years later than Pepys’s diary entry.  Another twenty years, or so, and Whitehall Palace which was the largest palace in Europe at the time, was destroyed by fire (1698).  The following is from Scott’s Peveril:

‘Sir Geoffrey was unwilling, like most prudent persons, to own the existence of expectations which had proved fallacious, yet had too little art in his character to conceal his disappointment entirely. "Who, I, madam?" he said; "Alas! what should a poor country knight expect from the King, besides the pleasure of seeing him in Whitehall once more, and enjoying his own again? And his Majesty was very gracious when I was presented, and spoke to me of Worcester, and of my horse, Black Hastings--he had forgot his name, though--faith, and mine, too, I believe, had not Prince Rupert whispered it to him. And I saw some old friends, such as his Grace of Ormond, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, Sir Philip Musgrave, and so forth; and had a jolly rouse or two, to the tune of old times."…’

Silken Thomas

'The influence of these bards upon their patrons, and their admitted title to interfere in matters of the weightiest concern  may be also proved from the behavior of one of them at an interview between Thomas Fitzgerald, son of the Earl of Kildare, then about to renounce the English allegiance, and the Lord Chancellor Cromer, who made a long and goodly oration to dissuade him from his purpose. The young lord had come to the council “armed and wcaponed”,  and attended by seven score horsemen in their shirts of mail; and we are assured that the chancellor, having set forth his oration " with such a lamentable action as his cheekes were all beblubbered with tears, the horsemen, namelie  such as understood not English, began to divine what the lord-chancellor meant with all this long circumstance; some of them reporting that he was preaching a sermon, others said that he stood making of some heroical poetry in the praise of the Lord Thomas.   And thus as every idiot shot his foolish bolt at the wise chancellor his discourse.. who in effect had nought else but drop pretious stones before hogs, one Bard de Nelan, an Irish rithmour, and a rotten sheepe to infect a whole flocke, was chatting of Irish verses, as though his toong had run on pattens, in commendation of the Lord Thomas, investing him with the title of Silken Thomas, bicaus his horsemens jacks were gorgeously imbroidered with silkc: and in the end he told him that he lingered there ouer long; whereat the Lord Thomas being quickened," as Holinshed expresses it, bid defiance to the chancellor, threw down contemptuously the sword of office, which, in his father's absence, he held as deputy, and rushed forth to engage in open insurrection.'

Thomas Fitzgerald, or Silken Thomas, was executed by Henry VIII on February 3, 1537.  His crime was insurrection, including an attack on Dublin Castle.  The text above appears in a note to "The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott".

Tulip Mania

The most recognized symbol of an economic bubble is probably the tulip.  Tulip mania struck in the late 1630's, and reached a peak on February 3rd, 1637.  A freefall in tulip prices ensued, impacting other asset prices, and ushering in a period of economic depression. 

In Scott's day, the Panic of 1825/6 was the leading economic crisis.  Scott himself, deeply extended in debt to fund his building of Abbotsford, was caught in its wake.  During the fall of 1825, son-in-law Lockhart brought Scott reports of publisher Archibald Constable's bankers having closed his account.  On January 16, 1826 he heard that Hurst and Robinson, who were Constable's London correspondents, had dishonored one of Constable's bills.  As Constable went down, so did Scott.

Scott's answer to his bancruptcy was to implement some fiscal austerity, and to work even harder than he had previously.  The novel "Woodstock" was written at this time, as well as continued work on "The Life of Napoleon".  Scott worked the rest of his life to wind down his obligations.

The panic itself is interesting historically, representing the first instance of a bank functioning as a central bank.  The Bank of England, though technically private, with the agreement of the government, effectively increased liquidity.  The BOE increased money in circulation and funded various banks to help stave off bank runs.  These efforts were instrumental in resolving the panic, and have been employed by central banks since that time.