Charles I and the Fens

Historians are never likely to be unanimous in their judgments upon the reign of Charles I; but at least it is generally agreed that from the moment of his accession the difficulties confronting him were greatly aggravated by his chronic shortage of money. Means of replenishing the Exchequer were the constant pre-occupation of his advisers, and among the important schemes from which they expected to raise new funds was one for the draining of the Fens. As early as 1626—the year after the King’s accession— the Attorney-General, Sir Robert Heath, composed a memorandum entitled “Remembrance for the King’s Service on my going to Court,” in which he listed a number of methods of “increasing the revenue by 150,000 1. per annum, as much as two subsidies, by letting the lands of the recusants, laying a tax on foreign fisheries, making new arrangements respecting madder, Virginia tobacco, the manufacture of soap, draining the fens, and disafforesting distant forests.” Here, in Sir Robert Heath’s last item but one, is the starting point of our story.