Written by Barbara L. Wilt
There once was a king who sat on the throne of the greatest nation on earth at the time. As a man, he was happily married and fathered fifteen children. He was scholarly, enjoying books and the science of astronomy. During his reign, he collected more than 65,000 tomes and had an observatory built in his palace. He also had a love of gardening. By all accounts, he was a king that was beloved by his people. He worked hard and scrupulously read every political document that came his way. The concerns of his people were important to him. However, he was not a complete master of his country. He had to share political power with governing body similar to our own American congress. Often, this government would override this good king's wishes in the matters of state.
This king had other problems as well. First, he suffered from a disease that modern physicians believed was porphyria, a debilitating disease that brought periodic bouts of madness throughout his reign. Second, this king presided over a vast empire and one of its territorial acquisitions was demanding not to be taxed. Now, this possession of the empire had in the past been left more or less alone to grow and prosper. It did not even fall under the laws of taxation that the citizen's of the homeland adhered to. Then war broke out. The king had to send his troops to fight his homeland's most historic enemy to save the far away territory from being gobbled up by the enemy's appetite for land. The king was victorious in this struggle, but the war cost over two million and that was a lot of money back then. The king found his nation in serious debt and the territories to the west needed continued protection to keep another war from happening again. New sources of revenue needed to be found and immediately.
After some deliberation, it was decided that the community benefiting from the troops' protection should contribute its fair share of the expense. Several acts were passed by the king's government to tax the people and raise money for the crown. The people rebelled. Again, war developed and this time the king and his homeland lost. The people of the far away territory gained their independence and freedom from taxation. Ironically, the new nation had to tax itself in order to establish its own political stability and these taxes proved higher in some instances than what the king's country had asked. The king also paid dearly for this defeat. The combination of war, its political aftermath, and family anxieties placed great strain on him. His chronic illness worsened and he became blind, deaf, and permanently deranged. His son acted as prince regent until the old king's death, ten years later. This turned out to be a sad ending for a king that began his reign so full of intelligence and loved by his people.
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