Once, when Stańczyk was going to the ball with Queen Bona, he feigned a toothache. This is how he proved to his companions that there are the most doctors in Poland. Every passerby gave him advice on how to get rid of his ailments. Around the same time, the founder of the Vasa dynasty found the golden mean (literally).
The grandfather of our King Sigismund III, Gustaw Waza (1496-1560), had a colorful life. He married three times, raised a group of children, kicked the Danes and made Sweden a decent monarchy, with a decent army, decent position and… decent treasury. Oh yeah ... the treasury. Gold as it is - everyone can see it, and it is the same with other ores. In addition to aesthetic functions (e.g. cute necklaces on pretty necks) and usefulness in the fiscal system (hard currency, pulled with a hard hand), it can also find other applications. What? The Swedish monarch knew this best.
At the end of his life, King Gustav I Vasa, apart from his attraction to his young wife (he married Katarzyna Stenbock when she was seventeen and he was sixty), also had other inclinations, namely a tendency to experience ailments of old age. He was constantly bothered by gout, and toothache was also taking its toll. The royal alchemists found a shiny and costly panacea for this. It is best to let an informed person tell us about it - the Swedish historian and writer Knut Carlqvist, the author of the biography "Erik XIV. King of the People ”:
The article is based on the book by K. Carlqvist "Eryk XIV Waza" (Finna 2011).
The good king guarded his treasure like a dragon.
Gustav collected his silver in the basement of the Three Crowns Castle in Stockholm, in Mr. Eskil's chambers. After the death of Nils Dacke, peace reigned in the country, there was still some silver left in the treasury. The king's greed made itself felt with doubled strength: every Saturday the king treated his toothache and gout by rolling in Hungarian and Rhine guilders, Spanish ducats, angelots, Portuguese rosenbolas and silver mined in the Sala mines . Alchemists have already discovered the beneficial effects of precious metals on the ailments of old age. The king decided that Swedish money was not suitable for this, so they were stacked in bags in the corridor outside the room.
Is there anything to be said here? The alchemists knew theirs, and few would despise bathing in gold. The greedy king was not one of them.
Source:
Trivia is the essence of our website. Short materials devoted to interesting anecdotes, surprising details from the past, strange news from the old press. Reading that will take you no more than 3 minutes, based on single sources. This particular material is based on:
- Knut Carlqvist, Eric XIV Vasa:King of the People , Finna 2011 (more information about the book on the publisher's website).