The King was mad.
The whole court knew it. The Queen knew it and the young princes knew it too.
``We must kill him,'' the princes said. But their mother said they must move slowly and as they moved slowly the King commissioned a great cathedral to be built to the glory of himself and god.
Gold was spent without thought and the poor people worked long hours and made good money and the King was much loved by the common people. And the princes said ``we must kill him now.'' And the queen said ``No, wait. We must move slowly.''
When the treasury was empty the King's equerries went out and raised taxes to pay the builders and artists who worked on the cathedral.
When the merchants and property owners could pay no more they rose up and rioted in the streets and they tried to tear down the new cathedral.
But the masons and archbishops and carvers and stone carriers and their apprentices fought the townspeople. And the King's soldiers were quickly paid before being sent to defend the cathedral.
Civil war broke out. The King and the archbishops and the artists and construction workers lost to the land owners and merchants and their paid mercenaries.
The King was arrested. The victors looked around for a suitable new King.
None of the merchants wanted the job.
``There's not enough money in it,'' they said.
``We must watch the bottom line if we wish to keep our ancestral homes,'' the landowners said, ``King is a risky profession.''
No one wanted the King job, so they reinstated the old mad King in his prison cell.
``We must kill him now,'' the princes said.
``We must wait a little longer,'' the queen answered as she kissed the princes good night and retired to her bed chamber.
The King was mad but not without guile. He had retained gold and jewels about his person. He hired assassins, and in the night they killed the queen and the princes and the leaders of the merchants and landowners as they slept and next day the King and the archbishops made solemn procession into the new cathedral.
And the merchants and townspeople watched the splendid display and they spoke among themselves and said ``We must wait a little longer.''