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Department of Water and Power workers are emptying out bales of plastic balls in the Ivanhoe reservoir in Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2008. Department of Water and Power released about 400,000 black plastic 4-inch balls as the first installment of approximately 3 million to form a floating cover over 7 acres of the reservoir to protect the water from sunlight. When sunlight mixes with the bromide and chlorine in Ivanhoe’s water, the carcinogen bromate can form. (Irfan Khan/AP)

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LONDON, June 10, 2008 (AFP) – Heir to the throne Prince Charles on Tuesday paid off a family debt incurred more than 350 years ago — but was spared the accumulated interest that could have run into tens of thousands of pounds.

Charles handed over 453 pounds and 15 pence (572 euros and 20 euro cents, 885 dollars and four cents) which King Charles II failed to pay to the Clothiers Company in Worcester, central England, in 1651.

The king had commissioned uniforms for his troops to fight the republican forces of Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester the same year.

The high commissioner of the Clothiers Company, Philip Sawyer, accepted the money and gave the future king a receipt.

If interest was taken into account, 453 pounds and three shillings in 1651 would have been worth approximately 47,500 pounds in 2007, the BBC website said, citing the Institute for the Measurement of Worth.

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