On 22 May 1611 King James I set up the present hereditary Order of Baronets in England. He made 200 "gentlemen of good birth" baronets. He did this partly to reward those people with more than a knighthood, without making them as important as a Baron. The other reason was that the king needed money to keep soldiers in Ireland. Each of the new baronets had to pay £1095, which was the cost of keeping thirty soldiers for three years.