He fared badly, holding the money (6)
I believe the answer is:
alfred
'he' is the definition.
'fared badly holding the money' is the wordplay.
'badly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the money' becomes 'l' (L can mean 'pounds').
'fared' with letters rearranged gives 'afred'.
'afred' going around 'l' is 'ALFRED'.
(Other definitions for alfred that I've seen before include "King of Wessex, known as "the Great"" , "A great king of Wessex, d. 899" , "King after Ethelred" , "Great English king" , "... the Great, 9th-century Anglo-Saxon king" .)