HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE   royal blazon or coat of arms  
¶ By the King.  
❧ A Proclamation for the Prices of Victuals within the Verge of the Court.  
WHereas We understand by the Records of Our Countinghouse, that Our most Noble Progenitors & Predecessors, Kings and Queens of this Realm, have always had an especial care to restrain the excessive Rates and Prices of Uictuals, Horse-meat, and Lodging; And that, notwithstanding the extraordinary care thereof, taken by Our most dear and Royal Father, King JAMES of blessed memory, yet there were within the Uerge of the Court, always some, who out of their greedy desire of unlawful gain, would never be kept within any bounds of equal and reasonable Prices, but, by the access of the Court, and the increase of the concourse of people thither, would take an occasion to enhance their Rates, and exact unconscionable extreme Prices, at their own wills and pleasures:  
We, taking the same into Our Princely consideration, and being desirous that all Our loving Subjects in general, should in all places of their travail be well used, and especially within the Uerge of Our Court, where Our Nobility, Servants & Train, daily attending upon Our Person, are lodged & placed by Our Harbingers, & other Suitors have daily occasion to resort, Have given order to the Clerk of the Market of Our Household, within the Uerge of Our Court, forthwith to cause a Rate and Ualuation to be set by indifferent jurors, of all Corn, Uictuals, Lodgings, Horse-meat, and other necessaries of that kind, according to the reasonable and equal Rates and Prices of the Market, and to renew such Rates and Ualuations from time to time, as occasion shall require, by Oath and Presentments of jurors; And have commanded, that Schedules of the Inquisitions and Presentments of the juries, to be thereupon taken, shall, not only be certified by Our said Clerk of the Market, or his Deputy, into Our Countinghouse, to remain there with the Officers of Our Household; But shall also be fixed, and set upon the Gates of Our Court, and other places within the Uerge, aswell within Liberties as without, whereby public notice may be taken of the same; Our will and pleasure being, and We do by this Our Proclamation straight charge & command, That no Baker, Brewer, Inholder, Butcher, or other Uictualler, or any other person or persons, of what estate or degree soever he or they be, do in any wise demand, ask, or receive more for Corn, Uictuals, Horsemeate, Lodging, or any other thing to be specified in the said Schedule or Inquisition, then according to the Rates and Prices therein mentioned, upon pain of imprisonment, and such further punishment, as by the Laws of this Realm, or by Our Prerogative Royal, may be inflicted upon them, as opressors of the Commonwealth, and contemners of this Our Royal Commandment.  
And moreover, We do straight charge and command, That no manner of person or persons, now using, or which shall hereafter use, to serve any City, Borough, Town, or other place, in, or near the place of Our residence or abode, or elsewhere within the Uerge of Our Court, either within Liberties or without, of, or with any kind of Corn or Uictuals, or other necessaries, either upon the Market days, or at any other time, shall be any thing the more remiss, or slack, for making of provision for the same, than they or any of them heretofore have been, nor shall use any colour of craft, to deceive the buyers of, or in the said provisions, or to withdraw, conceal, hide, or lay aside their Corn, Uictuals, Horse-meat, or other necessaries, to lessen or diminish the Market, whereby Our Train, or attendants of Our Court, within any City, Borough, or Town within the Uerge, or the Inhabitants of the same, or any other Our loving Subjects thereunto resorting, shall not be as well, and as plenteously furnished in every respect, as the Markets were before, in defrauding of this Our Ordinance.  
And furthermore, We straight charge, and expressly command, aswell all Our Officers of Our Greenecloth, and Our Clerk of the Market, and his Deputy or Deputies, as also all Majors, Bailiffs, Sheriffs, Constables, and all other Our Officers and Ministers of all and every the Cities, Boroughs, Towns, Hundreds, and other places within the Uerge of Our Court, aswel within Liberties as without, That they and every of them from time to time, when, and as often as any complaint shall be made unto them by any party or parties, justly grieved or wronged, contrary to the tenor of this Our Proclamation, within their authorities respectively, forthwith to endeavour themselves to see speedy reformation thereof and due punishment of the person or persons that shall offend therein, according to the severest justice of Our Laws in that behalf.  
Given at Our Court at White-Hall, the fourteenth day of May, in the first year of Our Reign of Great Britain, France and Ireland. God save the King.   

¶ Imprinted at London by Bonham Norton, and john Bill, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty. ANNO DOM. M. DC. XXV.