royal blazon or coat of arms 
C R  
HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE  
DIEV ET MON DROIT   
By the King.  
A PROCLAMATION For a General Fast throughout the Realm of England.  
CHARLES R.  
THe King's most Excellent Majesty, taking into His Pious and Princely Consideration, the present unreasonableness of the Wether, whereupon it may be justly feared, Scarcity and Famine, Sicknesses and Diseases will ensue, if Almighty God of his great Clemency be not mercifully pleased to avert those judgements and Punishments which our many and manifold sins and provocations have most justly deserved, hath, out of His own Religious Disposition, resolved, and hereby doth Command a General and Public Fast to be kept throughout this whole Kingdom, in such manner as hereafter is directed and prescribed, that so both Prince and People, even the whole Kingdom, as one man, may send up their Prayers and Supplications to Almighty God, to divert those judgements which the sins of this Land have worthily deserved, and to send us such seasonable weather, whereby the Fruits of the Earth may be duly received, and Sicknesses and Contagious Diseases (so justly feared) be prevented.  
And to the end so Religious an Exercise may be performed with all decency and uniformity, His Majesty doth hereby (by and with the Advice of His Privy Council publish and declare to all His loving Subjets, and doth straight Charge and Command, That on Wednesday next, being the Fifteenth of this instant January, this Fast be Religiously and Solemnly Observed and Celebrated in the Cities of London and Westminster, Burrough of Southwark, and other places adjacent, wherein His Majesty in His Royal Person, and with His Royal Family and Household, will give example to the rest of His People. And that on Wednesday the Two and twentieth day of the same Month of January, the like be kept and duly observed throughout the rest of this whole Realm of England, and Dominion of Wales; And that the same be reverently and decently performed by all His loving Subjects, as they tender the favour of Almighty God, and would avoid his just indignation against this Land, and upon pain of such Punishment as His Majesty can justly inflict upon all such as shall contemn or neglect so Religious and necessary a Work.  
Given at Our Court at Whitehal, this Eighth day of January, in the Thirteenth year of Our Reign.  
God Save the King.   

LONDON, Printed by John Bill and Christopher Barker, Printers to the KING'S most Excellent Majesty, 1661.