HIS MAJESTY'S Declaration To all His Loving SUBJECTS, Upon occasion of His late Messages to both Houses OF PARLIAMENT, And their refusal to Treat with Him for the Peace of the KINGDOM.  
Charles R.  
Our express pleasure is, That this Our Declaration be published in all Churches and Chapels within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales, by the Parsons, Vicars or Curates of the same.  
Printed by His Majesty's Command at Oxford.  
LONDON, 〈…〉   

His Majesty's Declaration to all His Loving Subjects upon occasion of His late Messages to both Houses of Parliament, and their refusal to treat with him for the Peace of the KINGDOM.  
IF it had not evidently appeared to all men who have carefully examined and considered our Actions, Messages, and Declarations, how fairy We are and have been from begetting or promoting the present distractions, and that the Arms we have now taken are for the necessary safety and defence of our life, being not taken up by Us ill our Town and fort of Hull were kept from Us by force of Arms, our Navy employed against Us to keep all foreign e supply of Arms and Mon y, when our own here was seized and detained from Us, and an Army raised in pay, and marching against Us, yet the late reception of our Message of the Twenty fifth of August sent by persons of Honour and trust, will sure satisfy the world, that we have omitted nothing on Our part that a Gracious and Christian Prince could or can do to prevent the effusion of Christian blood, but that the Malignant party, which have with great subtlety and in lustry begot this misunderstanding between Us and our good Subjects, resolve to satisfy and secure their malice and Ambition with the ruin of the kingdom, and in the blood of Us, and all Our good Subjects.  
When they had forced Us, after the neglect of our Message from Beverly, by raising a great Army and incensing our Subjects against Us, to erect our Royal Standard, that our Subjects might be informed of our danger, and repair to our Succour, though we had no great reason to believe any Message of ours would receive a very good entertainment, if those men might prevail, who had brought all these miseries upon the Kingdom to satisfy their own private end: yet observing the miserable Accidents which already befell our good Subjects by the Soldiers under their command, and well knowing that greater would ensue, if timely prevention were not applied; and finding that the malice and cunning of these men had infused into our People a Rumour, that We had rejected all propositions and offers of Treaty, and desired to engage Our Subjects in a Civil War, which our soul abhors, we prevailed with Ourself (for a full expression of Our desire to prevent the effusion of blout) to send a gra●cous Message to both Our Houses of Parliament on the 25. of August. In these words,  
WE have with unspeakable grief of heart long beheld the distractions of this Our Kingdom, 
〈◊〉 Maje●●●s Gravitas Mes●●●e to ●●th hou●●● of ●ar ●●●ment, ●●●it from ●●●otting●●●. Aug. 〈◊〉 42. 〈◊〉 the ●●●cles of ●●●uthamp 〈◊〉 and ●●●●rset, 〈◊〉 john ●●●alpeper ●●●hancel●●●r of the exchequer ●●●d Sir William ●●●●dall.  Our very soul is full of anguish until We may find● some remedy to prevent the Miseries which are ready to overwhelm this whole Nation by a Civil War: And though all our endeavours tending to the composing of those unhappy differences betwixt Us and our two Houses of Parliament (though pursued by Us with all Zeal and Sincerity) have been hitherto without that success We hoped for; yet such is our constant and earnest care to preserve the public Peace, that We shall not be discouraged from using any expedient, which by the blessing of the God of Mercy may lay a firm foundation of Peace and happiness to all our good Subjects: To this end observing that many mistakes have arisen by the Messages, Petitions and Answers betwixt Us and Our two Houses of Parliament, which happily may be prevented by some other way of Treaty, wherein the Matters in difference may be more clearly understood, and more freely transacted; We have thought fit to propound to you, That some fit persons may be by you enable I to Treat with the like number to be authorized by Us, in such manner, and with such freedom of debate, as may best tend to that happy Conclusion which all good men desire, The peace of the Kingdom: Wherein as We promise in the word of a King, all safety and encouragement to such as shall be sent to Us, if you shall choose the place where We are for the Treaty, which We wholly leave to you, presuming of your like care of the safety of th' see We shall employ if you shall name another place; So We assure you and all our good Subjects, that (to the best of our understanding) ●othing shall be therein wanting on our parts, which may advance the true Protestant Religion, oppose Popery and Superstition, secure the Law of the Land (upon which is built as well our just Prerogative, as the Propriety and Liberty of the Subject) Confirm all just Power and Privileges of Parliament, and render Us and our people tru●●y happy by a good nderstanding betwixt Us and our two Houses of Parliament. B●ing with you as firm Resolutions to do your duty, and let all our good people j●yne with Us in our prayers to Almighty God for his blessing upon this work.  
If this proposit on shall be rejected by you, we have done our duty so amply, that God will absolve Us from the guilt of any of that blood which must be spilt, and what opinion soever other men may have of our power, we assure you nothing but our Christian and pious care to prevent the Effusion of blood hath beg t this Motion, our provision of Men, Arms and Money being such as may secure Us from farther violence, till it shall please God to open the eyes of our People.  
Our Messengers were not suffered to sit in the Houses, and one of them, the Earl of Southampton (against whom there was not the least colour of exception or so much as a Vot.) not suffered to deliver our Message, but compelled to send it by the Gentleman Umber, and then commanded to departed the Town, before they would prepare any Answer which they shortly sent Us in these words.  
May it please Your Majesty,  
THe Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, having received your Majesty's Message of the 25. of August, 
The Answer of the Lords and Commons to His Majesti s Message the 25. of August. 1642.  do with much grief resent the dangerous and distracted state of this Kingdom, which we have by all mean s endeavoured to prevent, both by our several advices and Petitions to your Majesty, which have been not only without success, but there hath followed that, which no ill counsel in former times hath produced, or any age hath seen, namely, those several Proclamations and Declarations against both the Houses of Parliament, whereby their Actions are declared Treasonable, and their persons traitors; And thereupon your Majesty hath set up your Standard against them, whereby you have put the two Houses of Parliament, an lin them thu whole kingdom out of your Protection; so that until your Majesty shall recall those Proclamations and Declarations; whereby the Earl of Est●x and both Houses of Parliament, and their adherents and assistants, and such as have obeyed and executed their commands and directions, according to their duties, are declared traitors, or otherwise delinquents; And until the Standard set up in pursuance of the said Proclamations be taken down, your Majesty hath put us into such a condition, that whilst we so remain, we cannot by the fundamental privileges of Parliament; the public trust reposed in us; or with the general good and safety of this kingdom give your Majesty any other answer to this Message.  
joh. Browne Cler. Parl. H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com.  
THis strange Answer might well have discouraged Us from any thought of proceeding further this way, and informed Us sufficiently what spirit still governed amongst those few, who continued still in both Houses, therwise after so many bitter and invective Messages and Declarations sent to Us, and published against Us, we should not have been reproached with our Proclamations and Declarations s●t for●h by Us, as the effect of such tv l● Counsel, as was unparalleed by any former examples. We believe indeed such Proclamations and Declarations have never been before set forth; but were former times ever acquainted with such intolerable provocations? were there ever, before these Twelve Months, Declarations published in the name of either or both Houses of Parliament to make their King odious to the people? Have either or both Houses ever before assumed or pretended to a power to raise Arms or leavy War in an cause, or can both Houses together exercise such a Power? Are those Actions which the Law hath defined literally and expressly to be treasonable, or such Persons to be Traitors, not so because they are done by Members of either House, or their appointment? And must not We declare such who March with Arms and Force to destroy Us, to be Traitors, because the Earl of Essex is their General? Those whom We have or do accuse, We have named together with their Crimes, notorious by the known Law of the Land, (a favour not granted to our Evil Counsellors) and appeal to that known Law to judge between Us: And now that by this we should have put the whole Kingdom out of our Protection (in whose behalf we do all that we have done) is a corrupt Gloss upon such a Text, as cannot be perverted but by the cunning practices of such who wish not well to King or People, yet that no weak Persons might be misled by that imputation upon Us, we sent a Reply to that Answer in these words.  
WE will not repeat what means We have used to prevent the dangerous and distracted estate of the Kingdom, 
●is Maje●ies Reply 〈◊〉 an Answer sent ●y the two ●ouses of parliament to ●is Maje●ies Mes●age of the ●5. of Aug Concerning a trease of accō●●odation.  nor how those means have been interpreted, because being desirous ●o avoid effusion of blood, We are willing to decline all memory of former bitterness that might make Our offer of a Treaty less readily accepted.  
We never did Declare, nor ever intended to Declare both Our Houses of Parliament Traitors, or set up Our Standard against them, and much less to put them and this Kingdom out of Our Protection: We utterly profess against it before God and the World. And further to remove all possible Scruples which may hinder the Treaty so much desired by Us; We hereby promise, so that a day be appointed by you for the revoking of your declarations, against all Persons as Traitors or other ways, for assisting of Us, we shall with all cheerfulness upon the same day recall our Proclamations & Declarations and take down Our Standard: In which Treaty We shall be ready to grant any thing that shall be really for the good of Our Subjects; Conjuring you to consider the bleeding condition of Jreland, and the dangerous condition of England, in as high a degree as by these Our offers We have declared Ourself to do: And assuring you that Our chief desire in this world is to beg●t a good understanding and mutual confidence betwixt Us and Our two Houses of Parliament.  
THis Message produced an Answer little differing from the former, like men who had no other measure of the Justice of their cause, than their power to oppress Us, forgetting their own duties, they sharply inform Us of Ours in these words,  
May it please Your Majesty;  
If We the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled, 
The hu●●ble answer and Pet●● on of th● Lords a● Commo●● Assemb●● in Parl●ment, u●● the King's last Mes●age.  should Repeal all the ways we have taken, the endeavours we have used, and the expressions we have made unto Your Majestic to prevent thief distractions, and dangers Your Majesty speaks of, likely to fall upon this Kingdom, we should too much enlarge this reply, Therefore as we humbly, so shall we only let Your Majesty know, that we cannot Recede from our former Answer for the reasons therein expressed. For that Your Majesty hath not taken down your Standard, recall led Your Proclamations and Declarations, whereby You have declared the Actions of both Houses of Parliament to be Treasenable and their persons Traitors. And you have published the same since Your Message of the twenty fifth of August by your late instructions sent to your Commissioners of Array, which Standard bring taken down, and the Declarations, Proclamations and instructions recalled, If your Majestic shall then upon this our humble perition, leaving Your Forces, return unto your Parliament, and receive their faithful advice, Your Majesty will find such expressions of our fidelities and duties, as shall assure You that Your safety, Honour and greatness can only be found in the affections of Your people, and the sincere Counsels of Your Parliament, whose constant, and undiscouraged endeavours, and consultations have passed through difficulties unheard of, only to secure Your Kingdoms from the violent Mischiefs and dangers now ready to fall upon them, and every part of them, who deserve better of Your Majesty, and can never allow themselves (representing likewise your whole Kingdom) to be balanced with those persons whose desperate dispositions and counsels prevail, still so to interrupt all our endeavours for the relieving of bleeding Ireland, as we may fear our labours, and vast expenses will be fruitless to that distressed Kingdom. As your presence is thus humbly desired by us; So is it in our hopes your Majesty will in your reason believe, there is no other way then this, to make yourself happy, and your Kingdom safe.  
John Browne Cler. Parliament.  
WIthout any bitterness or reprehension of their neglect of Us, and the public Peace, to express Our deep sense of the Calemities at hand, We yet once more (hoping to awake them to a Christian tenderness towards the whole Kingdom) sent to them in these words.  
WHo have taken most ways, used most endeavours, and made most real expressions to prevent the present distractions and dangers, let all the world judge, as well by former Passages as by our two last Messages, which have been so fruitless, that (though we have descended to desire and press it) not so much as a Treaty can be obtained, unless we would denude ourself of all force to defend Us from a visible strength marching against Us, and admit those Persons as Traitors to Us, who according to their duty, their Oaths of Allegiance, and the Law, have appeared in defence of Us their King and Liege Lord (whom we are bound in Conscience and Honour to preserve) though we disclaimed all our Proclamations and Declarations, and the erecting of our Standard as against our Parliament. All we have now left in our Power is to express the deep sense we have of the public misery of this Kingdom, in which is involved that of Our distressed Protestants of Ireland, and to apply ourself to our necessary defence, wherein we wholly rely upon the Providence of God, and the justice of our Cause, and the affection of our good People, so far we are from putting them out of our protection. When you shall desire a Treaty of Us, we shall piously remember whose blond is to be spilt in this quarrel, and cheerfully embrace it: And as no other Reason induced Us to leave our City of London, but that with honour and safety we could not stay there, nor raise any force but for the necessary defence of our Person and the Law, against Levies in opposition to both, so we shall suddenly and most willingly return to the one, and disband the other, as soon as those causes shall be removed. The God of Heaven direct you, and in mercy divert those judgements which hang over this Nation, and so deal with Us and our Posterity as We desire the Preservation and Advancement of the true Protestant Religion, the Laws and the Liberty of the Subject, the just Rights of Parliament, and the Peace of the Kingdom.  
But as if all these Gracious Messages had been the effects only of our weakness, and instances of Our want of Power to resist that torment, they deal at last more plainly with Us, and after many sharp, causeless, and unjust reproaches, they tell Us in plain English, that without putting ourself absolutely into their hands, and deserting all our own Force, and the protection of all those who have faithfully appeared for Us according to their duty, there would be no means of a Treaty, although our extraordinary desire of Peace had prevailed with Us, to offer to recall our most just Declarations, and to take down our Standard, set up for our necessary defence, so their unjustifiable Declarations might be likewise recalled, their Answer follows in these words,  
WE the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled, do present this our humble Answer to Your Majesty's Message of the eleventh of this instant Month of Septem. when we consider the oppressions, Rapines, Firing of Houses, 
The hu●ble Answer of the Lord and Commons Assemble d● in Parliament un● His Majesty's last Message.  Murders, (even at this time, whilst Your Majesty propounds a Treaty) committed upon Your good Subjects by Your Soldiers, in the presence, and by the Authority of their Commanders, being of the number of those whom Your Majesty holds Yourself bound in Honour and Conscience to protect as persons doing their duties. We cannot think Your Majesty hath don● all that in You lies to prevent, or remove the present distractions; nor so long as Your Majesty will admit no peace without securing the Authors and Instruments of these mischiefs from the justice of the Parliament, which yet shall be ever dispensed with all requisite moderation and distinction of offences, Although some of those persons be such in whose preservation Your Kingdom cannot be safe, nor the unquestionable rights and Privileges of Parliament be maintained, without which the power and dignity thereof will fall into contempt. We beseech Your Majesty therefore to consider Your expressions, That God should deal with You and Your posterity, as Your Majesty desir●s the preservation of the Just Rights of Parliament, which being undeniable in the trying of such as We have declared to be Delinquents, We shall believe Your Majesty both towards Yourself and Parliament will not in this privilege, We are most sensible of, deny us that which belongs unto the meanest Court of justice in this Kingdom. Neither hath Your Majesty cause to complain that You are denied a Treaty, when We offer all that a Treaty can produce, or Your Majesty expect, Security, Honour, Service, Obedience, Support, and all other effects of an Humble, loyal, and faithful subjection, and seek nothing but that our Religion, Liberty, peace of the Kingdom, safety of the Parliament may be secured from the open violence, and cunning practices of a wicked party, who have long plotted our ruin and destruction; And if there were any cause of Treaty, we know no competent Persons to Treat betwixt the King and Parliament, And if both cause and persons were such as to invite Treaty, the season is altogether unfit, whilst Your Majesty's Standard is up, and Your Preclamations and Declarations unrecalled, whereby Your Parliament is charged with Treason.  
If Your Majesty shall persist to make Yourself a shield and defence to those Instruments, and shall continue to reject our faithful and necessary advice for securing and main●aing Religion and Liberty, with the Peace of the Kingdom and safety of the Parliament, We doubt not but to indifferent judgements it will easily appear who is most tender of that innocent Blood which is like to be spilt in this cause, Your Majesty, who by such persisting, doth endanger Yourself and Your Kingdoms, or We, who are willing to hazard ourselves, to preserve both. We humbly beseech Your Majesty to consider how impossible it is, that any Protestation, though published in Your Majesty's name, of the tenderness of the miseries of Your Protestant Subjects in Jreland, of Your Resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion, and Laws of this Kingdom, can give satisfaction to reasonable and indifferent Men, 〈…〉 of them, and agents for them, are admitted to Your Majesty's presence with Grace and Favour, and some of them employed in Your service; when the , Munition, Horses, and other Necessaries bought by Your Parliament and sent for the supply of the Army against the Rebels there, are violently taken away, some by Your Majesty's command, others by Your Ministers, and applied to the maintenance of an unnatural War against your people here.  
All this notwithstanding as we never gave Your Majesty any just cause of withdrawing Yourself from Your great Council, so it hath ever been, and shall ever be fare from us to give any impediment to your return, or to neglect any proper means of curing the distempers of the Kingdom, and closing the dangerous Breaches betwixt Your Majesty and Your Parliament, according to the great trust which lies upon us, and if Your Majesty shall now be pleased to come back to Your Parliament, without Your Forces, we shall be ready to secure Your Royal Person, Your Crown, and Dignity, with our Lives and Fortunes, Your prosence in this Your great Council, being the only means of any Treaty betwixt Your Majesty and them with hope of Success.  
And in none of our desires to Your Majesty shall we be swayed by any particular man's advantage, but shall give a clear Testimony to Your Majesty, and the whole World, that in all things done by us, we faithfully intent the good of your Majesty, and of Your Kingdoms, and that we will not be diverted from this end by any private, or self respects whatsoever.  
John Browne Cler. Parliament.  
THey will not believe we have done all that in us lies to prevent and remove the present Distractions, because of the oppressions, rapines, and the like committed upon our good Subjects by our soldiers. Let them remember who have compelled us, and against our soul's desire, forced us to raise those soldiers, and then if the oppressions and rapines were indeed such as are falsely pretended, our poor Subjects who suffer under them, will look on them, and only on them, as the Authors of all the miseries they do or can undergo, we confess with grief of heart some disorders have, and many more may befall our good people by our soldiers, but we appeal to all those Counties through which we have passed, what care we have taken to prevent, and what justice we daily inflict upon such offenders: neither hath the least complaint been ever made to us of violences and outrages, which we have not to our utmost power repaired or punished; how ever those false & treasonable Pamphlets are suffered which accuse us of giving warrant for plandring of houses. Our Mercy and Lenity is so well known to the contrary, that it is usually made an excuse by those who against their consciences assist this rebellion against us, that they cause rather to offend us upon the confidence of pardon, then provoke those Malignant persons who without charity or companion destroy all who concur not with them in faction and opinion. How far we are from rapine and oppression may appear by our Lenity to the persons and Estates of those who have not only exercised the Militia (the seed from whence this rebellion against us hath grown) but contributed money and plate to the maintenance of that Army which now endeavours to destroy us, as of Nottingham, Leicester, and many other places through which we have passed many of whom then were and now are in that Army: to let pass our passing by Chartly (the house of the Earl of Essex) without other pressures then as if he were the General of our own Army, and our express orders to restrain the Liberty, our soldiers would otherwise have used upon that place, and his Estate about it. How contrary the proceed are of these great Assertors of the public Liberties, appears fully by the said instances they every ●ay give in the plundering by public warrant, the houses of all such whose duty, conscience, and loyalty hath engaged them in our Quarrel, which every good man ought to make his own. By their declaring all persons to be out of the protection of Parliament (and so exposing them to the fury of their soldiers) who will not assist this rebellion against us, their anointed King, by the daily outrages committed in Yorkshire, when contrary to the desire and agreement of that County (signed under the hands of both parties) they will not suffer the peace to be kept, but that the distractions and confusion may be universal over the whole Kingdom, direct their Governor of Hull to make War upon our good Subjects in that County, and so continue the robbing and plundering the houses of all such who concur not with them in this rebellion. Lastly, by the barbarous, sacrilegious inhumanity exercised by their soldiers in Churches, as in Canterbury, Worcester, Oxford, and other places, where they committed such unheard of outrages, as I●wes, and Atheists, never practised before. God in his good time will make them examples of his vengeance.  
We never did, nor ever shall desire to secure the Authors and instruments of any mischiefs to the Kingdom from the justice of Parliament, we desire all such persons may be speedily brought to condign punishment by that rule which is, or aught to be, the rule of all punishment, the known Law of the Land, if there have seemed to be any interruption in proceed of this nature, it must be remembered, how long persons have been kept under general accusations, without trial, though earnestly desired, that the Members who were properly to judge such accusations have by violence been driven thence, or could not with honour and safety be present at such debates, that notorious Delinquents by the known Laws were protected against us from the justice of the Kingdom, and such called Delinquents, who committing no offence against any known Law were so voted only for doing their duties to us, and then there will be no cause of complaint found against us.  
And for the privileges of Parliament We have said so much and upon such reasons, (which have never been answered but by bare positive Assertions) in our several Declarations, that we may well, and do still use the same expression, That we desire God may so deal with Us and our posterity, as we desire the preservation of the just Rights of Parliament.  
The violation whereof in truth by these desperate Persons is so clearly known to all men who understand the privileges of Parliament, that their rage and malice hath not been greater to Our Person and Government then to the Liberty, privilege, and very being of Parliaments, witness their putting imputting out, & suspending what persons they please, as they dislike their opinions, their bringing cowne the Tumults to assault the Members, and awe the Parliament, their posting and prosecuting such Members of either House as concurred not with them in their Designs, and so driving them from thence for the safety of their lives, their denying Us, against the known, established Law, and the Constitution of the kingdom, to have a negative voice, without which no Parliament can consist, their making close Committees, from whence the Members of the Houses are exempted, against the Liberty of Parliament, and lastly resolving both Houses into a close Committee, of seventeen persons who undertake and direct all the present outrages and the managery of this Rebellion against Us, in the absence of four parts of five of both Houses, and without the privity of those who stay there, which is not only contrary but destructive to Parliaments themselves. By these gross, unheard of Invasions and breaches of the Priuledges of Parliament, (and without them they could not have done the other) They made way for their attempts upon the Law of the Land, and the introduction of that unlimited, Arbitrary power which they have since exercised to the intolerable damage and confusion of the whole kingdom, And We assure Our good Subjects the Vindication of these just Liberties and Privileges of Parliament, thus violated by these men, is not less the Argument of our present quarrel and undertaking, than our own Honour, Interest, and safety, those being no way so securely to be preserved, as by preserving Parliaments and their just Privileges. Neither is there any Protestation to our knowledge published in our name of our tenderness of the miseries of Ireland, and our Resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion, and Laws of this Kingdom, that is not the Protestation of our Soul, and manifested in all our actions, and We hope that false Scandal, That divers of the Irish Traitors and Rebels, the known favourers of them, and Agents for them are admitted to our presence with favour and employed in our service, will gain no credit with good men, who remember well the notorious imputation so confidently and groundlessly heretofore cast on us by Master Pym, of which as there could never be the least proof, so we could never receive any satisfaction for that high in jury, which might have been a warning to them to have published no more such untruths, if they had not found that truth and their Ends cannot meet together.  
For the Horses taken for our Service, which were provided for the service of Ireland, It is true, We were compelled for the bringing our own wagons from Chester for the Carriage of our Munition to make use of them being few in number and of small value, after they were certified to be of no use for the service, for which they were provided. And for the Clothes, upon enquiry We find that some few were taken by our Soldiers (but without any order from Us) going to Coventry, and as was probably believed for the relief of that place, then in actual Rebellion against Us, but how fare we have been, and are from diverting any of those provisions made for the relief of that poor Kingdom (the thought of whose miserable condition makes our heart bleed) may appear by our express command given for the speedy transportation of 3000. suits of Clothes which We found provided at Chester, but neglected to be sent, and which no necessity of our own Army here could prevail with us to seize. And how bold soever the reproaches of that kind have ●in upon Us, we are confident malice itself cannot lay the least probable imputation upon us, for the neglect of our duty towards that Kingdom. What one thing in our power have we neglected or omitted, which might contribute to the assistance, or ease of our poor Protestant Subjects there? we first recommended the case of that business to both our Houses of Parliament. We consented to all propositions made on the behalf offered to raise 10000 Volunteers, (which if then accepted had shortened that work) offered to venture our own person in the service, what interpretation that offer of ours found, is known to all the world, we parted with our Interest in the Land of the Rebels, to encourage such who were willing to adventure in that business, and when Money is raised by our consent for that sole purpose, they have at once seized on a hundred thousand pound particularly appointed by Act of Parliament for the relief of Jreland (our Army being ready to perish for want of it) and employed it to maintain this unnatural civil War at home. They have Levied men and entertained Commanders for that service, and t●ed compelled them to join in this Rebellion, and to march against us, and though they have complained of our keeping the Lief tenant of Ireland some weeks with us, (when in truth it was a season of extraordinary business,) after we had in vain for many Months pressed his dispatch, yet themselves now detain him, when his going is so necessary for the preservation of that Kingdom. And no doubt these men (and these alone) by begetting this miserable distraction of England, are guilty before God and Man of all the insupportable calamities that our Kingdom of Jreland endures. Let all the world judge where the desire of peace is, and upon whose account the blood and confusion which hath been shed and must follow, shall be cast, And whether the several Proclamations and Declarations published by us, have not been extorted from us, by such unheard of insolences and injuries, which no former times ever produced, neither can any sober man wonder when We are publicly reproached, traduced, and reviled to our people (a practice never known till this Parliament) that We endeavour by a true relation and Declaration of our Actions and Intentions, and of their Conspiracies, who have vowed our destruction, to inform our good Subjects of the cunning and malice they are to encounter with; and when a Combination is entered into to destroy Us, and to alter the Religion and Law of the Kingdom, and to that purpose an Army raised and marching against us, that We proclaim the General of that Army and such who shall assist him in levying a war against us, to be Traitors and have set up our Royal Standard, and required all our good Subjects to come to our defence. And yet both in that Proclamation and in all our Declarations we have never accused our Parliament, but such factious, seditious Members of both Houses whom we have named, and whom We are ready to prove according to the rules of the known Law to be guilty of High Treason. We well know, and all the Kingdom knows that of near 500 Members, which the House of Commons contains, there remains not now there 100 neither hath above such a number consented almost to any thing of which we have ever complained, the rest have either been driven away by Tumults and Threats of the Persons whom we have accused, or out of Conscience withdrawn themselves from their desperate Consultations, and of about 100 Peers of the Realm, there are not above 15. or 16. who concur in these miserable Resolutions, which disturb the public Peace, many of which being of desperate fortunes, have no other support, than the commands now given them to make war upon us, and now these men must sit upon the lives and fortunes of all the Nobility, Gentry, and Commons of England, and because we will not put ourself into the hands, Government, and disposal of them, all our good Subjects are invited and encouraged to rebel against us, yet we have been, and are still fare from accusing all that small number of both Houses who are yet left together, we believe many of them are misled by the cunning and malice, and frighted by the power of those men whom we have accused, against every one of whom we have evidence of matter of fact, that the known Law of the Land determines to be High Treason.  
And now that all Our good Subjects may see how desirous these men and their adherents are to prevent the effusion of blood, and the lasting miseries of a Civil War, they will make themselves so considerable, that except we will recall our Proclamations and Declarations whereby particular men named for particular Actions (which the Law hath defined to be Treason) are so accused, and others warned from involving themselves in their guilt, and except we will take down our Standard, that our good Subjects may not repair to us for our defence, when so many Armies are raised against us in several parts of the kingdom, and ready to destroy us, and such of our good Subjects, who dare continue loyal to us, and except we will return to London, from whence with violence we have been driven, we must not be treated with, or receive any Answer to so gracious a Message.  
It can no longer be doubted by any man, who hath not wilfully forsaken his understanding, that it is no more a quarrel undertaken by the Parliament, but contrived and fomented by the persons we have named, and now continued solely in their defence, to whose Ambition, Faction, and Malice, the true reformed protestant Religion, the just Right, Honour, Safety, and life of us and our posterity the Law of the Land, which hath so long preserved this Nation happy, the liberty of the Subject established by that Law, and the glorious frame and constitution of this kingdom must be sacrificed. But as we have hitherto left no Action unperformed, which in honour, justice and Conscience we were obliged to do, or in Christian policy and prudence we could conceive might probably prevent these Calamities, so we thank God he hath given us a full courage and resolution to run the utmost hazard of our life for the suppression of this horrible Rebellion, in the which no disproportion of power, Arms, or money shall discourage us; And we hope that all our good Subjects besides, by the common duty of Allegiance, will be stirred up for their own sakes, for the preservation of the blessed Protestant Religion, and for the upholding this whole admirable frame of Government which being dissolved, all their private and particular rights and Interest must be immediately confounded, to bring in their utmost power and assistance unto us in this desperate exigent. And We do declare that whosoever shall lose his life in this Service for our defence, the Wardship of his Heir shall be granted by us without rent or Fine to his own use, and we shall hold ourself obliged to take all possible care for the support, relief, and protection of all their wives, and Children, who shall have the hard fortune to die in this Service.  
FINIS.