A DECLARATION OF THE MOST CHRISTIAN KING, LOVIS THE XIIIth. King of FRANCE and NAVARRE. DECLARING The Reasons wherefore His MAJESTY hath prohibited all Trade with ENGLAND.  
ALSO That He hath given Commission to raise an Army for the Assistance of the KING of ENGLAND.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year, 1649.   

A DECLARATION of the most Christian King, LOVIS the XIII. KING of FRANCE, and NAVARRE.  
Lodovicus Rex.  
WHereas about eight years since, a party of tumultuous and discontented persons, abusing the name and privilege of Parliament, by fair and specious pretences, and the assistance of the riotous City of London, drew the Subjects of England into a most violent and bloody Rebellion against their natural Liege Lord, our dear and Royal Uncle, Charles the First, King of Great Britain and Ireland, of most blessed and pious memory, which they carried on with implacable hatred, and indefatigable devilish policies, pursuing all that did oppose them with blood and rapine, and wading up to the ankles and neck, through a whole red Sea of humane and Country blood, to the accomplishment of their execrable and prodigious designs: Which having fully compassed, by getting His Majesty's Sacred Person into their power; after a most inhuman manner they hurry him from one Prison to another, continually perplexing him with amphibolous Propositions, such as neither in conscience became a Christian, nor in honour a King to grant. At length with Kisses and All-hailes in the forefront of their Treason, they invite His Majesty to a Personal Treaty; who to manifest his passionate desire to peace, spread His Royal Self into acts of Grace and Favour; going beyond all His Predecessors in munificent Concessions: Yet even when he had yielded beyond their hope and expectation, and surrendered His most indisputable Rights and Prerogatives into their hands: with malice as inexorable as the grave, deep and bottomless as hell, they abruptly break off, and by force of Arms drag him to the Bar; where Vassals took upon them to judge their Sovereign, and call him to an account, who owed an account to none but God alone, and having Blasphemously upbraided him with the unjust infamies of Tyrant, Traitor, and Murderer; and sufficiently sported themselves with scorn and contempt, after a small interval of time, in Triumph they convey him to the Scaffold, which in aggravation of his sorrow, they had prepared at the entrance into his Royal Palace, where in the sight of his Subjects they committed a most Barbarous Assassination upon his Sacred Person, by severing his Royal Head from his Body, by the hands of the Common Hangman; a prodition without a match, and such as hath filled even the very Souls of Heathens with horror and amazement: For it was the most nefarious, facinorous, flagitious and incogitable act of Persons neither generous, for there was no drop of ingenious blood in them; Nor men, for they were forsaken of humanity, and had lost the Bowels of manly compassion; Nor dogs, unless of the Brood of Cerberus; nor Tigers, nor Panthers, nor ravening Woolves, nor Shee-beares, nor any thing but the most unnatural, strange, very incarnated and transanimated Devils, that ever usurped humane shape, to the vexatious torment and destruction of mankind: Nor have these sponges of blood yet sucked their fill, but with implacable Malice they yet pursue his Royal Issue, and by force of Arms withhold from them their Indubitate and successive Right, and have solemnly Proclaimed them Traitors in the chief streets of that Kingdom's Metropolis, and all other Cities and Corporations, and that it shall be lawful for any man to kill them, wherever they shall meet them within the limits of those Territories as Spies and Enemies to the Commonwealth. And they have further declared and Proclaimed, That they will for ever abolish all Kingly-government, in England and Ireland, as chargeable, unnecessary and Tyrannical, and in stead thereof will establish an eternal Anarchy, (which they call a Commonwealth) perpetually enslaving the miserable people of those Kingdoms, to the Tyrannical wills of them and their Posterity; and having broken the Diadems of State, and possessed themselves of the Regalia, are now by way of sale, sharing all the Lands and Revenues of the Crown, with the appurtenances among themselves and their Favourits; Thus are they mounted to transcendents, not to be placed in the classes or Ranks of hitherto experienced or practised wickedness; So that if all the Records and Chronicles ancient and Modern, Divine & profane, were throughly searched by the most scrutinous eye, and all black and dire machinations, plots and conspiracies, either contrived or acted by Rebels and Traitors, against their Princes, were arithmatically cast up, here would be found the summa Totalis, Rebellion and Treason, being now brought to the fullness of perfection:  
Nor are these Fedifragones', miscreants contented to imbrue, and bathe their hands in the King's blood, but they persecute all his relations; enriching themselves in the ruin of his illustrious Queen: inforcibly withholding from her that Dowry which the King and his Council, in consideration of a large and vast Sum of Money, allotted for her maintenance: Whereby they have broke the ancient league between the Kingdoms, and given us fair occasion in hostile manner, with our Armies of Horse, and Foot, to invade that Kingdom; Nor can we conceal our deep sense and just indignation, at those gross and scandalous obloquys, which they daily cast upon the person and reputation of our dear Aunt, the Queen Dowager, by their libellous Pamphlets, those Messengers of their Malice, which like the plagues of Egypt reduplicated and multiplied, they daily send forth, by which Aegypticall flies, they endeavour, what in them lieth, to cause the sweet ointment of her precious name to stink upon the face of the Earth; although her unparralelled virtues are so candid and general, that she may without flattery be styled, The Paragon of Queens, the Glory and miracle of her Sex, whose Honour and injuries, we are bound by the bonds of nature, and affinity, to vindicate and revenge.  
And that they might macerate the whole world in blood, and set all Christian Kingdoms into flames and combustion, they have dispatched their Incendiaries, like Locusts into all parts of Christendom, who by subdolous and sly insinuations and pretences of popular Liberty, and freedom from Monarchical Tyranny, endeavour to carck the bonds of protection and fealty between Kings and their Subjects, as they have lately done in this our Kingdom, whereby Trumpeting sedition & Rebellion in the ears of our people, they lately stirred them up to mutinies and insurrections to the apparent hazard of our Royal person, Crown and Dignities, which are now by God's goodness appeased and allayed; by which policy of dividing Kings and their Subjects throughout Christendom, they hope to immerge all possibility of our aid and assistance in restoring their present Sovereign, and establish their hermaphroditical Government with greater Security.  
Having therefore upon very just grounds both of Conscience and reason, taken these premises into our Princely consideration, we have thought good, by the Nature and deliberate advice and consent of the most illustrious Lady the Queen Regent our Royal Mother, and of the Princes, Prelates and Parliaments of our Kingdom, to stop and forbid all trade and commerce between the Subjects of our Kingdom and that Rebellious Nation; till they shall return to their due obedience to their Sovereign; and by our Royal Proclamation which we have caused to be published in all our Cities and Towns Corporate, within this our Kingdom of France, etc. We have strictly prohibited all English Wool and woollen Cloth, or any other commodities to be brought into this Kingdom, and we have thereby Commanded all Sheriffs and Mayors, Balliffs and subordinate Officers to make diligent search in all Cities, Towns, and Ports within their several Jurisdictions, and to seize upon and confiscate to our use, all such prohibited goods as they shall at any time hereafter find in any part of our Dominions, and whosoever shall conceal any such prohibited goods so in their custody, and not discover them to the chief Magistrate, or some other subordinate Officer in the City, Town or Port, where they dwell within the compass of four and twenty hours, shall forfeit their Estates, and for the first fault, suffer one Years Imprisonment; for the second, five Years; and for the Third, perpetual Imprisonment without bail or mainprize. And we have further by our said Proclamation commanded, that no Merchant or other Subject of our Kingdom, doc export or suffer to be exported by any English Merchant or others, any Corn, Wine, Oil, Skins, Nuts, Chestnuts, Beef, Pork, or any other Merchandises into that Kingdom of England: and whosoever shall be found offending herein, shall incur the penalty of High Treason. And we have further commanded all Englishmen, of what degree or quality soever, not warranted and protected by the King of England, or not naturalised Den zons of this Kingdom, to departed this Kingdom by the 18 of October, next ensuing the Date of that our said Proclamation; and that no Englishman whatsoever not protected or naturalised as aforesaid do presume to remain in any part of our Dominions, upon pain of being executed, as Spies, Enemies and Traitors, to this our Kingdom: And it shall be High Treason for any Subject of this our Kingdom, to conceal or harbour within their Houses any Englishman, not protected and naturalised as aforesaid, and not discover the said person to some Magistrate or Justice of Peace within four and twenty Hours.  
And conceiving ourselves bound both as a Christian and a King, by the bonds of Religion and Nature, and the long continued League between the Kingdoms, to revenge the barbarous murder of the late King of England, of glorious memory, to repair the injuries of our Royal Aunt, his Queen Dowager, and to restore King Charles the Second our Cousin, to the Thrones of his Kingdoms, and subdue his People to his obedience, we have Issued forth our Royal Commission under the great Seal of our Kingdom, whereby we have authorized our Right trusty and well-beloved Cousin the Count of Saint Paul, to raise eight Regiments of Horse, and twelve of Foot, each horse Regiment to consist of eight hundred, and the Foot of a thousand; and of our own Free will and princely grace, we are pleased to advance two years pay out of our Royal treasury: and to furnish the said Count of Saint Paul, with a train of Artillery, and all other necessaries for martial employment; and have straight commanded the said Count and all other Officers, and Soldiers of that Army, faithfully and obediently to observe all such commands, as they shall from time to time receive from our most entirely beloved Cousin the King of England: and that they be ready to enter any part his Majesty's Dominions, as shall be thought most necessary by the said King and his Council, and there to join with any of his Majesty's Armies, and to fight with, kill and slay all that they shall find in Rebellion against his said Majesty: And forasmuch as all Christian Kings are concerned herein, we have thought good to publish this our Declaration, which we have caused to be translated into all Languages, that all the Kings and Princes of Christendom may take notice of our proceed, and after our example, may contribute their utmost power and assistance for the restoring that injured King to his Dominions, and reducing his Subjects to his obedience.  
Given at our Court at Paris, September 2d. 1649.  
FINIS.