A PETITION Of the city of WESTMINSTER, And the Parishes OF Saint Clement Danes, AND Saint Martins in the Fields: AS It was carried from them by Sir Edward Warder, Doctor Castle, Doctor Fuller, and Doctor Duckson, and by them presented to his Sacred majesty at Oxford.  
WITH His Majesties gracious Answer concerning the said PETITION.  
London, Printed for Thomas Hudson, Ian. 18. 1643.   


DOCTRINA PARIT VIRTUTEM   device of sword and scepter crossed upon an open book To the Kings most Excellent majesty.  
The humble Petition of the City of West-minster, the Parishes of S. Clement Danes, and S. Martins in the Fields,  
As it was presented to His Majesty at Oxford, Ian. 7. 1642.  
May it please Your Excellent majesty,  
WEE the Inhabitants of your ancient city of Westminster, sometimes the regal Seat of your ancestors of famous memory, together with our neighbours, the Inhabitants of the populous Parishes of St. Martins in the Fields, and St. Clements Danes, much afflicted and greatly impoverished by these intestine wars; but more especially by the reason of your Majesties so long absence from your royal Palace at White-Hall, where wee were usually blessed with the beams of your Majesties countenance, thought ourselves engaged in duty to your majesty, and in charity to ourselves and families, to present with all humility and lowliness of mind, our grievances, and with them our loyal desires to your Sacred goodness, which wee know, and are assured is so full of tender pity to us your obedient Subjects, that your majesty will lend a gracious ear to our complaints,. We are( may it please your Sacred majesty) oppressed with all the calamities that can be, grieved principally for your Majesties so long sepa●ation from the Honourable your High Court of Parliament, the chief and most faithful council appurtenant to our English Nation: We are above measure afflicted at the afflictions of our brethren, and have a fellow-feeling of their sufferings, who in the Countries round about us, groan under the heavy burden of a civill war, their houses plundered, their goods taken away, and their lives in daily danger. Nay, divers of our countrymen, Friends, and Allies( to our no small grief and anguish of mind) having lost their lives in the fatal contentions, which have been frequent in these unnatural wars. And though we in our persons have not yet felt any of these miseries, yet can we not be so foolishly secure, as to imagine we are proof against all these thunder-bolts which hang over us. And moreover we do daily run behind hand, and are much impoverished in our estates, to the utter undoing almost of our families, by reason that through the danger and calamity of the times all traffic and commerce, both at home and abroad, is as it were expiring, and at the last gasp, no man having any valuable vent for his commodities, to the utter ruin and decay of many honest and able householders, who are enforced( without any in-come from their present estates) to maintain themselves out of the whole stock; which still decreasing without any augmentation or supply, must at last( and in a very short space) be consumed and brought to nought. One of the principal occasions of this our detriment and loss, being the long and lamented absence of Your royal person, and your Court, from this City; we of your City of Westminster, and the adjoining Parishes of Saint M●rtins and Saint Clements, having our greatest intercourse of trade with your royal Court, by reason of our vicinity to the same, and with the Families of such of the Nobility and Gentry as inhabited the Strand, and the adjacent places: who having most of their dependence on your Majesty, and Your regal Court, have by reason of Your long absence from hence absented themselves. Divers others also, by reason of these domestic tumults, being removed from their wonted habitations, into the country.  
Besides, it may please Your majesty to take into Your Gracious consideration the destructive effects of a Civill war, and Your Highnesse long dis-junction and discontinuance from Your loyal and well affencted Your honourable high Court of Parliament, assembled for the service and advancement of Your Majesties affairs, which they have ever endeavoured and promoted; and for the good of your people in general, the peace and security of all Your Majesties dominions, which have always been the period and aim of this Your Parliaments intentions, as by their honourable and just proceedings are and have been daily manifested.  
In Consideration of all these premises, and for the honour of God, the maintenance and settling of Gods true Religion, now at many distractions in this kingdom, for the quieting and appeasing of all these lamentable distractions: and finally, for the happiness of all your Majesties liege people, we your loyal and faithful Subjects, found ourselves engaged in conscience, and do most humbly beseech your Majesty to take into your Princely consideration these our vances, and tender them with the eye of your excellent compassion and pity. And since they have all derived themselves from one head, namely, your Majesties absence from your high Court of Parliament, wee in all humility desire that your Majesty out of your inbred clemency to all your Subjects, deserting all Malignant counsels to the contrary, would graciously vouchsafe to harken to the advices of your High Court of Parliament, and in your royal wisdom take some speedy course for an Accommodation of peace between your sacred Majesty and the honourable the High Court of Parliament; and so the God of heaven, the fountain of peace, bless your Majesty, as wee your humble Suppliants in all duty bound shall ever pray, to our lives end.   

His MAjESTIES gracious Answer to the Petition aforesaid.  
WEe have received your loyal Petition, and do much rejoice to find your wishes so concurrent with the desires of your brethren of Our City of London, and the most considerable Cities and parts of Our kingdom, in requesting Our royal care and furtherance for the settling of a sudden constant peace betwixt ourself and Our high Court of Parliament, We having as tender a resentment of the long and deplorable breach between Us and them, as either you or any other of Our faithful and obedient Subjects can possibly have: for the losses and damages which Our Subjects in general have sustained, and yourselves in particular have undergone by reason of these tumults and civill dissensions, Wee have had as great a consideration and sense of grief for all your sufferings, as you had been allied to Us, as near as Our own children. Wee know very well, that in such times, when nothing but dissensions and the rumour of war is heard in Our borders, that all things which have been produced and nourished by the continuance of a long and happy peace, must needs run the hazard of immediate ruin, and hearty wish that heaven had been pleased not to have laid in Our time this heavy scourge upon this Our Kingdom; but it was Our sins that hath pulled this rod of his vengeance upon this Our land, which We hope his mercy will suddenly, and in his good time avert from Us.  
For Our own parts, as Wee are by God and succession placed in the Throne of this kingdom, Wee have ever been careful to preserve and defend Our Subjects from all miseries or affliction that might fall on them, either to the prejudice of their Estates or persons, and so shall as long as God shall spare Us life ever continue, maintaining the Right and Progerty of the Subject equally with Our own prerogative and dignity; and ever seeking the advancement of Gods true Religion and Worship throughout all Our Dominions.  
For these dissensions betwixt ourself and Parliament, certainly Wee dare affirm they have not been more afflicted at Our long absence from them, then We ourself have, that We are enforced to absent ourself from Our Palace at White-hall, which We have always esteemed as Our best loved and capital residence. But mis-interpretations betwixt Us, and mis-conceits of both our meanings have occasioned this difference, which We shall as much as is in Our power, hereafter strive to suppress and t●ke away; and then We doubt not, when they shall rightly understand Us and We them, but these dissensions will suddenly vanish, and leave no remembrance behind them: For ourself, Wee do protest to you, that could Wee with the safety of Our affairs fulfil that part of your Petition wherein you entreat Our return to Our Palace & Parliament, We should perform it without any regret, as willingly as Wee believe you desire it hearty, but as yet Wee are impossibilited from putting those resolutions in act, through the urgency and importance of Our present business, but that will not last so long, but We shall be ablein a short time in that also to accomplish your desires. But whereas you Petition Us in Our royal care to take such speedy order for Our accommodation of peace between ourself & Our high Court of Parliament, in that believe Us, Our endeavour shall be no whit wanting, We shall with as much zeal and willingness strive to perfect an atonement of all differences betwixt Us, as Wee shall desire of heaven to bless Us with any earthly happiness; amongst all which We account the peace of Our kingdom, and prosperity of Our people the chief; and since that can no way be effected, but by a quick reconciliation between Us and Our high Court of Parliament, none We hope is so uncharitable to believe that We shall not further the completing such a reconciliation with all the power We have: which Wee promise you We will do, being furnished with that good opinion of Our Parliaments loyalty and affection to Us their sovereign, that they will meet Our royal intentions half way for the compassing of peace, and be as ready to embrace Our just Propositions as We shall to listen to and grant theirs. And this you may confidently credit, is Our royal Resolution, which no malignant or sinister counsel shall ever alter Us from.  
FINIS.