A PETITION TO HIS majesty; Of the three revolting Counties in the West, Wilts, Somerset, and Devon.  
WITH The cause and reason, and how they intended to spend their last blood in His Majesties cause.  
ALSO Their resolution to defend themselves with their swords, except His Majesty returns to his Parliament at Westminster.  
 two hands shaking in front of a heart  
Published by Authority.  
LONDON, Printed by J. H. 1645.   

To the KINGS most excellent majesty.  
The humble Petition of the Knights, Gentlemen, Freeholders, and other the Inhabitants of the Counties of Wilts, Somerset and Devon.  
May it please your majesty:  
WE your long oppressed and overpressed subiects in all humble and loyal maner show and declare to your majesty, That whereas we the Knights, Gentlemen, Freeholders, and other the Inhabitants of the abovesaid Counties, have very long and sorely born and sustained the heavy and intolerable burden and pressur● of the●e Civill and unnatural Wars, and been overprest with the inutterable miseries and calamities thereby ensuing, and resolved to go forward and persist, though to the utter loss and ruin of our estates, lives and fortunes, without weariness, notwithstanding any matter or thing that was or could be obiecte● to the contrary on the adverse party: never once believing but that you were firmly grounded and s●tled in the true Protestant Religion, according to your sundry Protestations to the whole kingdom, which we fully and verily believed had been for to maintain and uphold the true Reformed Protestant Religion, though to the hazard of your Posterity and fortunes, without any mental reservation, equivocation, or any other by or sinister end whatsoever: We tendering your prosperity and welfare, and the peace of your kingdoms from the bottom of our hearts, neither regarding wives, children, goods, or lives, were resolved to stand fast to you and your posterity, to the last drop of our blood: But now after serious debate at d●vers and several meetings had among us of la●e, and deeply and seriously weighing the miscarriage of the great affairs of this bleeding kingdom, which so nearly concerns the Church of God, and the deep and lamentable groans of your poor oppressed and murdered subiects in every corner and angle of this your kingdom: We the Knights, Gentlemen, Freeholders, and Inhabitants of the aforesaid Counties, being credibly informed, to our hearts grief, of your late and fearful revolt from your Religion to Po 〈…〉 y; your daily correspondence w 〈…〉 Pope of Rome; your countenan 〈…〉 and upholding of the bloody Irish re●els, who 〈◇〉 mos● inhumanly with bloody hands and re 〈…〉 eless● hearts  shed the blood of above a hundred thousand Protestants, yet no men so great and high in your majesties favour, as these devouring Wolves; your absolute promise to your queen for maintenance of Popery, under your own hand, now extant to be seen; and for the introducing of Popery into this kingdom; your receiving and asking counsel and advice of the most known ●esuited Papist in this kingdom; you● former underhand releasing of many known and notorious jesuits out of prison, who by the known Laws of the Land were to suffer death; your giving toleration for the profanation of the Lords Day, with your licencing and permitting of divers horrid and unchristian cruelties to be inflicted in a most barbarous maner, upon many honest, Christian, and religious subiects of yours, both men and women, to the unspeakable grief and astonishment of the beholders; your taking counsel with bristol, Cottington, and Digby, and at this present no place but Ragnol Castle is your seat, where is the greatest confluence of Papists in all those parts, nay in the whole kingdom: and if such like fellowes as these are fit supporters to the Protestant Religion, let the world judge.  
The affairs of this bleeding kingdom being such, and the horrid oppressions and unheard of outrages committed against your poor subiects, being so great▪ and unpa●●lleld: We therefore here testify and declare to your majesty and the world, that we are not any longer able to bear this intolerable bondage and slavers: We have therefore resolved, and do●●●animously resolve to shake off this y●ke, which hath lain and yet lies so heavy on us, for that you have made a cessation of arms with the barbarous and bloody Irish Rebels, and styled them your good catholic subiects, notwithstanding they have cruelly butchered and massacred above a hundred thousand of as good Protestants as ever any Prince had in this world; your correspondency with the Pope, subscribed in your several Letters to him with your own hand; your promise to your queen subscri●●● with your own hand, as we are ●●uly informed, to bring in Popery as aforesaid. Nay the body of your council is from the Romish and Spanish faction, witness Bristol, Cottington, Digby &c. and even just now who did your majesty go to for counsel, but the archest jesuited Papist in all those parts, Worcester? Besides your continual favouring and fostering of the Iesuites from time to time: and now your hand taken at Nazeby in your Cabinet, extant to be seen, for bringing in of Popery, and have used all ways and means to the uttermost of what hath in you been to favour profane pastimes, witness the book of tolerating of sports, printed by your authority, and commanded to be red in all Churches and chapels within your Dominions; your averseness to comply with your great council your Parliament now resident at Westminster, who would to the utmost of their power and strength have established your Throne for ever in peace and happiness.  
May it therefore please your majesty, the premises seriously considered, to return at last to your great council the Parliament at Westminster, where you may by your great repentance and sorrow of heart beg and implore pardon of God for your many and great prevarications, and that God would be pleased to take away your stony heart, and give you● heart of flesh, and to take you once again into his favour and merciful protection; that your subiects may have cause to bless God for you and yours, and that you may end the rest of your daies in peace and happiness, to his glory, and and welfare and benefit of this poor afflicted and distressed kingdom, nay of the three Kingpomes now lamentably dilacerate and rent in sunder by our bloody and intestine adversaries.  
We therefore once again most humbly and earnestly beseech your majesty, That you bee pleased seriously to consider what is laid truly to your charge and to consider Ieriously of the blood of many thousands of your subiects that hath been spilled on the earth as water, and God give you an understanding and prudent heart, and led you to your great council aforesaid▪ that these unnatural and bloody wars may cease and be extinct, and the voice of ioy and rejoicing may once more be heard in the streets of England; that God may have the glory, and you and your posterity( that shall succeed you) will be sure to find the comfort inexpressible, and be at last a Father to your people, a good shepherd to your sheep; not a wolf, a blood-sucking Nero. Prove not a Bramble utterly to consume and destroy yourself, your kingdoms and subiects over whom God hath made you Steward, for the most high God will require their blood at your hands, when he makes inquisition for blood.  
But if all that hath been spoken( out of our zeal to Gods glory; his peoples good, and our duty to your majesty) will not find acceptance nor favour, out be slighted and disregarded, we take God and the whole world to witness that we will by our swords quit ourselves and our estates free from these bloody Monsters, nor suffer them no longer to harbour and lurk among us, to the immi●ent h 〈…〉 ding of our lives and fort 〈…〉, nay of what is and should be most dear to all good Christians, our Religion, laws, and Liberties: and our prayers shall be night and day that God would open your eyes to see and em●race the Truth, and your heart to bee truly inclined to help to close up the bleeding and gaping ●ounds of our gasping native country, and to heal the great breaches thereof, for it shaketh.  And we with thousands of your faithful and l●ya● Subjects shall ever pray for your Majesties l●●g and prosperous reign ●ver us. 
We make bold with your majesty to strike tw●ce on a string, because your majesty hath a short memory, remember your Protestation● and Declar●tions.  
FINIS.