78.: The King’s reply to the Four Bills and the accompanying Propositions. - Samuel Rawson Gardiner, The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625-1660 [1906]
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The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625-1660, selected and edited by Samuel Rawson Gardiner (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906).
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- Preface to the Second Edition
- Introduction
- I.: To the Meeting of the Third Parliament of Charles I. [—— 1628.]
- II.: From the Meeting of the Third Parliament of Charles I to the Meeting of the Long Parliament. [1628-1640.]
- III.: From the Meeting of the Long Parliament to the Outbreak of the Civil War. [1640-1642.]
- IV.: From the Outbreak of the Civil War to the Execution of the King. [1642-1649.]
- V.: The Commonwealth and Protectorate. [1649—1660.]
- Part I: From the Accession of Charles I to the Meeting of the Third Parliament of His Reign.
- 1.: Speech of Sir Nathaniel Rich, Proposing Terms On Which the House of Commons May Be Prepared to Grant Supply.
- 2.: Protestation of the Commons.
- 3.: Documents Relating to the Impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham.
- 4.: The Restraint of the Earls of Arundel and Bristol.
- 5.: The King’s Letter and Instructions For the Collection of a Free Gift.
- 6.: Commission For Raising Tonnage and Poundage With Impositions.
- 7.: The Commission and Instructions For Raising the Forced Loan In Middlesex.
- 8.: The Case of the Five Knights, Before the Court of King’s Bench.
- Part II: From the Meeting of the Third Parliament of Charles I. To the Meeting of the Long Parliament.
- 9.: Notes of a Bill Brought In By Sir Edward Coke to Secure the Liberties of the Subject.
- 10.: The Petition of Right.
- 11.: The Remonstrance Against Tonnage and Poundage.
- 12.: The King’s Speech At the Prorogation of Parliament At the End of the Session of 1628.
- 13.: The King’s Declaration Prefixed to the Articles of Religion.
- 14.: Resolutions On Religion Drawn By a Sub-committee of the House of Commons.
- 15.: Protestation of the House of Commons.
- 16.: The King’s Declaration Showing the Causes of the Late Dissolution.
- 17.: The Declaration of Sports 1 .
- 18.: Act of the Privy Council On the Position of the Communion Table At St. Gregory’s.
- 19.: Specimen of the First Writ of Ship-money.
- 20.: The King’s Case Laid Before the Judges, With Their Answer 2 .
- 21.: Extracts From the Speech of Oliver St. John In the Ship-money Case.
- 22.: Extracts From the Argument of Sir Robert Berkeley, Justice of the King’s Bench.
- 23.: The Scottish National Covenant.
- 24.: Petition of Twelve Peers For the Summoning of a New Parliament.
- 25.: The King’s Writ Summoning the Great Council.
- Part III: From the Meeting of the Long Parliament to the Outbreak of the Civil War.
- 26.: The Root and Branch Petition.
- 27.: The Triennial Act.
- 28.: The Protestation.
- 29.: The Act For the Attainder of the Earl of Strafford.
- 30.: The Act Against Dissolving the Long Parliament Without Its Own Consent.
- 31.: The Tonnage and Poundage Act.
- 32.: The Ten Propositions.
- 33.: Bill On Church Reform Bead Twice In the House of Lords 1 .
- 34.: The Act For the Abolition of the Court of Star Chamber.
- 35.: The Act For the Abolition of the Court of High Commission.
- 36.: Act Declaring the Illegality of Ship-money.
- 37.: Act For the Limitation of Forests.
- 38.: Act Prohibiting the Exaction of Knighthood Fines.
- 39.: Resolutions of the House of Commons On Ecclesiastical Innovations.
- 40.: Order of the House of Lords On the Services of the Church.
- 41.: Extract From the Instructions to the Committee In Scotland, Proposed By the House of Commons.
- 42.: The King’s Speech to the Recorder of the City of London.
- 43.: The Grand Remonstrance, With the Petition Accompanying It.
- 44.: The King’s Proclamation On Religion.
- 45.: The King’s Answer to the Petition Accompanying the Grand Remonstrance.
- 46.: The Impeachment of One Member of the House of Lords, and of Five Members of the House of Commons.
- 47.: A Declaration of the House of Commons Touching a Late Breach of Their Privileges.
- 48.: The Clerical Disabilities Act.
- 49.: The Impressment Act.
- 50.: The Militia Ordinance.
- 51.: The Declaration of the Houses On Church Reform.
- 52.: The King’s Proclamation Condemning the Militia Ordinance.
- 53.: The Nineteen Propositions Sent By the Two Houses of Parliament to the King At York.
- 54.: Declaration of the Houses In Defence of the Militia Ordinance.
- 55.: The King’s Letter Sent With the Commissions of Array to Leicestershire.
- 56.: The Votes of the Houses For Raising an Army.
- Part IV: From the Outbreak of the Civil War to the Execution of the King.
- 57.: The Propositions Presented to the King At the Treaty of Oxford.
- 58.: The Solemn League and Covenant.
- 60.: The Ordinance Appointing the Second Committee of Both Kingdoms.
- 61.: The Propositions of the Houses Presented to the King At Oxford, and Subsequently Discussed At the Treaty of Uxbridge.
- 62.: The King’s Propositions to Be Discussed At Uxbridge.
- 63.: The Self-denying Ordinance.
- 64.: The Negative Oath.
- 65.: Order of the Two Houses For Taking Away the Court of Wards.
- 66.: The Propositions of the Houses Sent to the King At Newcastle.
- 67.: The King’s First Answer to the Propositions Presented At Newcastle.
- 68.: The King’s Second Answer to the Propositions Presented At Newcastle.
- 69.: Suggested Answer to the Propositions Drawn Up For the King By the Leading Presbyterians and a Small Number of the Independents, and Forwarded By the French Ambassador to Cardinal Mazarin to Be Laid Before Queen Henrietta Maria.
- 70.: The King’s Third Answer to the Propositions Presented At Newcastle.
- 71.: The Heads of the Proposals Offered By the Army.
- 72.: The King’s Answer to the Propositions of Parliament.
- 73.: Letter of Charles I to the Speaker of the House of Lords.
- 74.: The Agreement of the People, As Presented to the Council of the Army.
- 75.: The Four Bills, With the Propositions Accompanying Them.
- 76.: The Engagement Between the King and the Scots.
- 77.: Additional Articles of the Engagement.
- 78.: The King’s Reply to the Four Bills and the Accompanying Propositions.
- 79.: The Vote of No Addresses.
- 80.: The Act 1 Erecting a High Court of Justice For the King’s Trial.
- 81.: The Agreement of the People.
- 82.: The Charge Against the King.
- 83.: The King’s Reasons For Declining the Jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice.
- 84.: The Sentence of the High Court of Justice Upon the King.
- 85.: The Death Warrant of Charles I.
- Part V: The Commonwealth and Protectorate
- 86.: Act Appointing a Council of State.
- 87.: Engagement Taken By the Members of the Council of State.
- 88.: The Act Abolishing the Office of King.
- 89.: An Act Abolishing the House of Lords.
- 90.: An Act Declaring England to Be a Commonwealth.
- 91.: An Act Declaring What Offences Shall Be Adjudged Treason.
- 92.: Engagement to Be Taken By All Men of the Age of Eighteen.
- 93.: Act Repealing Several Clauses In Statutes Imposing Penalties For Not Coming to Church.
- 94.: Act For the Settlement of Ireland.
- 95.: Declaration By the Lord General and the Council On the Dissolution of the Long Parliament.
- 96.: Summons to a Member of the So-called Barebones Parliament.
- 97.: The Instrument of Government.
- 98.: An Ordinance By the Protector For the Union of England and Scotland.
- 99.: An Ordinance By the Protector For Elections In Scotland.
- 100.: An Ordinance By the Protector For Elections In Ireland.
- 101.: The Constitutional Bill of the First Parliament of the Protectorate.
- 102.: The Humble Petition and Advice.
- 103.: The Additional Petition and Advice.
- 104.: The Writ Summoning Richard Cromwell to the House of Lords of the Protectorate.
- 105.: The Declaration of Breda.
- Appendix: the Navigation Act.
78.
The King’s reply to the Four Bills and the accompanying Propositions.
[December 28, 1647. Old Parliamentary History, xvi. 483. See Great Civil War, iv. 41.]
For the Speaker of the Lords’ House pro tempore, to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of Westminster, and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland.
Charles Rex.
The necessity of complying with all engaged interests in these great distempers, for a perfect settlement of peace, His Majesty finds to be none of the least difficulties he hath met with since the time of his afflictions; which is too visible, when at the same time that the two Houses of the English Parliament do present to His Majesty several Bills and Propositions for his consent, the Commissioners for Scotland do openly protest against them: so that were there nothing in the case but the consideration of that difference, His Majesty cannot imagine how to give such an answer to what is now proposed, as thereby to promise himself his great end, a perfect peace.
And when His Majesty further considers how impossible it is, in the condition he now stands, to fulfil the desires of his two Houses, since the only ancient and known ways of passing laws are either by His Majesty’s personal assent in the House of Peers, or by commission under his Great Seal of England, he cannot but wonder at such failings in the manner of address which is now made unto him; unless his two Houses intend that His Majesty shall allow of a Great Seal made without his authority, before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty, which as it may hereafter hazard the security itself, so for the present it seems very unreasonable to His Majesty. And although His Majesty is willing to believe that the intention of very many in both Houses in sending these Bills before a treaty was only to obtain a trust from him, and not to take any advantage by passing them, to force other things from him, which are either against his conscience or honour; yet His Majesty believes it clear to all understandings, that these Bills contain, as they are now penned, not only the divesting himself of all sovereignty, and that without possibility of recovering it, either to him or his successors, except by repeal of these Bills, but also the making his concessions guilty of the greatest pressures that can be made upon the subject; as in other particulars, so by giving an arbitrary and unlimited power to the two Houses for ever, to raise and levy forces for land and sea service, on what persons, without distinction or quality, and to what numbers, they please: and likewise, for the payment of them, to levy what monies, in such sort, and by such ways and means, and consequently upon the estates of whatsoever persons they shall think fit and appoint, which is utterly inconsistent with the liberty and prosperity of the subject, and His Majesty’s trust in protecting them. So that, if the major part of both Houses shall think it necessary to put the rest of the Propositions into Bills, His Majesty leaves all the world to judge how unsafe it would be for him to consent thereunto; and if not, what a strange condition, after the passing of these four Bills, His Majesty and all his subjects would be cast into.
And here His Majesty thinks it not unfit to wish his two Houses to consider well the manner of their proceeding; that when His Majesty desires a personal treaty with them for the settling of a peace, they in manner propose the very subject matter of the most essential parts thereof to be first granted, a thing which will be hardly credible to posterity. Wherefore His Majesty declares, that neither the desire of being freed from this tedious and irksome condition of life His Majesty hath so long suffered, nor the apprehension of what may befall him, in case his two Houses shall not afford him a personal treaty, shall make him change his resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole peace be concluded.
Yet then he intends not only to give just and reasonable satisfaction in the particulars presented to him, but also to make good all other concessions mentioned in his message of the 17th of November last1, which he thought would have produced better effects than what he finds in the Bills and Propositions now presented unto him.
And yet His Majesty cannot give over, but now again earnestly presseth for a personal treaty (so passionately is he affected with the advantages which peace will bring to His Majesty and all his subjects), of which he will not at all despair, there being no other visible way to obtain a well-grounded peace: however, His Majesty is very much at ease within himself, for having fulfilled the offices both of a Christian and of a King; and will patiently wait the good pleasure of Almighty God to incline the hearts of his two Houses to consider their King, and to compassionate their fellow subjects’ miseries.
Given at Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight,
December 28, 1647.
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