Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A46485
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His Majesties letter to the Lords and others of his Privy Council
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James II, King of England, 1633-1701.; England and Wales. Sovereign (1685-1688 : James II) aut
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1689
(1689)
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Wing J208; ESTC R215423
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2,347
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2
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HIS MAJESTIES LETTER To the Lords and others of his Privy Council JAMES R. My Lords VVHen we saw that it was no longer safe for us to remain within our Kingdom of England and that thereupon we had taken our resolutions to withdraw for some time we left to be communicated to you and to all our Subjects the Reasons of our withdrawing and were likewise resolved at the same time to leave such Orders behind us to you of our Privy Council as might best suite with the present State of Affairs but that being altogether unsafe for us at that time We now think fit to let you know that tho it has been our constant Care since our first accession to the Crown to Govern our People with that Justice and Moderation as to give if possible no occasion of Complaint yet more particularly upon the late Invasion seeing how the Design was laid and fearing that our People who could not be destroyed but by themselves might by little imaginary Grievances be cheated into a certain Ruin To prevent so great Mischief and to take away not only all just Causes but even Pretences of Discontent we freely and of our own accord redressed all those things that were set forth as the Causes of that Invasion and that we might be informed by the Counsel and Advice of our Subjects themselves which way we might give them a further and a full Satisfaction we resolved to meet them in a Free Parliament and in order to it we first laid the foundation of such a Free Parliament in restoring the City of London and the rest of the Corporations to their ancient Charters and Priviledges and afterwards actually appointed the Writs to be issued out for the Parliaments meeting on the 15th of January But the Prince of Orange seeing all the ends of his Declaration answered the People beginning to be undeceived and returning apace to their ancient Duty and Allegiance and well fore-seeing that if the Parliament should meet at the time appointed such a Settlement in all probability would be made both in Church and State as would totally defeat his ambitious and unjust Designs resolved by all means possible to prevent the meeting of the Parliament and to do this the most effectual way he thought fit to lay a Restraint on Our Royal Person for as it were absurd to call that a Free Parliament where there is any force on either of the Houses so much less can that Parliament be said to act freely where the Sovereign by whose Authority they meet and fit and from whose Royal Assent all their Acts receive their Life and Sanction is under actual Confinement The hurrying of us under a Guard from our City of London whose returning Loyalty he could no longer trust and the other Indignities we suffered in the person of the Earl of Feversham when sent to him by us and in that barbarous Confinement of our own Person we shall not here repeat because they are we doubt not by this time very well known and may we hope if enough considered and reflected upon together with his other violations and breaches of the Laws and Liberties of England which by this Invasion he pretended to restore be sufficient to open the Eyes of all our Subjects and let them plainly see what every one of them may expect and what Treatment they shall find from him if at any time it may serve his purpose from whose hands a Sovereign Prince an Uncle and a Father could meet with no better Entertainment However the sense of these Indignities and the just apprehension of further Attempts against our Person by them who already endeavoured to murther our Reputation by infamous Calumnies as if we had been capable of supposing a Prince of Wales which was incomparably more injurious than the destroying of our Person it self together with a serious reflection on a Saying of our Royal Father of blessed memory when he was in the like circumstances that There is little distance between the Prisons and the Graves of Princes which afterwards proved too true in his Case could not but perswade us to make use of that Right which the Law of Nature gives to the meanest of our Subjects of freeing our selves by all means possible from that unjust Consinement and Restraint And this we did not more for the Security of our own Person than that thereby we might be in a better capacity of transacting and providing for every thing that may contribute to the Peace and Settlement of our Kingdoms For as on the one hand no Change of Fortune shall ever make us forget our selves so far as to condescend to any thing unbecoming that high and Royal Station in which God Almighty by Right of Succession has placed us so on the other hand neither the Provocation or Ingratitude of our own Subjects nor any other Consideration whatsoever shall ever prevail with us to make the least step contrary to the true Interest of the English Nation which we ever did and ever must look upon as our own Our Will and Pleasure therefore is That you of our Privy Council take the most effectual care to make these our gracious Intentions known to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about our Cities of London and Westminster to the Lord Mayor and Commons of our City of London and to all our Subjects in general and to assure them that we desire nothing more than to return and hold a Free Parliament wherein we may have the best opportunity of undeceiving our People and shewing the Sincerity of those Protestations we have often made of Preserving the Liberties and Properties of our Subjects and the Protestant Religion more especially the Church of England as by Law establish'd with such Indulgence for those that dissent from her as we have always thought our selves in Justice and Care of the general Welfare of our People bound to procure for them And in the mean time you of our Privy Council who can judge better by being upon the place are to send us your Advice what is fit to be done by us towards our returning and the accomplishing these good Ends. And we do require you in our Name and by our Authority to endeavour so to suppress all Tumults and Disorders that the Nation in general and every one of our Subjects in particular may received the least Prejudice from the present Distractions that is possible So not doubting of your dutiful Obedience to these our Royal Commands we bid you heartily farewel Given at S. Germans en Laye the 4 14 January 1688 9 and of our Reign the Fourth Year By His Majesties Command MELFORT Directed thus To the Lords and others of our Privy Council of our Kingdom of England