WEe cannot but with great griefe of heart Remonstrate and resent the misunderstandings of Our good Subjects , who although We have with divers serious and considerate Declarations of Our royall intentions , intimated to them Our desires and purposes for a speedy reconciliation between Our Selfe and Our high Court of Parliament , yet they cannot be perswaded to give Us credit , divers ( as We are credibly informed ) suspecting the integritie of Our intentions . But it is no great wonder if they will not beleeve Our Protestations and Declarations in that kinde , when by their incredulity of them they question and repugne the Declaration of God himselfe , who tells them that the hearts of Princes are in his hand ; and neverthelesse they will needs be so familiar with Ours , as to know Our very thoughts : nay will be better acquainted with them ( by revelation it seems ) then We Our selfe , and force Us to intend that which Wee never did , nay , to declare that which We never meant ; as if We should go about to perswade Our Subjects , that Wee onely pretended Treaties for an Accommodation with Our Parliament , but never meant them ; nay rather the cleane contrary .

But to the satisfaction of all Our loving Subjects , who will be disdeceived and disabused from all such suspicions and jealousies of Our integritie ; We thought Our Selfe ingaged in Our Princely care to all Our People , and for the expression of Our love and respect to Our high Court of Parliament , ( with whom We desire more then any earthly thing to be at unity ) to remonstrate by this Our Declaration Our true and righteous intentions .

First , We would desire all Our good Subjects to take into their serious consideration the miseries and calamities which wait upon all wars , especially such as Ours are , nationally civill ; and but to ponder , whether they can beleeve a father can delight in the destruction of his children ; a King in the ruine of his Subjects , or desolation of his kingdome . Whether they can conjecture , in the justice of their consciences , that We who have been these eighteen yeares of Our passed reigne enriched with all the blessings that could attend a Soveraigne from the obedience and loialtie of His Subjects , can joy and take felicitie , to behold himselfe ( even in an unlookt for moment ) devested of the chiefest attribute of His royaltie . His peoples hearts and affections ; nay , and that He should still desire to keep them off from Him with specious and unreall pretensions of a reconcilement , and by that means to aggravate them by those delusions into a more irreconcileable disaffection ; We would have them know , that We are sensible of the many decrescions and diminutions which have been inflicted on Our Royaltie , by reason of this fatall difference between Our Selfe and Our high Court of Parliament : Wee are not ( as they may , at lest should imagine ) so stupid , as not to know that Our Parliament is the master-nerve , that knits the body of the Kingdome to the King himselfe ; that all Our royall Ancestors , from the beginning of Parliaments to Our owne very Reigne , have had in all their necessities their best reliefe from their Parliaments ; that by the industry and care of Parliaments all those excellent and wholesome lawes ( which have so long sustained the state of this kingdome in good temper and condition at home , and reputation with forraine Nations ) have been constituted and enacted ; that the English Parliaments have ever been the ready cure for all diseases in the Subject , the upholder and maintainer of their Liberties , which certainly Our Selfe have as much endevoured to maintaine and encrease as any of Our Predecessors : Finally , We are allured that Parliament is and must be the rectifier of all infirmities , which can be contingent to Our Person or Posteritie : And therefore very simple must those persons be , who can conjecture We should have no reluctancie at these dissentions , but rather seeke their continuation : and most maliciously bent they must needs be against Our integrity and truth , that after so many Declarations and Protestations of Ours to that purpose , will not beleeve that We mean truly that pacification between Our Selfe and Parliament , which hath been so often in agitation between Us. For who can be so unsensible as to imagine , much lesse report , that We labour the subversion of the essence of Parliaments , in which We are confident the greatest strength of Our Regall authority consists : as well they may beleeve that Wee should , to leave a Successour to Our Crowne of Our owne blood , destroy all Our Princely issue ; or turne Apostate to the Christian Faith , so to be accounted the better Christian ; as much incongruity there is in the one as in the other . For sure We can never take pleasure to see Our Self and all that have dependence on Us wretched and undone , as they must necessarily be , if a sudden period be not affixed to the difference betwixt . Our Selfe and Our high Court of Parliament . And to descend to particularize Our discommodities arising to Our Selfe by these unnaturall dissentions : First , Wee behold Our Selfe driven , as it were , from Our Palace at Whitehall , and Our other Royall Mansions neere about Our Regall City of London , Our Revenues sequestred , Our Fleet with-held , Our Royall Consort the Queen from Our society beyond Sea ; and which is most to be grieved at , the Lawes of the Land so wisely and judiciously founded for the good of Our people despised and troden on , whilest rapine , theft , and injustice riot over the face of Our Dominions , depressing all equity , and violating all the property and right of the Subject , whilest the insolence and unbrideled fury of the Souldier runs over all the Realme , in despite of all the Edicts and Ordinances to the contrary of Our Selfe and Parliament , the unlimited hand of warre inflicting its terrors and punishments upon all , with the same impartiall licence ; many of Our good Subjects having lost their lives in these lamentable quarrels , and many more likely to forfeit theirs , should these warres continue : Religion in the mean time wandering up and downe our Dominions unreguarded ; every man making to himselfe what forme of worship he pleaseth , and this confusion by no power of Our authority or Our Parliaments endevours being to be remedied . And surely very ignorant must hee be of all reason and discourse , that will in spight of Our teeths , believe that We affect and pursue the continuation of these wofull distempers , that will not be perswaded but We take delight to see Our selves robbed of all the benefits and blessings of peace by the rigour and crueltie of this present civill warre ; in which , who ever gaines We are sure to be the greatest loser , losing Our Subjects lives , Our owne tranquillity , nay , the hearts of Our people , the greatest and most excellent Royaltie of Kings . If the immensity of a misery be to be gathered out of the vastnesse of a precedent happinesse , and he most wreched that hath beene formerly most fortunate ; surely no King can groane under a more hideous pressure of affliction then We doe at this present , being deprived of the greatest of Our earthly comforts , which Wee have so long and in so large a measure injoyed and possessed , and given over to discontents and distractions , and therefore they must be very repugnant to reason , and arrant enemies to all possibility of truth , that will not credit that Wee really intend peace and agreement with Our Court of Parliament : Wee behold those of Our Nobility and Gentry , that out of the duty of their fidelity , give their attendance in person upon Us , walke with discontented hearts and down-cast countenances for the continuation of these warres , because they are for the most part ingaged in them against their kindred , friends and allies ; their estates being as well as their lives in jeopardy , and they rendered odious to the people for their adhering to Our service : We behold also divers of Our good Townes , Cities , and Counties , especially Our capitall City of London , out of an implicit and descendent beliefe they have in the integrity of the Parliament , deserting Us daily , and with all willingnesse offering their lives , estates and fortunes to the dispose of the Parliament , who for the defence of their liberties , which they suspect We intend , or have intended to violate , by reason of Our so long absence from Our high Court of Parliament , most of Our followers , being accounted guilty of that advice , being esteemed and declared Malignants to the Common-wealth ; and certainly these are manifest and urgent afflictions to any man , much more to Us , and no means can Wee thinke of to give a timely end to this groaning brood of mischiefes , but a sudden and so long desired peace . Wee doe hereby remonstrate and declare to all Our loving Subjects , That though they , or divers of them may be misled by faction or ill advice , to believe that Wee onely pretend an Accommodation betweene Our Selfe and Parliament ; That Wee doe , as Wee expect God should blesse and prosper Us , seriously , and with integrity intend to setle an agreement betweene Our Selfe and Our Parliament , upon such equall conditions , as shall be both agreeable to Our owne honour , and without the least infringement to the liberty of the Subjects , or the essence or Priviledges of Parliament , which some maliciously report Wee goe about to overthrow and diminish ; further , declaring Our Royall pleasure herein , That We shall take it as an act of duty and good conscience toward God and Us , in any of Our Subjects , that shall any way endevour to promote and advance peace betweene Our selfe and Parliament , and believe them not to be well affected to the State , that shall hinder or oppose it , peace being the immediate meanes under the providence of the Almighty , that must setle this Kingdome in its pristine state and happinesse .