Declaration of Breda
The Declaration of Breda (dated 4 April 1660) was a proclamation by
Background
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The declaration was written in response to a secret message sent by General
The declaration was named after the city of
Contents
The declaration was drawn up by Charles and his three chief advisors,
The declaration promised a "free and general pardon" to any old enemies of Charles and of his father who recognised Charles II as their lawful monarch, "excepting only such persons as shall hereafter be excepted by parliament". However it had always been Charles's expectation, or at least that of his chancellor, Edward Hyde (later Earl of Clarendon), that all who had been immediately concerned in his father's death should be punished,[6] and even while at a disadvantage, while professing pardon and favour to many, he had constantly excepted the regicides.[7] Once Charles was restored to the throne, on his behalf Hyde steered the Indemnity and Oblivion Act through Parliament. The act pardoned most who had sided with Parliament during the Civil War, but excepted the regicides, two prominent unrepentant republicans (John Lambert and Henry Vane the Younger), and around another twenty; all of whom were forbidden to take any public office or sit in Parliament.[8]
In the declaration Charles promised religious toleration in areas where it did not disturb the peace of the kingdom,
The declaration undertook to settle the back-pay of General Monck's soldiers. The landed classes were reassured that establishing the justice of contested grants and purchases of estates that had been made "in the continued distractions of so many years and so many and great revolutions" was to be determined in Parliament. Charles II appeared to have "offered something to everyone in his terms for resuming government".[11]
Copies of the Declaration were delivered to both houses of the
Commemoration
Several warships of the Royal Navy would later be named HMS Breda after the declaration.
Notes
- ^ Nicholas Monck was a clergyman and brother of General George Monck, who carried letters between his brother and Charles II.
Citations
- ^ Lister 1838, p. 501
- ^ Hutton 2000, p. 130
- ^ Lister 1838, pp. 508, 509
- ^ Hostettler 2002, p. 73
- Divine Right of Kings, on which the Stuarts insisted.
- ^ Hallam 1859, p. 406 citing Life of Clarendon, p. 69.
- ^ Hallam 1859, p. 406 cites Clar. State Papers, iii., 427, 529.
- ^ Hallam 1859, p. 408
- ^ "a liberty to tender consciences, and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of opinion in matter of religion which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom"
- ^ UK Citizenship: Religious minorities, The National Archives, retrieved 1 July 2010
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica 15th Edition Volume 3 p. 64
- ^ Lister 1838, p. 500
References
- Lister, Thomas Henry (1838). Life and administration of Edward, first Earl of Clarendon: with original correspondence, and authentic papers never before published. Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
- Hostettler, John (2002). The Red Gown: The Life and Works of Sir Matthew Hale. Chichester: Barry Rose Law Publishers. ISBN 1-902681-28-2.
- Hallam, Henry (1859). The constitutional history of England, from the accession of Henry VII. to the death of George II. Harper.
- Hutton, Ronald (2000). The British Republic 1649–1660. 2nd Edition Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-91324-6.