JAMES I.

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A Proclamation declaring His Majesties Pleasure concerning the dissolving of the present Convention of Parliament. First quarto edition. King James announces the dissolution of Parliament and defends his exercise of royal prerogative, after a significant clash between the King and the Commons.Following the Spanish invasion of the Lower Palatinate in 1620, James summoned Parliament to fund the defence of his son-in-law Frederick V's hereditary territories, while he pursued a diplomatic settlement. His request for further subsidies in autumn 1621 prompted MPs to press for war with Spain and a Protestant marriage for Prince Charles rather than the proposed Spanish match. James insisted that these matters belonged to the royal prerogative and denied the Commons' right to debate them. The Commons recorded a Protestation asserting its privileges on 18 December 1621; James dissolved Parliament on 6 January 1622.The Proclamation presents James as accommodating, blames the breakdown on MPs he portrays as disruptive, and promises another Parliament at a suitable time.The quarto edition was reimposed from the broadside edition, STC 8676. A variant setting of the title page has the last line unbroken, "probably set in duplicate" (STC). A 68-page quarto edition followed afterwards.

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