❧ By the Queene.
¶ A Proclamation by her Maiesties commandement, forbidding the making or forging of any Iron Ordonance, about the quantitie of the piece commonly called the Minion, without the Queenes speciall licence and prohibiting also the cariage out of the Realme to any forraine parts, of any maner of Ordonance of brasse or Iron, vpon the paines hereafter conteined in the Proclamation.
THe Queenes most excellent Maiestie being certainely informed, that notwithstanding that it is vnlawfull to transport any Ordonance of Brasse on Iron out of the Realme without speciall licence, other then for her Maiesties naturall subiects, to be vsed in their shipping on the Seas abroad, and yet not to be by them aliened to Strangers: yet diuers euill minded persons haue presumed for their priuate commoditie to doe the contrary, euen to the furnishing of the enemie. For the stay hereof, her Maiestie doth now straightly commaund all maner of persons to forbeare to shippe in any be vessell whatsoeuer, any kinde of Ordonance of Brasse or Iron, with intent to transport the same into any forraine parts, or to sell or deliuer any such Ordonance to any person to transport the same, vpon the paines already limitted by the lawes, and such other punishment as is due to them, that doe arme and giue strength to her enemies, and thereby incurre her indignation, which her Maiestie iustly must and will extend, for that it is most euidently seene by dayly experience that by such vnlawfull transportations, her Maiesties enemies are eyther directly or indirectly furnished for the most part with such Ordonance. And for a further remedie against the inconuenience that is most generally seene to arise by making of great quantitie of great Iron Ordonance, and by selling the same to sundry persons, who haue secretly caried the same out of the Realme, wherby the common enemies haue beene furnished therewith not onely in their: shipping, but also in their Maritime Townes and Ports, where otherwise without the same, they had not bene able nor durst haue put their ships to the Seas: Her Maiestie doth most straightly charge, vpon paine of her indignation and punishment due thereto, all maner of persons that be the owners of any Iron works, Furnaces or Forges, or that doe make or cause to be made any Iron, that none of them shall make, forge, or cause to be made, any maner of Ordonance aboue that maner of piece, which is called a Minion, and that to bee accompted of no greater waight then of fifteene hundred or sixteene hundred pound weight, Except that her Maiestie shal for any special consideration, licence any person to make any other kinde of Ordonance aboue the Minion. And furthermore though her Maiestie thinketh it reasonable and necessarie that Ordonance of Iron be made for the vse of the shippes of her naturall subiects, to serue for their defence vpon the Seas, yet her Maiestie meaneth to mescribe certaine orders, and to appoint certaine persons of authoritie to see the same executed, how her subiects, shall and may prouide for their necessarie shipping and defence, such Iron Ordonance, as shall be necessarie for them, to be onely vsed in their shipping for their defence, and not to be directly or indirectly or indirectly transported out of the Realme, or sold or deliuered to any Stranger being not her Maiesties naturall subiect, vpon such paines as are aboue expressed.
Giuen at Sudeley Castell the xi. day of September, in the xxxiiii. yeere of our raigne.
God saue the Queene.
❧ Imprintedat London by the Deputies of CHRISTOPHER BARKER, Printer to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie. 1592.