WHereas by His Majesties Authority, for just and urgent causes Him moving, pri­vate Commissions or Letters of Marque have been granted to some of His Sub­jects, for the apprehending, taking and seising of the Ships and Goods belong­ing to the States of the United Provinces, and the Inhabitants there, but the same did not extend, nor were intended to be any ways prejudicial to His Ma­jesties Friends or Allies: Nevertheless, His Majesty hath received divers Adver­tisements and Complaints from Foreign Ministers, That by colour of the said Private Commissions or Letters of Marque, the Ships and Goods of the Subjects of His Majesties Friends and Allies, have been and are frequently taken and seised, to their great vexation and damage; Wherein His Majesty doth not deem it enough that they may have reparation in ordinary course of Iustice, but for preventing all occasions of the like for the future, and to the end when any other shall be hereafter Granted, care may be taken for the better regulation and go­verning of them, Doth by this His Proclamation (by the Advise of His Privy Councel) Declare and Publish His Will and Pleasure to be, That from and after the Fourteenth Day of February now next coming, All Private Commissions or Letters of Marque whatsoever, granted to any who have there­upon set forth any Ship or Vessel out of the Realms of England or Ireland, shall cease and deter­mine, and by that time be delivered up and vacated, and from thenceforth His Majesty doth hereby recall and revoke, and declare the same to be void and determined to all intents and purposes. And His Majesty doth straightly Charge and Command, That the said Commissions or Letters of Marque, be brought and delivered into the respective Courts of Admiralty, from whence the same issued, by the time afore­said, there to be vacated: Hereby further Declaring and Publishing, That from and after the said Fourteenth day of February, all Actings and Proceedings by pretext of the said Commissions or Letters of Marque, shall be taken to be as without any warrant or authority, and at the perils of the parties who shall act by colour thereof, and as if no such Commissions had been.

Given at Our Court at Oxford the 5th Day of January, 1665. in the Seventeenth Year of Our Reign.

GOD SAVE THE KING.