DC/OD/34

DC/OD/34

File

Draft of a Loyal Address to a Monarch

Draft of a Loyal Address in Convocation

1689-1717

1 sheet

Draft of a loyal address to an unknown monarch by "Your Majesty's most loyal and obedient subjects the Prelates and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury now assembled in Convocation". The address expresses conventional sentiments about "the good Influence of your Reign upon the Civil State" in terms of liberty, rights, peace, affluence and "Your Majesty's Incessant care of the Publick Welfare". It also speaks of "your Care of Religion" and "your Encouraging the Worshipp of God in its purest form". The preamble suggests that the address of which this is a draft would be delivered some time after the relevant monarch's accession: this is "our first opportunity in the name of our selves and the whole Clergy" to "Congratulate Your Majesty's happy accession to the Throne"; "we had no opportunity till now", "at this distance of time". The draft continues: "this opportunity however late as it is affords us the advantage that wee present our Address with more Reasons and stronger obligations, every day of your Government having provided fresh Arguments to assure us of the Godenesse of that Providence which hath placed Your Majesty over this Church and People". Might this be an acknowledgment of the Hanoverian succession, George I having acceded in 1714? After the clergy opposed the Toleration Act of Wiiliiam III and Mary II in 1689, political tensions in both church and state caused Convocation to be variously summoned and prorogued, sometimes without discussion being allowed, until 1717, after which it ceased to be a deliberative body until 1852.

English