[Rarebooks] fa: 1664 BROADSIDE - CHARLES II FORBIDS SEAMEN FROM SERVING IN FOREIGN NAVIES

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other Exploration & Naval History, auctions ending Sunday, January 13. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/ahbb9pw

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Charles II: By the King. A Proclamation for Recalling and Prohibiting Sea-men from the Services of Forreign Princes and States. London: Printed by John Bill and Christopher Barker, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty, 1664. Broadside, large folio (45 x 29.5 cm; 17 3/4 x 11 1/2 in), printed on one side; woodcut royal arms and decorated initial "W". Wing C3404; Goldsmiths’ 1748; Steele I, 3398; ESTC R213289. Top edge trimmed close, loss to the left margin repaired/replaced with period laid paper, one small hole, creases from folding. Originally issued as two oblong sheets, these have been expertly and almost imperceptibly joined at the midpoint, forming a single tall sheet. An authentic antique document printed on watermarked (grapes) laid paper, not a modern reproduction.

Rare original broadside issued by Charles II of England in an effort to bolster his navy during the war with Holland which began in this year (1664) and ended in 1667 with the English acquisition of New Amsterdam in America. The problem of English seamen serving in foreign navies seems to have been an intractable one for the Restoration government, as it issued several such proclamations over the years, one as early as 1661 and another as late as 1677, with at least two others (including this one) in between. The broadside reads in part: "Whereas the Kings most Excellent Majesty hath been advertised, that great numbers of Mariners, and other Sea-faring men, his Majesties natural born Subjects, have betaken themselves to the Services of Forreign Princes and States, to the great Dis-service of his Majesty and their Native Countreys; and whereby his said Majesty and his Realms are  unfurnished of men of their sort and calling, if there shall be cause to use them…"