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The third session of the first parliament of our most high and dread sovereign, Charles, by the grace of God, king of Scotland, England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, held and begun at Edinburgh, 18 June 1663, by John [Leslie], earl of Rothes, lord Leslie of Bambreich, by virtue of the special commission under his majesty's great seal, with the advice and consent of the estates of parliament underwritten, there being also present the ordinary officers [Gilbert Hay], earl of Erroll, constable, [William Keith], earl Marischal, Sir Robert Murray [of Cameron], provost of Edinburgh, Mr William Wallace, sheriff, and Andrew Lothian, dempster.
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The which day the lord commissioner produced his majesty's commission granted to him under his majesty's great seal for holding of this parliament, whereof the tenor follows.
Charles, by the grace of God, king of Scotland, England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, to all his honest men to whom this commission shall have come, greetings. Know that in as much as at the end of the most recent session of the present parliament of this our ancient kingdom of Scotland, we prorogued the said parliament on 20 May last and afterwards by public proclamation postponed the next parliament until 11 June next to come; and because we cannot be present in our sacred person at the next session of this parliament because we have been held back by matters of great importance relating to our kingdom of England; and for the good of our service [and] not without weighty reasons, we have revoked the two previous commissions granted to [John Middleton], earl of Middleton as a reward for our service; and in addition we have decreed that our commission be entrusted to a man of overt loyalty and endowed with remarkable talents, so that he may represent our royal person therein; and since we have ascertained by many important tokens the conspicuous love, exceptional virtue, and indomitable loyalty towards us of our dearly beloved and most loyal kinsman and councillor John, earl of Rothes, lord Leslie and Bambreich, president of our privy council; in consideration of the great loyalty and constancy he has always given us, both in our kingdom of Scotland while we were there and then later at Worcester in our kingdom of England, (for which he suffered daily imprisonment and serious financial loss); and of the great love and readiness he showed us before our happy restoration, and later in our parliament in everything touching our service; and since he has been imbued with such remarkable talents which are worthy of praise† for the governance of a province of such a great trust, therefore we have given and granted, and by the tenor of this commission do give and grant, full power and commission to our said most loyal and beloved kinsman and councillor John, earl of Rothes† to represent our royal person and authority in the next sitting of our said parliament and in all its future sessions; and in everything to act in the interest and for the good of the church, and the peace and governance of this our† kingdom with respect to both church and state, just as at the present time he is firmly establishing in law the extension of our service, as it touches upon each and every administrative function thereof, as far as befits for our commissioner; and we have given and granted, and by the tenor of this commission do give and grant, to him our full authority and the said power of exercising the commission, and of carrying out, as our commissioner, each and every duty by virtue of the office and the province which has been entrusted to him, with no less liberty and fullness of right in all respects than any other commissioner endowed with a similar authority has done or has been lawfully able to do. Wherefore we consider and shall consider as binding and permanent any and every thing our said [most loyal] kinsman shall have done in the execution of the foresaid commission. Furthermore, we command all the officers of our state, our councillors, judges, and subjects to pay due respect, to acknowledge, and to obey the said earl, our commissioner, while he is representing our most sacred person and authority, to the ends specified in† said commission; and we wish that this have force during the next session of† said parliament; in witness whereof we have ordered that our great seal be appended to this commission.
At our palace of Whitehall, 29 May 1663, and in the fifteenth year of our reign.
Signed by the hand manual of our supreme lord the king.
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The which day the lord commissioner produced a letter direct from his majesty which, being openly read in parliament, was ordained to be recorded in the books of parliament, whereof the tenor follows.
Charles Rex,
My lords and gentlemen, the true sense we have of that eminent loyalty, duty and affection which you have expressed in the preceding sessions of our parliament, by rescinding what was derogatory to our authority and prerogative royal, and cheerfully and clearly asserting and vindicating the same by many excellent laws which have been made in this parliament; and restoring the ancient and right government of the church, gave us great desires to have given you these hearty thanks our self which we have done by our letters on several occasions. But seeing our great affairs cannot allow us to be present with you and that we have, for the good of our service upon diverse weighty considerations, recalled our two former commissions granted to [John Middleton], earl of Middleton, we have authorised [John Leslie], earl of Rothes, president of our council, to be our commissioner and to represent our person and authority during this session of our parliament, and have commanded him in our name again to give you full assurance of our constant affection to that our ancient kingdom, of whose loyalty and kindness we had large testimonies during our residence there, and yet more ample demonstrations in this full and free parliament. We are well assured that our commissioner will faithfully and truly communicate our pleasure to you in every thing which concerns our service and the good of that our kingdom; and as we desire you to give full credit to what he shall say in our name, so we are most confident you will unanimously concur in rectifying these few things which are amiss, in preserving the peace and unity of that our ancient kingdom, and in vigorous maintaining of our authority and the government both of church and state as now they are by law established, wherein we conceive our honour and the good and peace of our kingdom are very highly concerned. And so we bid you very heartily farewell. Given at our court at Whitehall, 4 June 1663, and of our reign the 15th year.
Directed: to our right trusty and right well-beloved cousin and councillor [William Cunningham], earl of Glencairn, our chancellor, to be communicated to the lords spiritual and temporal, the commissioners of shires and burghs assembled in our parliament of Scotland.
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The which day [John Leslie], earl of Rothes, his majesty's commissioner, represented to the estates of parliament that it was his majesty's express pleasure that, in the constitution of parliaments and choosing of lords of the articles at this session and in all time coming, the same form and order should be kept which had been used before these late troubles, especially in the parliament held in the year 1633, and the manner of the election of the lords of the articles at that time, being now seen and considered by the estates of parliament, they did, with all humble duty, acquiesce in his majesty's gracious pleasure thus signified to them. And in prosecution thereof, the clergy retired to the exchequer chamber, and the nobility to the inner house of the session (the barons and burgesses keeping their places in the parliament house). The clergy made choice of eight noblemen to be on the articles, namely, [William Douglas], duke of Hamilton, [James Graham], marquis of Montrose, the earls [Gilbert Hay, earl of] Erroll, [John Erskine, earl of] Mar, [Hugh Montgomery, earl of] Eglinton, [John Hamilton, earl of] Haddington, [James Livingstone, earl of] Callander and [James Johnston, earl of] Annandale; and the nobility made choice of eight bishops, namely, the archbishops [James Sharp, archbishop of] St Andrews and [Andrew Fairfoul, archbishop of] Glasgow, the bishops [George Wishart, bishop of] Edinburgh, [James Hamilton, bishop of] Galloway, [George Haliburton, bishop of] Dunkeld, [David Strachan, bishop of] Brechin, [Patrick Forbes, bishop of] Caithness and [Robert Wallace, bishop of] the Isles. Which being done, the clergy and nobility met together in the inner exchequer house and, having shown their elections to each other, the persons elected, at the least so many of them as were present, stayed together in that room (whilst all others removed) and they jointly made choice of eight barons and eight commissioners of burghs, namely, Sir John Gilmour of Craigmillar, president of the session, Sir James Lockhart of Lee, Sir James Foulis of Colinton, Sir Archibald Stirling of Garden, Sir Peter Wedderburn of Gosford, Sir Thomas Hamilton of Preston, [John] Murray of Polmaise and William Scott of Ardross; Sir Robert Murray [of Cameron], provost of Edinburgh, Mr John Paterson [of Benchillis] of Perth, Alexander Wedderburn [of Kingennie] of Dundee, Gilbert Gray [of Saphock] of Aberdeen, Duncan Nairn of Stirling, Andrew Carstairs of St Andrews, Andrew Glen of Linlithgow and William Cunningham [of Brownhill] of Ayr, burgesses, and then represented all elections to his majesty's commissioner, who, being satisfied thereof, did then, with the clergy and nobility, return to the parliament house where the list of the eight bishops, eight noblemen, eight barons and eight burgesses being read, it was approved; and his majesty's commissioner did add to the list the officers of estate, and appointed the lord chancellor to be president in the meetings of the lords of the articles, who are to proceed in discharge of their trust in preparing of laws, acts, overtures and ordering all things remitted to them by the parliament, and in doing every thing else which by the law or practice of the kingdom belonged or were proper to be done by the lords of the articles at any time bygone.
The lord commissioner continues the parliament until 23 June at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.