28. =The Declaration of Breda. 1660.=--On April 4 Charles signed a declaration, known as the Declaration of Breda. He offered a general pardon to all except those specially exempted by Parliament, and promised to secure confiscated estates to their new owners in whatever way Parliament should approve. He also offered to consent to a bill for satisfying the arrears of the soldiers, and to another bill for the establishment of 'a liberty for tender consciences.' By the Declaration of Breda, Charles had carefully thrown upon Parliament the burden of proposing the actual terms on which the settlement was to be effected, and at the same time had shaken himself free from his father's policy of claiming to act independently of Parliament. The new Parliament, composed of the two Houses of Lords and Commons, was known as the Convention Parliament, because, though conforming in every other respect to the old rules of the Constitution, the House of Commons was chosen without the king's writs. It met on April 25. The Declaration of Breda reached it on May 1. After unanimously welcoming the Declaration, Parliament resolved that, 'according to the ancient and fundamental laws of this kingdom, the Government is, and ought to be, by King, Lords, and Commons.' The Puritan Revolution had come to an end. _Books recommended for further study of Part VI._ RANKE, L. History of England (English Translation). Vol. i. p. 386--vol. iii. p. 308. HALLAM, H. Constitutional History of England. Chaps. VI.-X. GARDINER, S. R. History of England from 1603-1642. --------- History of the Great Civil War. MASSON. Life of Milton, and History of his Time. Vols. i.-v. FORSTER, J. Life of Sir John Eliot. ---------- The Grand Remonstrance. ---------- Arrest of the Five Members. GUIZOT, F. Charles I. ---------- Cromwell. ---------- Richard Cromwell. HANNAY, D. Admiral Blake. MONTAGUE, F. C. The Political History of England. Vol. vii. From the Accession of James I. to the Restoration (1603-1660). PART VII _THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION._ 1660-1689 CHAPTER XXXVII CHARLES II. AND CLARENDON. 1660-1667 LEADING DATES Reign of Charles II., 1660-1685.