Or, King and peoples happinesse. Being a brief relation of King Charles’s royall progresse from Dover to London, how the Lord Generall and the Lord Mayor, with all the nobility and gentry of the land, brought him thorow the famous city of London to his pallace at Westminster, the 29th of May last, being his Majesties birth-day, to the great comfort of his loyall subjects.
One of the six curious broadsides found by Sir W. C. Trevelyan in the lining of a trunk, and now in the British Museum.
The new Parliament met on the twenty-fifth of April, and on the first of May the King’s letter from Breda was read, and the Restoration determined by a vote of the House. The King immediately repaired to the coast, and, after meeting with some obstruction from the roughness of the weather, went on board the Nazeby on the 23rd of May. On the 25th he landed at Dover. He made his entry into London on the 29th.
To the tune of “When the King enjoys his own again.”
Where’s those that did prognosticate,
And did envy fair England’s state,
And said King Charles no more should reign?
Their predictions were but in vain,
For the King is now return’d,
For whom fair England mourn’d;
His nobles royally him entertain.
Now blessed be the day!
Thus do his subjects say,
That God hath brought him home again.
The twenty-second of lovely May
At Dover arrived, fame doth say,
Where our most noble generall
Did on his knees before him fall,
Craving to kiss his hand,
So soon as he did land.
Royally they did him entertain,
With all their pow’r and might,
To bring him to his right,
And place him in his own again.
Then the King, I understand,
Did kindly take him by the hand
And lovingly did him embrace,
Rejoycing for to see his face.
Hee lift him from the ground
With joy that did abound,
And graciously did him entertain;
Rejoycing that once more
He was o’ th’ English shore,
To enjoy his own in peace again.
From Dover to Canterbury they past,
And so to Cobham-hall at last;
From thence to London march amain,
With a triumphant and glorious train,
Where he was received with joy,
His sorrow to destroy,
In England once more for to raign;
Now all men do sing,
God save Charles our King,
That now enjoyes his own again.
At Deptford the maidens they
Stood all in white by the high-way
Their loyalty to Charles to show,
They with sweet flowers his way to strew.
Each wore a ribbin blew,
They were of comely hue,
With joy they did him entertain,
With acclamations to the skye
As the King passed by,
For joy that he receives his own again.
In Wallworth-fields a gallant band
Of London ’prentices did stand,
All in white dublets very gay,
To entertain King Charles that day,
With muskets, swords, and pike;
I never saw the like,
Nor a more youthfull gallant train;
They up their hats did fling,
And cry, “God save the King!
Now he enjoys his own again.”