Lord Berkley, and Lord Brooke.  Same day, on receipt from Montague of a copy of his Majesty’s letter addressed to Monk and himself, as Generals of the Fleet, with news of the reception of the same by the Fleet on the 3rd, Monk and Montague were authorized to answer that letter.  Thus the sixth and last of the Breda documents was finally disposed of.—­Resolved also that Thursday next should be a day of thanksgiving in London and Westminster for the happy reconciliation with his Majesty, and farther, “That all and every the ministers throughout the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, do, and are hereby required and enjoined in their public prayers to, pray for the King’s most excellent Majesty by the name of Our Sovereign Lord, Charles the Second, by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.”—­Resolved also that the King be proclaimed to-morrow.

Tuesday, May 8.  Proclamation of Charles accordingly in Westminster Hall, and at Whitehall, Temple Bar, Fleet Conduit, the Exchange, and other places, his reign to date from the death of his father.  Copies of the Proclamation to be sent to all authorities over Great Britain and Ireland, that it may be repeated everywhere.  Also “RESOLVED, nemine contradicente, that the King’s Majesty be desired to make his speedy return to his Parliament and to the exercise of his Kingly Office."[1]

[Footnote 1:  These Notes, except the extract from Pepys, are compiled from the Commons Journals and the Parliamentary History for the week between May 1 and May 8, with references to Whitlocke and Phillips.]

And so all was settled between Charles and his Three Kingdoms.  By this time, indeed, not only in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, but all over the main island from Land’s End to Caithness and all over the lesser from Mizen Head to Malin Head, there was simply a universal impatience till it should be known that Montague’s fleet had shot from the Downs towards the Dutch coasts, to bring his Majesty and his Court, on the decks of his own ships, within hail of the cheering from Dover cliffs.  The delay was chiefly because of the necessity of certain upholstering and tailoring preparations on both sides.  At home there had to be due preparations of a household for his Majesty, and of households for his two brothers, when they should arrive.  There had to be got ready not only a new crown and sceptre, and new robes and ermines, but also the velvet bed, with the gold embroidery, the lining of satin or cloth of silver, the satin quilts, the fustian quilts to lie under the satin quilts, the down bolster, the fustian blankets, the Spanish blankets, the Holland sheets, with other accoutrements for his Majesty’s own bedroom, besides similar furnishing for the bedrooms of the Dukes of York and Gloucester, a new coach for his Majesty, liveries for his coachmen, footmen, and other servants, and