<P> The Petition to the King was a petition sent to King George III by the First Continental Congress in 1774, calling for repeal of the Intolerable Acts . </P> <P> Following the end of the French and Indian War (the North American theater of the Seven Years' War) in 1763, relations between the colonies and Britain had been deteriorating . Because the war had plunged the British government deep into debt, Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies . These acts, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767, were seen as legitimate means of collecting revenues to pay off the nearly two-fold increase in British debt stemming from the war . </P> <P> Many colonists in the Americas, however, developed a different conception of their role within the British Empire . In particular, because the colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, colonists argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them . After colonists destroyed thousands of pounds of British - taxed tea during the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774, punishing the colonies for their actions . These punitive Acts were vehemently opposed by the colonists, leading the newly formed Continental Congress to seek redress with King George III, in an attempt to reach a common understanding . </P> <P> Resolved unanimously, That a loyal address to his Majesty be prepared, dutifully requesting the royal attention to the grievances that alarm and distress his Majesty's faithful subjects in North - America, and entreating his Majesty's gracious interposition for the removal of such grievances, thereby to restore between Great - Britain and the colonies that harmony so necessary to the happiness of the British empire, and so ardently desired by all America . </P>

Who petitioned the king of england to recognize the rights of colonists