England’s present discontents, with the King gathering an army in the North to glower at that of Parliament mustering in Northampton, is largely the fault of seditious sermons preached by “coachmen, felt-makers, and such mechanic persons,” Charles said in a proclamation issued on August 12.

The King, in a rambling, tedious discourse that even a close advisor admitted was “very long,” complained that “factious persons” in Parliament, driven by “ill and ambitious ends,” allowed the preaching of the Word of God to be turned into “a license of libeling, and reviling both Church and State, and venting such seditious positions as by the law of the land were no less than treason.”

The King issued the proclamation before he and his entourage departed York for Nottingham, where he intends on August 22 to raise his standard and call upon "all well-affected persons on the north side of Trent to repair" and join him "for the suppression of the rebellion."

The “mechanic types” that so disturbed Charles are, of course, the so-called Puritans who reject the efforts of Archbishop William Laud to impose upon the Church of England and the consciences of Christians a faith and practice identical in all respects to that of Rome, and who have been most active in resisting Charles’ attempts to reduce England to an absolute despotism governed by his personal whim.

The King said he will again don his “long-loved robe of peace” after those Members who have “contrived, fostered, and fomented mistakes and jealousies” are tried for High Treason. Such include Denzil Holles, John Hampden, John Pym, Sir Henry Ludlow, and others.

The Earl of Warwick, the Earl of Essex, and Sir Philip Skippon, commanders, repectively, of the Fleet, the army mustering for Parliament in Northampton, and the London Trained-Bands, also will be tried for High Treason.

The King promised “free and gracious pardon” to all those willing to lay down arms, and submit to his rule.

“But if any of my subjects should think fit to engage themselves in a war against me,” the King concluded, “I will look upon it as a rebellion and will proceed for suppressing it with the same conscience and courage as I would to meet an army of rebels who endeavoured to destroy both King and people, and I will find, no doubt, honest men enough of my mind.”