With the King out of the capital, Parliament passed the Militia Ordinances which placed all Trained Bands (the local militias) in the counties under its control. The House of Commons was starting to act independently of the King for the supposed good of the country.
It declared itself more than a simple 'Court of Judicature' adjudging the rights and liberties of the country - it was also 'a Council to provide for the necessity, to prevent the imminent dangers, and preserve the public peace and safety of the realm.' This was a massive step towards becoming a sovereign Parliament. But the militia terms of reference were basically defensive. They spoke of 'saving' the King from the Papists.
The orders given to military leaders were 'to rescue His Majesty's person, and the persons of the Prince and Duke of York out of the hands of those desperate persons who were then about them.' This was not an attack on the institution of monarchy: no one believed in a republic. It was an attempt to rescue Charles Stuart, the King, from his present lunacy and his evil advisers. Charles's response was to issue the Commissions of Array requiring all Lord Lieutenants and county big-wigs to provide him with armed forces.
With the Militia Ordinances on the one hand and the Commissions of Array on the other, the country now had to choose between Parliament and King. The phoney war was over. It was decision time. For many it had all happened so quickly and unexpectedly. Westminster politicians and county leaders were shocked at the rapid descent into civil war.
A leading Parliamentarian, Bulstrode Whitelocke remarked 'it is strange to note how we have insensibly slid into this beginning of a civil war, by one unexpected accident after another.'
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