ABSTRACT
On 5 March 1642 the Long Parliament took a fateful step which significantly increased the likelihood of a civil war. In some counties the parliamentarian gentry considered that the implementation of the Militia Ordinance would be likely to precipitate rather than prevent a conflict of arms. Sir John Potts and Sir John Holland, who were both MPs and deputy lieutenants for Norfolk, took the view that there was a reasonable prospect that the county might be spared the tribulations of a civil war if the Militia Ordinance and the commission of array were allowed to sleep. On 1 August a parliamentary order was approved which required Sir Thomas Wodehouse, Sir John Holland, Sir John Potts, Sir Edmund Moundeford and other MPs to go down into Norfolk for the purpose of suppressing the commission of array, securing the county magazine and executing the Militia Ordinance.
