The assembly consisted of nine prelates and between thirty and forty secular nobles, all Protestants.
The two Secretaries of State, Middleton and Preston, though not peers of England, were in attendance.

The King himself presided.

The traces of severe bodily and mental suffering were discernible in his countenance and deportment.

He opened the proceedings by referring to the petition which had been put into his hands just before he set out for Salisbury.
The prayer of that petition was that he would convoke a free Parliament.
Situated as he then was, he had not, he said, thought it right to comply.

But, during his absence from London, great changes had taken place.