The collapse of the Parliament of 1614 was a hollow victory for the conservative faction in the King's government. The abandonment of Parliament was a tactless measure at a time when the Crown was short of funds and facing a financial crisis. Although the general policies of peace abroad and religious toleration at home were wise ones for the country, the King's government lacked a programme to deal effectively with the immediate problems at hand. The government of King James was not, however, moribund. The monarch had sensed the need to bring new blood into his English Privy Council during and after the decline of his chief minister, the Earl of Salisbury. Thus the years 1611–14 witnessed the appointment of more progressive men to the Council table who had a positive attitude towards the government process.

The appointments of George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, Sir Ralph Win wood, Sir Edward Coke, and Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, were designed to restore royal influence in the country. These men joined councillors like Ellesmere and Caesar in order to resurrect the credibility of the King's government. They were also, however, motivated by the desire of becoming those men who would bring to the country a reformation of the condition, and institutions, of royal government. Some of them formed ministerial connections, and by 1615 these nascent political groups comprised a very loose, but noticeable, political faction in the halls of Westminster.