The breaking off of negotiations was followed on both sides by preparations for immediate war. Hampden, Pym, and Holles became the guiding spirits of a Committee of Public Safety which was created by Parliament as its administrative organ. On the twelfth of July 1642 the Houses ordered that an army should be raised for the defence of the king and the Parliament, and appointed the Earl of Essex as its captain-general and the Earl of Bedford as its general of horse
