The State's Response to the Rise of Charters

The state were very anxious about public order and regarded the charters as disorderly because of these gatherings which they feared could turn into riots. So there was a good deal of espionage and infiltration of the charters' movement by the state as a means of keeping a watchful eye on their activities. One of the difficulties that the state had was they were more reliant on the militia or the yalmanry than on policing. They didn't really have a fully fledged national police force at this point in time so it wasn't always easy to move your military forces into position quickly enough.