On the accession of George I of Great Britain, the defeated minister retired to Herefordshire, but a few months later his impeachment was decided upon and he was committed to the Tower of London on 16 July 1715. He was accused of high treason and high crimes and misdemeanors, with the death penalty a distinct possibly. Many of the charges related to his negotiation of the Treaty of Utrecht. Further charges were added regarding his alleged secret plotting with the Jacobite claimant James. His political allies St John and Ormonde both fled to France before they could be arrested on similar grounds and entered the service of James. Initially he was in ill health, suffering from pneumonia and was cared for by his wife Sarah who remained with him during the first weeks of his imprisonment.