The crown continued to write to the involved parties. On 8 October 1453, the council wrote to the earl of Westmorland and congratulated him on not assisting the Middleham branch. It also wrote again to Salisbury and Northumberland, ‘more in sorrow than in anger,’ as Griffiths has phrased it, exhorting them to remember their positions of Commissioners of the Peace and also as members of the king’s council. At the same time, Parlt demanded that the nobility resolve their problems peaceably rather than in force. However, the king's letters 'concluded wearily’ that both of them kept raising armed forces in spite of the appeals from king and parliament. Similar letters were sent to their involved younger sons using stronger terms, warning them that they could eventually suffer forfeiture. Griffiths has suggested that the crown was constrained in its attempts to suppress the law breaking because by now, the king had become incapacitated, and the council ruling in his stead were ill-able to afford alienating fellow magnates whose support might be required in government.