The Proclamation by the King for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition is a relatively short document issued by George III, king of Great Britain and Ireland, on August 23, 1775, in the aftermath of the eruption of armed hostilities in North American colonies late that spring. By the summer of 1775, conditions in the British colonies in North America had reached a near frenzy. After twelve years of increasing tensions, rebellious colonists, who now believed that a conspiracy existed to deprive them of their rights as Englishmen, openly took up arms against the mother country. After the April 19, 1775, skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, their war of words and harassment mutated into one in which the weapons were rifles and artillery. George III, urged by his advisors, felt it necessary to make a statement expressing his displeasure and the lack of tolerance for such rebellious actions.