In January 1774, Benjamin Franklin was called to appear before the Privy Council in London—in a room in Whitehall Palace known as the Cockpit—where he was accused of harboring "secret designs" to win colonial independence. Here Sheila Skemp explains how Franklin's humiliating censure before the Council turned one of the King's most loyal subjects into one of England's most avowed enemies. Skemp goes beyond the common myths to demonstrate how Franklin's ultimate decision to support the colonists was by no means a foregone conclusion.