He's trying to say that the King clearly is just a puppet, controlled by his council of magic-wielding frauds, all part of a secret order that knows the dark arts all too well. They used it to keep England in their fist and have now "swayed" the king to allow them to govern over this new world. Surely poor Lizbeth Maudney had discovered this by chance, presumably while fetching frogs to cook into a stew because her pension didn't suffice to feed her, and the taxes His Majesty set under the snake-tongued suggestion of his sorcerous council were oppressing poor Lizbeth into a poverty harsher than the death she's being steered toward by evil minds. Most clearly, she went to seek an audience with our sorcerous governors only to discover them performing some evil ritual. The guards ran after her, and the governors just barely managed to save face by attributing the sorcerous actions going on to poor Lizbeth.
And thus we have this predicament, I say free her!