The National Covenant & Civil War
The Solemn League and Covenant
Now brings a smile,
now brings a tear.
But sacred freedom, too, was theirs;
If thou art a
slave, indulge thy sneer.
On the Solemn League and Covenant
Robert
Burns
Many Scots viewed the Union of the Crowns in 1603 as a
disaster. It created the problem of one king ruling over two parliaments. To
James VI & I, now holding court in London, the English Parliament was by
far the more important of the two houses. He assured the English, that the
greater would always attract the lesser, and that Scotland would eventually
Anglicise. At the time, his plan for a Union of Great Britain proved unpopular
on all sides and it was quietly abandoned; it was his son, Charles I, who
continued the plan.
Charles saw himself as the Godly Prince, the divinely
appointed leader of society, who should be obeyed as such. He sought to bring
the Scots Kirk into conformity with England by effectively using his Scots
bishops to run Scotland for him. The King, however, had touched a raw nerve in
the Scottish people - religion was the politics of the 17th century.
The Road to Revolution
Charles alienated two powerful
factions in Scottish society through his actions. Firstly, there were the
Presbyterians, who believed that Christ, not the King, was the head of the
Kirk, and that spiritual power should flow from the Kirk Elders upwards and not
from the King down. In his attempts to tamper with religion, Charles gave the
Presbyterians political credibility.
Secondly, by introducing bishops into
government, Charles had weakened the traditional role of the Scots nobility.
Disaffected, they drew closer to the Presbyterian radicals. The crunch came in
1637 when Charles insisted, without consultation, on introducing an
English-style prayerbook into Scotland. It incited a revolution - the National
Covenant was signed at Greyfriar's Kirk, Edinburgh, in 1638.
The
National Covenant
The signing of the National Covenant has been called
the biggest event in Scottish history. In essence it was a document, a contract
with God, signed by the Nobles, Ministers and thousands of ordinary Scots, who
pledged themselves to defend Scotland's rights by stating what they would and
wouldn't agree to in matters of Kirk and state. Drawn up by two of Scotland's
sharpest minds, Archibald Johnston of Wariston and Alexander
Henderson, it contained radical demands for changes in Scotland's
governance.
The Covenant demanded a free Scottish Parliament and a free
General Assembly, which means free from the King's interference. Specifically,
it demanded the abolition of bishops, who had blindly served the King in
matters of Kirk and State, and, in effect, it limited the power of the King by
inflating the role of Scotland's nobles and Kirk. The medieval order of
divinely appointed Kings was truely over.
The Covenant and the
Cromwellian Conquest
The Engagement and the Rule of the Saints
(1647-1650)
In 1647 most of the Scots nobilty split ranks with the Kirk and
agreed to fight for Charles I against the English Parliament in an agreement
known as the Engagement. Scottish society was torn over the issue. The Kirk
openly preached against anyone joining the Engagers' army, whilst the nobles
made ready for war.
A depleted Scots army invaded England in 1648 only to
be defeated by Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army. The defeat of the Nobles
elevated the radical Presbyterians of the Kirk to power, and, in what became
known as the Rule of the Saints, they set about creating their vision of a
godly society. Tight social discipline was imposed, adultery was to be
punishable by death, nobles were humiliated before Kirk sessions for their
moral lapses, and those who had supported the Engagement were excluded from
office, parliament and the army.
This triumph, however, was completely
over-shadowed by a cataclysmic event - the execution of Charles I by Cromwell
in 1649. The Scottish Parliament was forced to act - Charles, despite all his
faults, had been a Scottish Stewart King. They appointed his son, Charles II,
as King of Scotland, England and Ireland on condition he accepted the Covenant,
which Charles II had no option but to agree to. At last the Scots Kirk had got
what it wanted - a covenanted king.
Scotland Conquered
(1651-1650)
From Cromwell's point of view his English republic was in
danger. He begged the Scots to reconsider - they wouldn't and he invaded. The
Scots fought well initially, cornering Cromwell at Dunbar, but, urged on by
their ministers (the political commissars of their day), they descended from
their commanding position and were massacred. Within a year Scotland was
conquered, its parliament was abolished and the Scots were forced into an
incorporating union with England.
Scotland became an occupied country with
Cromwellian citadels imposed on Ayr, Leith, Perth, Inverness and Inverlochy. It
was the first time in history that the nation of Scotland had been conquered.
The situation wasn't to last. The Parliamentary Union of 1652 and the birth
of Commonwealth of Scotland, England and Ireland brought an uneasy peace which
people accepted for purely practical reasons. However, when Cromwell died and
the republic fell apart, few in Scotland opposed the Restoration of Charles II.