Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the Divine Right of Kings was entirely counter to Protestant thought. In 1637
Charles attempted to impose a new prayer book on the Kirk, laying down forms of
worship in line with the High Anglican Church. he reformers denounced these
changes as “popery” and organized the
National Covenant
, a religious pledge “to
recover the purity and liberty of the Gospel as it was established and professed”.
Charles declared all the “
Covenanters
” to be rebels, but when he called a General
Assembly of the Kirk, it promptly abolished the episcopacy. Charles pronounced the
proceedings illegal, but lack of finance stopped him from mounting an effective
military campaign - whereas the Covenanters, well financed by the Kirk, assembled a
proficient army under Alexander Leslie. In desperation, Charles summoned the English
Parliament, the first for eleven years, hoping it would pay for an army. However,
Parliament was much keener to criticize his policies than to raise taxes. In response,
Charles declared war on Parliament in 1642.
Until 1650, Scotland was ruled by the Covenanters, and the power of the
Presbyterian Kirk grew considerably. Laws were passed establishing schools in every
parish and, less usefully, banning trade with Catholic countries. he only effective
opposition to the theocratic state came from the
Marquis of Montrose
, who had initially
supported the Covenant but lined up with the king when war broke out. His army was
drawn from the Highlands and Islands, where the Kirk's influence was weakest.
Montrose won several notable victories against the Covenanters, but the reluctance of
his troops to stay south of the Highland Line made it impossible to capitalize on these
successes, and he was eventually captured and executed in 1650.
The Civil War and the Restoration
Montrose's campaigns, however, were a side show to the
Civil War
being waged further
south. Here, the Covenanters and the English Parliamentarians faced the same royal
enemy and in 1643 formed an uneasy alliance. here was, however, friction between
the allies. Many Parliamentarians, including Cromwell, favoured a looser form of
doctrinal control within the state Church than the Presbyterians did. hey also
suspected the Scots of hankering for the return of the monarchy, a suspicion confirmed
when, at the invitation of the earl of Argyll, the future Charles II came back to
Scotland in 1650. To regain his Scottish kingdom, Charles was obliged to renounce his
father and sign the Covenant, two bitter pills taken to impress the population. In the
event, the “Presbyterian restoration” was short-lived. Cromwell invaded, defeated the
Scots at Dunbar and forced Charles into exile. Until the Restoration of 1660, Scotland
was united with England and governed by seven commissioners.
Although the restoration of
Charles II
brought bishops back to the Kirk, they were
integrated into an essentially Presbyterian structure of Kirk sessions and presbyteries, and
the General Assembly, which had been abolished by Cromwell, was not re-established.
More than three hundred clergymen, a third of the Scottish ministry, refused to accept
the reinstatement of the bishops and were edged out of the Church, forced to hold
open-air services, called
Conventicles
, which Charles attempted to suppress.
Charles II was succeeded by his brother
James VII
(James II of England), whose ardent
Catholicism caused a Protestant backlash in England. In 1689, he was forced into exile in
France and the throne passed to
Mary
, his Protestant daughter, and her Dutch husband,
William of Orange
. In Scotland there was a brief flurry of opposition to William when
1482
1513
1560
Berwick-upon-Tweed captured by
the English.
The Scots are defeated by
the English at the Battle of
Flodden Field.
The Scottish Church breaks with
the Roman Catholic Church.
