Schottische Geschichte, Kapitel 5

James VI of Scotland had plans to become King of England upon the death of Elizabeth. In order to carry out his intentions, it was in his best interests to stay a Protestant and to remain on good terms with the English Crown. This alliance was so strong, in fact, that when his mother, Mary, was executed by Elizabeth in 1587, after nineteen years of captivity, James brought forth only a formal protest. Instead of listening to the bad advice of many of his rash Scottish nobles, ever eager to go to war with the hated English, James preferred to bide his time. Better advice came from the powerful Welshman, Robert Cecil, who had become the Queen's chief minister. Accordingly, in 1589, James married a Protestant princess, Ann of Denmark. In the long and protracted quarrel, which now ensued with the Scottish Kirk, James was determined to have his own way.

Though Protestant, he was no Presbyterian. He wished to restore the position of the Bishops and to reduce Church interference in matters of state. He was opposed by the General Assembly, at that time under the influence of Knox's successor Andrew Melville. Melville was even more radical than Knox, who had died in 1572 was. He insisted that the Church direct the affairs of state, putting divine authority before civil jurisdiction.

Though James tried to reassert the power of his Bishops and forbade convocation of ministers except by his permission, he was defeated, being forced to allow Presbyters, Synods and General Assemblies to meet without his leave. Extreme Calvinism, with its intense opposition to episcopacy, seemed to be winning the day. Archbishop Spottiswoode supported the King's side. This conflict between two uncompromising factions was to strongly influence this whole period of Scottish history. There were other matters of great importance taking place. Elizabeth's reign finally ended. The mighty Queen was laid to rest in March 1603 with James of Scotland declared as rightful heir. James journeyed to London to claim what he had longed for all his life - the throne of England. He returned only once to Scotland. He greatly favored a union of the two kingdoms and the new national flag, the Union Jack, bore the crosses of St. Andrew and St. George.

Although the Estates passed an Act of Union in 1607, it took 100 years before a treaty was signed. It was English prejudice against a people they considered uncivilized and warlike that probably prevented the early union. After the Elizabeth's glorious successes, they had no wish to merge their identity with what they considered to be an inferior nation, let alone one that had been allied with Spain and France for such long periods in its history. In retrospect, we can only puzzle at this "English" attitude. After all, following the accession of Henry VII to the English throne in 1485, it was Scotland who led the way in the literary renaissance that accompanied the reigns of the early Tudors.

The most vigorous English poetry of the time was written by Scotsmen, with William Dunbar's Chaucerian works giving him pride of place as a virtual poet laureate. His freshness and animated dealings with nature both human and nonhuman anticipated the later Robert Burns in so many ways. Gavin Douglas known as "Beel-the-cat" produced other works of high literary merit. His translation of the "Aeneid" is a landmark in British literary history. Lastly, the works of Sir David Lindsey who addressed much of his poetry to the young king James V complemented the small group of Scottish poets. Whatever the English thought of their northern neighbors, the Scottish king had taken the throne of England without rancor. James VI was perfectly happy in the seat of power at Whitehall. His troubles with the Scottish Presbyterians, however, were nowhere near the end. One of the chief obstacles to his plans for Scotland was the intractable Melville. On a pretext, James summoned him to England along with a group of his followers, had him imprisoned and forbid him to return to Scotland. The King then increased the powers and numbers of Scottish bishops. In 1617, he journeyed north to further implement his religious policy.

This was a grievous error. The King should have known better. The Scots were in no mood for episcopacy, which they regarded as little better than papacy. James's attempt to impose the Five Articles, dealing with matters of worship and religious observances, was met with strong opposition. He went ahead anyway and pushed through his reforms at a General Assembly at Perth in 1618. They were systematically ignored throughout Scotland. It is important to remember that during the reign of James as king of both Scotland and England, the two nations retained their separate parliaments and privy councils. They passed their own laws and enjoyed their own law courts; they had their own national church, their own ways of levying taxes and regulating trade, and to a certain extent, they could pursue their own foreign policies. Scotland itself was practically two distinct nations. There was a huge division between Highland and Lowland. James's attempts to persuade the clan chiefs to adopt the Protestant faith were a failure. They clung to the military habits of their ancestors and continued the Gaelic tongue when most of Scotland had abandoned it in favor of English.

James can be attributed for the sorry mess in Ireland that continues to divide Catholics and Protestants, Nationalists and Loyalists. Anxious to expand Scotland's influence overseas, the king unwisely encouraged the plantation of Ulster, in 1610. Thousands of Scots settled on lands that rightly belonged to the native Catholic population. Their influence gave Ulster that staunchly Presbyterian character that so strongly resists attempts at Irish reunification today. James also encouraged Scottish emigration to Arcadia, one of the maritime provinces of Canada, part of which became Nova Scotia (New Scotland.) James died in 1625 and the throne passed to Charles I. The new king was born a Scot, but had very little understanding of Scottish affairs and even less of prevailing Scottish opinion.

He knew nothing at all about the Highlands and not enough about the Lowlands. A devout Episcopalian, he distrusted the Kirk and Presbyterians and greatly mistrusted democratic assemblies, religious or not. He failed to try to understand his Scottish subjects; he did not wish to. As a ruler by Divine right, he had the sacred duty to bring the Scottish Kirk in line with the Church of England. It was an obligation that eventually cost him dearly. The Act of Revocation, decreed by Charles in 1625, restored the lands and tithes to the Church, which had been distributed among the Scottish nobles during the upheavals of the Reformation. It did nothing to endure the king to those who could have given him support in Scotland. Neither did his outright, outrageous demand of 1629, in which he demanded religious practice in Scotland conform to the English model. It was as if Charles were deliberately setting out to antagonize everyone north of the border. His elaborate coronation as King of Scotland at St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh in 1633 was sufficiently "high church" to smack of popery to the assembled congregation. It was the wrong time to raise the question of the liturgy. Charles and Archbishop Laud went ahead anyway. In July, 1637, the first reading of the Revised Prayer Book for Scotland was met with nothing less than a riot.

Even the Privy Council had to seek refuge from the angry mob in Holyroodhouse. The Bishop of Brechin was able to conduct only with the aid of a pair of loaded pistols aimed at the congregation. Charles's answer was simply to demand punishment for those who refused to obey his orders concerning the use of the new Prayer Book. All petitioners against the Book were to be dispersed and all the nobles who had resisted its use were to be submit to the King's Will. The unwise and ill-advised King of England and Scotland had not reckoned with the strength of his opposition. In Edinburgh, a committee of representatives from the clergy, the nobles, the gentry and the Scottish burghs drew up the National Covenant. It was known as the Tables.

Briefly, the document, signed on what was called "The great marriage Day of this Nation with God," pledged to maintain the "True Religion." Copies of the Covenant were carried throughout the country; its theological implications often lost. Though it had been signed "with His Majesty's "Authority," it served almost as a declaration of independence from English rule. Let it be known that it was not Charles's representative in Scotland who made decisions, but the Lords of the Tables. In November 1638, Charles met with the General Assembly in Glasgow. He didn't know what he was in for. The Assembly deposed or excommunicated all bishops, abolished the Prayer Book as "heathenish, Popish, Jewish and Armenian." Completely unwilling to compromise his position on the Church, Charles once again showed his naiveté by brusquely informing the Assembly that all their decisions were invalid. To enforce his commands, he decided on war. By this further example of rashness, he sealed his fate.

In contrast to the poorly prepared, poorly led and poorly motivated armies of the English king in the early summer of 1639, the Scots had great numbers of experienced soldiers returning from overseas campaigns. They had a worthy general, Alexander Leslie, who had commanded the army of the Swedes after the death of Gustavus Adolphus. The First Bishop's War, as it was called, was settled, most unwillingly by Charles (who had no other choice), by the Pacification of Berwick, by which the King agreed to refer all disputed questions to the General Assembly or to Parliament. The Scottish Parliament wasted no time in abolishing the episcopacy and freeing itself from the King's control. When it took measures to weaken the Committee of Articles by which Charles had tried to control it, the king again foolishly took up arms and the Second Bishop's War began. Without an effective army, Charles was forced to summon the English Parliament to beg for funds. When it met, it did nothing to please the King: the famous Long Parliament impeached and executed two of his chief supporters, Strafford and Laud.

Civil War threatened in England. Charles went off to Scotland again to try to gain support against his own Parliament. In the land that he had hitherto so blatantly antagonized, he distributed titles freely and reluctantly agreed to accept the decisions of the General Assembly and the Scottish Parliament. He had no choice. In England, where he had more support from the landed gentry, his obstinacy in resisting the Long Parliament and his stubborn insistance on Divine Right created the conditions for the outbreak of Civil War in 1642.

At first, Scotland had no wish to get involved. The desires of the Covenanters were theological, not political. There was also a split developing between the extremists, who viewed practically anything at all of piety as "popery," and the moderates, led by Montrose, who reaffirmed both a belief in the Covenant and loyalty to the King. Charles, meanwhile, had gathered enough supporters to gain many early victories against the forces of Parliament, who were mainly, untrained levies from the shires. Again, Scotland was seen as a source of aid, but this time, it was the English Parliament, and not the king, that made the request. Because the Covenanters wanted to establish presbytery in Ireland and England, the offer from the English Parliament was too good to refuse. In the agreement known as the Solemn League and Covenant, signed in the autumn of 1643, the Scottish army was to attack the forces of Charles in England. In return, they would receive not only 30,000 pounds a month, but also the agreement that there would be "a reformation of religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in doctrine, worship and government." One term of the agreement was that popery and prelacy were to be completely extirpated from the whole realm. The conditions of the agreement now had to be imposed upon the English Church.

Accordingly, the Westminster Assembly was summoned to establish uniformity of worship in Scotland, England (and Wales) and Ireland. The task was much easier in Scotland, where even to this day, the Westminster Confession of Faith continues to serve as the basis for Presbyterian worship. It was not as easy to implement in England and almost impossible in Ireland. However, a good beginning was the heavy defeat of the Royalist forces at Marston Moor by the parliamentary army under Oliver Cromwell. The defeat had been greatly augmented by a large force of disciplined and well-armed Scotsmen. Then an about face took place. Montrose had been greatly disturbed by the forces of extremism. The ancient theory of Divine Right of Kings was being severely tested. And, in the Highlands of Scotland, Presbytery did not run deep. The powerful Lord, aided by many in Ireland and a few loyalists from the Lowlands, raised an army of Highlanders to win Scotland for the King. The nationalist spirit was still beating in some Scottish hearts after all, and Montrose's army, without cavalry and with no artillery, managed to completely rout an army of Covenanters led by Lord Elcho at Tippermuir. Montrose then marched on Aberdeen, a fat city to be plundered by the Highlanders and Irish mercenaries at will. Next, enlisting the help of the Macleans and Macdonalds, he sacked Inverary and routed the Campbells and a small force of Covenanters at Inverlochy. Writing to Charles of his successes, he then took Dundee, defeated another force at Auldearn and again at Kilsyth to occupy Glasgow.

The Royalists in England were not faring so well. Cromwell's rag-tag armies had now become the well-trained, well-armed New Model Army (nicknamed "the Roundheads"). Following their success at Marston Moor, they won a second smashing victory over Charles at Naseby. Next, they turned towards Scotland and stopped the string of successes of Montrose and his Highlanders at Philiphaugh. Then, in May 1646, news came of the King's surrender to the Scottish forces at Newark. There was little left for Montrose but to take ship for Norway and his followers went back to their homes. The victorious Scottish army, after having turned Charles over to the English Parliamentary Commissioners, also returned north of the border. Everything seemed settled. However, the perverse tides of Scottish history have never flowed that smoothly. Despite their military successes, the Covenanters were not happy with the situation. There was little likelihood that Cromwell would establish Presbytery in England. Perhaps Charles would have been their best chance after all.

So, at the end of 1647, an agreement was made between the Scottish Parliament and the king, whereby he would give Presbyterianism a three-year trial in England in return for an army to help him fight against the Parliamentarians. Charles's joy at this unexpected help soon turned to grief. The army, led by the Duke of Hamilton, duly came south. It was utterly defeated by Cromwell at Preston, its leader executed and its followers dispersed. Events then heated up in Scotland. The more extreme Covenanters, dissatisfied at lack of progress in furthering their ambitions in England, marched on Edinburgh and overthrew the more moderate government, leaving their leader Argyll as virtual master of the country.

Cromwell came to Edinburgh to receive a hero's welcome, but the news of the unprecedented execution of Charles, a few days later, sent a tidal wave of dismay over much of Scotland. After all, the unfortunate man had been king of their country, too. And regicide was still an act against God. Taking immediate action, Argyll continued the strange alliance of King and Covenanter by having the 18 year-old Prince Charles proclaimed King at Edinburgh. To further complicate matters, Montrose returned from exile to raise another army in support of the new king. He should have left things alone, for with his band of local recruits and Irish mercenaries, he was betrayed by "one of his auld acqeuntance" and easily defeated. Such was the complicated state of affairs in the mish-mash of divided loyalties in Scotland. Montrose was hanged and quartered as a traitor to the King he had served so loyally.

In 1650, Charles II duly arrived in Scotland to claim his Kingdom. He must have known that this was totally unacceptable to Oliver Cromwell, who had assumed the title of Lord Protector. Cromwell invaded Scotland, defeated the Scots under General Leslie and marched on Edinburgh. The Covenanters, no doubt trusting that God would preserve their cause would not admit defeat and on New Year's Day, 1651 they crowned Charles II at Scone and raised a sizable army to defend him. Again, it was the Highlanders who composed the bulk of this army and it was the Highlanders who were again slaughtered. At Inverkeithing, after the Lowland cavalry had fled, the MacLeans stood and fought the English army to the last man. They lost 760 out of 800 clansmen in another lost cause. Cromwell now occupied all of Scotland south of the Firth of Forth. He then departed to deal with the Scottish army that been looking for support in England, leaving General Monk in charge.

Cromwell caught up with the Scottish army at Worcester on September 3, 1651. He destroyed it. A few days earlier, Monk had captured the Committee of the Estates, (the remnant of the Scottish Parliament and had occupied Dundee). The continent now became a refuge for yet another Scottish monarch, as Charles II fled to France. He returned nine years later. While the king in exile "went on his travels," as he put it, Cromwell was setting up an efficient system of government in both kingdoms. A Treaty of Union in 1652 had united Scotland with England and made it part of the Commonwealth. It had also abolished the monarchy. Though he established an efficient and orderly regime, the unpopular, Puritanical Cromwell was a harsh and ruthless ruler. When he died in 1658, the country was ready for a return to good old-fashioned monarchy.

At the request of General Monk, Charles II came back to claim his throne. Alas, like his father before him, he had little interest in Scotland, preferring to govern it through a Privy Council situated in Edinburgh and a Secretary at London. He also considered Presbytery "not a religion for gentlemen." It is a constant source of astonishment to the modern reader that Charles knew so little about how deeply the roots of Presbyterianism had been planted in Scotland and how strongly the Covenanters would fight attempts to return Scotland to the episcopacy. His years in exile had taught him very little.

In 1649, as King of Scotland, Charles signed two Covenants merely to secure his own coronation. When he restored James VI's method of himself choosing the Committee of Articles, he had the intention, not only of strengthening his position in relation to Parliament, but also of bringing back the bishops and restoring the system of patronage that chose ministers. All ministers chosen since 1649 were required to resign and to reapply for their posts from the bishops and lairds. One third of all Scottish ministers refused and held services in defiance of the law. Troops were sent to enforce the regulations but made the Calvinist Covenanters even more eager to serve their God in their own way. In 1679, claiming to be obeying a command from on high, they murdered Archbishop Sharp. The government intervened to bring the rebels to heel. An army was sent to deal with them under the command of James, Duke of Monmouth (an illegitimate son of the King).

He defeated the Covenanters at Bothwell Brig and dealt severely with the survivors. The reactions and counter-reactions that followed gave the 1680's the title "The Killing Time." The troubles continued when Charles died in 1685 to be succeeded by his brother James VII (James II of England) an openly avowed Catholic. He was welcomed in the Highlands, ever true to the legitimate monarch. Thus, the seeds were sown for the Jacobite opposition that blossomed under the next king, the Dutchman William of Orange. Showing all the signs that he was infected with "the Scottish curse", James VII showed that he had learned nothing from the unfortunate experiences of his predecessors in trying to turn back the clock in matters of religion.

His attempts at using the royal prerogative to accord complete toleration to all his subjects, Catholics, Covenanters and Quakers alike may sound like enlightened policy to us, but at the time, in an age of intolerance, it only deepened suspicion of his motives. Opposition to his rule grew rapidly. It was aided by Protestant forces in Holland, where his son-in-law, William of Orange, had his eyes on the thrones of England and Scotland.

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