The Covenanters
Scots sign a National Covenant against Charles I's church reforms, sparking the wars of the three kingdoms; later Covenanters are hunted down in the "Killing Time" before Presbyterianism is finally secured in 1690.
- The Covenanters: The National Covenant and Scotland — David Stevenson, Saltire Society (1988)
- Scotland: A New History — Michael Lynch, Pimlico (1992)
- The Oxford Companion to Scottish History — Michael Lynch (ed.), Oxford University Press (2001)
In 1637 Charles I imposed an English-style prayer book on the Kirk. At St Giles’ in Edinburgh a riot broke out; tradition says a woman named Jenny Geddes threw her stool at the minister. In February 1638 thousands signed a National Covenant pledging to defend the reformed religion. The Covenanters abolished bishops, defeated the king in the Bishops’ Wars and helped trigger the civil wars across England, Scotland and Ireland.
- The Covenanters: The National Covenant and Scotland — David Stevenson, Saltire Society (1988)
- Scotland: A New History — Michael Lynch, Pimlico (1992)
After the monarchy was restored in 1660 and bishops brought back, hard-line Covenanters held illegal open-air services, “conventicles”, in the hills. In the 1680s, the “Killing Time”, many were shot or executed. In 1690, after William of Orange replaced James VII, Presbyterianism was established as the Church of Scotland’s form of government, as it remains.
- The Covenanters: The National Covenant and Scotland — David Stevenson, Saltire Society (1988)
- The Oxford Companion to Scottish History — Michael Lynch (ed.), Oxford University Press (2001)
Ordinary men and women who defied tyranny for freedom of conscience, and were martyred on the moors for refusing to let a king rule their Church.
- The Covenanters: The National Covenant and Scotland — David Stevenson, Saltire Society (1988)
- Scotland: A New History — Michael Lynch, Pimlico (1992)
The Covenanters fought for their own church to be imposed on everyone, persecuted opponents when they held power, and drove Scotland into ruinous wars. Their "freedom" was not freedom for others.
- The Covenanters: The National Covenant and Scotland — David Stevenson, Saltire Society (1988)
- The Oxford Companion to Scottish History — Michael Lynch (ed.), Oxford University Press (2001)
Why it matters today
The Covenanters left a tradition of religious defiance and suspicion of royal power that shaped the Kirk and Scottish radicalism, and their memorials still dot the hills of the south-west. They also left a legacy of uncompromising zeal that Scots remember with mixed feelings.