The First Bishops War

The first Bishop's War began in March 1639 and lasted for about five weeks during which there was skirmishing in Invernesshire. Covenanters under the command of the Marquis of Montrose and General Leslie took the city of Aberdeen marching under flags bearing the legend "For Religion, the Covenant and the Country".

The rank and file wore a blue scarf across their chests and under the left arm called "the Covenanter's ribbon". In this campaign the Earl of Huntly was seized and taken to Edinburgh, although the first serious blood to flow occurred on May 10, in the "Trot of Turriff", which was a victory for the royalists followed by their recapturing Aberdeen. However, Montrose and Leslie chased them out again within the month.

In the south, the Covenanters took control of the strong castles of Dumbarton and Edinburgh and by May they had some 20,000 men in arms. On May 9, Leslie was commissioned to command it "for defence of the Covenant, for religion, crown and country".

King Charles meanwhile was approaching with an army of about 21,000 and had issued a proclamation at Newcastle offering representation in Parliament and requiring the Scots to withdraw ten miles from the border. Leslie and his troops camped at Duns Law 12 miles away.

The main battle proposed by Charles never developed: instead there was a low-key standoff at Duns Law in the Borders on June 5, 1639, followed by the Treaty of Birks (Berwick) thirteen days later. The Covenanters withdrew with Charles' undertaking to accept civil and ecclesiastical control by the Parliaments and Assemblies respectively, ringing in their ears.

The treaty was at best a convenient breathing space but was rejected by the Assembly and The Estates. In August, 1640, the Covenanting army made a pre-emptive strike and pushed the Royalist forces back to the River Tyne, defeated it at the battle of Newburn on August 28 and entered the city of Newcastle on the 30th. Although some pockets of resistance remained for a while - Caerlaverock Castle and Edinburgh held out till September, the Treaty of Ripon on October 26, 1640, concluded hostilities.

It is of note that that the leading dissenting nobles - Loudon, Eglinton and Rothes - led regiments in the First Bishops War and many feudal nobles regained their status of old as warlords. Their troops also included a backbone of professional officers and sergeants - Alexander Leslie was a field marshall in the Swedish Army.

Many of the regiments also had their own ministers with them such that over a third of the ministers of the Kirk served in the dozen or so armies of the Covenant conveying the message of it being a holy war. But there was also an element of settling old scores, with Archibald Campbell, the eighth Earl and first Marquis of Argyll, engaged in a private war in the Braes of Mar, Atholl, Angus and Rannoch before he moved on to secure Dumbarton Castle against a threat from Ireland.

The Bishops Wars did not, however, bring a feeling of security to any of the combatants. In Scotland there was a move for political change and significantly no representation was given the Covenanters on the newly formed executive, "The Committee of Estates". The English Parliamentarians were fearful of the price the Scots might ask for their support whether in terms of money or religion.

The Marquis of Argyll had his own agenda and saw the prospect of further war between himself and the MacDonalds, both Scots and Irish, which had centred on Kintyre and the islands of Colonsay and Islay in 1639. Moreover, any such attack by him would be with the open support of the Crown.

The reaction of the Covenanters to the English Civil War was to try and keep out of it, however, in August 1643 the English parliament appealed to the new and political Committee of Estates. Within days a draft of the Solemn League and Covenant was produced.

Three months later a Scottish Army of the Covenant under Alexander Leslie (now Earl of Leven) crossed the Border and were met with resistance at Newcastle which they bypassed. Attacking York, they were able to play a significant part in Charles' defeat at Marston Moor in July 1644. Returning to Newcastle, the Covenanters beseiged the city which finally surrendered in October.