The secret history of the Bishops’ Wars, part 1

Origins of Scottish opposition to royal policies

Momentous events occurred in Scotland in the 1637-41 period. For too long their analysis by historians has limited them to a strictly British context. We will see how Scots veterans of continental wars, and continental powers played (or could have played) critical roles in the defeat of a king by some of his subjects (or his victory over them). While the English, then British, government’s military expeditions in the 1500s and 1600s generally resulted in debacle, continental countries greatly appreciated the military prowess of the Scots and Irish. The entwining of those factors explains why Charles I failed at imposing his will, and his rebellious subjects succeeded in resisting it.

Between 1617 and 1634 in Scotland, ‘country’ nobles, presbyterian ministers, and burgesses with support from some lairds had opposed royal ecclesiastical, economic, and fiscal policies, meeting with failure. Their opposition to the Five Articles of Perth (1617-21) led James VI to promise he would make no more ecclesiastical changes, although he had some under consideration. Still the offensive articles remained church and statute law, but enforcement declined as time passed. The opposition’s one victory – Charles I’s withdrawal of a proposed national militia – occurred in 1633. Efforts to stop the implementation of crown proposals failed in the convention of 1630 and the 1633 parliament. During the last, grounds for the opposition abandoning the struggle and tending their personal affairs became clear. For the treasonous act of knowledge of a petition against crown policies John Elphinstone, 2nd Lord Balmerino, was arraigned, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Indeed, the last time a Stuart king had bowed to the demands of his subjects was in 1582-83 when the Ruthven Raiders seized James VI. This article examines how covenanters went from royal ponents to rulers of Scotland in four years.

Historians (such as Allan Macinnes, Walter Makey, and David Stevenson) have demonstrated how Charles’ policies from his ascension in January 1625 to July 1637 alienated large blocks of Scottish society. His demand for the treason trial of Balmerino indicated that the king could be a dangerous man. His provision of bishops instead of nobles to offices of state infuriated an entire socio-political class regardless of a peer’s theological preferences. The imposition of new canon law for the Church of Scotland in 1636 without the approval of a