BRITAIN’S
CIVIL WARS:
THE 15 KEY
MOMENTS
Britain was engulfed by war in the mid- 17 th century. Three leading
historians of the conflict – Micheál Ó Siochrú, John Adamson
and Blair Worden – consider the pivotal points
BRIDGEMAN IMAGESCharles I / Britain’s civil wars
- The National Covenant 28 February 1638
When Charles I’s unpopular religious innovations sparked revolt in Scotland
In 1637–38, attempts by King Charles I to
impose religious uniformity throughout his
diverse realms encountered organised
political resistance in Scotland.
On 28 February 1638, a meeting at
Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh adopted a
National Covenant that rejected the
religious innovations of William Laud,
archbishop of Canterbury, specifically
those relating to the introduction of a
Book of Common Prayer.
The Covenanters also sought to unite
Scotland in opposition to absentee
monarchy – as Charles I, though born in
Scotland, ruled from England. They
declared their loyalty to the crown but
seized control of the kingdom and
prepared to defend themselves.
Their actions triggered a series of
bloody wars. Initially at least, the success
of the covenanters in the Bishops’ Wars
(1639–40) encouraged opponents of the
king in England and this led to the recall
of the Westminster parliament for the first
time since 1629. Leading Irish Catholicrebels later
admitted to being
inspired by the
Scottish example.
The developing
crisis expanded the
ambitions of the
Covenanters. In
early 1642, following
an insurrection by
the Catholic Irish,
they sent a large
army to protect
Protestant settlers
in Ireland’s northern
province of Ulster.
In September
1643, the
Covenanters
decided to export
their revolution,
signing the Solemn League and Covenant
with the English parliament. A few months
later, 20,000 Scottish troops marched
south across the border, effectivelyturning the tide of the civil war in England.
The National Covenant, therefore, acted
as a catalyst for major upheaval in all three
Stuart kingdoms during the early 1640s.
Micheál Ó SiochrúA Covenanter petitions Charles I in this 17th-century woodcut