The English revolution is amongst the most intensely debated periods in history. Parallel events in Scotland have never attracted the same degree of interest. This book argues for a new interpretation of the Scottish revolution that reconsiders its place within an overarching ‘British’ narrative. It analyses interactions between print and manuscript polemic, crowds, and political performances, taking due account of the importance of Presbyterian links to Dutch and English publishing networks. This is the context into which a reappraisal of the 1638 National Covenant, and its legacy, has been p ... More

The English revolution is amongst the most intensely debated periods in history. Parallel events in Scotland have never attracted the same degree of interest. This book argues for a new interpretation of the Scottish revolution that reconsiders its place within an overarching ‘British’ narrative. It analyses interactions between print and manuscript polemic, crowds, and political performances, taking due account of the importance of Presbyterian links to Dutch and English publishing networks. This is the context into which a reappraisal of the 1638 National Covenant, and its legacy, has been placed. The Covenant became the basis for a remodelled constitution, which revivified the institutions of civil and ecclesiastical governance and enabled Scotland to pursue interventionist policies in Ireland and England—albeit at terrible cost to the Scottish people. War transformed the nature of state power in Scotland, but this achievement was contentious and fragile. A key weakness lay in the separation of the ecclesiastical and civil spheres, which justified for some a strictly conditional understanding of obedience to authority. This book explores challenges to legitimacy of the Covenanted constitution, but qualifies the idea that Scotland was set on a course to destruction as a result. Although Covenanted government was overthrown by the New Model Army in 1651, its ideals persisted. In Scotland as well as England, the language of liberty, true religion, and the public interest had justified resistance to Charles I. The Scottish revolution embedded a distinctive political culture that ultimately proved resistant to assimilation into the nascent British state.