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  Crown, Covenant and Cromwell

  The Civil Wars in Scotland 1639-1651

  Stuart Reid

  Crown, Covenant and Cromwell: The Civil Wars in Scotland, 1639 – 1651

  This edition published in 2012 by Frontline Books,

  an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,

  47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS

  www.frontline-books.com

  Copyright © Stuart Reid, 2012 Maps © Stuart Reid, 2012

  The right of Stuart Reid to be identified as the author of this work

  has been asserted by him in accordance with the

  Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  9781783469390

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Illustrations

  Chronology

  Introduction

  Chapter 1 - Scotland, the Scots and the Art of War

  Chapter 2 - Treason Never Doth Prosper

  Chapter 3 - Blue Bonnets Over the Border

  Chapter 4 - With Brode Swordis but Mercy or Remeid

  Chapter 5 - Bitter Winter

  Chapter 6 - We Gat Fechtin’ Oor Fill

  Chapter 7 - High Noon

  Chapter 8 - An End and a New Beginning

  Chapter 9 - The King in the North

  Chapter 10 - Curs’d Dunbar

  Chapter 11 - The Last Hurrah

  Appendices

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Index

  Illustrations

  Plates

  (all from the author’s own collection)

  King Charles I

  Archibald Campbell, Marquess of Argyle

  James Graham, Marquis of Montrose

  Gentleman reviewing his somewhat motley levies

  Alexander Leslie, first Earl of Leven

  Contemporary cavalry trooper

  Montrose wearing ‘a coit and trewis as the Irishis were clad’.

  Huntly Castle

  Strathbogie Regiment colours 1644

  Irish brigade colour

  Another Irish brigade colour

  George Keith’s Regiment colours 1648

  Fraser’s Firelocks colours 1648

  Bronze cannon 1642

  Tin and iron core of leather gun

  Double-barrelled leather gun

  Soldier with Lochaber axe

  Highland bowman

  Scottish musketeer

  Musket drill

  Auldearn – Boath Doo-Cot on Castle Hill

  Alford – the ford at Mountgarrie where Baillie crossed in 1645

  Oliver Cromwell

  Highland piper

  A splendidly romantic but far from accurate depiction of a struggle between a Highland soldier and some of Cromwell’s men

  Forbes’ Regiment colours 1650 or 1651

  Balfour of Burleigh’s Regiment colours 1650

  Colonel John Innes’ Regiment colours 1650

  Another of Forbes’ colours

  Montrose’s foot colours 1650

  Archibald Johnston of Wariston

  The Scots holding their young king’s head to the grindstone

  Major-General John Lambert

  Colonel George Monck

  Panoramic view of the battlefield of Dunbar

  Colonel William Stewart’s Regiment colours

  Preston of Valleyfield’s Regiment colours 1650

  The Dunbar medal, struck for the officers of the victorious English army

  King Charles II

  Chronology

  1638

  28 Feb Scots begin signing National Covenant

  13 Mar Royalist forces muster in north but are disbanded almost immediately

  21 Mar Edinburgh Castle stormed by Covenanters

  26 Mar Dumbarton Castle seized by Covenanters

  15 May Royalist victory at Turriff

  20 May Main Scots army confronts king’s forces at Duns on Anglo-Scots border

  15 Jun Royalists defeated at Megray Hill

  18 Jun Pacification of Berwick First day of battle for Bridge of Dee outside Aberdeen

  19 Jun Covenanters’ victory at Aberdeen

  1640

  20 Aug Scots army under Alexander Leslie invades England

  28 Aug Scots victory at Newburn

  30 Aug Scots capture Newcastle upon Tyne

  26 Oct Treaty of Ripon

  1641

  25 Aug Scots army disbanded and Alexander Leslie created Earl of Leven

  23 Oct Rebellion in Ireland

  1642

  3 Feb Scots regiments authorised to be raised for service in Ireland

  3 Apr First Scots regiments land in Ulster

  22 Aug King Charles I raises standard at Nottingham, formally opening English Civil War

  1643

  18 Aug Mobilisation of Scots army begins

  25 Sep Solemn League and Covenant signed, committing Scots to intervene in England

  1644

  19 Jan Leven leads Scots army across the border at Berwick

  3 Feb Scots arrive outside Newcastle upon Tyne

  19 Feb Indecisive battle at Corbridge near Newcastle upon Tyne

  28 Feb Scots shift base to Sunderland

  7/8 Mar Royalist probe towards Sunderland halted at Humbledon Hill

  19 Mar Royalist uprising in Scotland; Marquis of Huntly occupies Aberdeen

  20 Mar In England, Scots take South Shields, closing off mouth of Tyne

  25 Mar Scots victory at Boldon Hill near Sunderland

  13 Apr Royalists under Marquis of Montrose occupy Dumfries

  20 Apr Royalists chased out of Dumfries

  24 Apr Royalists storm burgh of Montrose

  29 Apr Huntly evacuates Aberdeen and disbands forces

  2 Jul Scots and Parliamentarians win English Civil War at Marston Moor

  27 Jul Scots siege of Newcastle upon Tyne begins

  29 Aug Marquis of Montrose raises king’s standard at Blair Atholl

  1 Sep Royalist victory at Tibbermore outside Perth

  13 Sep Royalist victory at Aberdeen; the Craibstane Rout

  19 Oct Newcastle upon Tyne stormed by Scots

  28 Oct Indecisive battle at Fyvie

  13 Dec Royalists seize Inveraray

  1645

  2 Feb Royalist victory at Inverlochy

  9 Feb Royalists occupy Elgin

  15 Mar Royalists surprised at Aberdeen

  4 Apr Royalist assault on Dundee ends in disaster

  9 May Royalist victory at Auldearn

  28 Jun Carlisle surrenders to Scots army under David Leslie

  2 Jul Royalist victory at Alford

  15 Aug Royalist victory at Kilsyth

  13 Sep Royalists badly beaten at Philiphaugh outside Selkirk

  1646

  29 Apr Royalists under Montrose lay siege to Inverness

  5 May Charles I surrenders to Scots army outsi
de Newark and forces disband

  8 May Siege of Inverness raised

  14 May Royalists under Huntly storm Aberdeen

  5 Jun Scots army in Ireland badly defeated at Benburb

  30 Jul Montrose disbands forces at Rattray near Blairgowrie

  1647

  Feb Scots army ‘new modelled’

  24 May Alasdair MacColla flees to Ireland

  5 Jul Dunveg Castle surrenders, ending war in Scotland

  26 Dec Scots change sides, signing Engagement to assist Charles I regain throne

  1648

  23 Mar Second Civil War begins with Royalist uprisings in England and Wales

  4 May Mobilisation of Scots army begins

  12 Jun Scots dissidents defeated by Earl of Callendar at Mauchline Moor

  8 Jul Scots army led by Marquis of Hamilton crosses border at Carlisle

  17 Aug Hamilton defeated by Cromwell at Preston

  19 Aug Scots surrender at Warrington

  25 Aug Hamilton surrenders at Uttoxeter

  5 Sep Covenanters seize Edinburgh in Whiggamore Raid

  12 Sep Royalists seize Stirling

  1 Oct Both sides agree ceasefire

  1649

  30 Jan King Charles I executed by Parliament

  8 May Royalist uprising under Mackenzie of Pluscardine defeated at Balvenie

  1650

  27 Apr Royalist invasion force under Montrose destroyed at Carbisdale

  21 May Marquis of Montrose executed in Edinburgh

  24 Jun King Charles II signs Covenant and lands in Scotland

  25 Jun Mobilisation of Scots army begins

  22 Jul English army under Cromwell crosses border near Berwick

  26 Jul English halted by fortified line between Edinburgh and Leith

  28 Aug English retreat to Dunbar

  3 Sep English victory at Dunbar

  7 Sep Edinburgh surrenders

  18 Sep English advance halted at Stirling

  4 Oct Attempted Royalist coup at Perth

  21 Oct Royalist victory at Newtyle

  1 Dec Scots win and then contrive to lose battle at Hamilton

  13 Dec Augustine’s raid on Edinburgh

  23 Dec Edinburgh Castle surrenders

  1651

  1 Jan King Charles II crowned at Scone, outside Perth

  14 Apr Scots victory at Linlithgow

  19 May Scots victory at Paisley

  20 Jul English victory at Inverkeithing

  26 Jul Cromwell marches on Perth

  31 Jul Scots army marches south for England

  2 Aug Perth surrenders

  6 Aug Scots army crosses border near Carlisle Stirling surrenders

  1 Sep English storm Dundee

  3 Sep Cromwell defeats Scots at Worcester

  21 Nov Marquis of Huntly surrenders

  3 Dec Earl of Balcarres surrenders last Scots field army

  1652

  26 May Dunottar Castle surrenders

  Introduction

  This is a military history of the Great Civil War as it was fought in Scotland and by Scottish armies in England between 1639 and 1651, and while political matters are necessarily touched on from time to time in order to understand why armies were raised in the first place and sometimes despatched in particular directions, it is really about what those armies and the men who marched in them actually did to each other on the battlefield.

  Historians sometimes seem to regard battles as rather too exciting to be a respectable field of study, but this remains an important but frequently neglected aspect of the story. While it might appear perfectly possible to examine the religious, political and economic issues surrounding those tumultuous times without direct reference to anything but the outcome of a particular battle, determining just how that battle was won or lost is often just as important as unravelling the underlying reasons why it came to be fought in the first place or the consequences that followed.

  This is of course true of almost any conflict, but the question is particularly accented in Scotland due to the apparent unequal nature of many of the battles. The Justice Mills fight outside Aberdeen in September 1644 provides a typical example. The outcome was at first uncertain in that the Royalists were probably better soldiers but were outnumbered and faced with carrying out a frontal assault on a naturally strong position. It is therefore important to establish just how they then won their fight, for unlike the battle of Tibbermore two weeks earlier this one spilled into the streets of the burgh and resulted in widely broadcast atrocities with far-reaching political consequences.

  Similarly at Dunbar in 1650 the Scots army faced the English with a number of apparent material advantages, yet were very heavily defeated, so again it is just as important to understand exactly why that unexpected result happened, as it is to understand what flowed from it.

  Beyond such worthy issues battles are still worth reading about in their own right, for while the generals get the credit or blame for the outcome they were all of them fought by ordinary people who sometimes reacted to the experience in extraordinary ways. Some turned out of course to be heroes, while on the other hand as an officer named August Kaust sagely observed during the American Civil War: ‘in battle men are apt to lose their heads and do very absurd things’. Therefore this story is not just about politics, strategy and tactics, but also about very human individuals such as the Royalist soldiers determined to give one of their comrades a proper burial, who fired a volley inside the kirk of Turriff, forgetting they had loaded with ball ammunition and blissfully oblivious to the fact that one of their opponents was hiding in the loft above, disguised in women’s clothing!

  This is, in short, a very extraordinary story of courage, adversity and absurdity too, and it should never be forgotten that it was acted out by our own ancestors, great and small, and in that sense is our story too.

  As always the telling of that story has been accomplished with the help of a surprising number of others, not least David Ryan of Partisan Press and Caliver Books. He set me on the road many years ago with an innocent request to write a straightforward piece on the battle of Kilsyth, which turned out to be anything but when William Baillie’s detailed report contradicted what was then the accepted version of events as postulated by the late great Samuel Rawston Gardiner. It has been a long road with many windings and side paths. I must also thank Michael Leventhal for bringing me back to my initial task, as well as the others who have contributed their assistance wittingly or otherwise, including as ever the staff of the library of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne.

  MAP I: Northeast Scotland

  Chapter 1

  Scotland, the Scots and the Art of War

  When James VI of Scotland found himself become King James I of England in 1603 he undoubtedly regarded it as a happy event long anticipated if not entirely welcomed on both sides of the border. Half a century earlier England had gone to war with the aim of forcing the Scots to agree to a marriage between their then infant Queen Mary and her cousin, the marginally less infant King Edward, but despite inflicting a crushing defeat at Pinkie Cleugh, just outside Musselburgh, on 10 September 1547, the attempted coercion ended in failure. The Scots refused to surrender.1 Instead Mary married first a French prince and then her cousin, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. As the son and heir of the Earl of Lennox, Darnley had a fair claim to the Scottish throne in his own right, but it was the fact that both he and Mary were also grandchildren of King Henry VIII’s sister, Margaret Tudor, that eventually brought their son James, the Scottish king, to the English throne in succession to the childless Queen Elizabeth.

  Hurrying south to take up his eagerly awaited inheritance before a native-born English candidate might emerge James was also making a fortunate escape from the seemingly endless round of rebellions, kidnappings, assassination attempts and coups, which passed for court life in sixteenth-century Scotland. The sad fact of the matter was that traditionally the Scots took a far more robust view of kingship tha
n might be supposed from the later cult of romantic Jacobitism. Instead while the authority of the Crown was outwardly unquestioned, the man (or woman) who wore it was often a different matter entirely. All too often regime change in Scotland was effected by securing physical possession of the king and thenceforth acting in his name. After that austere and often exciting experience an opulent English court schooled in the cult of Gloriana must have seemed to James like something akin to paradise. While the king’s new courtiers might be just as disposed to intrigue and treachery as his old ones, they at least stopped well short of open warfare in the precincts of the palace and he could at last retire to his bed without too much fear of awakening to a ring of armed men intent on securing his person dead or alive.

  Instead, as he boasted from Westminster in 1607: ‘Here I sit and govern it with my pen: I write and it is done: and by a Clerk of the Council I govern Scotland, which others could not do by the Sword.’2 It was perfectly true, but Scotland had not become England. James was king of both countries but they were not yet politically united – as they might have been had Edward married the young Mary. James’ Scottish kingdom remained an entirely separate realm in law, language and custom and, as he himself recognised only too well, this new-found complaisance was going to be enjoyed only for so long as he gave his Scottish subjects no cause to set aside old rivalries and combine against his distant authority. Consequently he stepped carefully with his proposed reforms and innovations, such as the reintroduction of bishops, but unfortunately his son and successor, King Charles I, had no such inhibitions. Having been brought south of the border at the tender age of three, Charles never fully appreciated the all-important political and cultural differences between his two kingdoms, and moreover utterly lacked the pragmatism that underpinned his father’s governance. King James, memorably lampooned as the ‘Wisest Fool in Christendom’, might have hopefully espoused the doctrine of the divine right of kings, but he still had the great good sense not to push his luck by actually trying to govern his kingdoms accordingly. Charles on the other hand really did appear to believe that as God’s anointed he could do no wrong, and so he embraced Absolutism long before Louis XIV of France made it respectable. As a result his belated Edinburgh coronation in 1633, fully eight years after James had shuffled off his mortal coil, was the prelude to disaster – to the National Covenant and to two decades of war.3