The Covenanters

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the bonds that Scottish Presbyterians made between themselves and their monarchs in the 16th and 17th Centuries, to maintain their form of worship. These covenants bound James VI of Scotland to support Presbyterians yet when he became James I he was also expected to support episcopacy. That tension came to a head under Charles I who found himself on the losing side of a war with the Covenanters, who later supported Parliament before backing the future Charles II after he had pledged to support them. Once in power, Charles II failed to deliver the religious settlement the Covenanters wanted, and set about repressing them violently. Those who refused to renounce the covenants were persecuted in what became known as The Killing Times, as reflected in the image above.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Roger Mason No other episodes
  Professor of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews
• Laura Stewart 2 episodes
  Professor of Early Modern British History at the University of York
• Scott Spurlock No other episodes
  Professor of Scottish and Early Modern Christianities at the University of Glasgow

Reading list

• The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution
  Michael J. Braddick (ed.) (Oxford University Press, 2015) Google Books →
• Kingdom or Province? Scotland and the Regal Union, 1603-1715
  Keith M. Brown (Palgrave, 1992) Google Books →
• Charles I and the Making of the Covenanting Movement, 1625-1641
  Allan I. Macinnes (John Donald Publishers, 1991) Google Books →
• The British Revolutions, 1629-1660
  Allan I. Macinnes (Red Globe Press, 2004) Google Books →
• The Church of the Covenant 1637 - 1651: Revolution and Social Change in Scotland
  Walter Makey (John Donald Publishers, 1979) Google Books →
• The Scottish National Covenant in its British Context 1638-51
  John Morrill (ed.) (Edinburgh University Press, 1990)
• Cromwell and Scotland: Conquest and Religion, 1650 -- 1660
  R. Scott Spurlock (John Donald Publishers, 2007) Google Books →
• The Scottish Revolution, 1637-44
  David Stevenson (John Donald Publishers, 1973) Google Books →
• Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Scotland, 1644 -- 1651
  David Stevenson (John Donald Publishers, 2003) Google Books →
• Urban Politics and the British Civil Wars: Edinburgh, 1617 -- 53
  Laura A.M. Stewart (Brill, 2006) Google Books →
• Rethinking the Scottish Revolution: Covenanted Scotland, 1637-1651
  Laura A.M. Stewart (Oxford University Press, 2018) Google Books →
• The Seventeenth Century: Short Oxford History of the British Isles
  Jenny Wormald (ed) (Oxford University Press, 2000) Google Books →

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Programme ID: m000g3f6

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000g3f6

Auto-category: 941.4 (Scotland - History)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. In 1638, a gathering of Presbyterians signed the Solemn Covenant in Edinburgh, in Greyfire's Coat Yard.