17. Assembly and Parliament.—The Assembly which met at Edinburgh repeated and approved all that had been done at Glasgow. When the Estates met for the first time in the New Parliament-house, June 2, 1640, they went still further, for they not only confirmed the Acts of the Assemblies, but ordered everyone to sign the Covenant under pain of civil penalties. Now for the first time they acted in open defiance of the King, to whom hitherto they had professed the greatest loyalty and submission. Three times had they been adjourned by the King, who had also refused to see the Commissioners whom they sent up to London. Now they met in spite of him, and, as in former times of troubles and difficulties, they appealed to France for help. When this intrigue with the French was found out, the Lord Loudon, one of their Commissioners, was sent to the Tower, and the English parliament was summoned to vote supplies for putting down the Scots by force of arms. But by this time the English were beginning to see that the cause of the Scots was the cause of freedom. There was much difficulty in raising an army to march against them, and when raised it was discontented and mutinous.
18. Invasion of England.—As for the Scots they mustered stronger than before, and, on August 20, 1640, they crossed the Tweed, and entered England. At Newburn they defeated a body of English, and crossing the Tyne, marched on to Newcastle, which yielded to them without offering resistance. They then took Durham, Tynemouth, and Shields without a struggle. Meanwhile news came from Scotland that the two great strongholds of the East and of the West, Edinburgh and Dunbarton, had again fallen into their hands.
19. Treaty of Ripon.—Once more they sent to the King, who was then at York, a supplication in which they declared that all they wanted was satisfaction to their just demands. The King laid the matter before a great council of peers which he had called at York. By their advice it was decided to treat with the Scots. Eight Commissioners from their army came to Ripon, and the treaty which was begun there was not ended until nearly a year afterwards at London. All that they asked was granted, and they were promised three hundred thousand pounds to defray the expenses of this war, into which they said they had been driven. The armies were then disbanded, and peace seemed to be restored. The King came to Scotland once more, and a meeting of the Estates was held in which he let the members have their own way in everything. He also confirmed the right of the Estates to meet once every three years, and fixed the next meeting for June, 1644.
20. Breaking out of the War.—This seeming peace was but the lull before the storm, and, before one year had passed, the English had followed the example set them by the Scots in resisting the unlawful exactions of the King; the Long Parliament had brought his minister Strafford, the chief agent of his despotism, to the scaffold, and had called on the people to arm in defence of their rights and liberties. When the great Civil War began in earnest, each side was eager to secure the help of the fine army which the Scots had at their command. Religious opinion decided the matter. The Parliament, which was as much opposed to episcopacy as the Scots were, adopted the solemn League and Covenant, and ordered every one to sign it, and by so doing induced the Scots to join them. The army was raised again, and put under the command of the two Leslies, Alexander, now Earl of Leven, and his nephew David, who soon proved the better soldier of the two. A second time they entered England, January 19, 1644, and leaving a part of their force to besiege Newcastle marched on into Yorkshire, and joined the troops of the Parliament in time to share their victory at Marston Moor. Newcastle was taken by storm, October 19.
21. Montrose's Campaign.—Meanwhile Montrose, whose zeal for the Covenant had now changed into zeal for the King, was taking advantage of the absence of the Covenanting force in England to win back the North for Charles with an army of Celts alone. It was the first time that the Highlanders had been turned to account in regular war. Hitherto they had been thought only capable of preying upon one another, but now, under a General who knew how to handle them, they did wonders. The Lowlanders who had hastily mustered to oppose them were beaten at Tippermuir. Montrose then took Perth, marched northward, again defeated the Covenanters, took Aberdeen once more, and held for the King this town which twice before he had held for the Covenant. He then turned to the West, wasted the country of his great enemy Argyle, pounced down upon and scattered the force gathered to oppose his own on the shore of Loch Linnhe; kept his army in the Highlands during the winter, and early in the spring took Dundee. He twice defeated the Covenanters in the country north of the Forth, and once south of it at Kilsyth. Thus in a wonderfully short time he won back nearly the whole country for the King. But the secret of his success had lain in the rapid marches and sudden attacks that kept his men busy. When the fighting was over, the Highlanders, as was their wont, went off in large numbers to take home their spoil. In this way his army was diminished. David Leslie, who had been summoned home to oppose him, brought some cavalry from the southern army against his weakened force, and won a complete victory at Philiphaugh, near Selkirk, September 12th, 1645. Montrose retreated with the small remnant that was left to him, but he found it impossible to reassemble his scattered force. His campaign had lasted little more than a year, and a few months later the King, who had thrown himself on the protection of the Scots army at Newark, ordered him to lay down his arms. Montrose obeyed and left the country.
22. Dealings with the King.—While the Scots army was lying before Newark, Charles, whose cause was now nearly hopeless, secretly left Oxford, where he was besieged by the army of the Parliament, and sought protection in the camp of the Scots. A few days afterwards Newark surrendered, and they returned with the King to Newcastle. He stayed in their hands eight months. During this time, though they behaved towards him with respect and courtesy, he was really their prisoner, and they were busy treating with the Parliament for the terms of his surrender. If he had turned Presbyterian and signed the Covenant, no doubt they would have protected him, but after many arguments with Henderson, a noted divine of their party, he still remained unconvinced. In the end they agreed to leave England on payment of 400,000 pounds arrears of pay that were due to them. When they returned to their own country, they left the King to the mercy of the English Parliament.
23. The Engagement.—A few months later, when Charles was a prisoner at Carisbrooke, he made a secret treaty with the moderate party in Scotland, to the effect that, if they would help him to win back his power, he would confirm the Covenant and would make a trial of the presbyterian Church in England. On this the Committee of Estates, in whose hands the government was, raised an army and sent it into England, with Hamilton, who had been created a Duke, at its head. They were defeated at Preston by Oliver Cromwell, lieutenant-general of the parliamentary army. The Duke marched on to Uttoxeter. There he and his army laid down their arms, and yielded themselves prisoners, August 25, 1648. But the extreme party in Scotland were very wroth against the Engagers, as they called those who had made this "engagement" with the King. They thought that the taking of the Covenant by the King was a mere pretence, and that Hamilton's expedition was a sinful helping of the Malignants. A change in the government was the result. Argyle, the head of the extreme Covenanters, raised his followers, while from the Western Lowlands, which were just waking to zeal for the Covenant, a body of men, with Lord Eglinton at their head, marched on Edinburgh. This was called the Whiggamores' Raid, from Whig, a word used in the Westland for urging on horses. This was the origin of the word Whig, which gradually became the nickname of a political party. Argyle and his party came to terms with Cromwell, and formed a new Committee of Estates. Cromwell then marched to Edinburgh, and made them give him an assurance that none of the Engagers should be allowed to take any part in the government. By the Act of Classes which was then passed, all profane persons and enemies of the Covenant were likewise shut out from holding office.
24. The Directory and Confession of Faith. —The Scots now hoped to see their Church and their Covenant adopted over all three kingdoms. In this hope they were disappointed, for the most of the parliamentary party were Independents, who had no idea of exchanging the tyranny of bishops for that of presbyters. An Assembly of Divines met at Westminster, June 12, 1643, to settle religious matters. They adopted the Covenant, and the Scots in return accepted their directory of public worship, and the Confession of Faith drawn up by them in place of their own Books of Discipline and Common Order. But though the Covenant was thus nominally accepted in England, the different English sects were allowed far more liberty than the strict Covenanters thought right.
25. The King's Death.—On the thirtieth of January, 1649, the King was beheaded at Whitehall. With the court of justice which professed to try him, with the sentence which it passed, and with the execution of that sentence, the Scots had nothing whatever to do. As they had no idea of the existence of their kingdom without a king, nor of having any other king than the hereditary one, no sooner was the news of the King's death known in Edinburgh, than Charles his son was proclaimed King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland.
26. Charles II., 1649-1685. Fate of Hamilton and Huntly.—Hamilton, who was a prisoner in England, was brought to trial as an English subject by his English title of Earl of Cambridge; he was found guilty of treason in invading the country, and was beheaded. Huntly met with a like fate in Scotland. He was also charged with treason in having made war for the King against the Covenanters.