Covenanter The Covenanters were a Scottish Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland , and to a lesser extent that of England and Ireland , during the 17th century . Presbyterian denominations tracing their history to the Covenanters and often incorporating the name continue the ideas and traditions in Scotland and internationally . They derive their name from the term " covenant " after the covenant sworn by Israel in the Old Testament . There were two important covenants in Scottish history , the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant . Beginnings . The Covenanters are so named because in a series of bands or covenants they bound themselves to maintain the Presbyterian doctrine and policy as the sole form of religion of their country . The first " godly band " of the Lords of the Congregation and their followers is dated December 1557 ; but more important is the covenant of 1581 , drawn up by John Craig in consequence of the strenuous efforts Roman Catholics were making to regain their hold upon Scotland , and called the King ' s Confession or National Covenant . Based on the Confession of Faith of 1560 , this document denounced the Pope and the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church in no measured terms . It was adopted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland , signed by King James VI and his household , and enjoined on persons of all ranks and classes , and was subscribed to again in 1590 and 1596 . Upheaval and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . In 1637 , Scotland was in a state of turmoil . King Charles I and William Laud , Archbishop of Canterbury , met with a reverse in their efforts to impose a new liturgy on the Scots . The new liturgy had been devised by a panel of Scottish bishops , including Archbishop Spottiswoode of St . Andrews , but a riot against its use was orchestrated in St Giles ' Cathedral , Edinburgh , ostensibly started by Jenny Geddes . Fearing further measures on the part of the King , it occurred to Archibald Johnston ( Lord Warriston ) to revive the National Covenant of 1581 . Together with the cooperation of Alexander Henderson , a revitalized National Covenant was finalized in early 1638 . Additional matter intended to suit the document to the special circumstances of the time was added , primarily a recital of the acts of parliament against " superstitious and papistical rites " and an elaborate oath to maintain the reformed religion . The covenant was adopted and signed by a large gathering in the kirkyard of Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh , on 28 February 1638 , after which copies were sent throughout the country for signing . The subscribers engaged by oath to maintain religion in the form that it existed in 1580 , and to reject all innovations introduced since that time , while also professing loyalty to the King . The year 1638 marked an apex of events for the Covenanters , for it was the time of broad confrontations with the established church supported by the monarchy . Confrontations occurred in several parts of Scotland , such as the one with the Bishops of Aberdeen by a high level assembly of Covenanters staging their operations from Muchalls Castle . The General Assembly of 1638 was composed of ardent Covenanters , and in 1640 the covenant was adopted by the Scottish Parliament , its subscription being made a requirement for all citizens . Before this date , the Covenanters were usually referred to as Supplicants , but from about this time the former designation began to prevail . The Covenanters raised an army to resist Charles I ' s religious reforms , and defeated him in the Bishops ' Wars . The crisis that this caused to the Stuart monarchy helped to spark off the Wars of the Three Kingdoms , which included the English Civil War , the Scottish Civil War and Irish Confederate Wars . For the following ten years of civil war in Britain , the Covenanters were the " de facto " government of Scotland . In 1642 , they sent an army to Ulster in Ireland to protect the Scottish settlers there from the Irish Catholic rebels who had attacked them in the Irish Rebellion of 1641 . The Scottish army remained in Ireland until the end of the civil wars , but was confined to its garrison around Carrickfergus after its defeat at the Battle of Benburb in 1646 . A further Covenanter military intervention began in 1643 . The leaders of the English Parliament , worsted in the English Civil War , implored the aid of the Scots , which was promised on condition that the Scottish system of church government would be adopted in England . Following considerable debate , a document called the Solemn League and Covenant was drawn up . This was in effect a treaty between England and Scotland which called for the preservation of the reformed religion in Scotland and the reformation of religion in England and Ireland " according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed churches " , and the extirpation of popery and prelacy . It did not explicitly mention Presbyterianism and included some ambiguous formulations that left the door open to Independency . It was subscribed to by many in both kingdoms and also in Ireland , and was approved by the English Parliament , and with some slight modifications by the Westminster Assembly of Divines . This agreement meant that the Covenanters sent another army south to England to fight on the Parliamentarian side in the First English Civil War . The Scottish armies in England were instrumental in bringing about the victory of the English Parliament over the King . In turn , this sparked the outbreak of civil war in Scotland in 1644 – 47 , as Scottish Royalist opponents of the Covenanters took up arms against them . Royalism was most common among Scottish Roman Catholics and Episcopalians , who were opposed to the Covenanters ' imposition of their religious settlement on the country . The Covenanters ' enemies , led by James Graham , 1st Marquess of Montrose and aided by an Irish expeditionary force and Highland clans led by Alasdair Mac Colla won a series of victories over hastily raised Covenanter forces in 1644 – 45 . However , the Scottish Royalists were ultimately defeated in September 1645 , at the Battle of Philiphaugh , near Selkirk . The disaster at Philiphaugh was largely due to the Royalists ' own disunity and the return of the main Covenanter armies from England . The civil war in Scotland was a bitter episode which exposed the religious divisions between Presbyterians , Episcopalians and Catholics , the political divisions between Royalists and Covenanters and the cultural divisions between the Highlands and Lowlands . The end of the first civil wars in Scotland and England left the Covenanters hopeful that their Solemn League and Covenant would be implemented in the Three Kingdoms . However , Charles I refused to accept it when he surrendered himself to the Scots in 1646 . He was taken to Newcastle , where several attempts were made to persuade him to take the Covenants . When this failed , he was handed over to the commissioners of Parliament in early 1647 . However , many Covenanters , led by James Hamilton , were suspicious of their English allies ' intentions and opened secret negotiations with Charles I . He made important concessions to them in the " Engagement " made with the Scots in December 1647 . The Engagement was rejected by the militant Covenanters known as the Kirk Party , who wanted the King to endorse their agenda explicitly before an alliance could be reached . A Scottish army invaded England in support of the Engagement , but was routed at the Battle of Preston , leaving the Kirk Party in the ascendant in Scotland . The Westminster Confession of Faith , which had been submitted for ratification in 1646 , was in part adopted by act of the English Parliament in 1648 as the Articles of Christian Religion , while in Scotland it was approved with minor reservations in August 1647 and ratified by the Scottish Parliament in February 1649 . The Covenanters ' insistence on dictating the future of both Scotland and England eventually led to all - out war with their erstwhile allies , the English Parliament , and to the Covenanters signing an alliance with Charles II known as the Treaty of Breda . Charles II , before landing in Scotland in June 1650 , declared by a solemn oath his approbation of both covenants , and this was renewed on the occasion of his coronation at Scone in the following January . However , the Covenanters were utterly defeated in 1650 – 52 by the forces of the English Parliament under Oliver Cromwell . Lowland Scotland was occupied by the New Model Army and the Covenanters were sidelined . From 1638 to 1651 the Covenanters , led by Archibald Campbell , 1st Marquess of Argyll , had been the dominant party in Scotland , directing policy both at home and abroad . Their power had been seriously weakened , however , by Cromwell ' s victory at Dunbar in September 1650 and was practically destroyed after the Battle of Worcester and the English occupation of Lowland Scotland . Under Cromwell ' s Commonwealth , Scotland was forced into a temporary union with England and the General Assembly of the Kirk lost all civil power . Restoration and " The Killing Time " . Worse was to come for the Covenanters when Charles II was restored nine years later . Firmly seated upon the throne , Charles renounced the covenants , which in 1662 were declared unlawful oaths to be abjured by all persons holding public offices . Argyll himself was executed for treason , episcopacy was restored , James Sharp was appointed Archbishop of St Andrews and Primate of Scotland , the court of high commission was revived , and ministers who refused to recognize the authority of the bishops were expelled from their livings . Archbishop Sharp survived an assassination attempt in 1668 only to be killed by another group of Covenanters in 1679 . Following the restoration of Episcopacy rebel ministers began to preach at secret open - air meetings in the countryside known as ' conventicles ' A period of sustained persecution began . Oppressive measures against these illegal field assemblies where attendance was made a capital offence led to an outbreak of armed rebellion in 1666 , originating in Galloway . Advancing from the west towards Edinburgh , a small force of badly armed Covenanters was defeated at the Battle of Rullion Green in the Pentland Hills , a location which caused the whole tragic episode to be misleadingly named the Pentland Rising . To quell unrest in south - west Scotland , the government brought in 6 , 000 Highland soldiers , described by its enemies as an " inhumane and barbarous Highland host " which was quartered on suspected Covenanters and was accused of committing many atrocities . A further rebellion broke out in 1679 , after the unexpected success of a group of covenanters , armed with pitch forks and the like , against government forces led by John Graham of Claverhouse at the Battle of Drumclog . For a time the authorities looked in danger of losing control of the south west of Scotland , as more and more people joined the rebel camp at Bothwell near Glasgow ; but only a few weeks after Drumclog the rebels were defeated at the Battle of Bothwell Brig . In the weeks before the battle the Covenanters spent more time arguing among themselves than preparing for the inevitable counterstroke , which did much to contribute towards their downfall . Of 1 , 200 captured rebels taken to Edinburgh , some 400 were imprisoned in an area of Greyfriars Kirkyard over the winter months . Inevitably , the government behaved harshly at first towards some of those caught in arms . On the initiative of James , Duke of Monmouth , who led the king ' s army to victory at Bothwell Brig , a more conciliatory policy was followed for a time , though this met with limited success . Through the period of repression the Covenanters held their convictions with a zeal that was only intensified by the persecution . For them it was a matter of belief . For the government , in contrast , the whole conventicle movement was seen as a problem of public order , which they attempted to deal with often using very inadequate resources . However , after the collapse of the 1679 rebellion a more dangerous element entered into the whole equation . In 1680 a more extreme mood appeared among sections of the Covenanter underground , which found expression in a document known as the " Sanquhar Declaration " . This was the manifesto of the followers of the Reverend Richard Cameron , soon to be known as the Cameronian s . Hitherto , many in the Covenanter underground maintained an outward loyalty to the king , despite their opposition to the religious policy of his government ; but the Cameronians took matters to a new height , renouncing their allegiance to Charles and denouncing his brother , James , as a papist . One extreme position inevitably led to another : the government in attempting to stamp out sedition authorized field executions without trial . This was the beginning of what Robert Wodrow later called the Killing Time . Although this period was to become an important part of Covenanter martyrology , it was far less ferocious than the name implies . Cameron himself was killed in a clash with government forces at Ayrs Moss in July 1680 , but his followers , now a tiny part of the Covenanter movement , continued to exist . After the accession of James VII in 1685 the King issued a series of " Letters of Indulgence " allowing such " ousted ministers as had lived peaceably and orderly to return to their livings " . This succeeded in luring many ministers away from the struggle , but those remaining became more determined . When William of Orange summoned a " Convention of the Estates " which met on 14 March 1689 in Edinburgh to consider whether Scotland should recognise him or James , forces of Cameronians arrived to bolster William ' s support . In the subsequent Jacobite rising , the Cameronian Guard helped to defeat the Jacobite Highlanders , particularly at the Battle of Dunkeld . Although the Cameronians had helped to defend the Revolution , they were disappointed that their religious views were not adopted by the new government . The binding obligation of the National Covenant ( 1638 ) and the Solemn League and Covenant ( 1643 ) was passed over since the Acts of Parliament in favour of these had been rescinded by Charles and were not revived under William and Mary . For some Covenanters even William of Orange was an " uncovenanted " King since he was head of the Church of England which was an episcopal church . Perhaps 1000 people in the south west made an issue of the failure to maintain the covenants and also , with some justification , viewed the new establishment as tainted by Erastianism . They formed the " United Societies " refusing to recognise the " usurped " Church of Scotland . Martyrs and memorials . Though the rebellion had ended and a degree of Presbyterian tolerance for other faiths had been suggested by thanks given for James ' s Indulgence of 1687 , for allowing all " to serve God after their own way and manner " , memories of ' the Killing Time ' were now kept alive by monuments and tombstones at the many martyr graves across the south of Scotland , particularly the south west . " For the word of God and Scotland ' s work of Reformation . Scotland ' s heritage comes at a price which invokes our greatest heart felt thanks for the lives sacrificed on the anvil of persecution , when innocent blood stained the heather on our moors and ran down the gutters of our streets with sorrow and sighing beyond contemplation . " Tombs are scattered around the moors and monuments were added later , for " if the authorities learnt that a murdered Covenanter had been given a decent burial , their bodies were usually disinterred and buried in places reserved for thieves and malcontents . Quite often the corpse was hanged or beheaded first " , and burying the body in the kirkyard could result in another punitive death . In 1707 a monument was erected at Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh , near the open ground known as the ' Covenanters ' Prison ' , where some twelve - hundred Covenanters were held captive after Bothwell . It gives a figure of 18 , 000 killed in the period 1661 - 1680 , quoting an estimate which Daniel Defoe claimed was " Collected from the Accounts both Publick and Private " for his " Memoirs of the Church of Scotland " ( 1717 ) . " The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution " by Robert Wodrow , published in 1721 - 1722 , produced a detailed record and denounced the persecution of the Covenanters . This martyrology would be brought forward again when elements in the Church of Scotland felt it to be suffering state interference , as at the Disruption of 1843 . The " United Societies " continued without preaching , sacraments , or government until they were joined by one ordained minister in 1706 , then in 1743 the " Reformed Presbytery " was organised . Covenanters fleeing persecution had set up churches in Ireland and North America and several small denominations were founded , including the Reformed Presbyterian Church . More recently some historians have portrayed the Covenanters as an early revolutionary movement and the Cameronians as forerunners of an internationalist radical left - wing tradition . From a religious perspective , " The king had been defeated in his attempt to dictate the religion of his subjects ; Presbyterianism became the established religion . But it had been equally proved that the subjugation of the State to the Church , the supremacy , political as well as ecclesiastical , of the Kirk , was an impossibility . In this the Covenants had failed . " While the exploits and the sufferings of these martyrs in the cause of religious dissent and scripture as the sole " infallible rule of faith and practice " are still remembered , often in a romantic light , their aim of denying the religious freedom they sought for themselves to other denominations is reflected in the terms of ministerial and Christian communion of some groups which include " an approbation of the faithful contendings of the martyrs of Jesus , especially in Scotland , against Paganism , Popery , Prelacy , Malignancy and Sectarianism . " Covenanters in North America . Covenanters started their migration to North America by way of Ireland . Having come to Ireland for religious , economic , and political reasons throughout the Seventeenth Century , Scottish Presbyterians , including Covenanters , once again for religious , economic , and political reasons felt compelled to migrate again . The migration is usually dated from the year 1717 , when preacher William Tennant , founder of Log College , the first Presbyterian seminary in North America , came with his family to the Philadelphia area . In North America Covenanters became known as members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church . They were among the most vocal agitators for independence from Great Britain and volunteered in large numbers as soldiers in the revolutionary armies . The Covenanters were opposed to slavery , and in 1800 the Reformed Church voted to outlaw slave - holding among its members .