ABSTRACT
Charles had deliberately chosen to surrender his person to the Scots in May 1646 in the expectation that this would exacerbate the tensions that were emerging between the various elements of the coalition that had defeated him. On the one hand, Parliament and the Scots were embroiled in an increasingly antagonistic relationship, in the large part a result of Parliament’s failure to institute what the Scots thought had been agreed in the Solemn League and Covenant of 25 September 1643-that is, the establishment of a full Presbyterian Church in England, a form of ecclesiastical settlement in which, among other things, all ministers were regarded as equal and operated according to a rigid structure of discipline based on the Calvinist institutions of a national synod, regional assemblies and local groupings of parishes called presbyteries. On the other hand, the New Model Army was aggrieved by Parliament’s reluctance to pay its arrears and provide an Act of Indemnity-exemption from any penalties either that the King might impose on those who had fought against him or prosecution by private individuals who had lost property to the Parliamentarian armies.There were also serious differences, especially in terms of religion, between the Scots and the New Model Army.
