ABSTRACT
It was the government of Scotland that marked the onset of a severe crisis of royal government after 1638. In England, sermons held before the House of Commons in 1640 and 1641 primarily addressed the covenant between men and God. Precisely this kind of action had been pinpointed in customary accounts of self-defence - to allow individual subjects and indeed the mothers of children to defend themselves against soldiers trying to attempt similar outrages. Now sermons for a religious crusade and demands for unconditional submission to the Crown were juxtaposed without any apparent legal procedure to settle the issue. As self-defence became simultaneously employed with reference to the whole kingdom against internal traitors and external threats alike, and as such defence became the office of self-proclaimed 'patriots' and involved Protestants all over the country, civil war slowly emerged not only as a confrontation of the armed forces raised by king and Parliament, but as armed conflict within local communities.
