ABSTRACT
The debacle of the 1637 Book of Common Prayer and the National Covenant of Scotland of 1638 unleashed a train of events which spilled over the border into England, eventually leading to the invasion of England by the Scots army, the calling of the Short and Long Parliaments, and the ensuing power struggle between King and Parliament which escalated to civil war. Amongst the Scottish demands for assisting the English Parliament was closer cooperation between the nations, including a common confession of faith between both Kingdoms.1 However, during the months of negotiation, the Scottish Covenanters expanded their demands which included a closer union between the kingdoms, religious and civil. The English were reluctant – as Robert Baillie put it, ‘The English were for a civill League, we for a religious Covenant.’2 The two kingdoms entered the Solemn League and Covenant, though the English never interpreted it in the manner that the Scottish Covenanters had envisaged. Though both parties pledged never to agree ‘to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and conjunction’, it was in many respects a marriage of convenience, with infidelities on both sides, which would in 1660 end in divorce.
