Between 1639 and 1652, Scotland was involved in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a series of conflicts which included the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the English Civil War, the Irish Confederate Wars and finally the conquest of Ireland and the subjugation of Scotland by the English New Model Army.
Within Scotland, from 1644 to 1645 a Scottish civil war was fought between Scottish Royalists—supporters of Charles I under James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose—and the Covenanters, who had controlled Scotland since 1639 and who were allied with English Parliamentarians. The Scottish Royalists, aided by Irish troops, had a rapid series of victories in 1644–45, but were eventually defeated by the Covenanters.
The Covenanters then found themselves at odds with the English Parliament, so they signed the Engagement with Charles I in 1647 and supported him in the Second English Civil War. Following Charles' execution, they received and crowned his son Charles II at Scone and thus stated their intention to place him on the thrones of England and Ireland as well. In 1650, Scotland was invaded and occupied by the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell.
Origins of the war – wars in three kingdoms The war originated in Scottish opposition to religious reforms imposed on the Church of Scotland (the Kirk) by Charles I. This culminated in February 1638 when representatives from all sections of Scottish society agreed a National Covenant, pledging resistance to liturgical 'innovations'. An important factor in the political contest with Charles was the Covenanter belief they were preserving an established and divinely ordained form of religion which he was seeking to alter. The Covenant also expressed wider dissatisfaction with the sidelining of Scotland since the Stuart kings became monarchs of England in 1603, while the Kirk was viewed as a symbol of Scottish independence.
Victory in the 1639 and 1640 Bishops Wars left the Covenanters firmly in control of Scotland but also destabilised Ireland and England. Widespread opposition to Crown policies meant the Parliament of England refused to fund war against the Scots, leading Charles to consider raising an army of Irish Catholics in return for abolishing the penal laws against them. This prospect alarmed his enemies in both England and Scotland; when the Covenanters threatened to provide military support for their co-religionists in Ulster, it sparked the Irish Rebellion of 1641, which quickly degenerated into massacres of Protestant settlers in Ireland.
The Covenanters responded in April 1642 by sending an army to Ulster led by Robert Monro, which engaged in equally bloody reprisals against Catholics. Although both Charles and Parliament supported raising troops to suppress the rebellion in Ireland, neither side trusted the other with their control. A struggle for control of military resources ultimately led to the outbreak of the First English Civil War in August 1642.
Scottish Royalists and Covenanters
The Scottish Reformation established a kirk that was Presbyterian in structure and Calvinist in doctrine. By 1640, less than 2% of Scots were Catholics, concentrated in places like South Uist, controlled by Clanranald, but despite its minority status, fear of popery remained widespread. Since Calvinists believed a 'well-ordered' monarchy was part of God's plan, the Covenanters committed to "defend the king's person and authority with our goods, bodies, and lives" and the idea of government without a king was inconceivable.
This meant that unlike England, throughout the war all Scots agreed the institution of monarchy itself was divinely ordered and hence why the Covenanters supported the restoration of Charles I in the Second English Civil War, then his son in the Third. Where Covenanters and Scottish Royalists disagreed was the nature and extent of Royal authority versus that of the people, including through the popularly governed Presbyterian church; the relative narrowness of this distinction meant Montrose was not unusual in fighting on both sides.
Royalism was most prominent in the Scottish Highlands and Aberdeenshire, due to a mix of religious, cultural and political reasons; Montrose switched sides because he distrusted Argyll's ambition, fearing he would eventually dominate Scotland and possibly depose the King. Furthermore, the Gàidhealtachd was a distinct cultural, political and economic region of Scotland. It was Gaelic in language and customs and at this time was largely outside of the control of the Scottish government. Some Highland clans preferred the more distant authority of King Charles to the powerful and well-organised Lowlands based government of the Covenanters.
Clan politics and feuds also played a role; when the Presbyterian Campbell, led by their chief, Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, sided with the Covenanters, their rivals automatically took the opposing side. It should be said some of these factors overlap that spanned the Irish Sea: for instance, the MacDonalds were Catholics, were sworn enemies of the Campbells, and had a strong Gaelic identity. Historian David Stevenson writes: "It is a moot point whether one should call the MacDonnells of Antrim Scots or Irish... To the MacDonnells themselves the question was largely irrelevant, they had more in common with native Irish and Scots Highlanders, with whom they shared a common Gaelic language and culture than with those who ruled them".
The Irish intervention
Montrose had already tried and failed to lead a Royalist uprising by 1644 when he was presented with a ready-made Royalist army. The Irish Confederates, who were loosely aligned with the Royalists, agreed in that year to send an expedition to Scotland. From their point of view, this would tie up Scottish Covenanter troops who would otherwise be used in Ireland or England. The Irish sent 1500 men to Scotland under the command of Alasdair MacColla MacDonald, a MacDonald clansman from the Western Isles of Scotland. They included Manus O'Cahan (an Irish cousin to MacColla) and his 500-man regiment. Shortly after landing, the Irish linked up with Montrose at Blair Atholl and proceeded to raise forces from the MacDonalds and other anti-Campbell Highland clans.
The new Royalist army led by Montrose and MacColla was in some respects very formidable. Its Irish and Highland troops were extremely mobile, marching quickly over long distances – even over the rugged Highland terrain – and were capable of enduring very harsh conditions and poor rations. They did not fight in the massed pike and musket formations that dominated continental Europe at the time, but fired their muskets in loose order before closing with swords and half-pikes. This tactic was effective in such a wilderness and swept away the poorly trained Covenanter militias that were sent against them. These locally raised levies frequently ran away when faced with a terrifying Highland charge, and were slaughtered as they ran.
However, the Royalist army also had major problems: the clans from the west of Scotland could not be persuaded to fight for long away from their homes – seeing their principal enemy as the Campbells rather than the Covenanters, which resulted in fluctuating membership – and the Royalists also lacked cavalry, leaving them vulnerable in open country. Montrose overcame some of these disadvantages through his leadership and by taking advantage of the forbidding Highland mountains. Keeping his enemies guessing where he would strike next, Montrose would sally out to attack lowland garrisons and withdraw to the Highlands when threatened by the more numerous enemy. In the safety of the mountains, he could fight on terrain familiar to his army, or lead the Covenanters on wild goose chases.
The year of Royalist triumph and collapse
From 1644 to 1645 Montrose led the Royalists to six famous victories, defeating covenanting armies larger than his own of roughly 2000 men (except at Kilsyth, where he led approximately 5,000).
In the Autumn of 1644, the Royalists marched across the Highlands to Perth, where they smashed a Covenanter force at the Battle of Tippermuir on 1 September. Shortly afterwards, another Covenanter militia met a similar fate outside Aberdeen on 13 September. Unwisely, Montrose let his men pillage Perth and Aberdeen after taking them, leading to hostility to his forces in an area where Royalist sympathies had been strong.
Following these victories, MacColla insisted on pursuing the MacDonald's war against the Campbells in Argyll in western Scotland. In December 1644, the Royalists rampaged through the Campbells' country. During the clan warfare Inveraray was torched and all armed men were put to the sword; approximately 900 Campbells were killed.
In response to the attack on his clansmen, Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll assembled the Campbell clansmen to repel the invaders. Montrose, finding himself trapped in the Great Glen between Argyll and Covenanters advancing from Inverness, decided on a flanking march through the wintry mountains of Lochaber and surprised Argyll at the Battle of Inverlochy (2 February 1645). The Covenanters and Campbells were crushed, with losses of 1,500.
Montrose's famous march was acclaimed as "one of the great exploits in the history of British arms" by John Buchan and C. V. Wedgwood. The victory at Inverlochy gave the Royalists control over the western Highlands and attracted other clans and noblemen to their cause. The most important of these were the Gordons, who provided the Royalists with cavalry for the first time.
Inverlochy was an important strategic victory for the Royalists, because the Scottish Covenanter army in England was ordered to send a proportion of their force north to help bolster the Covenanter forces in Scotland. This significantly weakened the Scottish army in England and it was only the lack of Royalist infantry and artillery in the north of England that prevented Prince Rupert from attacking them. In April 1645, to hinder the northwards movement of English Royalist field artillery, Oliver Cromwell led a cavalry raid into the English Midlands. The raid was the first active operation carried out by the newly formed New Model Army.
In April Montrose was surprised by General William Baillie after a raid on Dundee, but eluded capture by having his troops double back on the coast road and fleeing inland in a corkscrew retreat. Another Covenanter army under John Urry was hastily assembled and sent against the Royalists. At Auldearn, near Nairn, Montrose placed Macdonald and most of the infantry in view of the enemy and concealed the cavalry and remaining infantry. Despite Macdonald attacking prematurely, the ruse worked, and Urry was defeated on 9 May.
Another cat-and-mouse game between Bailie and Montrose led to the Battle of Alford on 2 July. Montrose confronted the Covenanters after the latter had forded the Don, forcing them to fight with the river at their back and on uneven ground. The Royalists triumphed and advanced into the lowlands. Bailie went in pursuit and Montrose waited for him at Kilsyth. During the ensuing battle the Royalists were inadvertently aided by Argyll and other members of the "Committee of Estates", who ordered Bailie to make a flank march across the front of the Royalist army, which pounced on them and triumphed.