Covenanters (kəvənăn`tərz), in Scottish history, groups of Presbyterians bound by oath to sustain each other in the defense of their religion. The first formal Covenant was signed in 1557, signaling the beginning of the Protestant effort to seize power in Scotland. It was renewed thereafter at times of crisis, most notably in the 17th cent. The National Covenant of 1638 aimed to unite the Scots in opposition to the episcopal innovations of King Charles I and William Laud Laud, William, 1573–1645, archbishop of Canterbury (1633–45). He studied at St. John's College, Oxford, and was ordained a priest in 1601. From the beginning Laud showed his hostility to Puritanism. He became president of St.
..... Click the link for more information. , especially the adaptation for Scottish use of the English Book of Common Prayer. The Covenanters successfully resisted the king's armies in the Bishops' Wars Bishops' Wars, two brief campaigns (1639 and 1640) of the Scots against Charles I of England. When Charles attempted to strengthen episcopacy in Scotland by imposing (1637) the English Book of Common Prayer, the Scots countered by pledging themselves in the National
..... Click the link for more information. (1639–40). In the English civil war English civil war, 1642–48, the conflict between King Charles I of England and a large body of his subjects, generally called the "parliamentarians," that culminated in the defeat and execution of the king and the establishment of a republican commonwealth .
..... Click the link for more information. they supported the parliamentary party only after the English Parliament had accepted (1643) the Solemn League and Covenant, which provided for the eventual establishment of a Presbyterian state church in England and Ireland as well as in Scotland. After the first civil war, however, the Independents in the English army secured control of affairs and prevented implementation of the Covenant. The Scots, therefore, concluded the agreement known as the "Engagement" with Charles I, by which the king agreed to establish Presbyterianism in England if restored to the throne. As a result, the Covenanters fought for Charles I in the second civil war (1648) and, after his execution (1649), they fought for Charles II, who also subscribed (1650) to the Solemn League and Covenant. They were subdued, however, by Oliver Cromwell's conquest of Scotland (1650–51). After the Restoration (1660), Charles II resumed his father's effort to impose episcopacy in Scotland. The Covenanters were subjected to alternate attempts to conciliate them and to hunt them down. The result was a series of new compacts of resistance among them and new attempts to suppress them. A rebellion in 1679, which culminated in a rout at Bothwell Bridge, was met with harsh repression, as was the resistance of Richard Cameron Cameron, Richard (kăm`ərən), 1648–1680, Scottish leader of the Cameronians, an extreme group of Covenanters .
..... Click the link for more information. and his followers, who issued the Sanquhar Declaration in 1680. The troubles ended with the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which restored the Presbyterian Church in Scotland.

Bibliography

See study by J. D. Douglas (1964).

Covenanters

Scottish Presbyterians of the 17th century who made convenants in which they pledged to maintain specific forms of worship and church government. After the signing of the National Covenant of 1638, the Scottish Assembly abolished the episcopal system. In the Bishops' Wars of 1639–40 the Scots fought against England to maintain their religious liberty. In England the expenses of these wars were a factor in the English Civil War, and in the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 the Scots promised their aid to the parliamentarian faction provided that the Church of England was reformed along Presbyterian lines. Cromwell's settlement failed to satisfy the Covenanters, but their situation worsened considerably once Charles II came to the throne in 1660. Episcopacy was brought back, and the Covenanters endured severe persecutions. Not until the Glorious Revolution of 1688 was Presbyterianism reestablished in Scotland.