| Copyright | ||
|
Home Charles I and Domestic Affairs, 1625-42 1629-1640 1629-1640; Part 6 |
1629-1640; Part 6War was inevitable, therefore, and it came in 1639. It is known as the First Bishops' War, and was soon over. All the enthusiasm and all the organization were on the side of the Scots. Their commander, Leslie, "the little, crooked man" (He was somewhat illiterate, and he once said that his instruction in youth had stopped at the letter "g"; but he was a capable soldier), who had served for thirty years in the Swedish armies, took up a strong position on Duns Law, near Berwick. Charles marched north, but his army and its equipment were contemptible. " Our men," wrote a Royalist, "are very raw, our arms of all sorts naught, our victuals scarce." Consequently Charles could do nothing but agree by the Treaty of Berwick to the Scottish demands, the chief of which was that another Assembly should meet.A new Assembly accordingly met at Edinburgh, and, as Charles would not recognize the measures of the Glasgow Assembly as legal, it promptly proceeded to re-pass them, in the words of a contemporary, "at a gallop". Moreover, it added a new act making the signing of the National League and Covenant compulsory on the whole nation, for the idea of toleration was as displeasing to Scottish as it was to English opinion. But the Treaty of Berwick was only a truce, and Charles had no intention of yielding. Stafford was summoned from Ireland, and proceeded to organize a new campaign, and the Second Bishops* War broke out in 1640. Not even Stafford, however, could do anything with an army composed of pressed men and inexperienced officers. The Scottish army invaded England and occupied the northern shires. And, finally, Charles had to make a treaty by which the Scots were to be left in occupation of the North, and to be paid £850 a day until a final arrangement could be concluded (October, 1640). In August, 1641, this arrangement was made, and the Scots were granted every one of their demands. |
Chronology |
| copyright by uuo-ununoctium.info |