Civil War in England and Scotland

As the civil wars developed, the English Parliamentarians appealed to the Scots Covenanters for military aid against the King. The Scots agreed in return for substantial religious and political concessions. Scottish troops played a major part in the defeat of Charles I, notably at the battle of Marston Moor. An army under the Earl of Leven occupied the North of England for some time. However, not all Scots supported the Covenanter's taking arms against their King. In 1645, James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose attempted to raise the Highlands for the King. In truth, few Scots would follow him, but, aided by 1,000 Irish, Highland and Islesmen troops sent by the Irish Confederates under Alasdair MacColla, and an instinctive genius for mobile warfare, he was stunningly successful. A Scottish Civil War began in September 1644 with his victory at battle of Tippermuir. After a series of victories over poorly trained Covenanter militias, the lowlands were at his mercy. However, at this high point, his army melted away as MacColla and the Irish and Highland men fell out with Montrose, who shortly after was defeated at the battle of Philiphaugh. In July 1646, his army was disbanded on the King's orders as Charles tried to find an accommodation with moderate Scots Presbyterians. In this secret 'engagement', the Scots promised military aid in return for Charles promising Presbyterianism. When the English parliamentarians refuse to release the King, the Duke of Hamilton then led an invasion of England, but it came too late to save the King, and was defeated by Oliver Cromwell in August 1647.

Cromwellian Occupation and Restoration

The Covenanters objected to the English Parliament's arrest and execution of Charles I in 1649. The Stuarts after all were of Scottish descent and more importantly, had promised to take the Covenant themselves in return for an alliance against the English Parliament. After Charles' execution in 1649, his eldest son was proclaimed King Charles II in Edinburgh. Oliver Cromwell then invaded Scotland in 1650, and defeated the Scottish army in a series of battles at Dunbar and Worcester. Scotland was then occupied by an English force under George Monck throughout the Interregnum and indeed annexed by the Puritan-governed Commonwealth.

From 1652 to 1659, Scotland was part of Cromwell's Commonwealth, under English control but gaining equal trading rights. Upon its collapse, and with the restoration of Charles II, nominal Scottish independence returned. Scotland regained its parliament, but the English Navigation Acts prevented the Scots engaging in what would have been lucrative trading with England's growing colonies. The formal frontier between the two countries was re-established, with customs duties which, while they protected Scottish cloth industries from cheap English imports, also denied access to English markets for Scottish cattle or Scottish linens. (Braudel 1984 p 370).

Charles largely ignored Scotland for the next two decades, concentrating on extending his power in England, though his brother James as Duke of York instituted the Commission for Pacifying the Highlands which worked in co-operation with the clan chiefs and built up goodwill. Charles did, however, continue his father's policy of re-introducing Episcopalian government into the Scottish Church. Whilst this was not without some support in Scotland, in 1679 it provoked another Presbyterian rebellion in the south. Charles contained the rebellion and brutally suppressed the Covenanters, in what became known as "the Killing Time". When he died in 1685 and his brother, a Roman Catholic, succeeded him as James VII of Scotland (and II of England), matters came to a head.

The Glorious Revolution

James's attempt to introduce religious toleration to England's Roman Catholics alienated his Protestant subjects. Neither this, nor his moves towards absolutism, provoked outright rebellion, as it was believed that he would be succeeded by his daughter Mary, a Protestant and future wife of William of Orange. When, in 1688, James produced a male heir, everything changed. At the invitation of seven Englishmen, William landed in England with 40,000 men, and James fled. Whilst this was primarily an English event, the "Glorious Revolution" had a great impact on Scottish history. Whilst William accepted limits on royal power, under the Bill of Rights (a contract between himself and the English parliament, Scotland had an equivalent document in the Claim of Rights. This is an important document in the evolution of the rule of law and the rights of subjects.

Most Scots supported William of Orange, but many (particularly in the Highlands) remained sympathetic James VII. His cause, which became known as Jacobitism, spawned a series of uprisings. An initial Jacobite rising under John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee (Bonnie Dundee) defeated William's forces at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689, but Dundee was slain in the fighting, and the leaderless army was soon defeated at the Battle of Dunkeld. The complete defeat of James in Ireland by William at the Battle of the Boyne (1690), ended matters for a time. (Ironically, the protestant William had also enjoyed the support of the Pope and the Catholic Habsburg monarchy against the aggressive foreign policy of Louis XIV of France.)

The late 17th century was economically difficult for Scotland. The bad harvests of the seven ill years in the 1690s led to severe famine and depopulation. English protectionism kept Scots traders out of the new colonies, and English foreign policy disrupted trade with France. As a result many Scots emigrated to Ulster (the Ulster-Scots). The Parliament of Scotland of 1695 enacted a number of remedies for the desperate economic situation, including setting up the Bank of Scotland. The Act for the Settling of Schools established a parish-based system of public education throughout Scotland. The Company of Scotland received a charter to raise capital through public subscription to trade with Africa and the Indies.

Scottish overseas colonies

In attempts to expand the Scots had earlier sent settlers to the English colony of New Jersey and had established an abortive colony at Stuart's Town in what is now South Carolina. The Company of Scotland soon became involved with the Darién Scheme, an ambitious plan devised by William Paterson to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama in the hope of establishing trade with the Far East — the principle that led to the construction of the Panama Canal much later. The Company of Scotland easily raised subscriptions in London for the scheme. But the English government opposed the idea: involved in the War of the Grand Alliance from 1689 to 1697 against France, it did not want to offend Spain, which claimed the territory as part of New Granada. The English investors had perforce to withdraw. Returning to Edinburgh, the Company raised 400,000 pounds in a few weeks. Three small fleets with a total of 3000 men eventually set out for Panama in 1698. The exercise proved a disaster. Poorly equipped; beset by incessant rain; under attack by the Spanish from nearby Cartagena; and refused aid by the English in the West Indies, the colonists abandoned their project in 1700. Only 1000 survived and only one ship managed to return to Scotland. A desperate ship from the colony which called at Port Royal received no assistance—on the orders of the English government. Realising the dangers of the conflicting claims and aims of two independent kingdoms at odds with one another, William of Orange called for a union of the two countries. It did not happen. Union, when it did come in 1707, restored free trade between the countries and gave the Scots access to the burgeoning English Empire.