| Note: As the history of the Covenanters is so closely entwined with the history of the English Civil Wars,(known in Scotland as the Wars Of The Three Kingdoms) it will be necessary to provide information pertaining to both events in the following. |
King Charles I (born in the year 1600) was the son of James VI of Scotland/James I of Great Britain and his wife, Anne of Denmark; the grandson of Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband, Henry Lord Darnley; the great-grandson of James V and his French wife, Mary of Guise; and the great-great-grandson of King James IV who died at Flodden Field. Charles was the tenth monarch of the House of Stewart/Stuart.(2.12)
Charles was born a Scotsman. But he was raised in England. From the time that he was three years old, until he attained the age of thirty-three years, Charles was brought up learning the English, not Scottish, point of view. The affairs of Scotland were handled by a group of forty-seven Councillors to his father, James VI/I, who had gone south to administer the combined kingdoms from London. The subject of religion was, no doubt, a topic that the young prince would have been taught. And it would have been the English point of view of religion that he learned.
The icons below link to additional sections devoted to the history of the Covenanters.
2.12 The information for this chapter on the National Covenant and the coincident English Civil Wars was primarily obtained from the following books: The Life Of Oliver Cromwell, Lord-Protector Of The Commonwealth Of England, Scotland, And Ireland, by J. Brotherton, 1755; Cromwell Against The Scots: The Last Anglo-Scottish War 1650-1652, by John D. Grainger 1997; The Isles: A History, by Norman Davies 1999; A Concise History Of Scotland, by Fitzroy Maclean 1970; Monarchs Of Scotland, by Stewart Ross 1990; Cromwell: The Lord Protector, by Antonia Fraser 1973; World Leaders Past And Present: Oliver Cromwell, by Lawrence Kaplan 1986. Certain particular items are footnoted separately.
