Latest / The Story of Scotland: Clans, Crowns, and the Fight for Identity — Fexingo History / The Killing Time: Scotland's Covenanter Martyrs
Transcript
- Lucas: We've covered a lot of Scotland's wars and politics — the battles, the kings, the clans. But I want to talk about a different kind of fight today. A fight over how you worship. What you believe. And whether the king gets to tell you what that is. Luna: You mean the Covenanters. Lucas: Exactly. The Covenanters were Scottish Presbyterians who signed a series of agreements — covenants — promising to maintain their form of church government without interference from the crown. And in the 17th century, that put them on a collision course with the Stuart kings. Luna: I've heard the name — 'Covenanter' — but I don't really know the story. Lucas: It's intense. After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, the king tried to impose bishops back onto the Scottish church. The Covenanters saw that as a betrayal of their Reformation principles. They refused. And the government responded with force. Lucas: What followed was a period of repression, especially in the south-west of Scotland. Armed dragoons — mounted soldiers — were sent to crush dissent. They hunted down preachers who held illegal outdoor services called conventicles, often on remote hillsides. Luna: How illegal are we talking? Lucas: Preaching at a conventicle was punishable by death. Just attending one could get you fined, imprisoned, or transported to the colonies. The government passed a series of acts — the 1662 Act of Uniformity, the 1670 Conventicle Act — making it harder and harder to be a Presbyterian without breaking the law. Luna: So people kept meeting anyway? Lucas: Yes. And the government kept cracking down. The man in charge of that crackdown in the 1680s was John Graham of Claverhouse — known to history as 'Bluidy Clavers' to his enemies, or 'Bonnie Dundee' to his supporters. He was a professional soldier, efficient, ruthless. Lucas: Claverhouse commanded a troop of dragoons. They would sweep through the countryside, interrogating people, demanding to know if they'd taken the oath of allegiance. If you refused, you could be tortured on the spot with thumbscrews or the boot — a device that crushed your leg. Luna: That's horrific. Lucas: It was. The worst period came between 1684 and 1685 — what Covenanters later called 'the Killing Time'. Summary executions were common. People were shot without trial simply for refusing to say 'God save the king'. Lucas: One famous incident happened at Wigtown in 1685. Two women — Margaret MacLauchlan, aged about 60, and Margaret Wilson, aged 18 — were tied to stakes in the Solway Firth and drowned by the incoming tide. They'd refused to abjure the Covenant. Luna: That's the Wigtown Martyrs. I've seen their monument. Lucas: Exactly. Their story became emblematic. But there were hundreds of others — men like James Renwick, the last Covenanter leader executed in 1688. He was only 26 when he was hanged at the Grassmarket in Edinburgh. Luna: What was Renwick's role? Lucas: He was a preacher and organiser. He'd studied in the Netherlands, came back to lead the remaining hardline Covenanters after most of the movement had been crushed. He issued the Sanquhar Declaration in 1680, which basically declared war on Charles II, saying he had forfeited his right to rule. Luna: That's pretty bold. Lucas: It was. But it also isolated the Covenanters from more moderate Presbyterians. By the time James VII came to the throne in 1685, the persecution actually intensified — James was Catholic, and he saw Presbyterians as a threat. But the Covenanters kept meeting, kept preaching. Lucas: The movement had its own heroes and its own defeats. The Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679 was a major setback — government forces routed a Covenanter army of about 6,000 men, killing hundreds and taking over a thousand prisoners. Many were later executed or shipped to the American colonies as indentured servants. Luna: So the Covenanters lost. Lucas: Militarily, yes. But their legacy is huge. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the accession of William and Mary, Presbyterianism was restored as Scotland's national church. The Covenanters' insistence on religious freedom — as they understood it — helped shape the idea that the crown couldn't dictate belief. Lucas: And that story is one we try to keep alive — not because we're selling anything, but because it matters. And that's actually a good moment to mention something. We keep this show going without ads, without sponsors. If you find value in these conversations and want to support them, there's a simple way: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just an option for those who want to help. Luna: Yeah, it really helps keep the show independent. Lucas: Exactly. So back to the Covenanters. After the Killing Time, many survivors emigrated to Ulster, or to America. The Ulster-Scots, who we covered in an earlier episode, were largely descendants of these Presbyterians. And the story of the Covenanters became a founding myth for Presbyterianism in both places. Luna: I've heard the phrase 'the Cameronians' too — is that connected? Lucas: Yes. The Cameronians were a radical offshoot named after Richard Cameron, another Covenanter leader killed in 1680. They refused to accept any government that didn't uphold the Covenant. Later, they formed a regiment in the British Army — the Cameronians, which existed until 1968. They carried their Bibles into battle. Luna: So the legacy lasted. Lucas: It did. And it's still visible. There are Covenanter memorials across Scotland — at Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh, where many were held prisoner, and at sites like Drumclog and Airds Moss. The story became a cornerstone of Scottish Presbyterian identity, especially in the 19th century, when it was romanticised in novels and poetry. Lucas: But it's also a complicated legacy. The Covenanters were fighting for their own religious liberty, but they weren't necessarily tolerant of others — they wanted a Presbyterian Scotland, not a pluralist one. That's something historians debate. Luna: Were they fighting for freedom of conscience, or just for their own church to be in charge? Lucas: That's the question. For them, they believed Presbyterianism was the only true form of church government, and they thought the king had no right to impose bishops. But they weren't arguing for a separation of church and state — they wanted the state to enforce their version of Christianity. Still, in the context of the 17th century, their resistance was remarkable. Lucas: And it had real costs. Families torn apart, people killed on moorland, prisoners dying in squalid conditions. The story of the Covenanters is a reminder that the fight over identity in Scotland wasn't just about clans or crowns — it was about what you believed, and what you were willing to suffer for it. Luna: That gives me a lot to think about. Lucas: It's one of those chapters that doesn't get as much attention as the battles, but it shaped Scotland just as deeply. Next time, maybe we'll look at how that Presbyterian identity evolved into the Scottish Enlightenment. Luna: I'd like that.