Latest / The Story of Scotland: Clans, Crowns, and the Fight for Identity — Fexingo History / The Killing Time: Scotland's Covenanters Under the Stuart Boot
Transcript
- Luna: So we've talked a lot about the Jacobites and the clans, but there's this other thread in Scottish history that feels almost like a parallel story — the Covenanters. Lucas: Absolutely. And it's one that doesn't get as much airtime, but it's every bit as dramatic. The Covenanters were Scottish Presbyterians who signed a series of agreements — covenants — in the 17th century to defend their form of church governance against royal interference. And for that, they were brutally persecuted. Lucas: The period from about 1660 to 1688 is often called 'The Killing Time', and it's exactly what it sounds like. The government, first under Charles II and then James VII, sent troops to hunt down Covenanters, execute them without trial, and crush their illegal open-air sermons known as 'field conventicles'. Luna: Before we dive in, I just want to mention — this kind of deep history is why we do this show. We deliberately don't run ads on these conversations, because we think the story should speak for itself. If you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Anyway, you were saying about the field conventicles? Lucas: Right — those field conventicles were gatherings in remote glens or on hillsides, often with hundreds of people, to hear a sermon from a banned minister. They were illegal, but for many, worshipping without a state-approved bishop was worth the risk. Lucas: The government saw this as outright rebellion. In 1662, the Scottish Parliament passed an Act of Supremacy, which basically said the king was head of the church. Anyone who refused to accept that — including ministers — was kicked out of their pulpit. Thousands were ejected, and they started preaching in the fields. Luna: So it's a direct conflict between the Stuart monarchy's idea of authority and the people's idea of conscience. Lucas: Exactly. And the man who became the face of the crackdown was John Graham of Claverhouse, later Viscount Dundee. You might remember him from the Jacobite episode — he died at Killiecrankie. But before that, he earned the nickname 'Bluidy Clavers' for his pursuit of Covenanters. Lucas: Claverhouse was a professional soldier, and he was ruthless. He'd sweep through the southwest of Scotland, where Covenanters were strongest, demanding oaths of allegiance and executing anyone who refused. Luna: What about the actual battles? I know there was one at Bothwell Bridge. Lucas: Bothwell Bridge, 1679 — that was the big one. A Covenanter army of maybe six thousand men had gathered after a smaller victory at Drumclog, where they actually defeated Claverhouse's dragoons. But at Bothwell, they were up against a government army under the Duke of Monmouth, the king's illegitimate son. Lucas: The Covenanters were badly led and divided. They lost the bridge, and Monmouth's cavalry cut them down. About four hundred were killed, and over a thousand taken prisoner. Many were shipped off to the colonies as indentured servants. Luna: So it wasn't just execution — it was deportation too. Lucas: Yeah. And that's a lesser-known part of it. But the most infamous episode has to be the Wigtown martyrs. In 1685, two women — Margaret McLauchlan, aged about 63, and Margaret Wilson, aged 18 — were tied to stakes on the Solway Firth and drowned by the incoming tide because they refused to swear an oath abjuring the Covenant. Luna: That's horrific. And it's the kind of detail that makes you realise how personal this persecution was. Lucas: It was. And it wasn't just the rank and file. The Archbishop of St Andrews, James Sharp, was himself a former Covenanter who switched sides. He became a hated figure, and in 1679, a group of Covenanters dragged him out of his coach on Magus Moor and stabbed him to death. Lucas: That assassination set off a wave of reprisals. The government passed what was called the 'Apologetical Declaration' — basically, anyone who didn't actively denounce the murder was considered an enemy of the state. It was a trap, and it led to mass executions. Luna: So the Covenanters were fighting a kind of guerrilla war, but also a war of conscience. Lucas: Exactly. They didn't have an army that could win in the field after Bothwell. But they kept holding conventicles, kept refusing to bow to bishops. And their ministers — like Alexander Peden, who preached in the hills for years, always on the run — became legendary figures. Lucas: Peden was known as 'the Prophet' because people believed he had the gift of foresight. He'd often warn his congregation that the dragoons were coming, and they'd scatter. He died in 1686, just before the end of the persecution. Luna: And what ended it? The Glorious Revolution, right? Lucas: Yes, in 1688, when William of Orange took the throne, the pressure eased. But it wasn't a clean victory. The Covenanters wanted a full restoration of Presbyterian church government, and they got it in 1690 — but many felt the new regime wasn't strict enough. Some Covenanters, like the Cameronians, refused to accept any state church at all. Luna: It's a story that leaves you with a lot of questions about how far people will go for what they believe. Lucas: Absolutely. And the legacy is still visible today — in the martyrs' monuments across the Lowlands, in the names of churches, in the very DNA of Scottish Presbyterianism. The Killing Time shaped a national identity of stubborn resistance to authority. Luna: I want to come back to one thing you mentioned earlier — the Cameronians. Who were they exactly? Lucas: They were the most hardline Covenanters, followers of Richard Cameron, a minister who was killed in a skirmish at Airds Moss in 1680. They refused to accept any compromise with the state, and they later formed their own regiment in the British Army — the Cameronians, which existed until 1968. They carried their Bibles into battle. Luna: That's incredible. So the military tradition and the religious tradition merged. Lucas: Exactly. And the Cameronian regiment was known for its discipline and its piety. They'd hold prayer meetings before fighting. It's a direct line from those hill preachers to a modern British infantry battalion. Lucas: But you know, the Killing Time also produced some of the most haunting literature in Scottish history. The 'Naphtali' and 'The Cloud of Witnesses' are collections of the testimonies of executed Covenanters — their last words on the scaffold. They're raw, passionate, and they give you a real sense of what these people believed. Luna: I'd love to read those. It's a side of Scottish history that feels almost like a different country from the clan battles and the Jacobite risings. Lucas: It is. And that's why it's worth telling. The Covenanters remind us that Scotland's identity isn't just about tartan and bagpipes — it's also about a fierce, sometimes bloody, commitment to conscience. Lucas: And the irony is that the same Stuart monarchy that crushed them would later be overthrown by the Glorious Revolution, which was itself justified by arguments about religious liberty. The Covenanters were ahead of their time in many ways. Luna: It makes you wonder how things might have been different if the Stuarts had been more tolerant. Lucas: A counterfactual that historians love to debate. But the reality is that the Killing Time left deep scars. When you walk through a place like the Wigtown martyrs' memorial, you feel the weight of that history. And it's a story that deserves to be remembered.