The Killing Times

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In Scotland in 1638, the National Covenant set out the belief that there should be no interference by kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Covenanters, as they were known, were Scots who signed the National Covenant. However, the Stuart kings believed in the Divine Right of Kings – amongst other things, they believed that they were the spiritual heads of the Church of Scotland. The Covenanters and their supporters could not and would not accept this; no man, not even a king, could be spiritual head of their church. The Covenanters fiercely believed that only Jesus Christ could be spiritual head of a Christian church.

In 1639 a Scottish army under General Leslie raised the standard of the National Covenant at Duns Law

The entire Covenanting struggle was built around this conflict of beliefs – people against king. King Charles I had introduced the Book of Common Prayer to Scotland in 1637, to the anger and resentment of the populace. Famously, Jenny Geddes, at the first introduction of the new liturgy, is reported to have stood up in church, thrown her stool at the priest and shouted out Dare ye say mass in ma lug? That particular service was abandoned. Trouble and resentment continued under Charles I. After his beheading, under the Protectorate support for Cromwell waxed and waned within the Scottish Church. However, when Charles II landed at Garmouth in Moray in Scotland in 1650, he went on to sign the National Covenant, to the delight of the Scots. He was crowned King (of Scotland) at Scone in 1651. However, it was not until after Cromwell’s death that Charles took, in 1660, the crown of Great Britain. But Charles II went back on his word to the Scots and assumed superiority over the church. He appointed bishops and declared that opposition to the new liturgy would be treason. The Scots would have been loyal to this member of the Stuart dynasty but for that one sticking point. From 1638, when the Covenant was signed, until 1688 when Prince William of Orange made a bloodless invasion of Great Britain, a great deal of death, torture, imprisonment, and transportation would follow. These times, particularly between 1680 and 1688, became known as The Killing Times.

Because of the fundamental conflict in beliefs the Covenanters were obliged to hold their religious services in secret, and these services were known as Conventicles, held in out of the way places, often in the moors.

Look-out point for conventicles,
Conventicle site where Alexander Peden preached,
Site of conventicle,
Auchengilloch, conventicle site
The Devil's Beeftub

If a Scot was found under suspicious circumstances by the troops, he could be asked on the spot to swear allegiance to the King; if he was also found to be carrying a bible his life was immediately in danger. The moors of Lanarkshire and Ayrshire hold many memorials to Covenanters killed on the spot by suspicious troops. Some of the martyrs’ graves:

Alexander Padon,
John Brown,
Deerness memorial (200 Covenanters drowned when their prison ship was wrecked,
Reverend John Blackadder and others on the Bass Rock
Old Dailly church with the graves of 5 Covenanters,
William Gordon of Earlston
David Steel,
John McGeachan
George Corson and John Hair,
Two Covenanters,
John Murchie and Daniel Mieklewrick ,
William Adam,
Thomas Brown, James Wood, Andrew Sword, John Weddell and John Clyde,
Auchencloy (‘Black’ James McMichael and 3 or 4 others murdered here by Claverhouse in 1684,
Alex Linn,
Margaret Wilson,
John Hunter,
Matthew Millraith,
James and Robert Duns, Thomas and John Stevensons, James McClive, Andrew McCall
Unknown Covenanters,
Daniel McMichael
Seven martyrs who died at Ayr
Martyr's Monument, Grassmarket, Edinburgh
Covenanters' Monument, Muirkirk, Ayrshire
Richard Cameron

There were many pitched battles between the Covenanters and troops of the King, led by the (in)famous Claverhouse (Bonnie Dundee or Bluidy Clavers, depending on which side of the religious divide you were on):
Battle of Bothwell Bridge
Battle of Airds Moss,
Battle of Drumclog,
Battle of Alford


Not all deaths were on the Covenanters’ side during the Killing Times:
Archbishop James Sharp,
The Trumpeter’s Well
the Royalist MacDougalls at Gylen Castle
Newark Castle, the scene of the murder of Royalist prisoners after the Battle of Philiphaugh


One of the suppressors of the Covenanters:
One of Claverhouse’s supporters, Sir Robert Grierson of Lag

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