View source for Solemn League and Covenant

{{Short description|1643 agreement between Scottish Covenanters and English Parliamentarians}}
{{for multi|the 1912 document|Ulster Covenant|the 1982 proposal|English Covenant}}
{{redirect-distinguish|Covenant (Scotland)|Scottish Covenant}}
[[File:Solemn League and Covenant.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Title page]] of the Solemn League and Covenant.]]
The '''Solemn League and Covenant''' was an agreement between the Scottish [[Covenanters]] and the leaders of the English [[Roundhead|Parliamentarians]] in 1643 during the [[First English Civil War]], a theatre of conflict in the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]]. On 17 August 1643, the [[Church of Scotland]] (the Kirk) accepted it and on 25 September 1643 so did the English Parliament and the [[Westminster Assembly]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |date=19 August 2014 |title=Solemn League and Covenant |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/553173/Solemn-League-and-Covenant |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] }}</ref>

==English Parliament (First Civil War)==
At the time, the [[Protestant]] leaders of the [[Parliament of England|English Parliament]] were in conflict with [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]]. Fearing [[Irish Catholic]] troops could join the [[Cavalier|Royalist]] army, Parliament requested the aid of the Scots. The [[Presbyterian church governance|Presbyterian]] Covenanters promised their aid, on condition that the Scottish system of church government was adopted in England. This was acceptable to the majority of the English [[Long Parliament]], as many [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]]s were Presbyterians, while others preferred allying with the Scots rather than losing the Civil War.

[[File:English Puritans Taking the Covenant.jpg|thumb|180px|A 17th-century playing card shows English [[Puritans]] taking the Covenant]]
After some haggling a document called "''[[s:Solemn League and Covenant|The Solemn League and Covenant]]''" was drawn up. This was in effect a treaty between the English parliament and its [[Parliament of Scotland|Scottish counterpart]] for the preservation of the [[reformed religion]] in Scotland, the reformation of religion in England and Ireland "according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed churches", and the "extirpation of [[Roman Catholicism|popery]] [and] [[Anglicanism|prelacy]]". It did not explicitly mention [[Presbyterianism]], and included some ambiguous formulations which left the door open to the [[English Independents]], another strong faction on the English Parliamentary side, particularly in the parliamentary armies. It was subscribed to by many in England, Scotland, and Ireland, approved by the English [[Long Parliament]], and, with some slight modifications, by the Westminster [[Assembly of Divines]].

However, not all those on the English Parliamentarian side were happy with this arrangement and some, like [[John Lilburne]], chose to leave the parliamentary armies rather than take the oath prescribed in the Act enforcing the ''Solemn League and Covenant''.{{sfn|Firth|1893|p=244}}

The agreement meant that the Covenanters sent another army south to England to fight on the Parliamentarian side in the First English Civil War. When the Scots army entered England by invitation of the English Parliament in January 1644 the Parliamentary [[Committee of Safety (England)|Committee of Safety]] was replaced by an ad hoc committee representative of both kingdoms which, by parliamentary ordinance of 16 February, was formally constituted the [[Committee of Both Kingdoms]]. Its object was the management of peace overtures to, or making war on, King [[Charles I of England|Charles I]]. The Scots withdrew from the committee after the end of the First Civil War, although it continued to sit and from then on was known as the Derby House Committee (as it sat in Derby House in London).<ref>{{OGL-attribution|{{cite web |publisher=National Archives |date=12 August 2009 |title=Committee of Both Kingdoms ("Derby House Committee"): Books |url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/details?Uri=C13563}}
}}</ref>

==Engagement and Charles I (Second Civil War)==
After the Royalists had lost the First Civil War, [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] was able to enter into an "[[Engagers|Engagement]]" with the majority of the Covenanters in which they agreed to support him in the [[Second English Civil War]] against their mutual enemy the English Independents, in return for Charles imposing Presbyterianism for three years on England. In 1648 the Royalists and the Covenanters were defeated at the [[Battle of Preston (1648)|Battle of Preston]], and Charles was executed in January 1649.

==Charles II (Third Civil War)==
[[Image:King Charles II plaque.jpg|thumb|Plaque marking the signing of the Solemn League and Covenant by [[Charles II of England|Charles II]].]]
After the [[Kirk Party]] seized power from the unsuccessful and therefore discredited [[Engagers]], the new Scottish Covenanter government persuaded the exiled [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] to agree to the terms of the ''Solemn League and Covenant'' in the [[Treaty of Breda (1650)]]. However, the defeat of the Royalist and Scottish army at the [[Battle of Worcester]] in 1651 ended the relevance of the ''Solemn League and Covenant'' as the power of the Presbyterians was broken on both sides of the border.

==Restoration and the Sedition Act==
After the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] the English Parliament passed the [[Sedition Act 1661]], which declared that the ''Solemn League and Covenant'' was unlawful, was to be abjured by all persons holding public offices, and was to be burnt by the common hangman.

==See also==
*[[Protestation Returns of 1641–1642]]
*[[List of treaties]]

==Notes==
{{more citations needed|date=August 2014}}
{{reflist|30em}}

==References==

*{{Cite DNB |last=Firth |first=Charles Harding |wstitle=Lilburne, John |volume=33 |pages=243–250}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|Solemn League and Covenant}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090430154820/http://www.dunbarmartyrs.com/ Dunbar Martyrs 1650]
*[http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/solemn-league-covenant.htm The Solemn League and Covenant] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050618084807/http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/solemn-league-covenant.htm |date=18 June 2005 }} British Civil Wars website
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Scottish religion}}

[[Category:1643 in England]]
[[Category:1643 in Scotland]]
[[Category:First English Civil War]]
[[Category:Presbyterianism in Scotland]]
[[Category:Puritanism in England]]
[[Category:Treaties of England]]
[[Category:Treaties of Scotland]]
[[Category:1643 treaties]]
[[Category:England–Scotland relations]]
[[Category:17th-century documents]]
[[Category:Church of Scotland]]
[[Category:Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms]]