Scotland under the Commonwealth

Scotland under the Commonwealth is the history of the Kingdom of Scotland between the declaration that the kingdom was part of the Commonwealth of England in February 1652, and the Restoration of the monarchy with Scotland regaining its position as an independent kingdom, in June 1660.

After the execution of Charles I in 1649, the Scottish Parliament declared his son Charles II to be King of Scotland, England and Ireland. The English responded with an invasion led by Oliver Cromwell, resulting in defeats for the Scots at Dunbar and then at Worcester, opening the way for the English conquest of the country. Under the Tender of Union, Scotland was declared part of a Commonwealth with England and Ireland in 1652, but despite repeated attempts, an act was not passed in Westminster to ratify the union until 1657. Under the terms of the union, the Scots gained 30 members of parliament, but many posts were not filled, or fell to English agents of the government, and had very little say at Westminster. Initially the government was run by eight commissioners and adopted a policy of undermining the political power of the nobility in favour of the "meaner sort". From 1655 it was replaced by a new Council of Scotland, headed by Irish peer Lord Broghill, and began attempts to win over the traditional landholders. The regime built a series of major citadels and minor forts at immense cost. The Scottish legal system was suspended, but some courts and institutions were gradually restored. Generally the regime was successful in enforcing law and order and suppressing banditry. There was a major Royalist rising in the Highlands in 1653–1655 led by William Cunningham, Earl of Glencairn and John Middleton. After initial success, it suffered from internal divisions and petered out after defeat at the Battle of Dalnaspidal in 1654.

The Commonwealth extended toleration to Protestants, including sectaries, but the only significant group were a small number of Quakers. The Kirk that had been established at the Reformation and had been largely united since the Declaration of the Covenant in 1638, was divided into Resolutioners and more hard line Protesters by the issue of co-operation with the crown. The regime tended to favour the Protestors giving them control over the universities. The country was relatively highly taxed, but gained access to English markets. The era was remembered by one Presbyterian divine as one of prosperity, but not everywhere benefitted from economic expansion. There was an attempt to create national symbols with the revival of the union flag and unite coin. After the death of Oliver Cromwell and the fall of his son Richard's regime, General Monck marched the army in Scotland south and facilitated the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.

Having supported Parliament in the First English Civil War (1642–46) under the Solemn League and Covenant, the Covenanter government in Scotland came under the control of the Engagers. As part of a Second English Civil War, they invaded England in support of royalist risings, and were defeated by the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Preston (1648). With many of its leaders captured, the Engagement regime fell in the Whiggamore Raid and the radical Presbyterian Kirk Party returned to power. After the execution of Charles I in January 1649, England was declared a Commonwealth. As soon as news of Charles I's execution reached Scotland, his son was proclaimed king as Charles II of Great Britain by the Scottish Parliament. After the failure of an attempted Highland rising led by James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, Charles accepted the offer of conditional support from the Covenanters, arriving in June 1650 and signing the Covenants. The English responded with an army of 16,000 under Cromwell, which crossed the border in July 1650, while an English fleet acted in support. On 3 September 1650 the English army defeated the Scots under David Leslie at the Battle of Dunbar, taking over 10,000 prisoners and then occupying Edinburgh, taking control of the Lowlands. Charles could now more easily make an alliance with the moderate Covenanters. He was crowned at Scone on 1 January 1651 and a new army was assembled. In June 1651 Cromwell advanced against the Scots under Leslie at Stirling. The Scots army with the King set off for England, but there was no rising in their favour, and the army was caught at Worcester by forces under Cromwell. On 3 September it was decisively defeated, bringing the civil wars to an end. Charles escaped to the continent, an English army under George Monck mopped up the remaining garrisons in Scotland and Cromwell emerged as the most important figure in the Commonwealth.

Six days after the victory at Worcester, a committee of the English Rump parliament was established with the aim of drafting a bill that would declare "the right of the Commonwealth to so much of Scotland as is now under [its] force". By December this plan for simple annexation had softened, considering "the good of this island", for one in which Scotland would be incorporated into the "free state and Commonwealth of England". This "Tender of Union" was proclaimed at the mercat cross in Edinburgh by eight trumpeters on 4 February 1652. Three days later, the King's arms were taken down from the cross and ceremoniously hanged from the public gallows. Eventually 29 out of 31 shires and 44 of the 58 burghs assented to the Tender and subscribed to the oath that "Scotland be incorporated into and made one Commonwealth with England".

On 3 April 1652 a bill for an Act for incorporating Scotland into one Commonwealth with England was given a first and a second reading in the Rump Parliament, but it failed to return from its committee stage before the Rump was dissolved. A similar act was introduced into the Barebones Parliament, but it too failed to be enacted before that parliament was dissolved. On 12 April 1654, the Council of State issued and Ordinance for uniting Scotland into one Commonwealth with England, which would be the "Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland", under the authority of the Instrument of Government that made Cromwell Lord Protector. This remained the legal basis of the union until the Ordinance became an Act of Union under the Second Protectorate Parliament on 26 June 1657.

Under the terms of the union Scotland received thirty seats in the enlarged Westminster parliament, ten from the burghs and twenty from the shires. There were only five Scottish members out of 140 in the Barebones parliament and only twenty-one were sent to the Protector's first parliament (1654–55). It was not until the Protector's second parliament (1656–57) that thirty were sent. For Richard Cromwell's parliament in 1658–59, of the thirty elected, only eleven were Scots, and, of the remainder, ten were army officers. The Scots in Westminster were treated with general xenophobia, and, when not ignored, they faced repeated motions to exclude them. One Englishman described them as "a wooden leg tied to a natural body".

Under the Tender of Union, the Scottish Parliament was removed, along with the monarchy, and no institution could meet except with the sanction of the Westminster parliament. Initially the country was run by eight English commissioners: Oliver St John, Sir Henry Vane, Richard Salwey, George Fenwick, John Lambert, Richard Deane, Robert Tichborne, and George Monck. In its early stages the regime deliberately attempted to break the influence of the Scottish nobility who had organised invasions of England in 1648 and 1651. Many were in exile, prison, deprived of office or heavily burdened with fines and debt. Instead the Commonwealth attempted to promote what Cromwell called the "meaner sort", particularly urban elites and small landholders. In 1655 the Irish peer Lord Broghill arrived in Scotland to act as President of the new Council in Scotland. This was part of an attempt to recast the government along civilian lines and to begin to win over the major landholders to the regime. The council was made up of six Englishmen, Monck, Samuel Disbrowe, Charles Howard, Adrian Scrope, Thomas Cooper and Nathaniel Whetham, and two Scots, John Swinton and William Lockhart, they were later joined by Sir Edward Rhodes as a ninth member.