May: Charles surrenders to the Covenanters

Realising his military options are limited, Charles surrenders to the Scots and brings the First Civil War to an end. However, the rising militancy of the Parliamentary Independents and the growing effectiveness of the New Model Army only increased Scottish anxiety over both the strength of the New Model Army and its support for the Independents. They saw their entire rationale for entering the conflict, a full Presbyterian settlement for Britain along the lines of the Scottish kirk, in peril. The Solemn League and Covenant looked in jeopardy. The Covenanters, who had been essential to the Roundhead victory at Marston Moor, were becoming concerned. A far more radical Puritanism was now on the agenda - and they were terrified. Certain Scots Lords began to sound out the Royalist camp, hinting at a possible pact with Charles against the Independent controlled Army.

Late at night on the evening of April 27th 1646, Charles had his hair cut short, put on a false beard and a suit of brown clothes. Having told his Council of War he was going to London, he left the Oxford encampment with his chaplain, Michael Hudson, and one of the grooms of the Bedchamber, John Ashburnham. They headed towards London hoping for some kind of conciliatory sign from Westminster, but then changed tack heading north via St. Albans to Market Harborough where Charles thought he might receive word the Scottish Covenanters would enter an anti-Parliament alliance with him. When no sign appeared, Charles made towards King's Lynn where he hoped to embark for France, Scotland or Ireland. Anywhere. But news of his dramatic escape was now out. With every port closed and coastline guarded, he was forced to drop these plans and travel only by night. At Downham in Norfolk, he stayed four days at the Swan Inn hoping for news while burning reams of paper in his room.

With no way of leaving the country and a Westminster Parliament which had turned frighteningly militant, Charles surmised that his only hope for survival lay with the Covenanters. Frightened by Parliament's swing to the Puritan left, he believed the Covenanters could be convinced of the need for some kind of pact. Together with the Covenanters, he could forge a deal.

Accompanied by his two loyal staff, the King set out across the cold, bleak fens to make for those very rebels whom he had initially gone to war against so many years ago. At 6am on May 5th, 1646 the King of Great Britain arrived at the Saracen's Head at Southwell to surrender himself to the Scottish Covenanters.

The Covenanters, shocked by Charles's arrival, soon welcomed the Royal guest with open arms. In an age of monarchy, no solution to the troubles of the 1640s seemed possible without the King's sanction. And the Covenanters now held the lead card in the pack - a key bargaining position to use in their increasingly fraught relations with the English Parliament. With the King in their hands they could secure both the Presbyterian religious settlement and the money they were promised following their intervention at Marston Moor. They demanded Charles order the surrender of his troops still holding out in Wales, Newark and Oxford, as well as Montrose in Scotland and Antrim in Ireland, before setting off with their prize for Newcastle.

There they hoped to persuade the King to sign the Covenant, grant their wish and help introduce Presbyterianism. They assumed, not unreasonably, that since Charles had given himself up that was his intention. The King, however, had no intention of introducing Presbyterianism. Night and day, he happily argued the case for bishops and a Laudian Church of England. Charles enjoyed nothing more than a good theological knock-about. As King he was not in the business of granting concessions - he viewed his alignment with the Scots as a simple strategic move which would make Parliament offer him a better deal for fear of a Royalist treaty with the Scots. While he was in the company of the Scottish Covenanters, the haplessly cunning Charles indicated to Parliament that he would now be willing to agree to the terms offered to him at Uxbridge. Playing two sides off against each other was the surest way of guaranteeing that he would end up without any allies.

When the Independents at Westminster heard of Charles's treating with the Covenanters, fury erupted. A wave of anti-Scottish and anti-Presbyterian anger swept Parliament. The Covenanters, their old allies against the Popery and tyranny of Charles, were seen to be aligning themselves with the enemy. Parliament refused point blank to treat with Charles and expressed their fury towards the Scots for stealing 'their' King. As Charles hoped, the relationship between the Presbyterian Scots and Independent Parliament quickly broke down amidst mutual recrimination and he looked forward to exploiting the situation for his own benefit. The Scots demanded money owed to them for the invasion while the Parliamentarians wanted their King back.

But just as England and Scotland seemed on the verge of conflict, the third kingdom intervened. In an eery echo of the Irish Rebellion of '41, news hit Newcastle of a terrible Confederate victory in Ireland. For the frustrated Scottish Covenanters and the zealous Independents at Westminster, it showed that Antichrist still stalked the land. On Britain's doorstep, the forces of Catholicism reigned triumphant. For Charles, hope sprung eternal.

June: Battle of Benburb

A major victory for the Confederation of Kilkenny. The Scots Covenanters and English Parliamentarians reach a rapprochement following this Catholic victory. In June 1646, the Irish Confederate forces achieved one of their most brilliant but savage victories. For five long years, Ireland had been at war as Catholic Confederate troops fought running battles against Protestant English and Scottish forces. But after King Charles I had made peace with the Confederates, only the Scottish Covenanters fought on. Theirs was a brave but foolhardy decision.

At the Battle of Benburb, the Protestant forces were decimated. It was a bloody battle with all the ingrained viciousness of the island's sectarian conflict. The Confederate leader Owen Roe O'Neill was thirsting to avenge decades of Gaelic-Irish oppression at the hands of Protestant settlers, and he took it with interest. He commanded the field with brutality. 'At times in the lead, at times in their midst, the general was encouraging and inciting his men. The slaughter continued until the final disappearance of the last ray of twilight made further pursuit impossible. Numbers of the enemy were drowned in the Blackwater and in the lake of Knocknacloy.'

When news of this sweeping Catholic victory reached the Pope at Rome, he ordered a special Te Deum to be sung in O'Neill's honour at St. Peter's Cathedral. The Papacy smiled down as Ireland, after decades of oppression from the English, seemed to be on the verge of returning to the holy and apostolic Catholic Church. The forces of international Catholicism were once more on the march.

The Scottish troops holding Charles I prisoner in Newcastle panicked at this terrifying news. Their recent disagreements with the English Parliament over the fate of Charles I dissolved as the common enemy of Catholicism seemed once more to stalk the land. Instead of using the King as a bargaining chip to gain concessions from Parliament, the Covenanters decided to deal with Parliament directly so that they might, if necessary, form a revitalised alliance against the common Catholic enemy.

Content last updated: 07/01/2001

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