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This article examines the economic causes and consequences of the Scottish invasion and occupation of north-eastern England (1640–41 and 1644–47). It suggests that the royal seizure of Scottish mercantile vessels and their impounding in north-eastern English ports were key factors behind the Covenanter invasion of 1640 which have previously been overlooked. It analyses the extent of mercantile support for the Covenanters on both sides of the Border whilst examining the level and nature of trade between north-eastern England and southern and eastern Scotland as a commercial barometer throughout the crisis. The article compares the economic consequences of the 1640 and 1644 invasions, for both the Covenanters and north-eastern England, and explores the impact of fiscal impositions by the Scottish army upon the host economy. It ultimately argues that economic and commercial motivations should be considered alongside religious and political grievances usually associated with the Covenanting movement and provides an economic addendum to Covenanting historiography and that of the Civil War in north-eastern England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the methods used by the Covenanters who led the second Scottish Reformation. They sought to carry on the construction of a Church community, an ambitious scheme previously initiated by the Scottish Reformers, John Knox and Andrew Melville. The Covenanters were eager to build the Church community and to "purify" the Church and the society from any Catholic and Anglican influences. Nevertheless, the spiritual undertakings of the Covenanters were re-defined in the light of the complex relationships between the Church and State, both in England and in Scotland. Resistance, exclusion, assimilation and elements of uniformity of practice are symbols of the links between the Church of Scotland and the Church of England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates propaganda deployed in support of the Covenanting revolution in Scotland during the Bishops' Wars (1638-40). It attempts to broaden the category of 'British' history by focusing on discourse instead of high politics, and analyses printed tracts - complemented by select manuscript sources - to reconstruct the Covenanters' theoretical approach to creating an English public to support their cause. The novelty of the 'explosion' of print in England in the 1640s is now widely acknowledged, and numerous books and articles have argued about whether or not this constituted a public sphere. This article, however, presupposes a 'space' for public debate and focuses instead on the conceptual framework driving Covenanter appeals. It concludes that the Covenanters believed that rational debate in a public forum would expose truth, which would naturally persuade the English people to support their cause and, in turn, pressure the king into making the desired concessions. But this was not how the actual English public functioned: there was an important disparity between the theory of godly rational debate and the reality of a rather 'wild', competing, and self-interested plurality of publics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]