The Powder Keg of Scottish Religious Politics

On the morning of July 23, 1637, history took an unexpected turn in Edinburgh’s St. Giles’ Cathedral when the first “missiles” of the British Civil War were launched—not cannonballs, but wooden stools. These improvised projectiles targeted the Bishop of Edinburgh and his dean as they attempted to introduce King Charles I’s new Book of Common Prayer. The chaotic scene—women wailing, men shouting accusations of “Popery,” and clergy fleeing with their vestments torn—marked the eruption of tensions simmering for decades.

Scotland’s religious landscape had become a tinderbox. Unlike England’s gradual Reformation, Scotland’s had been a fervent Calvinist revolution, deeply suspicious of any ritual resembling Catholicism. Charles I, raised in England and ignorant of Scottish sensibilities, sought to impose Anglican uniformity across his kingdoms. His 1633 coronation in Edinburgh (eight years after his Westminster ceremony) already hinted at trouble; Scots reluctantly accepted royal authority but bristled at his High Church reforms. The 1636 Book of Canons, granting bishops sweeping powers, and now the prayer book—derided as a “Popish-English-Scottish-Mass-Service-Book” by preacher John Row—were steps too far.

The Prayer Book Riot and Its Aftermath

The riot was no spontaneous outburst. For months, Calvinist ministers like Robert Blair and David Dickson had railed against Archbishop William Laud’s “tyrannical bishops,” framing them as betrayers of Scotland’s covenant with God. When the prayer book’s introduction was delayed from Easter to July 1637, opponents organized. As stools flew in St. Giles’, parallel protests erupted across Edinburgh: at the Old Kirk, congregations booed priests into silence; at Greyfriars, the bishop-designate fled under a barrage of insults.

Charles fatally misread the crisis. Advised by anglicized Scots like the Duke of Hamilton, he dismissed the unrest as fringe radicalism. Yet the rioters were not marginal—they were craftsmen, merchants, and gentry, united by a vision of Scotland as a “new Israel” resisting “Baal’s priests” (Laud’s bishops). Their grievance wasn’t against monarchy but against London’s interference in Scotland’s Kirk.

The National Covenant: A Revolution in Parchment

By winter 1638, dissent crystallized into the National Covenant. Drafted by hardline lawyer Archibald Johnston, this document—signed at Greyfriars Kirk on February 28 amid hours of psalms and sermons—blended loyalty to the crown with defiance of its religious policies. It framed Scotland’s resistance as a sacred duty to uphold a 1,300-year-old covenant with God (a myth tracing Scottish Christianity to 310 AD). Copies circulated nationwide, gathering thousands of signatures, including women’s—a radical act for the era.

Charles, interpreting the Covenant as treason, prepared for war. But his efforts faltered: English troops, underfunded and demoralized, balked at fighting fellow Protestants. At Kelso in 1639, a Scottish force led by Alexander Leslie routed English cavalry, exposing Charles’s weakness. The resulting Treaty of Berwick was a sham; both sides rearmed, and by 1640, Scotland’s Covenanters had effectively seceded from royal control.

The Ripple Effect: England’s Crisis and the Road to War

Scotland’s rebellion exposed cracks in Charles’s other kingdoms. In England, Puritan MPs sympathized with the Covenanters, while taxpayers resisted funding a “Bishops’ War.” The 1640 Short Parliament, summoned to approve war taxes, instead revived grievances over a decade of personal rule. Meanwhile, Charles’s flirtation with raising Catholic Irish troops—via the Earl of Antrim—alienated Protestants.

Thomas Wentworth, Charles’s viceroy in Ireland, urged tougher measures, but his strategy backfired. The Scots, now allied with English dissidents, invaded northern England, forcing Charles to recall Parliament in 1641—this time, the Long Parliament, which would dismantle his authority.

Legacy: From Stools to Sovereignty

The Stool Rebellion’s consequences were profound:
– Religious Fractures: It entrenched Scotland’s Presbyterian identity and fueled England’s Puritan movement.
– Political Revolution: The Covenanters’ success inspired English Parliamentarians to challenge royal absolutism, leading to the 1642 Civil War.
– British Unrest: The crisis proved Charles’s three kingdoms (England, Scotland, Ireland) couldn’t be governed as one—a lesson his son, Charles II, would learn too late.

Today, the National Covenant remains a symbol of Scottish resistance, while the stool-throwing at St. Giles’ is remembered as the spark that lit the British Civil War—a war not just over crowns, but over conscience.