The Killing Time
The Killing Time was a period of conflict in Scottish history between the Presbyterian Covenanter movement, based largely in the south west of the country, and the government forces of Kings Charles II and James VII. The period, roughly from 1680 to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, was subsequently called the Killing Time by Robert Wodrow in his The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution, published in 1721-1722. It is an important part of the martyrology of the Church of Scotland.
Soon after the Restoration, episcopacy was reintroduced into the Church of Scotland, returning the situation to that existing prior to the expulsion of the bishops by the Glasgow General Assembly in 1638, and overthrowing the Presbyterian establishment favoured by the Covenanters. Church ministers were confronted with a stark choice: accept the new situation or lose their livings. Although most conformed, up to a third of the ministry refused, many abandoning their own parishes rather than waiting to be forced out by the government. Most of these vacancies were in the south-west of Scotland, an area particularly strong in its Covenanting sympathies. Some of the ministers also took to preaching in the open fields in conventicles, often attracting thousands of worshipers.
In the years that followed, the Stuart regime, worried about the possibility of disorder and rebellion and resentful of the Covenanters' having made their fighting for Charles II during the civil wars conditional upon the maintenance of Scottish Presbyterianism, attempted to stamp this movement out, with varying degrees of success. Fines were levied upon those who failed to attend government-approved churches, the death penalty was imposed for preaching at field conventicles, torture of suspects with the boot and thumbscrews became a tactic of first resort, thousands of highlanders (the 'Highland Host') were invited to plunder the Covenanting shires. These policies provoked armed rebellions in 1666 and 1679, which were quickly suppressed. This led to further dissent, such as the 1680 Sanquhar Declaration, read in Sanquhar by Reverend Richard Cameron, renouncing all allegiance to the crown.
In response to this new element of outright political sedition, the Scottish Privy Council authorized extra-judicial field executions of those caught in arms or who refused to swear loyalty to the king. In 1685, John Brown was executed for the latter offence, while the 18 year old Margaret Wilson and 68 year old Margaret McLauchlan were drowned for refusing to renounce the Covenanters.
[edit] Bibliography
- Raymond Campbell Patterson, 'A Land Afflicted: Scotland & the Covenanter Wars, 1638-90' (1998)
- Ian Cowan, 'The Scottish Covenanters, 1660-1688' (London, 1976)
- Tim Harris, 'Restoration: Charles II and his Kingdoms, 1660–1685' (London, 2005)
- Tim Harris, 'Revolution: The Great Crisis of the British Monarchy, 1685-1720' (London, 2006)
