First Bishops' War

First Bishops' War
Part of the Bishops' Wars
Signing of the National Covenant in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh
Date February - June 1639 Location Scotland Result Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
Scottish Royalists Kingdom of England	Scottish Covenanters
Commanders and leaders
Charles I James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Huntly (POW) James Gordon, 2nd Viscount Aboyne	Alexander Leslie James Graham, Earl of Montrose
Irish forces under Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim also mustered but played no part in the campaign.

The First Bishops' War was a conflict that took place in Scotland in 1639 between a Scottish political movement known as the Covenanters and forces loyal to King Charles I, who at that time was the king of both Scotland and England. Military activity was mostly limited to skirmishing in the north-east of Scotland. Scottish and English armies assembled at the border in June 1639 but withdrew without a battle after agreeing to a treaty. However, this failed to resolve the political tensions and fighting resumed the next year with the Second Bishops' War. The Bishops' Wars were the first of a series now called the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

The conflict was the result of tensions between Charles and his Scottish subjects which were exacerbated over the king's attempts to reform the Scottish Kirk. In opposition to these policies the Covenanters formed their own government and began the process of raising an army. These actions led Charles to order forces from England and Ireland to be raised to invade Scotland in support of Scottish royalists.

Charles' attempts to deal with the threat to his rule in Scotland failed with royalist forces in north-east Scotland being scattered, while the invasion from Ireland had to be aborted. Charles' generals advised against an invasion from England, which would have been the start of a long campaign. The conflict was ended by the Treaty of Berwick, which stipulated a return to the status quo ante bellum.