Engagers

The Engagers were a faction of the Scottish Covenanters, who made "The Engagement" with King Charles I in December 1647 while he was imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle by the English Parliamentarians after his defeat in the First Civil War.

Background

In the 17th and 18th centuries, politics and religion were closely linked; it is impossible to understand differences between Engagers, Royalists or Kirk Party political views without an appreciation of these distinctions.

'Presbyterian' versus 'Episcopalian' implied differences in governance, not doctrine. Episcopalian meant rule by bishops, appointed by the monarch; Presbyterian structures were controlled by Elders, nominated by their congregations. Arguments over structure or governance of the church were as much about politics and the power of the monarch as religious practice; political divisions often centred on different interpretations of this.

The Protestant Reformation created a Church of Scotland, or 'kirk', Presbyterian in structure and governance, and predominantly Calvinist in doctrine. When James VI and I became king of England in 1603, a unified Church of Scotland and England governed by bishops became the first step in his vision of a centralised, Unionist state. Although both churches were nominally Episcopalian, they were very different in doctrine; even bishops in Scotland viewed many Church of England practices as little better than Catholicism.

Efforts by Charles I to impose uniform practices led to the 1638 National Covenant, whose signatories pledged to resist liturgical 'innovations'. In December 1638, bishops were expelled from the kirk; when Charles attempted to use military force, he was defeated in the 1639 and 1640 Bishops' Wars, which left the Covenanter party in control of Scotland.