Battle of Mauchline Muir

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The Battle of Mauchline Muir was an encounter in June 1648 between Presbyterian rebels opposed to the Engagement and loyal forces acting for the government of Scotland, headed at the time by James Duke of Hamilton. It was fought near Loudoun Hill to the east of Kilmarnock in Ayrshire. The rebels were quickly dispersed by professional soldiers, commanded by John Middleton and James Livingstone, Earl of Callendar. Although in itself of minor importance the battle-and the events leading up to it-had a serious impact on the government's intention of sending an army to England to aid Charles I.

[edit] The Engagement

In the course of 1647 Hamilton and much of the Scottish nobility grew concerned for the fate of the king, a prisoner since the end of the First Civil War and increasingly under the control of the radicals in the New Model Army. A new government was formed, taking the place of the more radical Presbyterian party, headed by the Marquess of Argyll, committed to the letter of the Covenants of 1638 and 1643.

Hamilton had one major task before him, with two distinct elements, which proved impossible to reconcile: to reach an agreement with the king that would satisfy Argyll and the Kirk radicals. In December 1647 the Scottish government concluded a secret agreement with Charles-now a prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight-known as the Engagement. By this Charles promised to establish Presbyterianism in England on a three year trail basis-though he would not subscribe to the Covenant in person-in return for the aid of a Scots army. It was far less than the Scottish commissioners had hoped for, but it was as much as the king was prepared to give. Trouble was expected; and it was not long in coming.

[edit] Curse of God

For Hamilton and his party the Engagement was a major gamble. Unlike the Solemn League and Covenant it had neither been approved by the Scottish Parliament nor the General Assembly of the Church. In a sense it was an attempt by the aristocracy as a whole to regain control of Scottish politics, which they had been steadily losing since 1643. Much depended on the success in getting the other estates, especially the clergy, to accept a treaty which fell well short of the Covenanting ideal.

Even before parliament met in March 1648 opposition to the Engagement was growing in intensity. The Commission of the Kirk, the permanent executive of the General Assembly, openly declared that the king's concessions on religion were destructive to the Covenant. It was openly denounced from the pulpit throughout the parishes of Scotland, one minister going so far as to predict that Hamilton would bring the curse of God down upon himself and all of his posterity. Soon opposition at the local level was having a serious effect on Hamilton's recruitment drive. This was especially true in the south-west of Scotland, in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Galloway, fast emerging as the heartlands of the Covenant. The delay in raising an army meant that English royalist forces, already rising in the Second English Civil War were isolated and unsupported.

[edit] Troopers and Preachers

The government was forced to take severe measures to end resistance to the draft. James Turner, a professional soldier, was sent to Glasgow with an infantry regiment to force the magistrates to co-operate. His technique was simple but effective;

...I found my worke not very difficill; for I shortlie learnd to know that the quartering tuo or three troopers and halfe a dozen musketeers was ane argument strong enough, in tuo or three nights time, to make the hardest headed Covenanter in the toune to forsake the Kirk and side with Parliament.^{[citation needed]}

Many gave in when faced with the expense and inconvenience of keeping soldiers. News of this novel technique spread to the nearby communities; so when Turner moved on to Paisley the magistrates were quick to submit. Hamilton, in the meantime, was forcibly raising men in Lanarkshire, while the Earl of Callendar moved west to support him. Hundreds of men, many of them mounted and armed, fled over the county boundary into Ayrshire, where opposition to the Engagement was particularly acute.

By early June some 2000 or 3000 militant Covenanters had gathered at Loudoun Hill. But what they possessed in will they lacked in leadership. Appeals were sent both to the Earl of Eglinton and General David Leslie, known supporters of Argyll, to come and join them. Both men prudently ignored the invitation. Disappointed by this failure the gathering began to break up. Enough of them remained together, including the refugees from Lanarkshire, to attend the Lord's Supper at Mauchline on Sunday 11 June. With many people arriving from nearby parishes, the preaching and praying continued in to the following day.

[edit] Mauchline Muir

While at Paisley, Turner learned that there was a dangerous gathering in Ayrshire, although he had no information on its exact location. A report was immediately sent to Hamilton, who ordered Callendar and General John Middleton to join him. On 12 June both men met at Stewarton, mustering a total force of 1600 cavalry and 2000 foot. By now Callendar knew that the Covenanters were at Mauchline. One regiment was sent on to Irvine, while Turner and Middleton advanced with six troops of horse to confront the rebels. Callendar followed on with the remainder of the force, intending to rest at Kilmarnock. However, he now received further reports that the militants-originally estimated at 600 men-were some 2000 strong, including 1200 horsemen. At once he sent on reinforcements to join his forward units.

Middleton now faced the Covenanters, drawn up on Mauchline Muir, with 600 troopers, including Callendar's reinforcements. After failing to get the rebels to disperse he ordered part of his force forward. These men were immediately repelled, after which the rest of army was ordered to attack. Callendar, who clearly misjudged the seriousness of the situation, arrived just in time to prevent Middleton being overwhelmed by force of numbers. Faced with these additional troops the rebels broke and fled. Few men were killed on either side, but a large number were wounded, including Middleton and John Hurry. There was no pursuit, and many of the insurgents escaped into Galloway, another Covenanter stronghold.

[edit] Whiggamore Raid

This small encounter hardly justifies the grand title of the Battle of Mauchline Muir; but it had important repercussions. Hamilton and the rest of the Engager government were worried that the country was on the brink of civil war. An attempt to subdue the west would have meant further delays in the proposed invasion of England. Believing that success in England would be a more effective answer to discontent in the west than direct confrontation, the government decided not to force the issue. Far fewer forces were therefore raised in the south-west than was estimated. For the Covenanters, dispersed but not destroyed, Mauchline Muir was unfinished business. Secure in their strongholds, they watched and waited. The Reverend Robert Baillie, a leading minister and a political moderate, saw the danger;

There is indeed in our people a great animositie put in them, both by our preaching and discourse; also by the extream great oppression of the sojours; so it fears me...so soon as our army shall be intangled with the English many of our people will rise on their backs.^{[citation needed]}

Later that summer Baillie's prediction came true. No sooner had news that Hamilton and his army had crashed to disaster at Preston, than the western shires began to stir. This time there was no lack of leadership. The earls of Eglinton, Loudon, Leven and David Leslie, placed themselves at the head of several thousand men on a march on Edinburgh to overthrow what was left of the Engager government. The country people on the march used the word 'whiggam' to urge on their horses, a term which was picked up and later used to describe this march as the Whiggamore Raid.^[1] The Whigs, with all their uncompromising purity, were set to enter the stage of Scottish and British history.

[edit] Notes

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[edit] References

PRIMARY

• Baillie, Robert, Letters and Journals, 3 vols., 1841.
• Burnet, Gilbert, Memoirs of the Lifes and Actions of James and William, dukes of Hamilton, 1852.
• Turner, Sir James, Memoirs of his own Life and Times, 1632-1670, 1829.

SECONDARY

• Hewison, J. K. The Covenanters, 1913.
• Paterson, J., History of the County of Ayr, 1847.
• Rubenstein, H. L., Captain Luckless. James, First Duke of Hamilton, 1606-1649, 1975.
• Stevenson, D., The Battle of Mauchline Muir, in Ayrshire Collections, vol. 111973.
• Stevenson, D., Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Scotland, 1644-1651, 1977.