Probing history of Covenanters
Council archaeologist Murray Cook on a a period of turmoil
Can you imagine Church of Scotland ministers being arrested and executed or leading armed rebellions against the state?
And what about Westminster passing laws against specific types of Christian worship and assembly, which were then broken up by armed troops?
This incredible situation happened in Stirling and across Scotland between 1661 and 1689, when around 100 executions for treason were recorded.
The first of them was James Guthrie, minister at the Church of The Holy Rude, whose head stood on a pike in Edinburgh for 27 years.
He is commemorated in the Old Town Cemetery, Stirling.
Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1860 and ascension to the throne of Charles II , the Westminster Government began to exert increasing control of the way Christianity was practised in Scotland.
This was in direct breach of the National Covenant signed between the Church of Scotland and Charles II, which secured Scottish church freedoms in return for military support for him.
The supporters of the Covenant are known as the Covenanters and their acts of worship, which were banned by law, were known as conventicles.
The minister in Kippen, James Ure, led 200 volunteers from Stirling to the Battle of Bothwell Brig in 1679.
Following their defeat Ure went on the run and a reward of £100 was offered for his capture. His mother was arrested for questioning and died in the GlasgowTolbooth.
Ure was eventually pardoned and is buried in Kippen.
Every year in commemoration of these acts of resistance an open-air sermon is held at Kirk o’ Muir in the Carron Valley.
The persecution finally ended when James II was replaced by his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange in the Glorious Revolution of 1689, from which we get the Orange Order, King Billy and hill-billies.
James II’s grandson was, of course, Bonnie Prince Charlie – but that’s another story.