In part one of a two part episode on the British Civil Wars in Scotland, we discuss the early events of the war. The unlikely Royalist conquest of Scotland under James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, and Alasdair MacColla has made Montrose one of the most romanticized figures of Scottish history.

After the surrender of the king, Hamilton (not that one) led the creation of the Engagement Party to ally with the King against Cromwell's Independents, but the movement ended in catastrophe - the Whiggamore Raid kicked them out of power in Scotland, while defeat in England led to POWs being sent to America, as well as the execution of Hamilton and the King.

An overview of the situation in Scotland leading into 1643, with a brief history of the origins of the Ulster Plantation and Scots Irish.

The United Colonies of New England enjoy unprecedented peace and prosperity in the years following Cromwell's rise to power, and Cotton encourages ordinary people that the regicide was part of God's plan to bring about the millennium.

Pardon the roughness of this episode. Still re-getting my sea legs, while adjusting to a new computer and recording space.

And thank you for being patient!

In response to the execution of King Charles I, the colonies of Bermuda, Virginia, Maryland, Newfoundland, Antigua and Barbados declared their allegiance to his uncrowned and exiled heir. In doing so, they declared their separation from the English government. Some even went so far as to arm and defend themselves to defend this separation.

Back in England, the King had surrendered to the Scots at Newcastle, but the victorious Parliamentarians were divided. Presbyterians versus Independents, Parliament versus the Army. Discontent in the countryside turned into unrest, and the failure of either side to successfully negotiate with the King led to round two of war. At the end of this war, Parliament was ready to finalize negotiations, but the Army had other ideas. Pride's Purge settled the question of whether Parliament or the Army would control England's future, and it sealed the King's fate - regicide. Charles I's execution and the establishment of the English Commonwealth would become one of the most pivotal moments in American history.

In the aftermath of the Remonstrance of 1646, two things happen. One, Massachusetts deputies and magistrates stay united long enough to implement watered down versions of some of the reforms the deputies had been pushing for all along. Second, though, New England set about to declare to the world what the Congregational way to govern a Church was (and by this, I do mean the United Colonies, everyone except Rhode Island). By rejecting both Presbyterianism (which was too hierarchical, and accepted the inclusion of almost anyone as an individual) and the Independents (a movement comprised of a wide variety of denominations, some of which were quite radical, and others quite heretical), New England found itself growing unpopular in England. The possibility existed that Parliament would intervene in the future, so they had to write a document which would show exactly how their ideas worked, and the merits of those ideas. That document became the Cambridge Platform, and it became one of the most important religious documents in American history, and one of the most important documents in American Colonial history. Also, Massachusetts executes its first woman for witchcraft.

Following the Plundering Time, Maryland needed to re-evaluate its trajectory and the extent to which maintaining its original vision was feasible in the aftermath of the First English Civil War. While the colony worked to stabilize itself internally, Baltimore prepared a rebranding and reset of his colony, replacing Catholic leadership with Puritan, but also implementing a series of measures to ensure continued toleration of religious minorities. The most famous of these was the Toleration Act, which required toleration in the colony on both the personal and governmental levels. Unlike anywhere else in the English speaking world, this toleration would extend to every single Christian who reached Maryland's shores.

In 1645, Parliament abolished the English Book of Common Prayer, and in response, Virginia strengthened its laws requiring ministers to use it. By 1648, tension surrounding the Prayer Book caused two more puritan leaders to be kicked out of Virginia, and this left the rest of the colony's puritans wondering whether they should stay.

In this episode, we look at what happens at the end of the First English War in Bermuda and Barbados. A new colony emerges, and Barbados's neutral days are numbered as the end of war brings threats to the status quo from both sides.

A quick episode back in England, discussing the polarizing experience of war, which drove thousands of new immigrants to the colonies, and also created a seriously different mindset between new colonists and old ones.