The Wars of the Three Kingdoms, also misleadingly called the British Civil Wars (since the kingdoms were not a single political entity until the Act of Union 1800), are a series of conflicts that took place in Scotland, Ireland, and England between 1639 and 1651 which included the Bishops' Wars of 1639 and 1640, the Scottish Civil War of 1644-5; the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Confederate Ireland, 1642-9 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649; and the English Civil Wars of 1642-6, 1648-9 and 1650-51.
- Alternate meanings: Three Kingdoms (disambiguation)
Main events
- 1637: Charles attempts to impose Anglican services on the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Jenny Geddes starts riots
- 1638: Signing of the National Covenant.
- 1639: Conflict between Covenanter and Royalists in Scotland which began with the Covenanters seizing the City of Aberdeen in February
- 1639: The Bishops' War Charles brings his troops into Scotland but decided not to attack but negotiate instead. The Treaty of Berwick is signed — peace agreement between the Scottish army and Charles I in June
- 1640 The English Short Parliament is recalled in order for Charles to obtain money to finance his military struggle with Scotland
- 1640: The Second Bishops' War or 'Second War of the Covenant' broke out in August. An army of Covenanters crossed the Tweed and overran the English force at the Battle of Newburn marching on the city of Newcastle.
- 1640: The Treaty of Ripon left Newcastle in Scots hands who received a large tribute from Charles.
- 1640-1660 The English Long Parliament convenes in November as Charles needs to raise finances after being bankrupted by the cost of the Bishops' Wars
- 1641 Irish Rebellion (also know as the Irish Rising). Alliance of Ulster Catholics and the Old English to form the Catholic Confederation who won a battle against Crown forces at Julianstown Bridge near Drogheda in December
- 1642 A Protestant Scots army is sent by the Covenanters to Ulster to defend the Protestant plantations.
See Also
External Links
- The British and Irish Civil Wars (http://www.historybookshop.com/articles/commentary/civil-wars-of-three-kingdoms-ht.asp) article by Jane Ohlmeyer who argues that the English Civil War was just one of an interlocking set of conflicts that encompassed the British Isles in the mid-seventeenth century
- The English Context of the British Civil Wars (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1373/is_1998_Nov/ai_54879255) John Adamson argues that the importance of the Celtic fringe in the events of the 1640s has been exaggerated
Further Reading
- British Isles
- John Kenyon and Jane Ohlmeyer (eds.), The British and Irish Civil Wars. A Military History of Scotland, Ireland and England 1638-1660 (Oxford University Press, 1998)
- The Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660 by Trevor Royle (2004)
- Martyn Bennett, The Civil Wars in Britain and Ireland (Blackwell)
- Martyn Bennett, The Civil Wars Experienced: Britain and Ireland 1638-1661 (Routledge)
- Charles Carlton, The Experience of the British Civil Wars 1638-1651 (Routledge)
- John R. Young (ed.), The Celtic Dimensions of the British Civil Wars (John Donald)
- Scotland
- Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates: Scottish-Irish Relations in the mid Seventeenth Century by David Stevenson (Belfast, 1981)
- Ireland
- Reformation and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in Ireland: The Mission of Rinuccini, 1645-49 by Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin (Oxford, 2001)
- Confederate Catholics at War, 1642-1649 by Pádraig Lenihan (Cork, 2001)
- Confederate Ireland, 1642-49: A Constitutional and Political Analysis by Micheál Ó Siochrú (Dublin, 1999)
- Kingdoms in Crisis: Ireland in the 1640s by Micheál Ó Siochrú, ed. (Dublin, 2000)
- The Outbreak of the Irish rebellion of 1641 by Michael Perceval-Maxwell (Dublin, 1994)
- Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates: Scottish-Irish Relations in the mid Seventeenth Century by David Stevenson (Belfast, 1981)
- Cromwell in Ireland by James Scott Wheeler (1999)
- England
- G.E. Aylmer, Rebellion or Revolution? England 1640-1660 (Oxford University Press)
- Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down (Temple Smith, Penguin)
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