Polemic and Apocalyptic in the Cromwellian Invasion of Scotland

Abstract

In summer 1650, the English Parliament attempted the last invasion of Scotland, and the Kirk came to terms with 'the reproach of a Sectarian Army.' 2 Over the last thirty years, the invasion has generated substantial scholarly discussions, the most useful of which have included within their accounts of this conflict a description of its cultures of print. 3 But these analyses share a tendency to read in binary terms both cultures of invader and invaded, framing the relationship between the publications produced during the conflict as straightforwardly one of contest between two clearly defined and tightly controlled political machines. There is some justification for thinking of Scottish print culture in those terms, for after 1638, when the Kirk began to use mass printing to influence public opinion, religious publications were censored by the General Assembly and there were periodic purges of whatever unauthorised material had managed to enter the country. 4 But this system of control began to break down in summer 1650. In England, by contrast, throughout the period, army political publications continued to be 'remarkably sophisticated, their manifestos mature, and their sense of justice white hot,' 5 even as newsbooks and pamphlets continued to offer competing perspectives upon and interpretations of 'the Onions and Leeks of a ScotishMonarchy.' 6 English polemic ranged in tone from high-minded legal opinion to expressions of mockery and horror. 7 This multiplicity of perspectives is most evident in a close reading of the pamphlets produced both by the Scottish institutions and the English army through lateJuly and early August of 1650. These texts suggest that the divisions within the two camps came to be as important as the divisions between them. 8 As is well known, the army of the English parliament represented an often uneasy combination of religious opinion, but this variety was not something that Scottish propagandists sought to exploit. By contrast, English 2 propagandists' 'political-theological offensive' did seek to open and then take advantage of differences among the Scots, but, even as they did so, they could not conceal their own divisions. 9 The invasion literature emanating from Oliver Cromwell, his senior officers and chaplains, and (ostensibly) his soldiers did identify a common purpose in the invasion, but could not disguise a wide variety of motivations for it. The free play of ideas among the English soldiers, which Cromwell celebrated in his famous letter to the General Assembly, permitted the circulation of an ultimately un-reconciled series of justifications for invasion. This article will offer a reconsideration of ideological conflict during the Cromwellian invasion of Scotland. It will focus on divisions within the English army, while also paying attention to divisions within the Scottish institutions which sought to counter its invasion.The article will argue that texts produced during this period illustrate the divisions between the mentalité of the Cromwellian rank-and-file and t...