ABSTRACT
Scottish royalist reactions also indicate that the crux of the issue went beyond the need to defend episcopacy and Laudian liturgical innovations. Indeed, if anything, the fact that the king championed these so intently made it hard for many Royalists to offer anything more than just lukewarm support. At this point in Scottish history it is hard to detect anything of the kind of broad and enthusiastic episcopalian support so well known during the Jacobite wars. Of more immediate concern for most Royalists were the dangers offered by the Covenanters to royal government and the king’s prerogative. But this brought with it its own quandary: what if that royal government was being used to push through policies that were hard for certain individuals to support for political and/or personal reasons? Herein lies one of the key failings of the royalist cause in Scotland during the years 1638-41. In essence the Covenanters were decisive while the Royalists dithered.
