An English Parliamentary regime had tried, convicted, and executed Charles I, who was king of both Scotland and England in a personal union, in January 1649.

On 17 July 1651 1,600 English soldiers crossed the Firth of Forth at its narrowest point in specially constructed flat-bottomed boats and landed at North Queensferry on the Ferry Peninsula.

These had arisen from the Scots' refusal to accept Charles's attempts to reform the Church of Scotland, known as the Kirk, to bring it into line with English religious practices.

[6] After several months of fruitless negotiations, the Scots handed Charles over to the English parliamentary forces in exchange for a financial settlement and left England on 3 February 1647.

[7] The English army council pressed Charles to accept the Heads of Proposals, a less demanding set of terms which did not require a Presbyterian reformation of the church.

[9] After a protracted political struggle the supporters of the Engagement gained a majority in the Scottish Parliament, by which time war had again broken out in England between Royalists and Parliamentarians.

The Scots sent an army under the command of the Duke of Hamilton into England to fight on behalf of the King in July, but it was heavily defeated at Preston by a force led by Oliver Cromwell.

[14][15] Before they would permit him to return from exile in the Dutch Republic to take up his crown, they demanded he first sign both Covenants: recognising the authority of the Kirk in religious matters and that of parliament in civil affairs.

These relied on the glowing end of a length of slow match, thin cord soaked in saltpetre, igniting the weapon's priming powder when the trigger was pulled.

The usual tactic against infantry was for the musketeers to fire on their opponents and once it was thought they had been sufficiently weakened or demoralised the stand of pikemen would advance, attempting to break through the enemy centre.

[28][29] Against cavalry, doctrine called for infantry units to tighten the spacing between their files to approximately 18 inches (46 cm) per man and to advance steadily.

The cavalrymen wore metal lobster-tailed pot helmets which protected the head and, usually, the neck, cheeks and, to an extent, face.

Flintlock mechanisms were more expensive than matchlock ones and were usually reserved for the cavalry, who found igniting and using the slow match while controlling a horse inconvenient.

They would discharge their pistols at very short range and upon coming into contact attempt to use the sheer weight of their mounts and the mass of their formation to force back their opponents and burst through their ranks.

[35] Oliver Cromwell succeeded him as commander-in-chief of the New Model Army and led it across the Tweed into Scotland on 22 July 1650 and by so doing, started the Third English Civil War.

[36] Once the Treaty of Breda had been signed the Scottish Parliament started levying men to form a new army, under the command of the experienced general David Leslie.

Members of the Covenanter government, concerned their godly war would be corrupted by feelings of personal loyalty to the King, ordered a new purge, which removed 80 officers and 4,000 of Leslie's men.

[44] The Scottish army outflanked the English and a detachment blocked the road to Berwick and England at the easily defended Cockburnspath Defile.

[57][58] When news of the defeat reached Edinburgh, many people fled the city in panic, but Leslie sought to rally what remained of his army and build a new defensive line at Stirling.

[61] After the defeat at Dunbar Leslie attempted to resign as head of the army, but the Scottish government would not permit it, largely because of a lack of any plausible replacement.

[62] These more radical elements issued the divisive Western Remonstrance, which castigated the government for its failure to properly purge the army and further widened the rifts among the Scots.

[65] During December 1650 Charles and the Scottish government reconciled with the Engagers who had been purged and with Highland chiefs who had been excluded by their refusal to sign the Covenant.

Cromwell probably intended the action less as an attempt to provoke Leslie into battle and more to draw the Scots' attention away from activities taking place further east.

[70] Late in 1650 the Council of State, the executive authority of the English Commonwealth, had ordered the construction of 50 flat-bottomed boats, which arrived in Leith in June 1651.

[70] They totalled 1,600 men, under the overall command of Overton,[73] and they crossed at the Firth of Forth at its narrowest point, landing at North Queensferry on the Ferry Peninsula.

This commands both the coastal road, which ran through the village of Inverkeithing to its east, and the route north to Dunfermline and is a naturally strong defensive position.

[76] Details of the battle are uncertain, but it seems the Scottish infantry brigade formed up in the centre, with Browne's cavalry on their right and the smaller mounted units and the Highlanders to the left.

[70] The fight went similarly on the other flank, the Scots being initially successful before being routed by the English reserve cavalry, likely personally led by Lambert.

After a three-day bombardment[88] the hungry and war-weary English troops[89] stormed the west and east ports on 1 September,[88] broke into the town and thoroughly sacked it; several hundred civilians, including women and children, were killed.

Eventually Monck led his army south, crossing the Tweed on 2 January 1660 and entering London on 3 February where he called new parliamentary elections.