When the Presbyterian majority in Parliament failed to disband the New Model Army in late 1647, many joined with the Scottish Engagers in an agreement to restore Charles to the English throne.

The subsequent Scottish invasion was supported by Royalist risings in South Wales, Kent, Essex and Lancashire, along with sections of the Royal Navy.

[1] Known as Laudianism, these changes were opposed by English Puritans and the vast majority of Scots, many of whom signed the National Covenant pledging to preserve the Kirk by force of arms.

The Covenanters passed laws that required all civil office-holders, MPs and clerics to sign the Covenant, and gave Parliament the right to approve all Royal councillors in Scotland.

All parties agreed a 'well-ordered' monarchy was divinely mandated, but they disagreed on what 'well-ordered' meant, particularly with regards to the balance of power between king and Parliament, and on the question of where ultimate authority in clerical affairs lay.

The moderate Presbyterian faction led by Denzil Holles dominated Parliament and was supported by the London Trained Bands, the Army of the Western Association, leaders like Rowland Laugharne in Wales, and elements of the English navy.

Presbyterian English Parliamentarians and the Scots wanted him to accept a modified version of the Newcastle Propositions, but in June 1647, Cornet George Joyce of the New Model Army seized Charles,[10] and the army council pressed him to accept the Heads of Proposals, a less demanding set of terms which, crucially, did not require a Presbyterian reformation of the church.

The interception of secret messages between Charles and the Irish Confederacy made it important to secure ports like Cardiff and Milford Haven, since they controlled shipping routes with Ireland.

[20] This ended the revolt as a serious threat, although Pembroke Castle did not surrender until 11 July, with a minor rising in North Wales suppressed at Y Dalar Hir in June and Anglesey retaken from the rebels in early October.

The Welsh rising is generally not considered part of a planned, Royalist plot, but largely accidental; however, its retention was vital for future operations in Ireland.

This crowd – under the slogan "For God, King Charles, and Kent" – then descended into violence and riot, with a soldier being assaulted, the mayor's house attacked, and the city under the rioters' control for several weeks until forced to surrender in early January.

[24] On 21 May 1648, Kent rose in revolt in the King's name, and a few days later a most serious blow to the Independents was struck by the defection of the Navy, from command of which they had removed Vice-Admiral William Batten, as being a Presbyterian.

Though a former Lord High Admiral, the Earl of Warwick, also a Presbyterian, was brought back to the service, it was not long before the Navy made a purely Royalist declaration and placed itself under the command of the Prince of Wales.

He moved quickly into Kent, and on the evening of 1 June, stormed Maidstone by open force, after which the local levies dispersed to their homes, and the more determined Royalists, after a futile attempt to induce the City of London to declare for them, fled into Essex.

[25] Before leaving for Essex, Fairfax delegated command of the Parliamentarian forces to Colonel Nathaniel Rich to deal with the remnants of the Kentish revolt in the east of the county, where the naval vessels in the Downs had gone over to the Royalists and Royalist forces had taken control of the three previously Parliamentarian "castles of the Downs" (Walmer, Deal, and Sandown) and were trying to take control of Dover Castle.

Fairfax, after his success at Maidstone and the pacification of Kent, turned northward to reduce Essex, where, under their ardent, experienced, and popular leader Charles Lucas, the Royalists were in arms in great numbers.

[27] This reverse, coupled with the existence of Langdale's Royalist force on the Cumberland side, practically compelled Hamilton to choose the west coast route for his advance.

[27] Elsewhere the rebellion, which had been put down by rapidity of action rather than sheer weight of numbers, smouldered, and Charles, the Prince of Wales, with the fleet cruised along the Essex coast.

The leadership of the Duke of Hamilton proved to be poor and his army was so ill provided for that as soon as England was invaded it began to plunder the countryside for sustenance.

Lambert's cavalry were at Penrith, Hexham and Newcastle, too weak to fight and having only skillful leading and rapidity of movement to enable them to gain time.

Cromwell had received the surrender of Pembroke Castle on 11 July, and had marched off, with his men unpaid, ragged and shoeless, at full speed through the Midlands.

Shoes from Northampton and stockings from Coventry met him at Nottingham, and gathering up the local levies as he went, he made for Doncaster, where he arrived on 8 August, having gained six days in advance of the time he had allowed himself for the march.

Hamilton, yielding to the importunity of his lieutenant-general, James Livingston, 1st Earl of Callendar, sent Baillie across the Ribble to follow the main body just as Langdale, with 3,000 infantry and 500 cavalry, met the first shock of Cromwell's attack on Preston Moor.

Hamilton, like Charles at Edgehill, passively shared in, without directing, the Battle of Preston, and, though Langdale's men fought fiercely, they were driven to the Ribble after four hours' struggle.

There, pressed furiously in rear by Cromwell's cavalry and held up in front by the militia of the midlands, the remnant of the Scottish army laid down its arms on 25 August.

Of five prominent Royalist peers who had fallen into the hands of Parliament, three, the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, and Lord Capel, one of the Colchester prisoners, were beheaded at Westminster on 9 March.

Above all, after long hesitations, even after renewal of negotiations, the Army and the Independents conducted "Pride's Purge" of the House removing their ill-wishers, and created a court for the trial and sentence of King Charles I.

[30] At the end of the trial the 59 Commissioners (judges) found Charles I guilty of high treason, as a "tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy".