The Treaty of Ripon was a truce between Charles I, King of England, and the Covenanters, a Scottish political movement, which brought a cessation of hostilities to the Second Bishops' War.

In August 1640, a Scots Covenanter army invaded England, won a decisive victory at the Battle of Newburn and proceeded to occupy Northumberland, County Durham, and Newcastle upon Tyne.

The two sides met in Ripon near York where the Scots agreed to a cessation of hostilities provided they were paid daily expenses indefinitely until a final settlement could be negotiated and ratified by a new English parliament.

[6] When followed in 1637 by a new Book of Common Prayer, it resulted in riots, and in February 1638, representatives from all sections of Scottish society agreed a National Covenant, pledging resistance to liturgical 'innovations.

[10] With the Scottish Parliament recruiting soldiers and seeking support from foreign governments and English Puritans, Charles decided to treat this as an act of rebellion and responded by gathering an army to march on Scotland.

[11] In March 1639 Covenanter forces seized Edinburgh and other Scottish towns, starting the First Bishops' War, which ended without a battle in June by the Treaty of Berwick.

[11] The success of the Covenanters in asserting the rights of Parliament in Scotland emboldened Charles' English opponents, led by John Pym, who began secret talks with the Scots.

Seeking to limit royal authority in England, this group represented a much broader body of dissenters who had been alienated by Charles' policies during his over a decade-long period of Personal Rule.

[15] With this invitation, and warned about the king's plans by allies from within the English parliament, the Covenanters launched an invasion of England, bypassing the heavily defended city of Berwick, starting the Second Bishops’ War.

[17] With Newcastle, along with most of Northumberland and Durham, under the control of the Covenanters, Charles called a meeting of the Great Council of Peers in York, the first time this body had met for a century.

[19] Under the terms of the treaty the Scots continued to occupy Northumberland and Durham, and were to receive expenses of £850 a day starting from 16 October paid from England, but agreed to a temporary cessation of hostilities.