Secret five-year prep revealed behind Scottish rebel army that outgunned kings
Historians have discovered that Scotland's 1639 Covenanting Revolution was funded and supplied through a sophisticated international network—not spontaneously, but through careful planning starting in 1633. The finding shows how early modern rebels leveraged government connections and private finance across Sweden, Denmark, the Dutch Republic, and France to build a military force larger and better-equipped than the royal armies arrayed against them.
Originaltitel: Social Capital v The Fiscal Military State: The logistics and supply of the Covenanting Army, 1633-1641
<p>This chapter looks to the origins of the Covenanting Revolution in Scotland (1639-1641). The innovative aspect of this work comes through the revelation that preparations for financing and assembling the rebel Army of the Covenant did not occur in 1638 (as quoted in Orthodox histories), but can be easily traced to five years earlier in 1633. But how does an army with no extant infrastructure finance a revolution which saw the rebels field an army larger, more professional and better equipped than the Royal armies of England, Ireland and Scotland that they sought to confront? The answer lies in the social capital built up over several decades in the armies of Sweden, Denmark-Norway, the Dutch Republic and France. At the highest level, members of the governments of three of these states became active in the provision and transport of soldiers, military materiel (both weapons and the required components to make them) and expertise in the form of skilled officers and engineers. Their governments also facilitated the running of potential blockades both in the Danish Sound and by the Stuart Royal Navy in the North Sea. At non-governmental level, business men and bankers became important agents in sourcing capital and goods for the fledgling Army of the Covenant. Collectively these operations were often conducted right under the noses of Stuart agents and in some cases, even endorsed by them. Moreover, the rebels were also able to neutralise the closest Stuart allies (Denmark and France) and thus field the first professional army in the British Isles and win two successive engagements with the Royalist forces, ultimately forcing their monarch to recognise and address their grievances.</p><p> </p><p>This case-study illuminates these connections, and explains how one tiny European country’s revolution could only happen because of a truly international network of political and financial support based not on money, but decades of military service and amassed social capital and networking.</p><p> </p>