Manchester University Press
11 ‘So necessarie and charitable a worke’
Abstract
This chapter examines how the leadership of the Kirk of Scotland organised charitable collections for soldiers imprisoned in Tynemouth Castle and Durham after the Battle of Dunbar in September 1650. In the midst of the English invasion and subsequent occupation of Scotland, ministers in Edinburgh distributed letters across the country urging parishes to donate money to support the prisoners. Parishes responded enthusiastically. This chapter shows how ministers used the galvanising effect of this charitable scheme as a way to heal ruptures within the Kirk and the Scottish political landscape. Calls to help Scottish prisoners in England did not refer to the prisoners’ previous political affiliation or the contentious position of Charles II in Scottish political discourse. The Kirk’s charitable ventures were tremendously effective at gathering financial aid but they also contributed to a wider political debate about what it meant to be a good, loyal, Covenanter.
Abstract
This chapter examines how the leadership of the Kirk of Scotland organised charitable collections for soldiers imprisoned in Tynemouth Castle and Durham after the Battle of Dunbar in September 1650. In the midst of the English invasion and subsequent occupation of Scotland, ministers in Edinburgh distributed letters across the country urging parishes to donate money to support the prisoners. Parishes responded enthusiastically. This chapter shows how ministers used the galvanising effect of this charitable scheme as a way to heal ruptures within the Kirk and the Scottish political landscape. Calls to help Scottish prisoners in England did not refer to the prisoners’ previous political affiliation or the contentious position of Charles II in Scottish political discourse. The Kirk’s charitable ventures were tremendously effective at gathering financial aid but they also contributed to a wider political debate about what it meant to be a good, loyal, Covenanter.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- The wheelchair of Thomas, third baron Fairfax, the parliamentarian commander-in-chief v
- Contents vii
- List of figures and tables ix
- Notes on contributors xi
- Preface and acknowledgements xiv
- Abbreviations xv
- Introduction 1
- 1 Battlefields, burials and the English Civil Wars 23
- 2 Controlling disease in a civil-war garrison town: military discipline or civic duty? 40
- 3 A new kind of surgery for a new kind of war 57
- 4 ‘Stout Skippon hath a wound’ 78
- 5 ‘Dead Hogges, Dogges, Cats and well flayed Carryon Horses’ 95
- 6 Gerard’s Herball and the treatment of war-wounds and contagion during the English Civil War 113
- 7 The third army 137
- 8 ‘The deep staines these Wars will leave behind’ 156
- 9 The administration of military welfare in Kent, 1642–79 174
- 10 ‘To condole with me on the Commonwealth’s loss’ 192
- 11 ‘So necessarie and charitable a worke’ 211
- Conclusion 230
- Select bibliography 234
- Index 239
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- The wheelchair of Thomas, third baron Fairfax, the parliamentarian commander-in-chief v
- Contents vii
- List of figures and tables ix
- Notes on contributors xi
- Preface and acknowledgements xiv
- Abbreviations xv
- Introduction 1
- 1 Battlefields, burials and the English Civil Wars 23
- 2 Controlling disease in a civil-war garrison town: military discipline or civic duty? 40
- 3 A new kind of surgery for a new kind of war 57
- 4 ‘Stout Skippon hath a wound’ 78
- 5 ‘Dead Hogges, Dogges, Cats and well flayed Carryon Horses’ 95
- 6 Gerard’s Herball and the treatment of war-wounds and contagion during the English Civil War 113
- 7 The third army 137
- 8 ‘The deep staines these Wars will leave behind’ 156
- 9 The administration of military welfare in Kent, 1642–79 174
- 10 ‘To condole with me on the Commonwealth’s loss’ 192
- 11 ‘So necessarie and charitable a worke’ 211
- Conclusion 230
- Select bibliography 234
- Index 239
