Day 16/31: "The Bunny Man"

This one is a bit of a mix bag of a tale…The legend follows of a man (allegedly) in a rabbit suit going around Fairfax County, Virginia (specifically nearby a bridge. "The Bunny Man" bridge as it’s now called) and threatening people with hatchet/ax. Some rumors even claimed that there have been murders that were committed by him. But there have been no murder cases regarding the bunny man…Although there had been cases of eyewitness encountering the bunny man, no one really knew who the man in the suit is. Nor did they ever captured him. Some believed he was just a crazed lunatic that escaped a facility or even a prison. Others believed he’s some sort of spirit protecting his territory. But most believed he is nothing but a mere myth. A boogie man to scare folks into not trespassing into areas they shouldn’t really be going…

But, im vaguely curious, what are your thoughts on this peculiar legend?

Source:

- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Man

The War of the Three Theatres: ‘Ah, Poor England! How thou art Distressed with War!’

The Geography of England’s Civil War

The Battle of Babylon Hill, 1642. Source: Yeovil History

AFTER THE KING’S failure to take London and to end the military conflict before winter set in, it became clear to both sides that they needed to prepare for a long period of hostilities that would stretch well into 1643. Parliament and the Royal Court in Oxford continued to talk, but in the meantime a professionalising of the two opposing forces was essential: particularly the low calibre Parliamentary cavalry, who were no match for the German or aristocratically trained horsemen of the Royal army. Equally the lack of battlefield discipline of the Royalist cavalry was of great concern to the King’s commanders who saw in Rupert’s troopers the greatest asset to the Royal military, but also its greatest liability. In addition to improving the training of their respective inexperienced infantry forces, both sides also reorganised their commands on geographical lines, reflecting the relative strength of their popular support, but also recognising that the war was a truly national endeavour.

This enforced reorganisation over the non campaigning winter months of 1642-43, resulted in the establishment of devolved commands in the North of England, the South West of England, and what might loosely be termed the “centre” of southern England north of London. This latter area of course contained Oxford and most of the area’s counties declared for the King. The Royal forces in the North (Yorkshire, Lancashire and Northumberland), were led by William Cavendish, the Earl of Newcastle while in the South west, they were led by Sir Ralph Hopton. These forces were opposed by the armies of three Parliamentary “Associations” (so named after the Parliamentary Act that had raised them): the Western Association, led by Sir William Waller; the Northern Army, led by Lord Fairfax and his son Thomas, and the Eastern Association, led by Lord Grey. Meanwhile Essex continued to exercise overall command of the Parliamentary war effort, basing himself in the Thames Valley, guarding the approaches to London.

In spring 1643, hostilities recommenced. The first action took place in the north. Cavendish had enjoyed some success against the Fairfaxes the previous December, when after a minor and inconclusive battle at Tadcaster, he was able to force his opponents back to Selby. Newcastle’s position was compromised that winter by the arrival of Queen Henrietta Maria in Bridlington in February 1643, with a vast stock of gunpowder and musketry she had procured from the Dutch at the behest of Charles who was running out of military supplies in Oxford. Although the resourceful Queen’s actions undoubtedly aided her husband, Newcastle had to both protect the royal person, arrange to escort her supplies south, and prosecute the war in the north against Lord Fairfax and his capable son, Thomas. Nonetheless, in April, Newcastle boldly led his forces on Parliamentary controlled York. The Fairfaxes elected not to give battle and instead withdrew their army to Bradford. The Royalist forces pursued the retreating Parliamentarians to besiege Bradford, but were caught napping when the Fairfaxes launched a surprise counter attack on 30th June on the significantly more numerous Royalist army at Adwalton Moor. For a moment it looked as though Ferdinando and Thomas were about to win a famous victory, but Newcastle was able to exploit the Parliamentarians’ over extended lines, outflank their attackers, and force a rapid retreat. This time the Fairfaxes fell back on Hull, effectively surrendering control of the whole of the West Riding of. Yorkshire to the Royalists, including York, Bradford and Leeds, together with the county’s vital coalfields. Hull remained the only significant outstanding Parliamentary outpost in Yorkshire. Newcastle was now in a position to aid the Royal war effort further south.

The intimate nature of the civil war was personified by the commanders of the opposing forces in the west. Sir William Waller, although a strong believer in the role of Parliament, had, until the final breach with the King, more in common with the Constitutional Royalists than he did with Pym’s Puritan radicals. However, despite detesting the war, he had fought at Edgehill and become fully committed to the Parliament’s cause. Sir Ralph Hopton, opposing him, was an even more contradictory figure. Hopton had supported the attainder of Strafford and been a member of the Parliamentary delegation that had presented the Grand Remonstrance to Charles, so his decision to support the King when matters finally came to war was perhaps something of a surprise. To make matters even more personal, Waller and Hopton were friends and former comrades in arms, both having served in the conflicts that led to the Thirty Years’ War. Despite regretful and friendly correspondence between the two in the spring, the fighting in the west was fierce and see sawed across the south west counties. In truth the west was not fertile ground for Parliament as the populaces of both Cornwall and Devon remained steadfastly loyal to the King. After a number of engagements in which the Western Association army had the better of the fighting, Waller marched on Bath. Hopton intercepted his old friend at Lansdown Hill, where he won a hard fought and narrow victory, at the end of which the Royalist general was severely injured in an artillery accident. He was transported at speed to Devizes, closely pursued by Waller, where Hopton’s army was then besieged. Nonetheless the Royalist cavalry was able to break out and reach Oxford, and call for reinforcements. Charles despatched a strong force of cavalry west and, Waller, having been on the verge of victory, now risked being crushed between the advancing Royalist cavalry and Hopton’s forces in Devizes. He therefore decided to bring the matter to battle and drew up his forces at an open plain, flanked by two hills, one of which was named Roundway Down, on 13th July, seeking a decisive engagement.

The Royalist horse, having left Oxford at a gallop, simply continued their surge and charged pell-mell into their Parliamentary counterparts. The Parliamentary infantry were unable to support their mounted colleagues due to the closeness of the fighting and after less than thirty minutes, Walker’s horse broke off the engagement and fled. In a grotesque accident, the fleeing cavalry plunged headlong over a three hundred foot precipice, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of men and horses, and bequeathing the cliff bottom where they landed, the name of “Bloody Ditch”. For once, the Royalist cavalry wheeled and returned to the battlefield to attack the Parliamentary foot. Hopton’s infantry joined them, and the Parliamentarians were hopelessly trapped. Waller’s men died where they stood or fled. The battle of Roundway Down had indeed been decisive, but not in the way Waller, who fled the field and headed for London, had hoped: his Western Association Army had been destroyed.

Taking immediate advantage of the Parliamentary rout at Roundway Down, Prince Rupert advanced from Hertford to invest Bristol. The siege was a hot one and Rupert’s army met stout resistance from the defenders, but the garrison had been denuded of much of its strength by Waller and by the end of the day, with casualties mounting and ammunition running out, the Parliamentary governor, Sir Nathaniel Fiennes, agreed to surrender the city to Rupert in return for safe passage to London for his men. The civilised surrender and the abandonment of Bristol to the ill disciplined and triumphant Royalists, incensed Parliamentary opinion and the unfortunate Fiennes was sentenced to death for cowardice although the sentence was never actually carried out. For the King, Bristol was a huge prize, with a large treasury and eighteen merchant ships together with trading routes west. As autumn 1643 commenced, Parliament was faced with a collapsing military situation and the loss of virtually all the north and west. It is little wonder that Puritan religious opinion began to wonder if God did indeed really favour the Parliament’s war against its monarch.

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Source: AdobeStock/ Sunny studio Big standard business have actually continued to welcome crypto in a range of methods over the previous year, regardless of the existing market slump. To keep you approximately date on who is doing what to protect their piece of the crypto economy, we have actually collected a list of 10 conventional business that have actually just recently taken (another) enter crypto. 1. JPMorgan Investment banking giant JPMorgan, in October this year, presented access to 4 funds from Grayscale Investments and one from Osprey Funds Per reporting from CNBC, the roll-out proceeded as a low-profile relocation by the financial investment bank, provided CEO Jamie Dimon's earlier criticism of crypto However, Dimon's severe position on crypto appears to have actually softened, with the CEO in April this year calling blockchain innovation and decentralized financing ( DeFi) " real, brand-new innovations" 2. Santander Major Spanish bank Santander Group's Brazilian subsidiary Banco Santander S.A. stated in July this year that it prepares to begin providing crypto-related services to clients "in the coming months."" We acknowledge that it is a market that is here to remain, and it is not always a response to rivals placing themselves, it is just a view that our customer has actually required this kind of properties, so we need to discover the most right and more instructional method of doing so," Santander Brazil CEO Mario Leão was priced quote as stating at the time. 3. Blackrock Major property supervisor BlackRock in August partnered with the openly noted crypto exchange Coinbase to make it possible for the previous's institutional customers who likewise own digital possessions on Coinbase to utilize Aladdin, the property supervisor's suite of software application tools, to handle their portfolios and carry out danger analysis on financial investment choices. For now, the collaboration is concentrated on bitcoin (BTC) just, although Joseph Chalom, Global Head of Strategic Ecosystem Partnerships at BlackRock, stated that the whole digital property area is of interest. "Our institutional customers are significantly thinking about getting direct exposure to digital property markets," he stated. In addition to the Coinbase offer, Blackrock in August likewise released its very first area bitcoin personal trust The item is readily available to United States institutional customers and looks for to track the efficiency of bitcoin, the business stated. 4. Schwab Asset Management Asset supervisor Schwab previously this month launched its Schwab Crypto Thematic exchange-traded fund ( ETF), mentioning client need as its factor for doing so, CNBC reported Commenting on the launch, David Botset, the business's head of equity item and technique, called crypto "an extremely speculative financial investment," prior to including that the company is seeing "particular sectors of Schwab financiers that are looking for access to this property classification in their portfolios." 5. Chipotle The United States junk food chain Chipotle in July this year revealed a brand-new interactive video game called "Buy The Dip." The video game enables gamers to win USD 200,000 worth of totally free crypto, along with discount codes for USD 0.01 guacamole and Queso Blanco till completion of the month. This was viewed as a method for a conventional business to make itself more appealing in the eyes of crypto users. 6. Checkout.com Online payments business Checkout.com in June revealed a stablecoin settlement option for its clients that will at first support USD coin (USDC) In August, the business stated it is likewise checking out a brand-new crypto payment tool that would permit employees to get their incomes in crypto, per a report from The Block. 7. Fairfax County Retirement Systems A USD 6.8 bn pension fund from Virginia, United States, has stated it is seeking to purchase crypto loaning markets, calling the yields that can be accomplished with crypto yield farming techniques "truly appealing.

" Speaking with the Financial Times in August this year, Katherine Molnar, Chief Investment Officer of the Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System, stated the truth that some individuals have actually now gone back from the crypto market amidst the slump indicates great chances exist for those that are still left. 8. Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board Another pension company that seems taking an interest in the crypto area is the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, with its financial investment in the significant crypto exchange FTX The most recent financial investment by Ontario's instructors (they likewise purchased October in 2015) was revealed by FTX in January this year, when the exchange stated the pension board was amongst the individuals in its newest USD 400 m financing round. 9. Commerzbank German banking giant Commerzbank previously this year looked for a "crypto custody license" from the nation's monetary regulator, BaFin If Commerzbank can protect the license, it would make it the very first bank in the nation to take a major action towards the adoption of digital possessions-- a significant advancement in the typically conservative European banking market.10 Fidelity Fidelity is another significant property supervisor that has actually progressively taken enter crypto. And although this business is a widely known gamer, as it got in the area as early as 2018 when it established Fidelity Digital Asset Services, its endeavor into crypto has actually not stopped. Significantly, the business made headings once again in April this year when it chose to enable specific 401( k) pension customers to buy bitcoin-- as long as the companies enable it. ____ Read More

Over-Mulching Issues with Trees and Shrubs

Why Is Mulch Killing Your Trees?

Drive through any suburban area in Alexandria, Arlington, or Fairfax counties, and you’ll notice one of the deadliest tree killers – mulch volcanoes – in many yards.

Mulch is often piled up around tree trunks by landscapers and homeowners, reaching heights of up to 3 feet! Every year, they add to the mound of mulch.

I’m not sure why mulch volcanoes have become so widespread, given how blatantly harmful they are. Perhaps there is a misguided idea that if some mulch is good, then more must be better. Unfortunately, when it comes to mulching your trees, this is not the case.

What Exactly Is Mulch?

Mulch is a broad word for any substance used to cover the soil’s surface. Mulch is classified into two types:

•organic mulch, such as shredded bark, grass clippings, wood chips, pine straw, compost, cocoa husks, or chopped leaves •inorganic mulch, such as gravel or crushed rubber

Arborist wood chips (what’s left over after a tree or branches have been removed and chipped) are one of the greatest forms of mulch.

Mulch’s Advantages

Mulch provides several advantages when utilized correctly.

Mulch has the following advantages:

•Weed management •moisture retention •soil temperature regulation •erosion control

Organic mulch has the added advantage of enriching the soil underneath it as it decomposes over time.

If possible, use organic mulch since it is often healthier for the health of plants.

How Much Mulch Do You Need?

Mulch should be applied to trees and shrubs at a depth of 2 to 4 inches. Use just 2 inches of mulch on poorly drained soil.

This is the range in which you may get the advantages of mulch while avoiding the issues associated with over-mulching.

Before you lay new mulch around your plants each year, check to see how deep the previous mulch is. If it’s still within the approved range, there’s no need to add more; just fluff it up to make it look good and let water to pass through more readily. If part of the mulch has decomposed, just apply enough to restore the depth to 2-4 inches.

>> Spring Yard Cleanup Tips – Simple things to do to improve your landscaping and trees when spring comes in Northern Virginia (including mulching).

Many organic mulches lose their color over time. Remove part of the faded mulch before adding new if you truly want that “fresh” effect (and raking or rotating the mulch does not help the look).

When Should Mulch Be Used?

Spread mulch all the way to the tree’s canopy edge (this is where the majority of the tree’s roots are situated). Making a tiny circle of mulch around the trunk serves no purpose other than to protect the tree from lawn mower and string trimmer damage.

Do not apply mulch straight to the tree trunk. Pull the mulch away from the trunk so that none of it touches it. You should be able to see where the trunk widens out as it sinks into the earth. Instead of a mound, consider spreading mulch in a donut-like ring.

Mulch Volcanoes Have Issues

Mulch piled directly around a tree stem presents a variety of issues.

•Rotten tree trunks – Mulch heaps provide a damp environment in which fungus and other infections may thrive and harm the tree. Under the mulch, tree trunks are often entirely rotted away. •Rodent and pest concerns – Piling mulch against a tree provides an excellent habitat for rats and other pests. It also provides them with a convenient food supply, since they will consume all of the bark off the tree beneath the mulch. •Cooked, dead bark – As the mulch decomposes, it warms up (similar to a compost pile), reaching temperatures far beyond 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That is sufficient to harm the inner bark of young trees. •Girdling roots – Trees react to the dark, wet mulch by growing new roots right into the pile. When the roots reach the border of the mulch pile, they return to the middle, finally winding around and girdling the tree. As the primary roots die, the tree becomes unstable and less able to absorb rainfall and nutrients. •Dried out soil – Mulch compacts with time, and instead of allowing water to pass through, the mulch pile may reject rain and irrigation. The earth underneath the mulch pile dries up, depriving the tree of the moisture it need. •Drowned trees – If the ground surrounding the tree is already damp, a large quantity of mulch will just make it wetter. The tree eventually “drowns” as a result of too much water and a lack of oxygen.

When mulch is heaped around a tree, none of these issues are immediately visible. But make no mistake: mulch volcanoes are a tree’s death sentence. What Should You Do If You Have Mulch Volcanoes?

Remove as much mulch as possible from around your trees if you have a significant pile.

Then examine the tree trunk closely. Please contact us if you see any symptoms of rot, bark damage, or roots above ground level.

Trees with substantial damage at the root are unstable and should be removed. However, some may be preserved (for example, by cutting out girdling roots). For trees that have been harmed by volcanic mulching, our expert tree consultants can advise you on the best course of action.

Source link

source https://sunshinecoasttreeloppers.com.au/over-mulching-issues-with-trees-and-shrubs/ source https://sunshinecoasttreeloppers.tumblr.com/post/694712653448413184

New Laws in effect starting July 1, 2022 in the Maryland/Washington, DC/Virginia areas:

* Facial Recognition: Virginia policymakers opted to lift a ban enacted only a year ago on the use of facial recognition technology by most police agencies.

The new law allows police agencies to use the technology in certain circumstances, including to help identify an individual when police have reasonable suspicion that the person committed a crime. It can also be used to help identify crime victims or witnesses, sex trafficking victims and unidentified bodies in morgues.

* FOIA Rollback: Lawmakers this year rolled back a recent reform intended to expand public access to certain law enforcement files in closed criminal investigations.

Under the new law, the disclosure of such records to the press and general public will no longer be mandatory under the state’s public records law. Instead, disclosure will again be up to the discretion of the law enforcement agency. The change, which supporters said would increase protections for crime victims and their families, drew opposition from some relatives of crime victims and attorneys who work on wrongful convictions.

* Loud Car Exhausts: Police officers can, once again, pull over and ticket drivers who have excessively loud exhaust systems. Virginia law requires owners and drivers to operate their vehicles with an exhaust system that is in good working order and uses standard factory equipment. Legislation passed in 2021 had prohibited officers from enforcing the law through traffic stops. Improper exhausts are now classified as primary offenses, which means police can go back to stopping drivers suspected of having loud exhaust systems.

Residents throughout Northern Virginia have complained of loud cars, and they have created a quality-of-life issue in Fairfax County, police said.

* Sexually Explicit Content: Another new law aims to crack down on unsolicited sexually explicit pictures and videos. The measure makes any adult who knowingly transmits an “intimate image” electronically to another adult without their consent subject to financial damages. Under the bill, a court may also restrain the sender from sharing such pictures or video again.

* Minimum Wage Increase: The minimum wage in D.C. will rise from $15.20 to $16.10 per hour for all workers, regardless of employer size. For tipped workers, such as servers, the base minimum wage will increase from $5.05 to $5.35 per hour. Employers of tipped workers must also pay the difference if an employee's tips and base minimum wage do not reach D.C.’s $16.10 minimum wage.

* Bringing Alcohol From Out of State: People driving into Virginia can now bring three gallons of alcohol into the state, which is equivalent to about 15 bottles of wine. This is an increase from one gallon

* Hunting on Sundays: People will be permitted to hunt on Sundays on public or private land, as long as it's more than 200 yards from a place of worship.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/new-laws-take-effect-july-1-in-dc-maryland-and-virginia-2/3087849/

The signs as Protected areas of Fairfax County, Virginia:

Aries: Parks in Fairfax County, Virginia

Taurus: Difficult Run

Gemini: Holmes Run Trail

Cancer: Dyke Marsh

Leo: Elklick Woodlands Natural Area Preserve

Virgo: River Farm

Libra: Salona

Scorpio: Scott's Run Nature Preserve

Sagittarius: Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge

Capricorn: Elizabeth Hartwell Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge

Aquarius: Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area

Pisces: Mount Vernon Trail

Lions and Pumas and Cougars

Mountain lions, also known as eastern cougars or pumas, have not been seen in the state of Virginia for more than a hundred years, at least officially. And yet there have been 121 reported sightings of the big cats just since 1970, according to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. 

Wildlife biologist Rick Reynolds, who works for the Department of Game, is skeptical of the reports. “There hasn’t been a confirmed record of a mountain lions in Virginia since 1880s,” Reynolds says. “But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some that have been obtained and kept illegally and then released.” 

So what are the large feline creatures that Virginians report so frequently to skeptical authorities? Are they zoo animals who escaped their captors and somehow made their way into the mountains? Or are they some throwback to another time, cryptozoological creatures not known to mainstream science? Or perhaps they’re descended from the few survivors who managed to escape Virginia’s industrialization, endangered species that need our protection. 

Since 2005, staff members at Cougar Quest, an independent organization based in Winchester, have been investigation says the appearances of the mystery cats. The organization says they have collected more than sixty accounts of cougar or mountain lion sightings in Virginia, dating back to the 1970s. 

Interestingly, many of the mystery sightings take place in or around Fairfax County, not exactly a wilderness, but perhaps a good source of sustenance for the big cats, what with all the garbage cans and small pets in the area. One of the first witnesses, George Correll, saw one of the giant cats during the first week of February 1971. Manhunts began as the cats began to be seen more frequently, and then the sightings slowly stopped. No more data was released. Then in the spring of 19998, Virginia Game Department personnel began to receive another string of reports of “cougar” sightings in the county. 

In one case, Harley Nygren was out trying to corral his little dog, Dillion, on his neighbor’s property when he had a close encounter with a seventy-five-pound mountain lion. Nygren, seventy-three, a retired federal worker, said he and the cat eyed one another from a distance of about ten feet. 

“A nice kitty,” Nygren said, as he escorted a Fairfax County wildlife specialist through a blackberry thicket near his home on Carrington Lane in Tysons Corner to the secluded site where he had spotted the khaki-colored cougar. For wildlife biologist Earl Hodnett, Nygren’s tale was the tenth "convincing account” he had received of the mystery cat loose in the suburban wilds of this town that May. 

The most famous phantom cat report of recent years in Virginia comes from Craigsville, at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains. The story was told in the August 9, 2004, edition of the Staunton, VA, News Leader.

“It all started when Joe Rowland rolled into his driveway off August Springs Road after a trip to town. He scanned the yard for wildlife, as he always does. Deer sometimes graze between the hay bales; rabbits often skip into the flowerbeds. On July 19, 2004, Rowland saw a lump of tan fur in a low place, and initially took it to be a deer. But as he got closer, he saw it was a big cat. Exclaiming, ‘Oh my God!’ he darted into his house for a digital camera. He tiptoed into the field, getting about 60 feet from the beast, when it raised its head and looked straight at him. 

“As the beast took three laps into the protection of the cornfield, Rowland took a big step backwards and raised his camera above his head. In the house, he quickly printed a picture for his friend Roy Thompson, who checks game at the IGA. There, the pair hovered over the copier machine, peering at the blown-up images and comparing them with the store’s collection of mounts. It looked too pale to be a bobcat, and too feline for a small bear. Rowland wondered, Could it be a mountain lion?” 

The article also reported another sighting, of a six-foot-long cat with a three-foot-long tufted tail in an open field in Showker’s Flats. The man who saw it was driving at the time, slowed down to twenty-five mph to get a better view of the cat. He told the paper, “I’m pretty sure I saw a cougar. It was huge.” 

But a wildlife biologist with Virginia Game doubted that the animal was either an African lion, as some had guessed, or a mountain lion. Al Bourgueouis told the News Leader, “To a lot of people in that area it could look like an African lion (in the photo), but when you start putting things together like the height of the grass, etc., it points to a smaller animal.” In the Rowland photo the grass is brushing the cat’s belly. Game officials who investigated found the grass in the area in which the photo was taken to be just six to eight inches high.

Some of the most recent reports chronicled by Cougar Quest include “credible” but unconfirmed sightings in Winchester and Alexandria in early 2006. During the summer of 2006, a photograph of a mystery cat taken by Richard Gaya near Crozet, in western Albemarle County, created much excitement among researchers. The cat in the picture appears to be a young adult puma. 

So many sightings are interesting for a state in which the mountain lion has not officially been seen since the early 1990s. 

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19th January 1644 saw a Scottish Covenanter army of 20,000 men under the command of Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven move south into England and their civil war supporting Oliver Crowmell. 

Sit doon and get comfy, this will be a lengthy post, for the start of this post has it's roots in The English Civil War it takes us right up to the Jacobite Uprisings and the split in loyalties between King and country. 

The 17th-century civil war may seem a very English affair, but that is misleading – it was started and ended by Scots.

We all know a bit about the rise to power of Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army; the Battles of Worcester and Naseby and Marston Moor that ended with the execution of King Charles I, to me it marked the beginning of the end of the Stuarts, and it all seems a rather English affair, recently, however, historians have preferred to call it ‘The War of Three Kingdoms’, since both Scotland and Ireland were inevitably drawn into the dispute. It is easy to see why the older version prevailed for so long. 

To me the internet has helped people, like myself understand history better, we can seek out so many sources so easily, at school, if you were lucky you got a text book with the one version being "gospel" but even on here I have been called out for getting things wrong, well in the eyes of the person calling me out I certainly will concede certain ground, but history as well is how you perceive it, what to put in my  posts and what to leave out. I rely on some people to keep me right in some respects, and I can't hold a torch to some peoples knowledge of certain aspects of our history, I take my hat off to the likes of my friends, Marti Morrison, or Roland Obrien whose  Jacobite  knowledge can put me to shame, these guys live and breath the history, wear the outfits, walk the battlefields and have done for years, mere mortals like me scour the archives piecing together from many sources, like todays post, giving an understanding of events that has been lacking in the classrooms when the super info-highway was still drifting out in space.

Anyway back to the post in hand. 

The English story is clear – the extravagant and naïve Charles pitted against the unglamorous and hard-headed Cromwell over a clear point of principle. The Scottish story, however, is much more ambiguous. Indeed, if the ‘English Civil War’ might broadly be dated from 1640, when Charles I dissolved the ‘Short Parliament’, to 1660, when General Monck restored Charles II to the throne, the ‘Scottish Civil War’ could be said to have run from 1637 to 1744, and the final defeat of the Jacobite cause.

Lets start with  simple question: to whom did Charles I surrender in 1646? Not to Fairfax, Essex, Ireton or Cromwell, the leading lights in the English Civil War, but to the Scottish regiment encamped at Newark, led by Alexander Leslie. Charles, who had of course been born in Scotland, and always had a problem with the Scottish Kirk, who maintained that while the King had authority in matters temporal, they had authority in matters spiritual; and often where one ended and the other began was a point of serious contention. Time and time again I go back to pointing out the Stewart/Stuart, mantra of Devine right of Kings. 

James VI as the first King to "rule" over the two Kingdoms of Scotland and England got away with having two forms of worship by not getting too involved with them, Charles however was much more headstrong, his first, and some say biggest mistake was the introduction of his own prayer books on the Scottish Kirk in 1637. It caused a riot, with one woman, Jenny Geddes, purportedly throwing her stool at the minister and shouting ‘daur ye say Mass in my lug?’ They saw it as being to close to the "Popery" of the Catholic church, it led to the drawing up a ‘National Covenant' which was a solemn agreement inaugurated to reject the prayer book and any meddling by the King in their religion. Don't underestimate this agreement a staggering six hundred thousand Scots signed the document, in any age, it stated that as long as the king protected the Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church would protect the king. There was the rub.

Charles, forgetting that the word ‘thrawn’ could have been invented to describe the Scottish Church, sorted refused to sign, leading to the so-called First and Second Bishops’ Wars, the latter ending with Montrose and the veteran of the European wars Alexander Leslie in control of Northumbria and County Durham. Charles had to recall the English Parliament for financial support – the ‘Long Parliament’ – and precipitated his war with them.

Parliament now opened negotiations with the Church. Although there were many mutual areas of agreement, the Church of Scotland held both the Independents and the Puritans at arm’s length.

Nevertheless, Westminster and Edinburgh both signed a successor document to the Covenant, the Solemn League and Covenant, which brought the Scots into the fray on the side of Parliament. Even before this, Montrose had already switched sides, concerned that the Kirk was attempting to usurp the power of the Crown.

While Charles was fighting Cromwell he still held out hope that the Scots could wield and come  to his rescue, perhaps this is why he surrendered himself to Leslies army and not the Roundheads. What did for him was English gold. The Scots had been promised much and were financially insecure, so in exchange for their prisoner, the English Parliament paid Scottish debts, Leslie's army had not been paid as promised for allying themselves with Cromwell, with this settled Charles was handed over, eventually to be tried and executed. 

The execution of Charles was a turning point. The English had killed the legitimate King of Scots without so much as a by-your-leave. Charles II was proclaimed King of Scots in Edinburgh, and the head of the ‘Engagers’, the Duke of Hamilton, beheaded in London.

Under the Treaty of Breda, Charles II signed the Covenant; an act he did so in supreme bad faith. He needed allies not disputations on theology. Cromwell addressed the General Assembly over the Scots defection, saying: ‘I beseech you, in the bowels in Christ, think it possible ye may be mistaken.’

When the Assembly decided they were not, Cromwell launched a punitive strike against Dunbar, capturing it from Sir David Leslie, ( his brother, Alexander by now aged and retired) beside whom he fought at Marston Moor. Three thousand Scots were killed and 10,000 captured. By the Battle of Inverkeithing, Cromwell had effective control of everywhere south of the Firth of Forth.

But the Scots were intransigent. In the last battle of the ‘English Civil War’, the Battle of Worcester, the majority of the 16,000 strong Royalist force was Scottish. Around 8000 Scottish prisoners were sent as indentured labourers to the West Indies and Canada, starting a relationship with those regions that would have significant influence in later centuries. Leslie was sent to the Tower, and released a decade later on the successful Restoration of Charles II and the death of Cromwell.

The Scots had instigated the war on their insistence that they were religiously and politically different from England. One unforeseen consequence was that Cromwell’s Commonwealth was the first time Scotland and England had the same governance, he is acknowledged as the only an to invade and control all of Scotland, a feat Longshanks, Edward I never quite accomplished.

Charles II did not heed the lessons of what had happened to his father, and his attempts to create ecclesiastical uniformity led to the ‘Killing Time’ between 1680 and 1688. Even more bizarrely, after the English Parliament invited William III to take the crown, in favour of the Catholic King James VI and II, some Covenanters fought for the Stuarts against the new regime. The misery of war and religious schism makes for strange bedfellows indeed.

At the root, perhaps, of the problem was the difference between the Scottish and English experiences of Stuart monarchy. The Stuarts had ruled Scotland since 1371 and England since 1603. They may have been weak, injudicious, opinionated, divisive and profligate kings – but they had been our kings for a much longer time.

Pics are The Signing of the National Covenant in Greyfriars Kirkyard in 1638, and the Covenant itself. To understand more about The National Covenant have read at this article on the BonnieDundee189 web page https://bonniedundee1689.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/the-signing-of-the-national-covenant-let-the-bloodshed-begin/

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