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The Kirk party's relgious zeal did not help their cause militarily. In the month before the Battle Of Dunbar they chose to institute a searching three day examination of the political and religious sentiments of the Scottish army. The result was that the army was purged of "Malignants", 80 officers and 3000 experienced soldiers, while it lay within musket shot of the enemy. Their ranks were to some extent made up with replacements with strong spiritual beliefs but little military experience. The Kirk party were therefore discredited when their army was routed by Cromwell's New Model Army at the Battle of Dunbar, in September 1650. Thereafter, a more representative faction came to the fore in Scottish politics, which tried to reconcile (at least temporarily) the different factions of the Covenanters and Scottish Royalists to resist the English Parliamentarian invasion of Scotland. However, they in turn were defeated at the Battle Of Worcester in 1651, leading eventually to Scotland's annexation into the English Commonwealth . The Kirk party were disparagingly called "whiggamores" or " Whigs " by their Scotish opponents, a word that usually referred to cattle thieves from the border regions. The nickname was later applied (equally offensively) to supporters of the Glorious Revolution 50 years later by their Jacobite opponents. SEE ALSO |