The Engagement (1647)

The Engagers
Founded	December 1647
Dissolved	1651
Split from	Covenanters
Ideology	Presbyterianism Royalist
International affiliation	none

The Engagers were a faction of the Scottish Covenanters, who made "The Engagement" with King Charles I in December 1647 while he was imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle by the English Parliamentarians after his defeat in the First Civil War.

The Covenanters, a national Presbyterian movement, governed Scotland from 1639–51, during the civil Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They supported the English Parliamentarians in the First English Civil War in return for the Long Parliament agreeing to the Solemn League and Covenant, which promised reform in England and support for the Scottish church settlement.

However, after the English Parliament's victory, they feared being sidelined – especially by the more radical Independent faction that had a strong following in the New Model Army both in the rank and file and among the Grandees like Oliver Cromwell.

As a result, some of their General Assembly members signed a secret treaty with Charles I in 1647, known as The Engagement, which promised that Charles would support the establishment of Presbyterianism, in England for a period of three years, in return for a military alliance with the Covenanters. Not all Covenanters agreed with The Engagement and a large faction known as the Kirk party, strongly influenced by Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll were opposed, because King Charles refused to take the Covenant personally and they feared he would not honour the agreement if he were restored to power. However the faction that supported The Engagement, known as The Engagers, outmaneuvered the Kirk party, defeating some of them in a skirmish at Mauchline Muir, and organised an expeditionary army. Neither of the more experienced Scottish Generals, Lord Leven or David Leslie, was willing to lead the army as they sided with Argyll, so the command was given to the less experienced Duke of Hamilton.

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