This paper examines one of the more historically consequential revolutions in Western history, looking at a specific set
of precedents that lead up to the English Civil War of 1642. This war changed in many ways the manner in which the English thought about their government, and it rewrote the nature of power relations among the different national and quasi-national factions in the British Isles. This paper examines one particular element of the English Revolution, looking at the Scottish Covenanter Party and its reaction to the Anglican Prayer Book. This is not to say that the English Civil War was essentially or primarily a
religious war, although certainly differences over religion played into it, but the roots of the series of political upheavals that collectively constitute the English Civil War were based as much in economics as in religion, and as much in
philosophy (or at least political philosophy) as in economics. Before looking specifically at the effects of the Scottish Covenanter Party and its reaction to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, the paper summarizes, in broad terms, the overall causes, religious and otherwise, of this war that began in that period following the Renaissance during which modern ideas of governance and of the rights of individuals were being developed.