King, Covenant and Civil War: Charles I’s Tweed Campaign of 1639

Discover the dramatic story of the Bishops’ War, the first time that King Charles I was forced to take up arms against his own subjects. Dr Arran Johnston will explore how the conflict came about, and how events played out when the River Tweed from Kelso to Berwick became the frontline of a civil war. With particular emphasis on the king’s military encampment in the landscape around Paxton, and its interplay with the Covenanter camp at Duns, this illustrated lecture reveals the forgotten first phases of the conflict which would tear through Britain for more than a decade.

£5 per head. Lunch or tea available in the Stables Tearoom.

Dr Arran Johnston is an independent historian specialising in 17^th and 18^th century Scottish warfare. He is the director of the Scottish Battlefields Trust, and consultant curator of the Battle of Prestonpans Museum in East Lothian. Amongst other books, Arran is the author of Essential Agony: the Battle of Dunbar 1650, and is currently researching the early campaigns of the British Civil Wars in Scotland.