Whiggamore Raid

The Whiggamore Raid (or "March of the Whiggamores") was a march on Edinburgh by supporters of the Kirk party of the Covenanters to take power from the Engagers whose army had recently been defeated by the English New Model Army at the Battle of Preston (1648).^[1][2]

Whiggamores (later shortened to Whigs)—a term most likely originating from the Scots for "mare drivers"^[3]—became a nickname for the Kirk party who were against the Engagement with King Charles I.^[1]

Prelude

The Battle of Mauchline Muir was a small encounter that hardly justified such a grand title, but it had important repercussions. James, Duke of Hamilton and the rest of the Engager government were worried that the country was on the brink of civil war. An attempt to subdue the west would have meant further delays in the proposed invasion of England. Believing that success in England would be a more effective answer to discontent in the west than direct confrontation, the government decided not to force the issue. Far fewer forces were therefore raised in the south-west than was estimated.

For the Kirk party, dispersed but not destroyed, Mauchline Muir was unfinished business. Secure in their strongholds, they watched and waited. The Reverend Robert Baillie, a leading minister and a political moderate, saw the danger;

There is indeed in our people a great animositie put in them, both by our preaching and discourse; also by the extreme great oppression of the sojours; so it fears me...so soon as our army shall be intangled with the English many of our people will rise on their backs.

—Robert Baillie.^[4]

Raid

Later that summer Baillie's prediction came true. No sooner had news athat Hamilton and his army had crashed to disaster at Preston, than the western shires began to stir. This time there was no lack of leadership. The earls of Eglinton, Loudon, Leven and David Leslie, Lord Newark, placed themselves at the head of several thousand men on a march on Edinburgh to overthrow what was left of the Engager government.

The country people on the march used the word 'whiggam' to urge on their horses, a term which was picked up and later used to describe this march as the Whiggamore Raid.^[5] The Kirk Party (Whigs), with all their uncompromising purity, were set to enter the stage of Scottish and British history.

Aftermath

Following a short civil war between the Kirk Party and the Engagers, both sides became worried that the English Parliamentary forces would take advantage of Scottish disunity and invade, so on 27 September 1648 they agreed to the Treaty of Stirling which lead to the end of Engager dominance of Scotland.^[6]

See also

• British Whig Party
• Liberal Party (UK)
• Patriot Whigs or Patriot Party
• Radical Whigs

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Herman, Arthur (2001). How the Scots invented the Modern World: the true story of how western Europe's poorest nation created our world & everything in it. New York: Crown Pub. pp. 46. ISBN 0-609-60635-2. 
2. ^ "The term 'Whiggamore Raid', or rather originally 'road' or 'inroad', was used by the end of 1648. It was apparently derived from the habit of men from the western Lowlands of spurring on their horses with shouts of 'whiggam', Scottish National Dictionary under 'Whig,' 'Whiggam,' and 'whiggamore'; Balfour, Historical Works, ii388, 420; Burnet, History of my Own Times, i. 72-3" (Stevenson, David. Revolution and counter-revolution in Scotland, 1644–1651 ,Royal Historical Society, 1977, ISBN 0901050350, 9780901050359 p. 115)
3. ^ Hoad, F. T. (editor). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 1996. ISBN 9780192830982
4. ^ David Lang (editor). The letters and journals of Robert Baillie, Principal of the University of Glasgow: M.DC.XXXVII.-M.DC.LXII.,Volume 3, R. Ogle, 1842 p. 49
5. ^ Samuel R. Gardiner. History of the great civil war 1642–1649 p. 228
6. ^ Manganiello, Stephen C. The concise encyclopedia of the revolutions and wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639–1660, Scarecrow Press, 2004 ISBN 0810851008, 9780810851009. p. 540, p. 576