Persecution of Covenanters

From 1660 to 1690, Scotland's Covenanter movement faced intense persecution following the Restoration of Charles II to the British throne. Determined to establish Episcopacy and royal supremacy over the Scottish church, Charles's policies clashed with the Covenanters' fervent Presbyterian beliefs, leading to the ejection of non-conforming ministers in 1662 and the suppression of illegal religious gatherings. As tensions escalated, incidents like the Pentland Rising in 1666 and the brutalities of "The Killing Time" in the 1680s marked the height of the government's efforts to quell the movement. The persecution only ceased with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the subsequent Revolution Settlement in 1690, which re-established Presbyterianism as Scotland's dominant church structure.