Engager
The Engager were a group of Scottish Covenanters who made an agreement called The Engagement with King Charles I in December 1647, while the King was imprisoned at Carisbrooke Castle after his defeat in the First English Civil War by the English parliamentarians.
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The Covenanter, a national Presbyterian movement, ruled Scotland from 1639 to 1651. They supported the English parliamentarians in the first English Civil War because the Long Parliament in turn approved the Solemn League and Covenant , which provided for the establishment of the Church in Scotland and promised reforms in England in accordance with the Word of God and as an example of the most reformed churches . After the victory of the English parliamentarians, however, they feared secondary importance - especially the more radical Independents , who, as non-commissioned officers and men in the New Model Army , felt strictly obliged and whose greats included Oliver Cromwell .
As a result, some of its members from the General Assembly signed a secret treaty with Charles I in 1647, known as The Engagement , which provided Charles I with military support for the Covenanters for a trial period of three years for the introduction of Presbyterianism in England.
Not all of the Covenanters agreed to the engagement , and a large group known as the Kirk Party , heavily influenced by Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll , opposed it because the King did not take the Covenanters seriously and they failed to comply with the Feared contract if he came to power. The group that supported the engagement came to be known as the Engagers . They maneuvered the Kirk Party and organized an army for the campaign. Neither the experienced Scottish generals Lord Leven or David Leslie were ready to lead the army, they were on the side of Argyll and so the command of command was transferred to the little experienced Duke of Hamilton .
The army invaded England to fulfill and strengthen the treaty, but was stopped and defeated by Cromwell at the Battle of Preston (1648) while Charles I was executed in 1649. This defeat discredited the Engager party. The more radical covenanters in the Kirk Party insisted that any future agreement with the king or another must be confirmed in its terms by the public and that any secret promise of concessions must be excluded in the future. Charles II agreed to their demands in the Treaty of Breda in 1650, but his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 by Oliver Cromwell nullified all agreements the king had made with the Covenanters. Charles II later claims that Presbyterianism is not a religion for a gentleman .