Bird’s eye view of Edinburgh in 1648 by James Gordon of Rothiemay
T he start of the First Bishops’ War Military operations in the First Bishops’ War ran from February to late June 1639. Geographically they covered western Scotland from the Solway Firth north to Argyll, and in the east from Inverness to Berwickshire. Outreach to the disaffected English formed part of their operations; what we now call ‘psyops’. February saw the printing of another tract for England (by Sir Alexander Gibson of Durie and Archibald Johnston of Wariston): An Information to all good Christians within the kingdome of England. Building on an earlier 1638 pamphlet, this one assailed bishops as members of a Catholic and tyrannical conspiracy. The covenanters’ pamphlets fostered animosity to the royal cause among substantial portions of the English.