Good Morning Wanda, >In my initial letter I refered to the Battle of Worcestor as being in the >Scottish Civil War and I realize now I should have refered to it as the >English Civil War. Over here have heard it refered to both ways and never >thought anything about it. I am glad you raised the issue. I had not heard that particular war described as a Scottish Civil War before but now that I have read what Edward had to say I believe it would be fair to describe it as a British Civil War. I had previously thought of these events as adventures by Scots in the English Civil War. The official Scots Army, under Leslie, helped the Roundheads defeat Charles I because the Scots Parliament agreed to support the English Parlament. The English paid the Scots army, £30,000 per month. However, one of Scotlands finest soldiers, James Graham of Montrose, fought a brilliant guerilla war in Scotland on the King's behalf. He was a Covenanter but his loyalty to his King was more important to him than the form of religious worship he used. His army was mostly composed of Highlanders and Irish irregulars. He routed the forces left in Scotland repeatedly but when Charles I was defeated, at Naesby ,the Scots army returned and defeated Montrose at Philiphaugh, in September 1645. After 1645 the Scots reverted to their traditional willingness to fight the English. The English took four years to decide to excecute Charles I and during this 'dithering' time some Scots offered to support the King in exchange for guarantees of religious freedom. This led to the Duke of Hamilton leading a poorly equipped and poorly trained army into England which was easily beaten by Cromwell at Preston in 1648. The Marquis of Argyle then made a deal with Cromwell and Hamilton's party, the Engagers, with the Royalists, became second class citizens. In 1649 when Charles I was excecuted some Scots became angry and proclaimed his son Charles II king. Montrose led a Royalist uprising and was defeated and excecuted. However, Charles II then signed every guarantee the Scots parliament requested and the Scots engaged Cromwell's army and were badly beaten at Dunbar in 1650. >From that point on Scotland, Ireland and England were part of The Commonwealth, a republic, which tried to be democratic but became a benevolent dictatorship. In 1651 Charles II led a largely irregular Scottish army in a last uprising and they were defeated at Worcester. Your Royalist ancestor John Ross may have been involved in much of this. He lived in exciting times. John Shearer