Geneva sports teams were nicknamed the Covenanters until the 1950s.

Both were Presbyterians and strong Covenanters.

The Covenanters were religious dissenters who had risen against Charles II in protest against the reintroduction of Episcopalian church government.

On 3 September 1650, the Covenanters were defeated at the Battle of Dunbar by a much smaller force led by Oliver Cromwell.

The Scots forces were divided into royalist Engagers and Presbyterian Covenanters, who even fought each other.

On the left were 1, 500 " Northern Horse " ( cavalry recruited from the northern counties of England, who continued to fight even after their homes were overrun by Scottish Covenanters and Parliamentarians ) commanded by Sir Marmaduke Langdale.

Lowland Covenanters were massacred in droves by Highlanders loyal to the crown, and the most radical Covenanter Calvinists committed corporal atrocities against any non-Presbyterians.

During " The Killing Times " of the Covenanters in the 17th century, Margaret McLachlan, an elderly woman in her 60s, and Margaret Wilson, a teenager, were sentenced to be tied to stakes in the tidal channel of the River Bladnoch near its entrance to Wigtown Bay to be drowned by the incoming tide.

The Covenanters were dedicated Scottish Presbyterians devoted to maintaining Presbyterianism as the sole form of church organisation in Scotland.

The Covenanters were imprisoned in Dunnottar Castle, where many died.

In 1648 the Royalists and the Covenanters were defeated at the Battle of Preston, and Charles was executed in January 1649.

Even when the crowns of Scotland and England were united in 1603 turbulence continued ; for trouble arose over the attempt to establish episcopacy, and nowhere were the Covenanters more cruelly persecuted than in Galloway.

The Scottish Covenanters were defeated ( 1650 ) at the battle of Dunbar.

As the civil wars of the Three Kingdoms broke out in the early 17th century the Covenanters were supported by the territorially ambitious Argyll Clan Campbell and the Clan Sutherland, both powerful Highland clans, as well as some clans of the central Highlands opposed to the Royalist House of Huntly.

There were some disagreements between Shaftesbury and Monmouth: for example, Shaftesbury was critical of Monmouth's decision to crush a rebellion by Scottish Covenanters quickly at the Battle of Bothwell Brig in June 1679, arguing that the rebellion should have been drawn out to force Charles II to recall parliament.

In 1637, the rafters over the choir were blown down and in 1640 the minister of St Giles along with the Laird of Innes and Alexander Brodie of Brodie, all ardent Covenanters, removed and destroyed the ornately carved screen and woodwork that had remained intact.

From then until the Glorious Revolution a stream of Ministers of Cambuslang came, were expelled, or were re-instated, according to whether supporters of the King, Covenanters, or Oliver Cromwell were in power.

After Cameron's death in July at the hand of dragoons, Cargill continued to preach in the Torwood near Stirling and in September pronounced the sentence of excommunication against the key government figures who were persecuting the Covenanters: Charles II, James, Duke of York and James, Duke of Monmouth, Privy Councillors, John, Duke of Lauderdale and John, Duke of Rothes, the King's Advocate, Sir George McKenzie, and General Tam Dalziel of the Binns.

Later joined by the Duke of Monmouth, the whole of the militia, and two regiments of dragoons, both sides met again at the Battle of Bothwell Brig, on 22 June, and the Covenanters were convincingly routed.

His father, John Boston, and his mother, Alison Trotter, were both Covenanters.

After the Westminster Confession was signed by its drafters in 1643, the " Covenanters ," a Presbyterian group, left the Church of Scotland for the New World in order to avoid signing an oath to the monarch.

On the Covenanters ' side, Lord Elcho commanded the right wing, James Murray of Gask the centre, and the left flank was given over to Sir James Scott of Rossie, the only veteran soldier present in the Covenant army that day.

Sir James Scott of Rossie attempted to hold the left flank, but Montrose led his Athollmen in a charge that placed them in front of Scott's men, and pushed them back into the main body of the Covenanters.

Lord Gordon on the Covenanters left wing attacked with his cavalry.

In Scotland, his supporters on the Parliament of Scotland increased attempts to force the Covenanters to renounce their faith and accept episcopalian rule of the church by the monarch.

Members of the RPCNA are sometimes referred to as Covenanters because the denomination traces its roots to the Covenanting tradition of Reformation era Scotland.

* September 1 – English Civil War – Battle of Tippermuir: Montrose defeats Elcho's Covenanters, reviving the Royalist cause in Scotland.

* May 11 – The Killing Time: Five Covenanters in Wigtown, Scotland, notably Margaret Wilson, are executed for refusing to swear an oath declaring King James of England, Scotland and Ireland as head of the church, becoming the ' Wigtown martyrs '.

* August 21 – First Jacobite rising: Battle of Dunkeld: Covenanters defeat the Jacobites in Scotland.

In the 17th century, Moniaive became the refuge for the Covenanters, a group of Presbyterian nonconformists who rebelled at having the Episcopalian religion forced on them by the last three Stuart kings, Charles I, Charles II and James II of England ( James VII of Scotland ).

Among his works are Ladensium Aὐτοκατάκρισις, an answer to Lysimachus Nicanor by John Corbet in the form of an attack on Laud and his system, in reply to a publication which charged the Covenanters with Jesuitry ; Anabaptism, the true Fountain of Independency, Brownisme, Antinomy, Familisme, etc., a sermon which he criticises the rise of the early Baptist churches in England such as those lead by Thomas Lambe ; An Historical Vindication of the Government of the Church of Scotland ; The Life of William ( Laud ) now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Examined ( London, 1643 ); A Parallel of the Liturgy with the Mass Book, the Breviary, the Ceremonial and other Romish Rituals ( London, 1661 ).

After the Bishops ' Wars in Scotland, a treaty was signed at Ripon in 1640 to stop the conflict between Charles I and the Scottish Covenanters.

File: Replica Covenanter flag, National Museum of Scotland. JPG | A replica 17th century Covenanters ' flag.

Charles I repealed Canon Law in 1638 after uprisings of Covenanters confronting the Bishops of Aberdeen following the convention at Muchalls Castle and other revolts across Scotland earlier that year.

Born illegitimate and raised as a foster child, he subsequently advanced to the rank of a Dutch captain, a Swedish Field Marshal, and in Scotland became lord general in command of the Covenanters, privy councillor, captain of Edinburgh Castle, Lord Balgonie and Earl of Leven.

In 1638, events in his native country again compelled him to return to Scotland, where he was appointed " lord general in command " of the Covenanters army by the Scottish administration, and as such participated in the Bishops Wars.

However, support among the Presbyterians of Scotland was widespread and the Covenanters ' army swelled to over 20, 000 men.

The name may also have been applied in the 15th century to the blue stockings worn by the members of the Compagnie della Calza in Venice, which then was adopted in Paris and London ; and in the 17th century to the Covenanters in Scotland, who wore unbleached woollen stockings, in contrast to the bleached or dyed stockings of the more affluent.

– 22 July 1680 ) was a leader of the militant Presbyterians, known as Covenanters, who resisted attempts by the Stuart monarchs to control the affairs of the Church of Scotland, acting through bishops.

On succeeding to his father's title his influence in Scotland was employed by the king to balance that of Argyll in the dealings with the Covenanters, but without success.

It was an attempt by the English Parliamentarian forces to outflank the army of Scottish Covenanters loyal to Charles II at Stirling and get access to the north of Scotland.

Biggar has several museums, including the Moat Park Heritage Centre, Gladstone Court Museum, Greenhill Covenanters Museum, and the Biggar Gasworks Museum, the only preserved gas works in Scotland.

In response to the rise of the Scottish Covenanters, who opposed the attempt to introduce the Book of Common Prayer in Scotland in 1637, Charles I appointed an eight-man subcommittee of the Privy Council to deal with the issue.

He was released after promising to attempt to persuade the Covenanters to disband the army that was gathering in Scotland.