Scotland's long ordeal ends
On 29 May 1660, Charles II entered London in triumph, restoring the Stuart monarchy after eleven years of republican rule. Across Scotland, the news was greeted with bonfires, church bells, and profound relief. The Cromwellian occupation — the most oppressive foreign military presence Scotland had endured since Edward I — was finally over.
The English conquest of Scotland had been swift and brutal. Cromwell's New Model Army destroyed the Scottish Covenanter forces at Dunbar in September 1650 and at Worcester in September 1651. Scotland was occupied by English garrisons and governed as a conquered territory. Cromwell built massive citadel forts at Inverness, Perth, Ayr, Leith, and Inverlochy — imposing stone symbols of English domination. The Scottish Parliament was abolished. Scottish trade was disrupted. Taxes were levied to pay for the occupation. Highland clan chiefs who resisted were crushed.
The occupation was not without its ironies. Cromwell imposed a degree of religious tolerance that was more liberal than anything Scotland had known under the Stuarts. He also attempted to create a union between England and Scotland — a "Commonwealth" that would treat Scots as equal partners. But these measures were imposed by force, and the garrisons that enforced them were resented. Scotland had been against the execution of Charles I from the start — the Scots had proclaimed Charles II as king immediately after his father's death, which was precisely why Cromwell invaded.
The Restoration brought Charles II to the throne, but it did not bring peace to Scotland. Charles reimposed episcopacy — rule by bishops — on the Church of Scotland, provoking the Covenanting resistance that would convulse the southwest for the next quarter-century. The Killing Time, the battles of Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge, and the persecution of Presbyterian worshippers all flowed from the religious settlement that Charles imposed. Scotland had been freed from Cromwell, but the struggle over who controlled Scotland's soul was far from over.