| abstract | - The English Parliament had long suspected the true intentions of the Scots. Their worst fears were realised when the Engagers invaded England in 1648, however the Duke of Hamilton proved to be a poor commander and was easily defeated at the Battle of Preston. On 23 June 1650 Charles II landed in Scotland at Garmouth in Moray. On his arrival he signed the 1638 Covenant and the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant and was proclaimed King of Scots. This infuriated the English authorities and they decided on a pre-emptive invasion of Scotland. Sir Thomas Fairfax, the Army's commander, disagreed with this strategy and resigned. Oliver Cromwell was made General in his place. John Lambert was appointed Sergeant Major General and the Army's second-in-command. As Cromwell led his army over the border at Berwick-upon-Tweed in July 1650, the Scottish general, Sir David Leslie, decided that his best strategy was to avoid a direct confrontation with the enemy. His army were not the battle-hardened veterans of the Thirty Years' War who had taken the field for the Scots at Newburn and Marston Moor. Many of them had perished during the Civil War and the ill fated 1648 invasion of England. Far more had left active service after the former event. This meant that a new army had to be raised and trained by the remaining veterans. Eventually the army comprised some 12,000 soldiers, outnumbering the English army of 11,000 men. Though the Scots were well armed, the pressure of time meant they were poorly trained compared with their English counterparts, all of whom had served with Oliver Cromwell for years. Leslie chose therefore to barricade his troops behind strong fortifications around Edinburgh and refused to be drawn out to meet the English in battle. Furthermore, between Edinburgh and the border, Leslie adopted a scorched earth policy thus forcing Cromwell to obtain all of his supplies from England, most arriving by sea through the port at Dunbar. Whether in a genuine attempt to avoid prolonging the conflict or whether because of the difficult circumstances he found himself in, Cromwell sought to persuade the Scots to accept the English point of view. Claiming that it was the King and the Scottish clergy who were his enemies rather than the Scottish people, he wrote to the General Assembly of the Kirk on 3 August famously stating, I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. This plea, however, fell on deaf ears.
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