Treaty of London (1641)

The Treaty of London of 1641 was an agreement between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland which formally ended the 1639 to 1640 Bishops' Wars.

Charles I was king of both countries but, since 1639, Scotland had been under the control of a political faction who opposed the king and were known as the Covenanters. In August 1640, a Scottish army invaded and occupied parts of northern England. The Scots and the king reached an interim truce in October: the Treaty of Ripon. This mandated that the English government pay for the ongoing Scottish occupation pending further negotiations over a final settlement. Furthermore, the king was required to summon a new English parliament which assembled in November.

After months of negotiations, on 10 August 1641, the king signed a long term peace treaty. Among other concessions, the terms included the abolition of bishops from the Church of Scotland, as well as the remittance of financial payments from England to Scotland. By the end of the month, the Scots forces had withdrawn from northern England.

The Treaty of London restored peace between Scotland and England and resolved many of the issues which had led to the Bishops' Wars but the new English parliament was strongly opposed to the king and his government. Significantly, the parliament was able to pass acts that meant it could only be dissolved by its own consent; hitherto, the King of England could dissolve parliament at will. The Long Parliament, as it became known, was not dissolved for almost twenty years. In early 1642, a power struggle developed between the parliament and the king which escalated to the outbreak of the English Civil War.