There were, at the date of the Restoration, about seventy Presbyterian ministers in the north of Ireland, and most of these were from the west of Scotland, and were imbued with the dislike of Episcopacy which distinguished the Covenanting party.
In July 1639, after the signature of the treaty of Berwick, Montrose was one of the Covenanting leaders who visited Charles.
At Tippermuir and Aberdeen he routed Covenanting levies; at Inverlochy he crushed the Campbells, at Auldearn, Alford and Kilsyth his victories were obtained over well-led and disciplined armies.
Exemption was obtained from these incidences of feudalism by large payments to the Crown in return for charters covenanting that Malta should for ever be administered under the royal exchequer without the intervention of intermediary feudal lords.
On the decay of Kincardine, the original capital, Stonehaven became the county town in 1600, and suffered heavily during the covenanting troubles, Montrose setting it on fire in 1645.