Treaty of London (1641)

The Treaty of London was an agreement signed between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland in 1641 which formally brought an end to 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 Covenanter army invaded and occupied parts of northern England. The Covenanters and Charles reached an interim truce in October in the Treaty of Ripon. This mandated that the English government pay for the ongoing Covenanter occupation pending further negotiations over a final settlement. Furthermore, Charles was required to summon a new parliament of England which assembled in November 1640.

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 By the end of the month, all Covenanter forces had withdrawn from northern England.

The treaty 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 Charles. Significantly, the Long Parliament, as it became known, was able to pass acts that meant it could only be dissolved by its own consent; previously, English monarchs had been able to dissolve Parliament at their will. In early 1642, a power struggle developed between Parliament and Charles which escalated to the outbreak of the First English Civil War.