An attempt to introduce a new Anglican prayer book at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh provoked disorder on 23 July 1637. The disturbance became the visible beginning of organised Scottish resistance to Charles I's religious policies. The crisis soon drew all three Stuart kingdoms towards war.

The controversy produced sermons, petitions, satirical verse and competing narratives of providence and rebellion. Scottish resistance also brought covenanting language and psalm culture directly into the literature of the coming wars.