This female, teenage, prophet of the National Covenant rose to prominence in 1638 for her ecstatic revelations.

Margaret Mitchelson was a young female prophet of the National Covenant. She delivered inspired speeches which opposed the King’s Covenant in autumn 1638.

Supported and befriended by the Covenanting leader Archibald Johnston (who co-wrote the Covenant with Alexander Henderson), she caused a stir and helped to stiffen Covenanting resolve.

The history of demonic possession cases in Scotland in which young, often female, adolescents fell into visionary trances, assailed by witches and the devil, is well known, but could there also have been such a thing in Calvinist Scotland as a divine possession where the possessed was believed to be infused by, and in direct contact with, the divine.

Read the full Journal Article below:

• Yeoman L. A Godly Possession? Margaret Mitchelson and the Performance of Covenanted Identity. In: Langley CR, ed. The National Covenant in Scotland, 1638–1689. Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social history. Boydell & Brewer; 2020:105-124.

Dr Louise Yeoman is a renowned historian with a specialization in Scottish history. She earned her PhD from the University of St Andrews, focusing on the Covenanters, a significant aspect of Scotland’s religious and political history. She works as a manuscripts curator at the National Library of Scotland.