a narrow choke point which blocked access to north-east Scotland, the major source of supplies and recruits for the Scots. There he was joined by the bulk of the government, clergy and Edinburgh's mercantile elite. Cromwell captured Edinburgh and the port of Leith with little difficulty. Edinburgh Castle held out until December. The historian Austin Woolrych described the behaviour of the occupying troops as "exemplary" and observed that after a short time many fugitives returned to the city and its economic life returned to something akin to normality. After the defeat at Dunbar Leslie attempted to resign as head of the army, but the Scottish government would not permit it, largely because of a lack of any plausible replacement. Several of his officers refused to take orders from him and left to join a new army which was being raised by the Western Association. In the Scottish government the more practical blamed the purges for Leslie's defeat and looked to bring the Engagers back into the fold; the more dogmatic thought God had deserted them because the purges had not gone far enough and argued that too much faith had been put in a worldly prince who was not sufficiently committed to the cause of the Covenant. These more radical elements issued the divisive Western Remonstrance, which castigated the government for its failure to properly purge the army and further widened the rifts among the Scots. The Remonstrants, as this group became known, took command of the Western Association army and attempted to negotiate with Cromwell, urging him to depart Scotland and leave them in control; Cromwell rejected their advances and destroyed their army at the Battle of Hieton (near the centre of modern Hamilton) on 1 December. On 1 January 1651 Charles was formally crowned at Scone. Manoeuvres During December 1650 Charles and the Scottish government reconciled with the Engagers who had been purged and with Highland chiefs who had been excluded by their refusal to sign the Covenant. These competing factions were poorly coordinated and it was not until the late spring of 1651 that they were fully integrated into the Scottish army. In January 1651 the English attempted to outflank Stirling by shipping a force across the Firth of Forth, but this was unsuccessful. In early February the English army advanced against Stirling, then retreated in dreadful weather; Cromwell himself fell ill. In late June the Scottish