In April 1640, a Scottish provisional government, calling itself
"The Tables" rather than the "Parliament" to avoid accusations of
treason, established a committee to discuss the process of projecting their
Calvinist revolution to their "doubles" abroad. They reached out to
potential allies via the religiously and politically diverse communities of
Scots who had established themselves in France, Sweden, Denmark-
Norway and the Dutch Republic. The brief of the April Committee
appears to have been to creatively inform the communities about the
nature of the ongoing "Covenanting Revolution" so that Scots abroad
might be better placed to represent their case to foreign powers. Many of
those contacted believed they already lived in a utopian ideal version of
Scotland, rebuilt in microcosm abroad. Consequently the Covenanters
had to be very careful in representing their revolution both to their
countrymen and their allies of other confessions
