BISHOPS WARS, the name given in English history to the two brief campaigns between Charles I. and the Scots in 1639 and 164o, caused by Charles' endeavour to enforce Anglican ob servances in the Scottish Church, and by the determination of the Scots to abolish episcopacy. The Bishops Wars are chiefly important as the final embarrassment which forced Charles at last to summon parliament—the Long Parliament—and so to precipitate the Great Rebellion.