By the 1630s, the vast majority of Scots belonged to the Protestant Church of Scotland or kirk; Catholicism was confined to parts of the aristocracy, such as the Marquess and Lady Mary, and remote Gaelic-speaking areas of the Highlands. The Covenanter government that ruled Scotland during the 1638-1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms ordered the Douglas children to be brought up as Protestants; to escape this, George was sent to France and he first appears in a safe conduct pass dated 1647 giving him permission to do so.