John Knox

John Knox's first wife, Marjorie Bowes died early in his Edinburgh ministry and had two sons. In 1564, he married Margaret Stewart, who was seventeen and Knox three times as old and they had three daughters.

John Knox was born in 1514 in or near Haddington, the county town of East Lothian, to William Knox, a farmer and Sinclair. His mother died when he was a child.

It is believed that he got primary education at the grammar school in Haddington and proceeded to further studies either at the University of St Andrews or of Glasgow. He studied under John Major, a supreme scholar of the time.

As a priest and a notary in 1540, Knox tutored two sons of Hugh Douglas of Longniddry and the son of John Cockburn of Ormiston who embraced the new religious ideas of the Reformation.

Knox became the bodyguard of George Wishart, a reformer who had returned to Scotland. In 1545, Wishart was arrested and taken to the Castle of St Andrews at the behest of Cardinal Beaton.

Knox and his pupils became fugitives, but came to the Castle of St Andrews, after the Cardinal’ murder. He considered the Bible as his sole authority and the Pope Antichrist

Knox's chaplaincy ended when the French besieged the castle and took him and others as galley slaves. In February 1549, after spending a total of 19 months in the galley-prison, Knox was released

He took refuge in England where The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, and the regent of King Edward VI, were Protestant-minded. From his pulpit in Berwick-upon-Tweed, he preached Protestant doctrines as his congregation grew.

In 1558, Knox published, First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, a polemical treatise against female sovereigns and their policies, but also against female rule over men generally.

The History of the Reformation in Scotland is a magnum opus written by Knox between 1559 and 1566. It has been used as an historical source since its full publication