The Reign Of Henry VIII And Catherine Of Aragon

Introduction:
The Reformation in Britain:
1. The reign of Henry VIII:
a. Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon: the divorce issue
b. Thomas Cromwell's ascendancy, 1531-1540, and the establishment of royal supremacy over the church in England (Church of England)
c. Constitutional implications of England's break with Rome
d. The dissolution of the monasteries
e. Henry VIII's foreign policy
f. Anne Boleyn accused of adultery and Henry other wife's
2. The reign of Edward VI: Ecclesiastical and theological developments
3. The reign of Mary Tudor: The attempts to reverse the English Reformation fail.
4. The reign of Elizabeth I, 1558-1603:
a. The re-introduction of the Church of England
b. Marriage, succession and Mary, Queen
of Scots
c. Constitutional developments
d. Foreign policy
e. The growth in seapower and empire
f. Catholics and Puritans during the reign of Elizabeth I
The Scottish Reformation:
1. The reign of James V
2. The reign of Mary, Queen of Scots
3. John Knox
Bibliography:

Introduction

The aim of this essay is to write about the impact of the Reformation in Britain and Scotland had on religious and they cultural over the course of a 'long sixteenth century' (roughly 1480-1640). "Until early in the seventeenth century, Great Britain was divided between the house of Tudor in England and Stuart kingdom of Scotland. The two houses were related by blood, and eventually the two kingdoms would be united. But, during the sixteenth century, their relationship was one of enmity and open warfare, and therefore the Reformation followed a different course in each of them. For this reason in ….we shall deal first with the Reformation in England and then turn to the Scottish Reformation."
The Reformation in Britain
The reign of Henry VIII: "In 1503 the future Henry VIII married his elder brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon, a younger daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella.
In light of the Old Testament warnings that the man who took his brother's widow to wife would have no issue, Pope Julius II issued a dispensation for the marriage." But Queen Catherine gave Henry no male heir, their only surviving child was Princess Mary Tudor not having a son to carry on his line, King Henry feared he was under God's wrath. "Henry was growing frustrated by his lack of a male heir, but he remained a devoted husband. He had at least two mistresses that we know of: Bessie Blount and Mary Boleyn. By 1526 though, he had begun to separate from Catherine because he had fallen in love with one of her ladies (and sister of one of his mistresses): Anne Boleyn." In 1527 Henry wanted to marry Anne Boleyn. King Henry requests that Rome annul his union with Catherine, thus leaving him free to marry Anne. "Such annulments were not uncommon, and the pope would grant them for various reasons. In this particular case, the argument was that, in spite of the papal dispensation, the marriage between Henry and his brother's widow was not licit, and that therefore it had never a true marriage. But other factors completely unrelated to canon law were much more weighty. The main consideration was that Catherine was the aunt of Charles V, who at that time had the pope practically under his thumb, and who had received a plea from his aunt to
save from dishonor. The pope Clement VII could not invalidate Henry's marriage to Catherine without alienating Charles V." He refuse Henry's request. The pope reluctantly authorized a commission consisting of cardinals Wolsey and Campeggio to decide the issue in England. Catherine denied the jurisdiction of the court, and before a decision could be reached, Clement had the hearing adjourned (1529) to Rome. The failure of the commission, followed by reconciliation between Charles V and Francis I, led to the fall of Wolsey and to the initiation by Henry of an anti-ecclesiastical policy intended to force the pope's assent to the divorce. Under the guidance of the king's new minister, Thomas Cromwell, the anticlerical Parliament drew up in 1532 the Supplication Against the Ordinaries, a long list of grievances against the church.
In a document known as the Submission of the Clergy, the convocation of the English church accepted Henry's claim that all ecclesiastical legislation was subject to royal approval. Acts stopping the payment of annates to Rome and forbidding appeals to the pope followed. The pope still refused to give way on the divorce issue, but he did agree to the appointment (1533) of the king's nominee, Thomas Cranmer, as archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer immediately pronounced Henry's marriage with Catherine invalid and crowned Anne (already secretly married to Henry) queen, and the pope excommunicated
Henry. In 1534 the breach with Rome was completed by the Act of Supremacy, ‘crowned the revolutionary edifice. Henry became without qualification the "only supreme head in earth of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia"' . Any effective opposition was suppressed by the Act of Succession entailing the crown on Henry's heirs by Anne, by an extensive and severe Act of Treason, and by the strict administration of the oath of supremacy. A number of prominent churchmen and laymen, including former chancellor Sir Thomas More,' It is said that Thomas More's answer was "I never intend to pin my conscience to another man's back."' , were executed, thus changing Henry's legacy from one of enlightenment to one of bloody suppression. Under Cromwell's supervision, a visitation of the monasteries in 1535 led to an act of Parliament in 1536 by which smaller monasteries reverted to the crown, and the others were confiscated within the next few years. By distributing some of this property among the landed gentry, Henry acquired the loyalty of a large and influential group. Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536, rising of Roman Catholics in N England. It was a protest against the government's abolition of papal supremacy (1534) and confiscation (1536) of the smaller monastic properties, intensified by grievances against inclosures and high rents and taxes. The Catholics protested their loyalty to Henry VIII, citing as their "great grudge" the position and influence of Thomas Cromwell. In Oct., 1536, several thousand men occupied the city of Lincoln, but dispersed after receiving a sharp rebuke from the king. Almost immediately, another rally occurred in Yorkshire. The movement, which rapidly gathered strength in N England, was led by Robert Aske, a Yorkshire lawyer. Aske and his followers occupied York and then moved on to Doncaster. Thomas Howard, 3d duke of Norfolk, promised from the king a general pardon and a Parliament to be held at York within a year. The men dispersed. Aske was well received by the king in London. In Jan., 1537, Sir Francis Bigod of Settrington, Yorkshire, led an uprising at Beverley. Although Aske and other leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace tried to prevent this new disorder, they were arrested, tried in London, and executed in June, 1537. The northern counties were placed under martial law, and many people were hanged on mere suspicion of disaffection. The repression in N England after the Pilgrimage of Grace put an end to open opposition to the government's religious policy. Anne Boleyn gave Henry no male heir, but only a daughter, Elizabeth, and eventually Anne was accused of adultery and condemned to death. Henry then married Jane Seymour, whom finally gave Henry a male heir. "After Jane's death, Henry tried to utilize his fourth marriage as a way of establishing an alliance with German Lutherans, for he felt threatened by both Charles V and Francis I of France. For that reason he married Anne of Cleves, a sister-in-law of the leading Protestant prince John Frederick of Saxony. But when it became apparent that the Lutherans insisted on their doctrinal positions even though Henry was opposed to them and that Charles V and Francis I could not agree on a common policy against England, Henry divorced his fourth wife and ordered that the man who had arranged it be beheaded. The new queen Catherine Howard, supported the conservative position, and therefore the king's fifth marriage opened a period of difficulties for advocates of reformation. Henry reached an agreement with Charles V for a joint invasion of France. Since he no longer had to fear the emperor, who had become his ally, he broke all negotiations with German Lutheran leaders. In England, he took steps to make the church conform as much as possible to Roman Catholicism, except in the matter of obedience to the pope. He also refused to restore monasteries, which he had suppressed and confiscated under pretense of reformation, and whose properties he had no intention of returning. But Catherine Howard fell in disgrace and was beheaded, and Charles V. for his own reasons, broke off his alliance with England. " "When Henry VIII of England noticed the widowed Catherine Parr, he had just had his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, executed for deceiving him. He divorced his fourth queen, Anne of Cleves, because he was not attracted to her. He'd lost his third wife, Jane Seymour, after she gave birth to his only legitimate son. Henry put aside his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and split with the Church of Rome in order to divorce her, so that he could marry his second wife, Anne Boleyn, only to have Anne executed for treason for betraying him. Knowing that history, and apparently already engaged to Jane Seymour's brother, Thomas Seymour, Catherine Parr was both reluctant to marry Henry, and aware that refusing could have serious consequences for herself and her family. So Catherine Parr married Henry VIII of England on July 12, 1543, and by all accounts was a patient, loving, and pious wife to him in his last years of illness, disillusion, and pain. Catherine Parr was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, who served as Henry's Master of the Household, and Maud Green. She was educated well, including in Latin, Greek, and modern languages, and she also learned theology. Catherine was first married to Edward Borough until he died in 1529, and then to John Neville, Lord Latimer, who died in 1542. Catherine Parr helped reconcile Henry to his two daughters, Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, and Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn. Under her influence, they were educated and restored to the succession. Catherine Parr also directed the education of her stepson, the future Edward VI. Catherine was sympathetic to Protestant cause -- and could argue fine points of theology with Henry, occasionally infuriating him so much that he threatened her with execution. She probably tempered his persecution of Protestants under the Act of the Six Articles. Catherine herself narrowly escaped being implicated with Anne Askew. Catherine Parr served as Henry's regent in 1544 when he was in France, but when Henry died in 1547, Catherine was not made regent for Edward."
The reign of Edward VI: Ecclesiastical and theological developments Henry was succeeded by his only male heir, Edward VI, was born in 1537, a sickly young man who lived only six more years. "Policy in the reign of Edward VI (ruled 1547-1553) was made initially by Seymour, the young king's great-uncle and after 1547 by a more zealous Protestant, John Dudley, earl of Warwick (1504-1553). It was of great importance for England's subsequent religious history that for Seymour and Dudley, Reformation doctrine came from Zurich and Geneva, not the Augsburg Confession. The new reign began with a royal decree (1547) banning all emblems of ‘superstition", including altars, all religious images, candles, and processions. Royal commissioners made a circuit of the kingdom's parishes over the next few years to enforce the decree, through they met a deal of resistance. Meanwhile, a committee under Cranmer's direction was preparing an English-language liturgy, with texts for the traditional monastic hours as well as for the mass. The book of Common Prayer was endorsed by Convocation (1549), after Seymour intimidated conservative bishops into abstaining. Introduction of the Prayer-Book liturgy provoked a brief uprising in the west of England, where rebels demanded that every priest at mass pray for the souls of the dead by name, "as our forefathers did." Three years later Convocation approved a creedal statement, the Forty-two Articles, which repudiated Catholic teaching on the presence of Christ's body in the eucharist but did not endorse the Reformed doctrine of predestination. Under Dudley's influence, Convocation issued a second Book of Common Prayer (1552), which confirmed the Reformed understanding of the rite that was now called Holy Communion, no longer the mass. The legislation of Edward's reign thus amounted to a revolution in brief and worship going well beyond Henry VIII's revolution in the governance of the church. Whether changes of this magnitude could have been successfully imposed on an unwilling populace remains uncertain. When Edward VI died of an illness (1553), England's new ruler was the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon."
The reign of Mary Tudor: The attempts to reverse the English Reformation fail. Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, was born in 1516 and suffered through a terrible childhood of neglect, intolerance, and ill-health. She was a staunch catholic from birth, constantly resisting pressure from others to renounce her faith, a request she steadfastly refused. She married Philip II of Spain in 1555, but was unable to produce a child. Mary began her tumultuous reign at 37 years of age, arriving in London amid a scene of great rejoicing. Following the disarray created by Edward VI's passing of the succession to Lady Jane Grey (Jane lasted only nine days), Mary's first act was to repeal the Protestant legislation of her brother, Edward VI, hurling England into a phase of severe religious persecution. Her major goal was the re-establishment of Catholicism in England, a goal to which she was totally committed. Persecution came more from a desire for purity in faith than from vengeance, yet the fact remains that nearly 300 people (including former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer and many of the most prominent members of society) were burned at the stake for heresy, earning Mary the nickname, "Bloody Mary." Mary's marriage to the militant Catholic Philip was again designed to enforce Roman Catholicism on the realm. Unfortunately for Mary, two factors compelled opposition to her plans: the English people hated foreigners - especially the Spanish - and twenty years of Protestantism had soured the English on popery. She met with resistance at every level of society, and, unlike her father and brother, failed to conform society into one ideological pattern. Philip II, cold and indifferent to both Mary and her realm, remained in England for only a short time. He coerced Mary to enter into war with France, resulting in defeat and the loss of the last English continental possession, Calais. With the retirement of his father, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, Philip returned to Spain; Mary died a mere ten months later. England suffered during the reign of Mary I: the economy was in ruin, religious dissent reached a zenith and England lost her last continental territory. Jane Austen wrote this rather scathing commentary about Mary: "This woman had the good luck of being advanced to the throne of England, in spite of the superior pretensions, Merit and Beauty of her Cousins Mary Queen of Scotland and Jane Grey. Nor can I pity the Kingdom for the misfortunes they experienced during her reign, since they fully deserved them...
The reign of Elizabeth I, 1558-1603: "Elizabeth I was born in 1533 to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. When Elizabeth succeeded her sister to the throne in 1558, religious strife, a huge government debt, and failures in the war with France had brought England's fortunes to a low ebb. Elizabeth came to the throne with the Tudor concept of strong rule and the realization that effective rule depended upon popular support. She was able to select and work well with the most competent of counselors. Sir William Cecil (Lord Burghley) was appointed immediately, and Sir Francis Walsingham in 1573. At her death 45 years later, England had passed through one of the greatest periods of its history—a period that produced William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Francis Bacon, Walter Raleigh, Martin Frobisher, Francis Drake, and other notable figures in literature and exploration; a period that saw England, united as a nation, become a major European power with a great navy; a period in which English commerce and industry prospered and English colonization was begun. Although Elizabeth has been accused, with some justice, of being vain, fickle, vacillating, prejudiced, and miserly, she was nonetheless exceedingly successful as a queen. Endowed with immense personal courage and a keen awareness of her responsibility as a ruler, she commanded throughout her reign the unwavering respect and allegiance of her subjects. One of Elizabeth's first acts was to reestablish Protestantism (see England, Church of) through the acts of Supremacy and Uniformity (1559). The measures against Roman Catholics (see Penal Laws) grew harsher over the course of her reign, particularly after the rebellion of the Catholic earls of Northumberland and Westmorland (1569), Elizabeth's excommunication by the pope (1570), and the coming of the Jesuit missionaries (1580). But the persecution of the Catholics was due, at least in part, to a series of plots to murder Elizabeth and seat the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots on the throne. English Puritans, like the Catholics, objected to the Established Church, and a severe law against conventicles (unauthorized religious assemblies) in 1593 kept the separatist movement underground for the time. At the beginning of her reign, Elizabeth's government enacted needed currency reforms and took steps to mend English credit abroad. Other legislation of the reign dealt with new social and economic developments—the Statute of Apprentices (1563) to stabilize labor conditions; the poor laws (1563–1601) to attempt some remedy of widespread poverty; and various acts to encourage agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing. Elizabeth had many suitors, including King Philip II of Spain; Francis, duke of Alençon and Anjou; and her own favorite, Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. For a combination of personal and political reasons, she was reluctant to choose a husband and remained unmarried, although she often used the lure of marriage as a weapon of diplomacy. Elizabeth engaged in a long series of diplomatic maneuvers against England's old enemy, France, and the new enemy, Spain, but for 30 years she managed to keep the country at peace. In 1559 she concluded a treaty ending her sister's unfortunate war with France and refused the marriage offer of Philip of Spain. The next year the Treaty of Edinburgh initiated a policy toward Scotland, successful in the long run, of supporting the Protestant lords against the Catholic party. By lending unofficial aid to French Huguenots she managed for some time to harass France and Spain without involving England in an actual war. As part of her marriage negotiations she later supported the duke of Alençon's participation in the Dutch war against Spain. The major problem posed by Elizabeth's refusal to marry was that of the succession. The chief claimant was Mary Queen of Scots, but her Catholicism made her a threat to Elizabeth. In 1568 after Mary's forced abdication from the Scottish throne, Elizabeth gave her refuge but then kept her prisoner for nearly 19 years. Despite the numerous plots, both real and alleged, on Mary's behalf, Elizabeth resisted until 1587 her counselors' advice that Mary be executed. By that time Spain had emerged as England's main enemy. English sailors had been unofficially encouraged to encroach on Spanish monopolies and raid Spanish shipping. In 1588, Philip launched the long-planned expedition of the Spanish Armada as a great Catholic crusade against Protestant England. The Armada was defeated by the skill of such leaders as John Hawkins and Francis Drake and by storms, rather than planning on Elizabeth's part, but the victory strengthened English national pride and lowered the prestige of Spain. An indecisive war with Spain dragged on until Elizabeth's death. From the beginning of the reign Ireland had been the scene of civil wars and severe rebellions, culminating with that of the earl of Tyrone, which was suppressed by the campaigns of Lord Mountjoy from 1600 to 1603. After the Armada, Elizabeth's popularity began to wane. Parliament became less tractable and began to object to the abuse of royally granted monopolies. The rash uprising of Elizabeth's favorite, Robert Devereux, 2d earl of Essex, darkened her last years. She refused until on her deathbed to name her successor—the son of Mary Queen of Scots, James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England.
The Scottish Reformation:

The reign of James V: James V (April 10, 1512 – December 14, 1542) was King of Scotland (September 9, 1513 – December 14, 1542). The son of King James IV of Scotland, he was born in April 10, 11 or 15, 1512, at Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian, and was still an infant when his father was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field on September 9, 1513. He was crowned in the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle on September 21, 1513. During his childhood, the country was ruled by regents, first by his mother, Margaret Tudor (sister of King Henry VIII of England), until she remarried in the following year, and thereafter by John, Duke of Albany, who was himself next in line for the throne after James and his younger brother, the posthumously-born Alexander, Duke of Ross. However, when war broke out again between England and France, the 6th Earl of Angus, the young king's stepfather, drove out Albany and kept James confined at Edinburgh Castle. Margaret, having divorced Angus, rescued James, and in 1528 he assumed the reins of government. His first action as king was to remove Angus from the scene, and he then subdued the Border rebels and the chiefs of the Western Isles. James V increased his royal income by tightening control over the royal estates and from the profits of justice, customs and feudal rights. He also gave his illegitimate sons lucrative benefices, thereby diverting substantial church wealth into his coffers. James spent a large amount of his wealth on building work at Stirling, Falkland, Linlithgow and Holyrood. James renewed the Auld Alliance with France, and on January 1, 1537, he married Madeleine de Valois, the daughter of King Francis I of France. Following her death a few months later, he proceeded to marry Marie of Guise, the daughter of Claude, 1st Duke of Guise and the widow of Louis of Orleans, Duke of Longueville. Although Mary already had two children from her first marriage, both her sons by James died in infancy. King James V did not tolerate heresy, and during his reign a number of outspoken supporters of church reform were executed. The most famous of the reformers sentenced to death was Patrick Hamilton who was burned at the stake as a heretic at St Andrews in 1528. He had two legitimate sons by Marie of Guise, James Stewart, Duke of Rothesay (b. May 22, 1540), and Arthur Stewart, Duke of Albany (b. 1541). However, both died in infancy in April 1541, the second just eight days after his baptism. The death of his mother in 1541 removed any incentive for keeping peace with England, and James was defeated at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542. The setback affected his health, which had been poor for some time, and he was on his deathbed at Falkland Palace on December 8 when his only living heir, a girl, was born. Before he died, he is reported to have said, "It began with a lass and it will end with a lass". This was a reference to the Stewart dynasty, and how it had come to the throne through Marjorie, the daughter of Robert the Bruce. As it happened, the House of Stewart retained the throne despite its passing through an heiress, due to Mary's marriage to Lord Darnley, a distant Stewart cousin. James was succeeded by his infant daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots. He was buried at Holyrood Abbey alongside Madeleine and his sons by Marie de Guise. James V fathered seven known illegitimate children, three before the age of twenty. James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, his son by his favourite mistress, went on to play an important part in the reigns of Mary, Queen of Scots and James VI.
The reign of Mary, Queen of Scots: Her mother was Mary of Guise (Mary of Lorraine) and her father was James V of Scotland, each in their second marriage. James died on December 14, and the infant Mary became Queen of Scotland when she was just a week old. James Hamilton, duke of Arran, was made regent for Mary, and he arranged a betrothal with the son of Henry VIII of England, prince Edward. But Mary's mother, Mary of Guise, in favor of an alliance with France instead of England, worked to overturn this betrothal and instead arranged for Mary to be promised in marriage to France's dauphin, Francis. The young Mary, only six years old, was sent to France in 1548 to be raised as the future queen of France. She married Francis in 1558, and in July 1559, when his father Henri II died, Francis II became king and Mary became queen consort of France. Mary Stuart (she took the French spelling rather than the Scottish Stewart) was the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, the older sister of Henry VIII of England. In the view of many Catholics, the divorce of Henry VIII from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and his marriage to Anne Boleyn was invalid, and the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth, was therefore illegitimate. Mary Stuart, in their eyes, was the rightful heir of Mary I of England, Henry VIII's daughter by his first wife. When Mary I died in 1558, Mary Stuart and her husband Francis asserted their right to the English crown, but the English recognized Elizabeth as the heir. Elizabeth, a Protestant, supported the Protestant reformation in Scotland as well. Mary Stuart's time as queen of France was very short. When Francis died, his mother Catherine de Medici assumed the role of regent for his brother, Charles IX. Mary's mother's family, the Guise relatives, had lost their power and influence, and so Mary Stuart returned to Scotland, where she could rule in her own right as queen. In 1560, Mary's mother had died, in the middle of a civil war she stirred up by attempting to suppress the Protestants, including John Knox. After the death of Mary of Guise, the Catholic and Protestant nobles of Scotland signed a treaty recognizing Elizabeth's right to rule in England. But Mary Stuart, returning to Scotland, managed to avoid signing or endorsing either the treaty or recognition of her cousin Elizabeth.
Mary herself was a Catholic, and insisted on her freedom to practice her religion. But she did not interfere with Protestantism's role in Scottish life. John Knox, a powerful Presbyterian during Mary's rule, nevertheless denounced her power and influence. Mary Queen of Scots held on to hopes of claiming the English throne which she considered hers by right. She turned down Elizabeth's suggestion that she marry Lord Robert Dudley, Elizabeth's favorite, and be recognized as Elizabeth's heir. Instead, in 1565 she married her first cousin, Lord Darnley, in a Roman Catholic ceremony. Darnley, another grandson of Margaret Tudor and heir of another family with a claim to the Scottish throne, was in the Catholic perspective the next in line to Elizabeth's throne after Mary Stuart herself. Lord James Stuart, Mary's half brother (his mother was King James' mistress), and the earl of Moray, opposed Mary's marriage to Darnley. Mary personally led troops in the "chase-about raid," chasing Moray and his supporters to England, outlawing them and seizing their estates. While Mary was at first charmed by Darnley, their relationship soon became strained. She began to place trust and friendship in her Italian secretary, David Rizzio, who in turn treated Darnley and the other Scottish nobles with contempt. On March 9, 1566, Darnley and the nobles murdered Rizzio, planning that Darnley would put Mary Stuart in prison and rule in her place. But Mary outwitted the plotters. She convinced Darnley of her commitment and passion, and together they escaped. James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, who had supported her mother in her battles with the Scottish nobles, provided two thousand soldiers, and Mary Stuart took Edinburgh from the rebels. Darnley tried to deny his role in the rebellion, but the others produced a paper that he had signed promising to restore Moray and his fellow exiles to their lands when the murder was complete. Three months after Rizzio's murder, James, the son of Darnley and Mary Stuart was born. Mary pardoned the exiles and allowed them to return to Scotland. Darnley motivated by Mary's split from him and by his expectations that the exiled nobles would hold his denial against him, threatened to create a scandal and leave Scotland. Mary apparently by this time was in love with Bothwell. Mary Stuart explored ways to escape from her marriage. Bothwell and the nobles assured her that they would find a way for her to do so. Months later, on February 10, 1567, Darnley was staying at a house in Edinburgh, possibly recovering from smallpox. He awakened to an explosion and fire. The bodies of Darnley and his page were found in the garden of the house, strangled. The public blamed Bothwell for the death of Darnley. Bothwell faced charges at a private trial where no witnesses were called. He told others that Mary had agreed to marry him, and he got the other nobles to sign a paper asking her to do so. But immediate marriage would violate any number of etiquette and legal rules. Bothwell was already married, and Mary would be expected to formally mourn her husband Darnley, for a few months at least. Then Bothwell kidnapped Mary -- many suspected with her cooperation. His wife divorced him for infidelity. Mary Stuart announced that, despite her kidnapping, she trusted Bothwell's loyalty and would agree with the nobles who urged her to marry him. Under threat of being hanged, a minister published the banns, and Bothwell and Mary were married on Mary 15, 1567. Mary Stuart subsequently attempted to give Bothwell more authority, but this was met with outrage. Letters (whose authenticity is questioned by some historians) were found tying Mary and Bothwell to Darnley's murder. Mary abdicated the throne of Scotland, making her year-old son James VI, King of Scotland. Moray was appointed regent. Mary Stuart later repudiated the abdication and attempted to regain her power by force, but in May, 1568, her forces were defeated. She was forced to flee to England, where she asked her cousin Elizabeth for vindication. Elizabeth deftly dealt with the charges against Mary and Moray: she found Mary not guilty of murder and Moray not guilty of treason. She recognized Moray's regency and she did not allow Mary Stuart to leave England. For nearly twenty years, Mary Stuart remained in England, plotting to free herself, to assassinate Elizabeth and to gain the crown with the help of an invading Spanish army. Three separate conspiracies were launched, discovered and squelched. In 1586, Mary Stuart was brought to trial on charges of treason in Fotheringhay castle. She was found guilty and, three months later, Elizabeth signed the death warrant. Mary Queen of Scots was executed on February 8, 1587, facing death with the charm, determination and courage which she had brought to the rest of her life.
John Knox: Little is recorded of his life before 1545. He probably attended St. Andrews Univ., where he may have become acquainted with some of the new Protestant doctrines. He entered the Roman Catholic priesthood, however, and from 1540 to 1544 was engaged as an ecclesiastical notary and as a private tutor. By late 1545 Knox had attached himself closely to the reformer George Wishart. When, after Wishart's execution (1546), a group of Protestant conspirators took revenge by murdering Cardinal David Beaton, Knox, now definitely a Protestant took refuge with them in St. Andrews Castle and preached in the parish church. Attacked by both Scottish and French forces, the castle was eventually surrendered (1547), and Knox served 19 months in the French galleys before his release (1549) through the efforts of the English government of Edward VI. Knox spent the next few years in England, preaching in Berwick and Newcastle as a licensed minister of the crown and serving briefly as a royal chaplain. He helped to prepare the second Book of Common Prayer, but he declined a bishopric in the newly established Church of England. Shortly after the accession (1553) of the Catholic Mary I to the English throne, Knox went into exile on the Continent, living chiefly in Geneva and Frankfurt. In Geneva he consulted with John Calvin on questions of church doctrine and civil authority. Meanwhile, through his frequent letters, he exerted considerable influence among Protestants in England and Scotland; in his "Faithful Admonition" pamphlet of 1554 he began to urge the duty of the righteous to overthrow "ungodly" monarchs. In 1555–56 he visited Scotland, preaching in private and counseling the Protestant congregations. After his return to Geneva, where he served (1556–58) as pastor to the English congregation, he wrote the First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment [i.e., regimen] of Women. That fiery tract was directed against the Catholic Mary of Guise, regent of Scotland, and Queen Mary of England, but it also alienated the Protestant Elizabeth I, who succeeded to the English throne in 1558. In 1557 the Scottish Protestant nobles signed their First Covenant, banding together to form the group known as the lords of the congregation (see Scotland, Church of). When, in 1559, Mary of Guise moved against the Protestants, the lords of the congregation took up arms and invited Knox back from Geneva to lead them. Aided by England and by the regent's death in 1560, the reformers forced the withdrawal of the French troops that had come to Mary's aid and won their freedom as well as dominance for the new religion. Under Knox's direction, a confession of faith (basically Calvinist) was drawn up (1560) and passed by the Scottish Parliament, which also passed laws abolishing the authority of the pope and condemning all creeds and practices of the old religion. The Book of Discipline, however, which provided an organizational structure for the new church, failed to get adequate approval from the nobles in 1561. When Mary Queen of Scots arrived from France to assume her crown in the same year, many Protestant lords deserted Knox and his cause, and some even joined the queen. From his pulpit and in personal debates with Mary on questions of theology and the loyalty owed by the subject to his monarch, Knox stubbornly defied Mary's authority and thundered against her religion. The queen's marriage to Lord Darnley, her suspected complicity in his murder, and her hasty marriage to James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, stirred the Protestant lords to revolt. Mary was forced to abdicate (1567) in favor of her young son, James VI. All the acts of 1560 were then confirmed, thereby establishing Presbyterianism as the official religion. Despite the ill health of his last years, Knox continued to be an outspoken preacher until his death. It has been said of Knox that "rarely has any country produced a stronger will." His single-minded zeal made him the outstanding leader of the Scottish Reformation and an important influence on the Protestant movements in England and on the Continent, but the same quality tended to close his mind to divergent views. His History of the Reformation in Scotland, finished in 1564 but published in 1584 after his death, is a striking record of that conflict, but includes a number of misstatements and omissions resulting from his strong bias. Bibliography:

Books:

Eugene F. Rice Jr., The Foundations of Early Modern Europe 1460 -1559, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company) p. 170.
Justo L. González, The Story of Christianity; v2, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers)
James D. Tracy, Europe's Reformations, 1450-1650, (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc)

Web sites:

http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/aboutCatalinadeAragon.htm. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/tudor/p/catherine_parr.htm http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon44.html http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0857956.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_V_of_Scotland http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_mary_queen_of_scots.htm http://www.bartleby.com/65/kn/Knox-Joh.html