#Aye. Ken it wis like this...with Marie Macpherson

Series image- Dunkeld Cathedral

I love Fridays, especially so because it's time again for my #Aye. Ken it wis like this... historical blog series. 

Today, my guest Marie Macpherson brings a really super post with lots of brilliant illustrations to share with us, but she's also offering something different - read on to find out details of her #FREE GIVEAWAY of a Signed Paperback copy of the The First Blast of the Trumpet. 

Welcome to my blog, Marie. Please give us the historical setting to your fiction series based on the life of John Knox. 

St. Mary's 

Thanks for inviting me as a guest on your blog, Nancy, and for the opportunity to share the background to my trilogy set in 16th century Scotland, in particular Haddington, the cradle of the Scottish Reformation.

Growing up in Musselburgh, on the site of the Battle of Pinkie, within sight of Carberry Tower and Fa’side Castle, I’ve always been haunted by the stories and legends set in the turbulent reign of Mary Queen of Scots and the Reformation. 

John Knox

Now the rich history of the ancient burgh of Haddington provides the inspiration for my trilogy based on the life of the firebrand preacher, John Knox. 

This often raises eyebrows for why should I, a woman, choose to write about the pulpit thumping preacher forever labelled a misogynist for his polemical pamphlet, The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women? The louring figure of Knox has cast a long shadow but, love him or loathe him, revere or revile him, there’s no denying the impact this iconoclastic figure has had on our history and culture.

We’re all familiar with stereotypical, Calvinist caricature, but what was Knox really like? Who was the man behind myth? That’s what piqued my interest. What drove the Roman Catholic priest to become one of the most famous Protestant reformers in history? And was he, as so many claim, a rampant misogynist? Not only does his life story read more like adventure thriller than history, but Knox turns out to be quite the ladies’ man – he had two wives, fathered five children and had a large female following.

Memorial Plaque marking
John Knox's birthplace

Most of what we know about him is filtered through Knox himself, in his History of Reformation, more an autobiography than a historical account. He clearly wanted to draw a veil over the first 30 years of his life before 1540, which led to many misconceptions. For many years it was assumed he was born in Gifford, a village near Haddington in 1505, and that he attended Glasgow University. Even the great historian Thomas Carlyle, who planted an oak tree with a memorial plaque, was taken in. 

John Knox's Birthplace-
Giffordgate Haddington (Canmore)

It’s now established that he was born c. 1513/14 in Giffordgate, a suburb of Haddington, and was orphaned at an early age.

Being a resident in the episcopal see of St Andrews, Knox studied at the university there and not Glasgow. Knox describes himself as a ‘man of base estate and condition’ which puzzled me. How could a poor orphan afford a university education and train to become a Notary Apostolic, an ecclesiastical lawyer?

Hailes Castle

That led me to conjecture a compelling link with his feudal superiors – the Hepburns of Hailes, granted the earldom of Bothwell – under whose banner his father had died at Flodden. A member of this powerful family, Elisabeth Hepburn, was Prioress of St Mary’s Abbey, where the Treaty of Haddington – betrothing Queen Mary to the French Dauphin – was signed in 1548. A strong relationship with the prioress drives The First Blast of the Trumpet. 

Wishart martyrdom

At some point Knox fell under spell of the charismatic Protestant preacher, George Wishart, who pulled him from ‘the puddle of papistry’. He dropped everything to follow his master and when Wishart preached in Haddington in 1546, Knox was standing at the foot of the pulpit wielding a two-handed sword. However, he failed to prevent his arrest by Patrick Hepburn, (3rd Earl of Bothwell and father of the infamous James) , on the orders of Cardinal Beaton who had Wishart tried as a heretic and burnt at the stake in St Andrews. His death instilled a lifelong fear of the pyre in Knox – who nevertheless died in his bed in 1572.

Sir David Lindsay

Another important influence in his life was the poet and playwright, Sir David Lindsay,

Lindsay author of Ane Satire of the Thrie Estates – a scathing attack on the Roman Catholic church. Lindsay was exiled to his castle at Garleton, outside Haddington and may have met the student Knox at some point. 

Later, he persuaded Knox to preach his first sermon during the siege of St Andrews Castle. Arrested by the French, Knox was sentenced to toil in the galleys – where I left him at end of The First Blast of the Trumpet.

Garleton Castle 

The Second Blast of the Trumpet follows Knox in exile after his release from the galleys in spring 1549.  A pariah in Scotland, Knox was welcomed by English Reformed church who sent him to be pastor in the frontier town of Berwick-upon-Tweed and then to the court of Edward VI until the king’s untimely death. 

Mary Tudor

In Berwick, Knox met Elizabeth Bowes, a middle-aged mother of 15 children and religious hypochondriac, who developed a crush on the charismatic firebrand preacher. His tender letters to her – and to other female followers – shed a completely different light on Knox and contradict his reputation as a misogynist.

When Knox married her 16-year-old daughter, Mrs Bowes left her husband to follow them to Geneva where Knox had fled to escape Mary Tudor’s persecution.  In 1558 he penned his infamous treatise on the ‘Monstrous Regiment’ – not an attack on the female sex in general – but directed at the unnatural regime of female Catholic rulers: in particular Mary Tudor in England, Mary, Queen of Scots and Mary of Guise in Scotland.

Mary of Guise

Knox’s First Blast was not only misjudged – it drew howls of horror from all sides – even from the arch Calvinist, Calvin – it was grossly mistimed. Despite his famous gift of prophecy, he failed to foresee death of Mary Tudor in November 1558 or the accession of another queen. Elizabeth I was not at all amused and refused to allow him back in England.

I’m now working on The Last Blast of the Trumpet which begins in May 1559 when Knox lands in Scotland, called by the Lords of the Congregation to lead the Protestant Reformation. His famous sermon at Perth against idolatry sparked a wholesale riot by the ‘rascal multitude’. As civil war raged, four deaths in fairly quick succession had a great impact on Knox. In July 1559, the French King Henri II died from a jousting wound, making Mary queen of France. A year later, in June 1560 Mary of Guise died of dropsy. Later, in December, Knox’s young wife, Marjory died unexpectedly as did Mary’s husband, François. No longer queen of France, Mary returned to Scotland to claim her throne – much to Knox’s annoyance. In The Last Blast, I’m covering well-trodden ground as Mary enters the scene to begin her tragic decline and fall. 

Mary Queen of Scots

To be continued ....

Marie Macpherson

For more about Marie Macpherson please click HERE 
Find Marie at the following places: 

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheKnoxTrilogy/

Blog: https://mariemacpherson.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @MGMacpherson

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To **WIN** a #FREE copy of The First Blast of the Trumpet, please leave a comment, or question in the comments box about Marie's excellent post to ENTER the Draw. The Winner will be drawn on Sunday 30th September at NOON (UK/ GMT)  (Please leave some method of contacting the winner)
[offer applies to UK only] 


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To buy Marie's books click HERE

Fabulous post, Marie, packed full of really interesting information. Thank you so much for contributing to my Friday series. My very best wishes to you for happy writing - current and future! (I just wish I had loads of time to read this period of history, as well as have another read of my very old copy of 'The Three Estates' -see below) 

List of Illustrations

St Mary’s Haddington

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Haddington#/media/File:St_Mary%27s_Church_(Haddington)_20100919.jpg

John Knox Statue Haddington

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Knox_statue_in_Haddington.jpg

3 . Memorial marking John Knox’s birthplace

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2359634

4. Birthplace of John Knox

https://canmore.org.uk/site/56503/haddington-giffordgate-knox-house

5. Hailes Castle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hailes_Castle#/media/File:HailesN.jpg

6. George Wishart being burnt at the stake in St Andrews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wishart#/media/File:The_martyrdom_of_George_Wishart.jpg

7. Sir David Lindsay

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_David_Lyndsay.jpg

8. Garleton Castle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garleton_Castle#/media/File:Garleton_Castle.jpg

9. Mary Tudor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_I_of_England#/media/File:Maria_Tudor1.jpg

10. Mary of Guise

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Guise#/media/File:Attributed_to_Corneille_de_Lyon_-_Mary_of_Guise,_1515_-_1560._Queen_of_James_V_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

11. Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox by Samuel Sidley, Towneley Hall Art Gallery

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/mary-queen-of-scots-and-john-knox-151243#

My copy of 'The Three Estates'  - Heinemann Ed bought 1970 at 16 shillings. An adaptation created for Tyrone Guthrie's play production at the Edinburgh Festival 1948. A set text during my B.Ed English course of 1970 at Glasgow University/ Jordanhill College of Education.

Slainthe!