12 Things You Didn't Know about John Knox

This month's guest post is by author Marie MacPherson. Over to you, Marie...

John Knox, the controversial Scottish Reformer, is often portrayed as a cartoon Calvinist who hated women and trumpeted fire and brimstone from the pulpit. However, the notorious Scottish Reformer was a complex character whose life reads more like an adventure thriller than a history. And, love him or loathe him, you cannot deny the impact he has had on Scottish history, culture and psyche. Despite that – or because of that – most people know very little about him. In this article I share some of the surprising things I’ve discovered in my research on Knox for my fictional biography.

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1. Roman Catholic Priest – After studying logic, rhetoric and canon law at St Andrews University Knox was ordained a priest in 1536. With not enough parishes for all the priests, he became a Notary Apostolic, a country lawyer.

2. Bodyguard – In the 1540s he fell under the spell of George Wishart, the charismatic Protestant preacher who ‘pulled him from the puddle of papistry’. He dropped everything to follow his master, taking up a two-handed sword to defend him from persecution by Cardinal David Beaton. When Wishart was arrested and sentenced to burn at the stake, Knox went into hiding.

Knox defending Wishart with a sword

3. Galley Slave – After a year in hiding, Knox was called to St Andrews to preach to the Castilians under siege in the castle for assassinating Cardinal Beaton. Knox was arrested and sentenced to toil in the galleys for 19 months – a fate worse than death. He was not expected to survive but the ailments he contracted vexed him for the rest of his life.

4. Church of England Chaplain – Freed from the galleys, Knox became a preacher in the north of England before being called to London as chaplain to Edward VI. He refused promotion in the English church, turning down the vicarage of All Hallows, London, and the bishopric of Rochester.  

5. Political Exile – When Catholic Mary Tudor ascended the throne, Knox fled persecution to Geneva where he became even more Calvinist than Calvin. The Swiss reformer considered his polemical tract The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women too inflammatory with its call to depose ungodly female monarchs. 

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6. Babe Magnet – The First Blast, denouncing female rule for being contrary to natural and divine law, has forever labelled Knox a rampant misogynist, even though he only voiced what most men of his time believed – that women were inferior creatures and not suited to wielding power – only much more vociferously. In fact, he loved women’s company – as his tender letters to his mother-in-law and correspondent, Anna Locke reveal – and women were drawn to him. Like Billy Graham, he must have had some charisma! 

7. Author and Translator – As well as his History of the Reformation in Scotland and polemical pamphlets, Knox worked briefly with Miles Coverdale on the English translation of the Geneva Bible.

8. Agent Provocateur – With a network of spies that William Cecil, the English spymaster would envy, Knox was often the first in Scotland to find out about important events such as the death of Francis II, Mary Queen of Scots’ first husband, and David Riccio’s murder. However, he was more provocative than secret as an agent. 

9. Husband and Father – Knox was married twice – both times to teenagers. His first wife, Marjory Bowes, who bore him two sons, died at the tragically young age of 25. At the age of fifty, he married 17-year-old Margaret Stewart, a distant relative of Mary Queen of Scots who was furious when she found out about her new in-law. Meg bore him three daughters. 

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10. Marriage Guidance Counsellor – while Knox often clashed with Queen Mary on religious matters – on a more personal level, they joined forces to try and reconcile the queen’s half-sister with her errant husband. But did they have an affair – as one questioner asked at one of my talks. The jury is still out.

11. Social Reformer – Knox co-authored The First Book of Discipline, a manifesto for the Reformed Scottish church, which proposed a school in every parish, a network of ministers and a system of poor relief. He assumed the Kirk would take over the Roman Catholic Church’s revenues, but he did not factor in the greed of the power-hungry lords. Thomas Randolph, the English envoy, considered his democratic vision to be centuries ahead of its time.

12. Parking Lot Burial – At the age of 59, Knox died in his bed surrounded by his family – and not atop a burning pyre as he always feared. He was buried in St Giles’ cemetery, his grave marked by Parking Lot No 23 in the High Street. 

Marie MacPherson 2018

Thank you so much for this insightful post, Marie. You can find out more about Marie's books here at Penmore Press

Talking at Tamworth - What I Learned...

Many months ago I was contacted, via Twitter, with a view to giving a talk about Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians.

The occasion? The Tamworth Literary Festival, part of the ongoing celebrations of her life in this, the 1100th anniversary of her death, in Tamworth.

With months to go, I didn't panic. Besides, I had my history of Mercia to finish. I would meet the deadline for the book, and then work on my talk.

The brief: to talk about what we know of her life, and then explain how I gave her a voice in my novel.

Well, I finished the book, sent it off with a week to spare, and then between proofreading and indexing, I got to work on my talk. It helped that my new book contains a chapter on Æthelflæd and her husband, so it was all fresh in my mind.

I wrote it out. Everything I wanted to include in my twenty-minute talk. It came to more like 35 minutes. Yikes! 

Now came the difficult task of deciding what I could jettison, and what I couldn't bear to let go. Numerous revisions ensued, until I had something much more manageable. The next task was to learn it. Or at least, learn enough so that I wouldn't be reading every word.

I decided that cue cards were not for me. Instead, I used a large font (16 point) and used a mixture of full sentences and short notes. I practised reading it aloud, refined it, practised again, and kept this process going. But maybe I peaked too early, because with less than a week to go, I found myself thinking of things that needed to go in. By this stage, timing was so tight that for every new thought which went in, something had to be chopped out.

But, I'd got to the point where all I had to do was glance down occasionally at the notes, and I knew the layout well enough that I could look straight at the relevant part of the page. I was 'good to go'.

The journey was horrendous and it was a good choice to travel the day before the event. It was also a boon to have my husband with me, because it made life easier carrying overnight bags and boxes of books from the car park to the venue.

On the day, I suffered from terrible nerves, waiting for everything to start happening. But once the organisers arrived at the venue, I relaxed a little and it helped that I was then busy. Sara, who was chairing the event, suggested that we set up the book-signing tables near the door, and she'd brought a pretty tablecloth to drape over the tables. She also pointed out something which had not occurred to me, as a 'newbie' - that a sign showing your book prices is an absolute must. Good tip! It hadn't occurred to me that people might already be 'browsing' while we were busy setting up at the other end of the room, and therefore couldn't ask me the prices.

I'd remembered just in time to take a float, so I was able give change.

Posters, which I blu-tacked to the wall behind us, worked well. But others had posters in acrylic stands, which looked great on the table and it's something I'd do in future. I had a collection of promotional postcards, and business cards, plus fliers for the new book and these proved popular.

And then came the talk. Three of us were involved, but I was up first. I was still nervous, and my mouth was dry, despite the gallons of water I'd drunk. But once I got going, I was absolutely fine, although all my resolutions to break for a sip of water went out the window. I was on a roll, and I was going to keep going!

Once it was all over, I was much more relaxed. It had been very well-received and lots of people bought books and chatted at length about my writing and the history. My husband grabbed some sandwiches from the buffet for me, but pointed out that I had better wait before eating them - that way there was no chance of my signing the books with greasy hands. Another good tip!

I sold around 75% of the books I'd taken with me. I was pleased with that, because I'd no idea initially how many to take. And it seems to me that it's better I had a few left over, than that I ran out.

Now that it's all over, would I do it again? Yes, definitely. Would I be as nervous the next time? Well, I'd like to think not, but I know from my days as a professional singer that I do suffer dreadfully with stage-fright. At least now, though, I know a little bit more about what to expect.

Oh, and one last tip: take a pen. It's the one thing that I forgot!

4 Questions, 3 Pics, 2 Links: Author Jayne Davis

Continuing our monthly series, where I ask authors four questions and ask them to supply three pics and two links, this month it's the turn of Jayne Davis:

Hi, who are you?
I’m a getting-on-a-bit Brit who’s had several careers. I loved reading Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer from my teens, and always wanted to write fiction. There were a few abortive attempts at novels, which thankfully never saw the light of day, and in the meantime I became an engineer, then a teacher, then a publisher (of school text books) and finally a freelance writer (school text books again). Eventually I tried again, summoned up the courage to submit my work for other people to review, and finally knocked it into good shape for publishing.

This is me relaxing – in my garden, with a book and a cup of tea.

When I first started trying to write novels, I used to worry if I’d ever have enough ideas. Now the problem is having too many ideas and having to sift through them, and to concentrate on one at a time!

What do you write about?
I’ve always been a sucker for romances with happy endings, with believable characters and events, so that is what I try to write. I love the Regency era – using the term in its broader sense, from the 1790s until Victoria came to the throne. This era has great scope for story-telling, too, with Britain at war almost continually from 1793 until 1815. There was a lot of skulduggery and spying going on, many army and navy wives and sweethearts having to cope while their loved ones were away, and also the prospect of characters having to deal with injury. The status of women in those times also gives my heroines something to struggle against – there was huge scope for unsympathetic or jealous relatives to cause social or financial harm. Stakes in marriage were high – the wife had no money of her own after marriage, only what her husband gave her, and if they separated (divorce was very difficult and expensive, and so very rare), he had sole rights to the children and could deny her all access. And there were no trains or telephones, especially not mobiles – there are so many more story possibilities when you cannot just press a few buttons and talk to someone miles away.

This is how I imagine Edgecombe, the village in The Mrs MacKinnons. It is actually a painting of Osmington Village, in Dorset, but the rolling scenery is not unlike the valleys on the western edge of the Cotswolds, where my story is set (and where I live). Image by Wiki commons License

Which character will we love to love, and why?
The answer to this would depend when you asked me—I’m half in love with the hero of whichever book I’m working on. But as I want my readers to love my main characters, it’s probably cheating to say that, so I will put forward Sergeant Webb.

My first novel, The Mrs MacKinnons, concerns Major Matthew Southam, a soldier returning to England after a traumatic experience in India. When I started writing the story, Webb was just a means of getting Matthew out of prison and back to England. Then he sort of elbowed his way into the story, and became a significant secondary character (that’s when I knew I was nutty enough to be an author, when characters start doing things for themselves!). He’s had a traumatic upbringing himself, but has turned out to be a decent man, if a little sharp around the edges – a rough diamond.
The book I’m currently working on (Playing with Fire), has two secondary characters that did something similar – worked their way into my affections and had a bigger part in the story than I initially thought. So much so that there will be a following book that features them (one as the male lead, the other as a main secondary character).

Which character will we love to hate, and why?
In The Mrs MacKinnons, Charles Southam, Matthew’s half-brother by their father’s second wife. He’s jealous that Matthew has inherited their father’s estates and wishes Matthew had died in India. He’s cheated Matthew and even his own full brother, and rather than even thinking of trying to make a living for himself (as most second sons had to), he resorts to devious means to try to get his hands on more money, in spite of having had a very generous allowance for years.

Thank you so much for talking to us today Jayne!

Here are Jayne's two links:

Amazon

Website