Raw Deal for Women in Scotland's Reformation

06/03/2010

2010 is the 450th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation, in which the structure of the catholic church was overthrown in favour of a simpler, more austere approach to worship.

Scotland's Reformation was led by the firebrand preacher John Knox (c1510 - 1572), who is seen as founder of the Church of Scotland that we still know today.

Knox preached severla times in Stirling, including on 29th July, 1567.  That was the day the infant King James VI of Scotland was taken the short distance from Stirling Castle to the historic Church of the Holy Rude, for his coronation under Knox's watchful eye.

'Monstrous'

The reformation movement was in many ways about a more democratic approach to religion but, it seems, this did not extend to women.  King James' mother, Mary, Queen of Scots and grandmother, the French noblewoman Mary de Guise, both felt the wrath of Knox's enmity - both for their catholicism and their status as woman of power.  In 1558, Knox even commited his sexism to paper with the publication of his: 'First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women'.

The 16th century also witnessed some of the blackest epsiodes in Scotland's history, with outbreaks of witch hunting.  Even King James VI - later to become King James I of England - was deeply supersticious and fearful of witchcraft in his kingdom.  The Witches Craig, just east of Stirling, near the National Wallace Monument, is a remined of those dark times.  Alledged witches were taken to be thrown from the steep, rocky cliffs.  Die and they proved their innocence; surive and they were burned as witches.  A very raw deal indeed. 

You can learn more about John Knox and the Scottish Reformation at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum.

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