John Knox

John Knox was the greatest Reformer of all Scotland. He was born at Giffordgate around 1513 to 1514. We are not exactly sure when he was born. For his education he studied at the University of Glasgow and St. Andrews sometime in the 1530s. He became an ordained Catholic priest in 1540. Later he left the Catholic Church and became a Reformed preacher.

In 1547, during his middle life, he was taken prisoner and sent to the French galleys, where he stayed for a terrible 19 months and severely damaged his health. When he was eventually released he didn’t go straight back to Scotland. For ten years he lived and preached in England, Switzerland, Germany, and then he went back to Scotland.

John Knox married a lovely young woman whose name was Marjorie Bowes and she had two sons. But then a terrible thing happened; his beautiful wife died, and he was left alone with his two sons. Later he married again and all the people talked about this marriage. He married a woman (more like a girl) who was 17, and John was 50! Her name was Margaret Stewart, and she gave him two daughters. Another astonishing thing was that she was part of the royal family!

John Knox's life might have been really exciting, but nobody can live forever. John Knox died in Edinburgh in 1572, and was buried at St. Giles Church. The Earl of Morton gave a speech at his funeral and remarked , “Here lyeth a man who in his life never feared the face of a man, who hath been often threatened with dagger, but yet hath ended his days in peace and honor.”