John Knox’s Trumpet Blast Against the “Regimens” of Mary Queen of Scots, Mary I and Elizabeth I
- Dorothea Dickerman
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
How Knox’s Furious Pamphlet Tried (and Failed) to Dethrone Three Girlbosses
“She shall be loved and fear’d: her own shall bless her;
Her foes shake like a field of beaten corn
And hang their heads with sorrow.”
— The History of Henry VIII, V.v
It began as a private vendetta. On a cold autumn dawn in 1557, while the Channel wind hammered at the shutters of a rented chamber in Dieppe, France, a thin Scotsman - sharp boned and sharper tongued - hunched over a rough table, furtively recording the thoughts that had possessed him all night. Ink smudged his cuffs. Gutted candles littered the table.
His name was John Knox, and he was seething.
Years earlier, Knox had fled Scotland and England, branded as a heretic and traitor for his Protestant preaching. Far from cooling with exile, his fury blazed hotter, aimed at two women and a teenage girl. All Catholic. All crowned. All irritatingly named “Mary”.
In the cramped room in Dieppe, Knox hatched his thunderbolt: a tract so powerful that it would shake not spears, but thrones - and God willing, shake every woman off them forever and replace them with men. Or, so he hoped.
🎺 Fanfare: The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regimen of Women
Still exiled, Knox completed and published his long, loud polemic, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regimen of Women, in Geneva in 1558. An apocalyptic trumpet blast, indeed - meant to rouse men against what Knox’s first blast branded as women’s “monstruous” (originally spelled with the double “u”, meaning “unnatural”) “regimen” (originally spelled with no final “t” and not a troop of soldiers, but like “regime”, meaning “rule” or “government”).
Knox wasn’t just uncomfortable with the idea of women ruling; he was theologically outraged. He argued that female sovereignty was an affront to divine order. To Knox, women on thrones were not just unqualified—they were “monstruous,” unnatural, and contrary to both Scripture and sense.
His targets:
👑 Mary I of England (1553–1558)
👑 Mary Guise, Regent of Scotland (1554-1560)
👑 Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587)
And by 1558, he had added one more name to his most un-wanted list:
👑 Elizabeth I of England (1558-1603)
His purpose:
God save us from girlbosses.
But modern readers often miss the insight's full bite. Knox wasn’t just criticizing women’s political power; he was condemning the very idea of a woman exercising authority over men.
Knox, never one for subtlety, pulled no punches:
“For who can denie but it repugneth to nature, that the blind shall be appointed to leade and conduct such as do see? That the weake, the sicke, and impotent persons shall norishe and kepe the hole and strong . . . that the foolish, mad and phrenetick shall governe the discrete and give counsel to such as be sober of mind? And such be all women, compared unto man... .”
Really?! Did Knox just declare that women were blind, weak, foolish, mad and frenzied - and therefore unfit to rule over men?
😱 “Monstruous” = Unnatural. “Regimen” = Rule. Cue the Panic.
And reinforce a very open Elizabethan secret: sexism in the 16th century wasn’t reserved just for ordinary women—it reached all the way to the very top.
But couldn’t all those queens just ban sexism by royal decrees?
Sorry. No.
Mary I (aka Bloody Mary) sat on England’s throne for five years. A staunch Catholic and daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII, she had married Philip II of Spain, later to be England’s arch-nemesis in the Spanish Armada saga. Her persecution of Protestants (including toasting them at the stake) made her a terrifying figure for exiles like Knox—who fled to the Continent to escape her wrath.
Meanwhile, to the north, Mary of Guise, another staunch Catholic, ruled Scotland as regent until her daughter, Mary Queen of Scots, yet another staunch Catholic, matured and ruled free of her male relatives. This triple dose of Catholic queens was more than Knox’s reformed stomach could bear. What was worse? Knox’s former pulpit in Edinburgh, inside St. Giles Cathedral, stood (and stands today) exactly half way between the royal Edinburgh Castle and the royal Castle of the Holyrood. He was physically surrounded by scepter-swaying Catholic women.
♟️Mary Queen of Scots v. Knox at Chess
If the initial spark for The First Blast was personal, it grew to a public and published political inferno when Mary Queen of Scots started toying with Knox. At first this queen permitted Knox to advance and return to Scotland. Then she pulled the invitation, then reinstated it, then changed her mind again. It was beyond maddening.
But Knox’s publication timing couldn’t have been worse. Just as The First Blast hit the presses, Elizabeth I ascended the English throne. Unlike her half-sister Mary Tudor, Elizabeth was Protestant—but still a woman. Knox quickly and confidently revealed himself as the polemic’s author, counting on Elizabeth’s inexperience and youth to support in his Protestant revolution in Scotland.
Just how blind, weak, foolish, mad and frenzied did Knox think she was? When Elizabeth read his tirade against women in charge, her royal trumpets blasted Knox all the way out of England into exile for the second time. Furthermore, she banned the import of his opinions.
If Knox was planning a sequel or trilogy (as he hinted), Elizabeth’s censorship made sure his notes fell flat and silent in England.
🧨 When Sexism Backfires: How Knox’s Trumpet Blast Fizzled
Knox, fancying himself a prophet blowing God’s trumpet, certainly wasn’t alone in thinking that female rulers spelled disaster, but The First Blast stands out for its vitriol—and for its political misfire. Elizabeth never forgave him. And while she held Mary Queen of Scots under lock and key for nearly two decades, she delayed her cousin’s execution—perhaps out of a shared disdain for Knox’s treasonous ravings.
It’s a delicious irony: Knox’s attempt to stir revolt against female sovereigns may have only bonded them against him in grudging sisterhood.
Knox was outplayed by the very women he tried to denounce. Although Mary Tudor and Mary Queen of Scots each ruled for only a few years, Elizabeth was naturally suited to her “regimen” and reigned over all the men in England for 45 years.
💬 Want more cheeky dives into the suppressed side of Elizabethan politics, power, and pageantry?
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