Changes

Mary Queen of Scots, was a committed Catholic and like her namesake Mary I of England tried to restore Catholicism. As the monarch she was the divinely anointed ruler of the kingdom. Her support for Catholicism was a real threat to the continued growth of Protestantism in the realm. By this date the Church in Scotland was ‘reformed’ and Mary was its head. However, the Queen was openly sympathetic to Catholicism and openly held mass at her castle, which was contrary to the laws of the land. Knox publicly denounced her and her Catholic faith. In a series of interviews Mary tried to intimidate Knox and persuade him that she as Queen could practice her faith and that she was not a threat to the Church of Scotland. Knox was one of Mary’s chief critics during the controversy over the assassination of her husband, Lord Darnley<ref> Warnicke, Retha. M, Mary Queen of Scots, New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 134</ref>. He openly denounced the queen when she married the chief suspect the notorious Earl of Boothby. Knox continued to rouse the opposition to Mary and he helped to persuade the Protestant nobles to depose Mary and placed her son, James on the throne. This they eventually did, and Knox was granted the honor of preaching a sermon at the coronation of James, who became James VI of Scotland <ref>Warnicke, p. 119</ref>. With the accession of James, the Reformation in Scotland was secure, and Catholicism was marginalized and confined to the remote Highlands and Islands.