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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 on the throne. This they eventually did, and Knox was granted the honor of preaching a sermon at the coronation of James VI <ref>Warnicke, p. 119</ref>. With the ascent of James VI, the Reformation in Scotland was secure, and Catholicism was marginalized and confined to the remote Highlands and Islands.
==Knox and Presbyterianism==
The Scottish reformer decisively shaped the form of the Reformation in the kingdom. Prior to his meeting with Calvin he was an adherent of the Anglican Church and influenced by its forms of Church governance and theology. He was much influenced by what he saw in Geneva where Calvin had reformed the Church and the City-State. The Scot did not imitate Calvin, but he was deeply impressed by what he saw <ref>Kyle, Richard G., "John Knox: The Main Themes of His Thought", Princeton Seminary Bulletin 4, no. 2 (1983): 112 </ref>. Knox adapted the ideas of Calvin with regard to the Presbyterian form of church government, which is governed by representative assemblies of elders. He believed that this would not only to reform the Church but to ensure that people conformed to the teaching of the scriptures. Knox interpretation of Calvin was crucial in the development of Presbyterianism and its theology <ref>Dawson, p. 119</ref>. He helped to transmit the ideas of Calvin on Church government to Scotland and England. Indeed, Knox the Scottish Reformer was a pivotal influence on the development of English Puritanism. The Scottish Presbyterian Church was spread by migrating Scots to Northern Ireland, America and Canada and from here it spread all over the globe. None of this would have been possible without the ideas of John Knox. Even though he did not want to establish a new Church he can be regarded as one of the founders of the Presbyterian Churches around the world.
==Knox and Scotland in Europe==
Traditionally, Scotland had been trenchantly anti-English and to counter its larger neighbor it had formed a long-lasting alliance with France. Typically, when France and England were at war, the Scots would invade Northern England. This was the pattern of events until the Knox inspired Scottish Reformation. Knox and the Protestant nobles came to believe that England which was a Protestant kingdom was not its enemy. Rather the real enemy was Catholic France, which was the champion of the corrupt Papacy and a corrupt clergy. The Scottish Reformation changed how many Scots perceived their relationship with England. Knox and those who were sympathetic to the Reformation came to see England as an ally and France as an enemy. The outcome of this was that under James VI of Scotland that there was a rapprochement between Edinburgh and London. The two realms as Protestant kingdoms believed that they had a common foe in Catholic Spain and France<ref>Devine, John, A history of Scotland (London, Penguin Books, 1995)p. 245</ref>. There was to be no further wars between Scotland and England during the reign of James VI. When Elizabeth I died, her powerful minister Cecil was able to engineer the accession of James VI of Scotland as James I of England in 1603. This led to the unification of the crowns of England and Scotland and this was to ultimately lay the foundation for the establishment of the United Kingdom in 1707. The dramatic change in the relationship between Scotland and England was in no small measure a result of John Knox, who was a key figure in the success of the Scottish Reformation.
