Mary, Queen of Scots and the Catholic Threat

 Fourth Wednesday of Lent

Lectionary texts for today:

OT: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

NT: John 9:1-17

Today we continue on the background of early Methodism with events in England in the last half of the 16th century. Although all sorts of interesting things go on during this period, my interest here is an overriding question: will England be Catholic or Protestant?

Scotland was independent of England at this time, although the English had possessed it before and wanted it again. Scotland had its own monarchy, the Stuart dynasty. In the Reformation Scotland became heavily Calvinist influenced under the leadership of a minister, John Knox. The King of Scotland, James V, was Catholic. He was son of Margaret, the sister of Henry VIII. He had a daughter shortly before he died in 1542. Her name was Mary Stuart, a.k.a. Mary, Queen of Scots. She grew up in France, though she was in title Queen of Scotland. 

English Catholics, many of whom lived in France after the Protestant Elizabeth I became Queen of England in 1558, saw Elizabeth as an illegitimate queen, because she was a child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, after his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Mary Queen of Scots, Henry's grandniece, was next in line, in the Catholic view. Elizabeth was wary.

Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to Scotland at age 19 in 1561. She wanted to be ruling Queen, rather than Queen in title, with Scottish regents running the government while she was growing up. She was welcomed and adored by the Scots on her return. She had a striking presence, 5'11" in an age when people were far shorter than they are today, and with perfectly Celtic red hair. Her charisma, as well as her Catholicism, made Elizabeth all the more wary of her. 

Mary married and had a son, James VI, who was to become King of Scotland after her death. In 1567 Elizabeth invited Mary to meet with her at a castle in northern England to discuss matters of government and succession. Elizabeth did not attend the meeting. Rather, she had Mary arrested and imprisoned at that castle. She kept Mary imprisoned there for 20 years and then had her beheaded. Elizabeth ruled a Protestant England until she died, childless, in 1603.

England and Scotland had fought numerous wars of English conquest and Scottish independence over the previous five centuries (best known through the movie Braveheart). Scotland had been independent of England since 1328, though England still dreamed of its conquest. 

England, in effect, conquered Scotland, in 1603, in the most ingenious of ways. If you can't lick 'um, join 'um. Upon the death of heirless Elizabeth, England accepted the Scottish king, Mary Queen of Scots' son James VI, as their own king. He became James I of England. England and Scotland have been united ever since.

 

James I was not a particularly religious man. With England being Protestant and Scotland having many Protestant sympathizers, he saw that retaining his mother's Catholic faith was not the most politic thing to do. He converted to Protestantism. The Catholic threat was gone, at least for the time being. 

In 1611, King James authorized a new Bible translation, the work of a committee of scholars from Oxford and Cambridge. The translation bore his name, though it's doubtful that he ever read much of it. It became and remained the standard Bible of English speaking Protestants all the way down to the first half of the 20th century.

Faithfully

Christian