John Knox

John Knox (c. 1514–1572) was a Scottish clergyman and the leader of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. A former Catholic priest, he joined the reformers who held St. Andrews Castle in 1547 and, when it fell, spent nineteen months as a galley slave in the French fleet. He then preached in England under Edward VI and, after Mary Tudor's accession, lived in exile in Frankfurt and in Geneva, where he came under Calvin's influence and wrote The First Blast of the Trumpet. Returning to Scotland in 1559, he helped establish the reformed Church, clashed repeatedly with Mary Queen of Scots, and wrote a History of the Reformation in Scotland.