How did Knox and the Scottish Noblemen finally bring Protestantism to Scotland?
• Meanwhile in Scotland in 1557, a group of Protestant Scottish noblemen, called the “Lords of the Congregation,” signed a covenant among themselves declaring for Protestantism in Scotland. The motivations were mainly political–though Knox, even from the distance away of Geneva Switzerland, had been writing them and giving them ideas and understandings that they would need in order to take such a strong position against established Catholic authority. Even from a distance Knox was shaping events in Scotland • Then in 1558 Mary Stuart finally married the Dauphin of France (future King Francis II of France) finally putting Scotland in the position of one day becoming merely a French province under a French king. Anti-French, and thus anti-Catholic, feelings now grew stronger throughout Scotland. • Realizing that the situation was now ripe for Protestantism in Scotland, Knox, who had been in close correspondence with the “Lord’s of the Congregation,” returned to Scotland in May of 1559.
