Mary Stuart sits at the desk and reads the whole book "The First Trumpet Against the Horrible Rule of Women" carefully.
The content of this book with a long name is as long and boring as the title. The author is endless, citing scriptures from God, religion, social customs, ethics, and all aspects of history. He talks about the whole book, but only expresses one core idea, that is, women are not worthy of wearing the crown and ruling the country. Otherwise, they will only bring the whole country into the abyss of sin.
This book is blatantly aimed at her.
The author of this book is John Knox, the current Protestant leader of Scotland, an extreme Calvinist pastor, who mocks Mary Stuart almost every day in his sermons.
He is also a Scotsman, but his former religious teacher George Wishart was once burned at the stake for heresy because he opposed the rule of Mary's mother, Queen Mother of Guise. John, who witnessed his teacher being burned to death. Knox also embarked on the road of escape from then on. He was first captured by the French in the war and suffered as a slave. Later, he went to London and worked as a pastor for the Protestant Edward VIII. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. The frail Edward died of tuberculosis. The king who succeeded him was the extreme Catholic Mary I, which forced him to embark on the road of escape again.
This time he fled to Geneva, Switzerland in one breath, where he was shocked by Calvin's preaching and became a thorough Calvinist fanatic. Then he returned to his hometown of Scotland to preach. Because of his inflammatory reasons, he had a large number of fanatical supporters in Edinburgh in just over a year.
Mary Stuart calculates the years. The war that caused him to become a slave of the French was the one fought by the crown princes of Britain and France to compete for her as a fiancée. The Protestant organization that this man is eager to establish in Scotland recently, the Scottish Presbyterian Church, has already taken shape. Because of Mary Stuart's return to the country, the situation of everyone watching in the country is stranded again.
There is no possibility of reconciliation for such new and old hatreds.
She and this man are destined to be mortal enemies.
Unfortunately, in order to prevent the Protestants from rioting, Mary Stuart could not directly attack him, and could not exercise the power of the king, simply ordering people to throw him to the guillotine.
After reading the whole book, Mary Stuart puts the book aside, then dips a quill pen in ink and carefully writes the name of John Knox on the white paper.
With her hand resting on her chin in the candlelight, Mary Stuart looks at the name for a while, picks up another quill pen with red ink, and then gently crosses the name of John Knox.
"Go and call Bothwell for me." Mary Stuart orders.
Bothwell quickly comes over and asks, "Your Majesty, what do you want me to do late at night?"
Chatting is impossible. Every time the young majesty sees him, she only issues orders and discusses military affairs, and there is no nonsense at all.
At first, Bothwell was not used to this cold and official atmosphere. After all, a young and beautiful woman, in his past memories, was always associated with flirting, laughing, drinking and having fun. That was normal. But then he thought, this is a queen after all, it is not surprising to have such a demeanor.
"How is my guard trained? They used to be in France, can they adapt to the climate and life in Scotland now?" Mary Stuart asks.
"Very good, Your Majesty, France is rich, but everyone has the desire to return to their hometown, and the salary and treatment you give are not inferior to those in France. I guarantee that they are loyal soldiers who are willing to protect you with their lives in any war." Bothwell says seriously.
Mary Stuart nods and says, "I will need them to perform their duties soon. Bothwell, if faced with hundreds of mobs attacking the chapel of Holyrood Palace, can you control those people without harming their lives?"
"Although we only have a hundred people, what can civilians who have not received any training do? I am afraid that if we show our swords, they will be scared to death. There will be no problem with three times more." Bothwell says nonchalantly.
"Then I will be relieved. I will hold the Catholic sacrament in Holyrood Palace this Sunday. Now the Protestant forces in Edinburgh are very strong, and there is a paranoid leader. In order to prevent any accidents during the mass, I hope you can lead everyone to guard in the hidden corners of the palace, and try not to be discovered, so as not to scare the priests holding the mass." Mary Stuart instructs.
"Of course, I will follow your instructions."
Bothwell obeys the order while feeling a little confused.
Such preparations are more like deliberately setting a trap than preventing sabotage. Who is the Queen of Scotland in front of him exactly going to deal with?
But who cares?
Any conspiracy that is not worthy of being put on the table is nothing. It would only make them surrender under his soldiers and fists. It is useless. No matter what Queen Mary Stuart wants to do, he would just execute it.
Thinking of this, Bothwell rolls up his sleeves, hums a tune, and strides out of the Queen's study.
…
The Scottish Guards are not the Scottish Guards.
This sentence sounds difficult to understand, but it is true.
In the early last century, the Scottish King Charles I organized a large number of longbow soldiers to establish the Scottish Guards. The killing effect on the battlefield was quite good, but it was soon disbanded because it could not be supported. The King of France at that time took a fancy to this guard and paid to raise it again. The name of the Scottish Guards was still retained, but it was already the king's private army.
Bothwell went to France to seek refuge before. Because of his Scottish background, he was arranged by Mary Stuart's former father-in-law Henry II to be the deputy captain of the Scottish Guards. Later, when Mary Stuart was going back to her country, she asked him to try to dig some people and form a small armed force of his own, with a total of about 100 people.
This is also the maximum limit that Mary Stuart can currently afford without affecting her daily life.
The king of a country can only afford to support a hundred elite soldiers on a daily basis. This sounds like a joke, but it is actually Mary Stuart's current situation.
Scotland's poverty is not just talk. It is common for the nobles to pay less or no taxes. Monasteries and churches that occupy a large amount of real estate do not have to pay taxes. The entire royal family's open liquid assets are only about 10,000 sheep. It is quite difficult to maintain the normal expenses of Holyrood Palace and maintain the proper decency.
As for the money saved privately, her father James V gave all his personal savings to his "true love" son, the Earl of Moray, before his death. The huge dowry brought by her mother and the former French princess also supplemented a lot of the treasury during the regency years. The rest was swept away by the timely arrival of the Lord Moray, leaving Mary Stuart with only some large furniture, tapestries, and jewelry that could not be converted into cash.
When Mary Stuart flips through the account book, she couldn't help thinking that the biggest gain from her being the Queen of France for more than a year, apart from the precious jewelry she brought back, was probably the annual pension of about 1,200 pounds.
According to the French etiquette, as long as the former queen was alive, she could continue to receive the annual pension.
…
Soon, it is time for Sunday mass.
This is the first Catholic ceremony held openly after the Queen of Scotland returned to her country, and it should be taken seriously. With some help, the news spreads quickly throughout Edinburgh.
It also reaches John Knox's ears.
In the church, the priest with a big beard, who is close to old age, is so angry about the news that he trembles all over and walks back and forth on the stage.
"This is Satan's mass, this is Satan's mass!
The witches from France left one, and another came, ruling our country again and again, welcoming those idolatrous heretics back to our peaceful country openly, making God silent in heaven and saints weep in heaven!
My believers, if you are devout believers of the Lord, you should stop this mass!"
Because of Pastor Knox's heart-wrenching rebuke, the crowd listening to the pastor's sermon suddenly burst into whispers, and the sound in the dark church is like a rolling thunder, which secretly grows anger.
"I would like to ask everyone present, has there ever been a woman sitting on the throne? Has there ever been a woman holding great power?
If such a thing happens, it will surely be the beginning of a national disaster! The First Book of Timothy says that a woman should be quiet and learn the truth, and be obedient. That is what a good woman should do. But now in Scotland it is completely the opposite. A woman is sitting on the throne and doing whatever she wants!"