SOUND THE TRUMPET ! (But not for John Knox) The Monstrous Regiment In 1558 John Knox (1514-1572)  wrote a pamphlet denouncing gynarchy. ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet’, was a tirade against what he called ‘The Monstrous Regiment of Women’ . A firebrand Protestant leader of the Scottish Reformation, he managed to offend a number of powerful women by writing such things as: To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire above any realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to nature; contumely to God, a thing most contrary to his revealed will and approved ordinance; and finally, it is the subversion of good order, of all equity and justice. Several royal women took exception to his ranting. They included: Mary 1 of England, also known as Bloody Mary and well known for her vicious methods of persecuting Protestants Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland and mother of Mary Queen of Scots, who ridiculed him. Mary Queen of Scots herself, who, although she ‘feared’ Knox’s prayers, re