Inception, Composition, Contemporary Response
The question of the ultimate legitimacy of rule by a female sovereign was one that had occupied Knox’s mind some years before the composition of what is, undoubtedly, his most infamous and controversial tract, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. Before proceeding, however, it is important to point out that, here, “regiment” is not to be understood in its most common and vague modern sense. To Knox, it did not mean “clan, group, miscellaneous conglomeration” or any such thing. He understood the term to mean, simply, “government”, in a political sense (whatever his views about domestic and personal …
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