David Beaton, nephew of Archbishop James Beaton, was educated at St. Andrews, Glasgow, and Paris, and served as Scotland’s ambassador to France. He was made a cardinal in 1538, succeeded his uncle at St. Andrews in 1539, and became Chancellor in 1543. He was the architect of Scotland’s alliance with Catholic France against Protestant England. Like many Scottish prelates of his day he lived openly with a mistress, Marion Ogilvy, by whom he had several children.

Beaton pursued the Protestants vigorously. In 1544 he had several burgesses of Perth executed for heresy, and he made repeated attempts on the life of the preacher George Wishart, whose bodyguard included the young John Knox. In January 1546 Wishart was arrested. He was tried at St. Andrews, condemned, strangled, and burned on March 1, while the cardinal watched from the castle.¹ Knox never forgot him:

A man of such graces as before him were never heard within this realm, yea, and are rare to be found yet in any man.¹ John Knoxon George Wishart

Three months later, on May 29, 1546, a band of Fife lairds broke into St. Andrews Castle and murdered Beaton in his chamber. They held the castle for more than a year, and Knox joined them and there received his call to preach. When French ships took the castle in July 1547, Knox was sent to the galleys. The cardinal’s violent death did not end the old church in Scotland, but it marked the moment when its fall began.

Catholic Opponents