2°dS.N«>34.,Aua23.'66.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



141 



LONDOlf, SAtURbAY, AUGUST 83, 18i& 



ATTOUN's " BOTHWELL : " BOTHWELL'S LAST 

 PLACE or CONFINEMENT. 



Mr. Aytoun states in his preface, " The scene 

 of this poem, which is in the form of a monologue, 

 is laid in the fortress of Malmoe, where Bothwell 

 was confined." And in one of his notes, after giv- 

 ing a translation of the order for Bothwell's im- 

 prisonment in that fortress, and noticing his eiforts 

 to obtain his freedom, Mr. Aytoun remarks : 



" No answer seems to have been made to these memo- 

 rials, and the unhappj' man never quitted the prison in 

 xchich he had been immured.^' 



Now it happens to be a recently well ascer- 

 tained fact that Bothwell did quit his dilngeon in 

 the fortress of Malmoe, and that, for the last five 

 years of his life, he tvas confined in the castle of 

 Drachsholni, ivhere he terminated his miserable 

 existence. 



This fact does not affect the action or interest 

 of Mr. Aytoun's poem, but for the sake of his- 

 torical accuracy it is commended to his attention 

 in his notes to his next edition. 



We are enabled to assign the castle of Drftchs- 

 holm as the place of Bothwell's confinemeht durifig 

 the last five years of his life, by a reference to The 

 Traveller's Handbook to Copenhagen and its En- 

 virons, by Anglicanus (Copenhagen, Steen & Son ; 

 London, J. R. Smith, 1853), from which the fol- 

 lowing quotation is taketi : 



" Drachsholm. — Although this castle cannot be in- 

 cluded in the environs of Copenhagen, yet it is within 

 tolerable distance, and so connected with an epoch in 

 Scottish history as must render it a place of interest to 

 every subject of Great Britain. It is a remarkable fact 

 that every English historian, to the very last, has made 

 Malmoe, in Sweden, the death-place of the turbulent 

 Earl of iiothwell. But Mr. Thorleifr Gudmundson Repp, 

 the learned Icelander (and a thorough Englishman at 

 heart), has, acting under the commands of Queen Caroline 

 Amalie of Denmark, daughter of the sister of George III., 

 proved from documents found by him in the Royal Privj' 

 Archives of Copenhagen, that Earl Bothwell was removed 

 from Malmoe, then included in the Danish kingdom, at 

 the urgent request of the Scottish government (as, being 

 a sea-port, it aflfbrded the earl too much liberty and in- 

 tercourse with the Scottish gentlemen and officers who 

 used to visit that town), to Drachsholm, a sequestered 

 castle on the Mest coast of Zealand, which at that time 

 belonged to the crown, but is now a baronial residence, 

 called Adlersborg. Here it was that the turbulent and 

 ambitious Earl of Bothwell passed, in great seclusion, the 

 last years of his chequered life." — P. 176. 



A very interesting " short summary of Mr. 

 Eepp's work " is then given, but as the Handbook 

 is so accessible, it is unnecessary to repeat it here, 

 or to do more than draw attention to it. Suffice 

 it to say that Bothwell appears to have been de- 

 tained in Malmoe from 1568 till 1573 ; that he was 



then removed to the castle of Drachsholm ; that 

 after this his history is so involved in obscurity 

 that even contemporary accounts vary as to the 

 date of his dfeceflse ; that the Danish authorities 

 countenanced the report that he died in 1575, 

 wearied by the conflicting entreaties of Scotland 

 and France ; but that the best authorities establish 

 it as a fact that he died on the 14th of April, 

 1578, at the castle of Drachsholm, and that his 

 remains were consigned to a v^tilt of the parish 

 church of Faareveile. 



The author of the Handbook, in conclusion, 

 communicates the following interesting informa- 

 tion : 



" Mr. Repp has, in his book, collected about thirty do- 

 cuments, never before published, consisting of diploinatic 

 despatches and letters in Latin, French, German, and 

 Danish, in a high degree interesting, and characteristic 

 of the times in which they were written. On them the 

 learned Icelander has founded a memoir illustrative of the 

 history of the north of Europe in the latter half of the 

 sixteenth century, rriore particularly in respect to the 

 Protestant cause at that period ; illustrative of the Bar- 

 tholomew massacre, and of its real authors ; illustrative 

 of Danish politics in relation to the Isles of Orkney and 

 Shetland, at that time held as a pawn by the Scottish 

 Court. Not a few historical views now generally current 

 are likely to receive correction from these documents, 

 when they become known to the literary world," 



J.D. 



Paisley. 



GENE»Ali lilTBfiART INDEX : PENAL LAWS : TEST 

 LAWS : TOLtEATION. 



The following are hot found Ih Watt's Biblio- 

 theca Britannica, under these, their respective 

 heads : 



" Toleration discussed. 8vo. London, 1670." 



" The Advocate of Conscience-Liberty, or an Apology 

 for Toleration. 8vo. 1673." 



" Two Dialogues in English, between a Doctor of 

 Divinity and a Student in the Laws of England, on the 

 Grounds of the said Laws of Conscience. 8vo. 1673." 



" Six Papers, containing, 1. Reasons against the Re- 

 pealing the Acts of Parliament concerning the Test. 

 Humbly ofFer'd to the consideration of the Members of 

 both Houses at their next meeting. 2. Reflections on 

 His Majesties Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland, 

 together with the said Proclamation. 3. Reflections on 

 His Majesties Declaration for Liberty of Conscience. 

 Dated the Fourth of April, 1687. 4. An Answer to a 

 Paper Printed with Allowance, entitled A New Test of 

 the Church of England's Loyalty. 5. Remarks on the 

 Two Papers writ by His late Majesty King Charles II. 

 concerning Religion. 6. The Citation, together with 

 Three Letters to the Earl of Midleton. By Gilbert 

 Burnet, D.D. 1687." 



"The Burnt Child dreads the Fire; or, an Examin- 

 ation of the Merits of the Papists relating to England, 

 mostly from their own Pens. In Justification of the late 

 Act of Parliament for preventing Dangers which may 

 happen from Popish Recusants. And further shewing 

 that, whatsoever their merits have been, no thanks to 

 their Religion, and therefore ought not to be gratified in 



