BOTHWELL, EARL OF. 



BOTHWELL, KARL OF. 



by his violence, his contests with the Earl of Arran, his brother-in-law, 

 and his outrage* on individuals. For bis misconduct he was in 

 December 1561 summoned to court, and then ordered to quit Edin- 

 burgh till the 8th of the foUowing month. 



In March 1562 he endeavoured to get Arran, to whom he had become 

 reconciled, to conspire with him in seising the queen at Falkland, in 

 her progress to the north, in order to put her brother in possession of 

 tbe forfeited earldom of Murray, and detaining her in captivity till she 

 should acquiesce in their measures. But Arran having revealed the 

 matter, he and Bothwell were both committed to Edinburgh castle, 

 whence however Bothwell escaped ; and after fortifying himself awhile 

 in hi* own retreat at Hermitage, got to sea, but was taken again at 

 Holy Island. Randolph pressed his detention much, representing him 

 as the " determined enemy of England, despiteful out of measure, false 

 and untrue as a devil." Notwithstanding he got to France, but soon 

 afterwards he returned to Scotland again. " Tbe queen " (Mary), says 

 Randolph, in one of his despatches to Cecil at this time, " misliketh 

 BothweU'* coming home, and hath summoned him to undergo the law 

 or be proclaimed a rebel. He U charged to have spoken dishonourably 

 of the queen, and to have threatened to kill Murray and Lethingtou." 

 The dishonour here alluded to was probably the same as that mentioned 

 in another despatch to OcU, dated 30th of March, where he says : 

 " Bothwell hath grievously offended the Queen of Scots by words 

 spoken against the English queen, and also against herself, calling her 

 the cardinal's (Beaton) whore : she hath sworn unto me upon her 

 h.m nr that he shall never receive favour at her hands." Tbe following 

 month we find a despatch from Bedford to Cecil, in which Bothwell 

 is represented as addicted to vice and unnatural crime ; and about the 

 same time Bedford writes to the same minister that Bothwell " hath 

 been in divers places, at Haddington, with bis mother, and elsewhere, 

 and findeth no safety anywhere. Murray followeth him so earnestly, 

 as be hath said ' Scotland shall not bold us both.' " By the queen's 

 directions he was, for his treasonable conspiracy of March 1562, indicted 

 before the Lord Justiciary on tbe 2nd of May. On that occasion the 

 Earl of Argyle, the justiciary, and the Earl of Murray, came to Edin- 

 burgh at the head of 5000 men to bold a justice court; but Bothwell 

 had embarked at North Berwick for foreign parts, and, not appearing 

 at the trial, was outlawed. 



In this depth of debasement however Bothwell watched every 

 opportunity to spring again into royal favour, and when the queen 

 married her cousin Darnley be returned to Scotland. In the begin- 

 ning of October of the same year we find him one of the new privy 

 councillors, aud a leader of tha royal army against Murray, Arran, and 

 others who opposed the match ; and on the 31st of the same month 

 Randolph writes ta Cecil, " My Lord Bothwell, for his great virtue, 

 doth now all, next to the Earl of Athol." The following spring, 

 Bothwell, then at the age of forty-one, married Lady Jane Gordon, 

 sister of the Earl of Huutley, whose father had been Lord Chancellor 

 of Scotland. In the murder of Ruszio, the queen's secretary, at the 

 instigation of the jealous Darnley, Bothwell stood by the queen and 

 was opposed to the enterprise; and the following ni,-ht we find him 

 among other nobles attending the royal pair within the castle of 

 Dunbar, in hi* shire of Haddington, whither the queen persuaded 

 Darnley to flee with her, and of which fort Botbwell had tbe custody. 

 The king and queen soon afterwards returned in a sort of triumph to 

 Edinburgh, and proceeded to the castle, where she immediately sent 

 for Argyle and Murray, and had them reconciled to Uuntley, Bothwell, 

 and AlhoL But BothweU had only obtained the apparent friendship 

 of the nobility. In a letter from Alnwick dated the 3rd of April 1566, 

 it U stated that one of BothweU'i servant* confessed that he aud four 

 more of his fellow-servanU had been engaged by Lethington to murder 

 BothweU, the other servants on their examination making the like 

 confession ; and on the 2nd of August 1666 Bedford wrote to Cecil 

 that " tbe lords Maxwell and Bothwell are now enemies. BothweU is 

 generally hated, and U more insolent than even David Rizzio was." 

 With the sovereign however Bothwell was, as Bedford afterwards writes 

 to Cecil, "in favour, and has a great hand in the management of 

 aflain." He attended the king when be went to Tweedale in August 

 ISM to enjoy the amusement of the chace; he returned with him to 

 Edinburgh, where we find him in the council held in September of the 

 bore Tear, and also in the great councU which voted a supply of 

 12,000*. for defraying the expense of the infant prince's baptism ; and 

 from Edinburgh he proceeded with the royal party to Stirling to see 

 the prince. It being afterwards determined that the queen should 

 hold a justice eyre on the border*, BothweU wss despatched as lieute- 

 nant of tbe marches to Leddeedale, the chief seat of outrage. But the 

 people of that district had been gained to tbe English interest, and 

 when Bothwell arrive- 1 be was atUckea and severely wounded. On 

 tbe 8th of October 1566 he was, says Birrel, "deidly wounded by John 

 KUete, alias John of the Park, whose head was sent into Edinburgh 

 thereafter." 



The queen, on hearing of the injury Bothwell had sustained, 

 immediately rode off from Jedburgh, where she then wa, to 

 Hermitage Cattle, a distance of about 40 miles, through a rugged 

 country, to visit him, and returned to Jedburgh tbe same day a 

 journey which, from the anxiety and exertions attendant on it, 

 brought on a violent fever that threatened her life. She became, says 

 Birrel, "deidly sick, and desired the bell* to be rung, and the people 



to resort to the kirk to pray for her." Bothwell wai also, on the tarn* 

 occasion, conveyed to Jedburgh, where the queen lay. On her recovery 

 she made a tour through the Merse, and arrived at Craigmillar Cattle, 

 near Edinburgh, where she remained till her removal to Stirling to 

 attend the baptiam of her son. While at Craigmillar, the pr.. 

 her divorce from Darnley was opened to her, but she declim-d the 

 proposal, fearing her own reputation and her son'* succession. lloth- 

 wi-11, to quiet Tier fiars on the Utter point, quoted his own case, as 

 having succeeded to his paternal estate* notwithstanding a subsisting 

 divorce between his parent*. But the queen appearing to dislike it, 

 the subject was not farther pressed. When at Stirling, on ooc.i 

 the prince's baptism, she agreed, partly on the intercession of Bothwnll, 

 to restore Morton and the other murderers of Rizzio, and on the 25th 

 of December 1566 their pardon wai signed. It U probable that an 

 ambition to possess the queen had already filled the mind of liothwell, 

 and that having failed in obtaining a divorce he had perceived Morton 

 to be a fit instrument for his purpose. 



On the 27th of December 1566, Darnley went to visit his father at 

 Olasgow, where he was soon laid up with small-pox. On the 20th of 

 the next month Mary went to visit him ; and on the 31st the king and 

 queen came to Edinburgh, where the former was conveyed to lodgings 

 in the Kirk of Field. During the whole of January .iBothwell was in 

 intercourse with Morton and others, to whom he said " it was the 

 queen's mind that the king should be taken away." The queen spent 

 the evening of the 9th of February in Darnley's lo Iging, and at 

 12 o'clock she left him for a masque, having first kissed him and put 

 one of her rings on his finger. Two hours after the house where 

 Darnley lay was blown up, and he and his servant destroyed in the 

 explosion. The public voice was unanimous in declaring Bothwell 

 accessory to this murder, and placards were put up in the streets 

 accusing him of the crime ; but though he continued in Edinburgh, 

 no steps were taken against him till the 28th March, when Lennox, 

 the father of Darnley, avowing himself his accuser, the privy council 

 directed him and others to be indicted for the murder. Three days 

 before the trial Murray set off for France without any known business; 

 and at the trial Bothwell stood and was acquitted ; but when the mode 

 in which trials were at that time conducted in Scotland is considered, 

 bin acquittal will be held as really immaterial in determining the 

 question of his innocence or guilt. Two days afterwards the parlia- 

 ment assembled at Edinburgh, and Bothwell was one of the commis- 

 sioners who met the estate*. He also carried the sword of state before 

 the queen when she came to the parliament in person ; and in the 

 same parliament he was chosen one of the lord* of the articles. 

 On the lost day of the parliament various ratifications were passed 

 in favour of different persons. The Earl of Murray, though absent, 

 obtained a ratification of his lands and earldom ; Morton got a rati- 

 fication of his lands with those of Angus his relation; Huntley's 

 forfeiture was reversed, and BothweU bod his lands and offices, both 

 hereditary and acquired, confirmed to him. The preamble of the statute 

 in this last caso is in the circumstances not a little singular. It set* 

 out the queen'* consideration of Bothwell's " gret and manifold glide 

 service done and pcrformit not onlie to her hienea honor weil and 

 estiuiatioun, bot nlsua to the comoue weil of the realtnu and Iciges 

 thereof," and thereupon follows a ratification of his lands and heritage, 

 and of the captaincy of Dunbar castle. On the morrow, after the 

 rising of the parliament, the leading persons of the government met 

 and had a supper at Aiualey, where they signed a bond in Bothwell'i 

 favour, approving of his acquittal, ami recommending him at a fit 

 husband for the widowed queen, pledging themselves also to defend 

 the marriage. Ou the 21st April the queen went to Stirling to see 

 her son, ami while returning, on tha HUh, she was met at Almond 

 bridge, near Linlithgow, by Bothwell and a great company who seised 

 her person aud carried her off to the castle of Dun bar. " Tht-re " says 

 Melville, " the Earl of Bothwell boasted he would marry the queen, 

 who would or would not, yea whether she would herself or not." 

 " Captain Blackwater (he add*) alleged it was with the queen's consent. 

 Aud then the queen could not but marry him, seeing that be had 

 raviihed her and lain with her against her will." A double process 

 of divorce wai soon afterwards raised, one by Lady Bothwell against 

 the earl for adultery, and another at his instance against her on the 

 ground of consanguinity ; and on the 3rd and 6th of May sentence 

 passed in favour of the parties respectively. Bothwell now brought 

 the queen to Edinburgh, where the banns of their marriage were 

 proclaimed, and on the 12th of the same month the queen came into 

 the court of session, and after testifying her perfect freedom of person, 

 signed instruments of pardon in favour of Bothwell and bis accomplices 

 in her abduction. She afterwards created Bothwell Duke of Orkney 

 and on the llth May she entered into a contract of marriage with 

 him, which was recorded the same day. Next day the marriage was 

 solemnised at Holyrood by Adam BothweU, abbot of Holyrood-house 

 aud bishop of Orkney. 



Bothwell had now gained the summit of his ambition ; but it was 

 attained with guilt, and from his height he was quickly precipitated 

 into everlasting infamy. An indignant people rose in arms against 

 him, aud be and the queen fled from fortress to fortress till, on tbe 

 14 th of June, she came out to meet the insurgents at Carberry-hilL In 

 tbe evening however sho joined the chiefs, and was by them conducted 

 to Edinburgh. BothweU left the queen, and fled to Dunbar, where 



