40 Anniversary Address. 



as opposed to the Protestant party. He was appointed by 

 the queen and the dauphin, with Ker of Cessford and Leth- 

 ington, to settle the affairs of the Borders, on the 8th Aug., 

 1559 * The following year he repaired to the court of the 

 young queen at Paris, and was one of seven lords appointed 

 by her to be commissioners, for summoning the Parliament 

 and preparing for her return to Scotland. In 1662 an accusa- 

 tion of treasonable intentions against lord James Stewart, the 

 queen's brother (afterwards regent Murray), was preferred 

 against him by the earl of Arran, who proved to be insane. 

 Nevertheless, Bothwell was confined in the castle of St. 

 Andrew's in March, brought under a guard to Edinburgh on 

 the 4th of May, but made his escape from the castle on the 

 29th of August, and took refuge in Hermitage, and eventually 

 escaped to France. There he remained three years, and 

 returning in 1665 found Murray still opposed to him, but was 

 reconciled to him through the queen's exertions. On her 

 rupture with her brother, after E-izzio's murder, Bothwell 

 rose rapidly in favour. He was in the palace on the night 

 of that crime, escaped through the window, and repaired to 

 the queen at Dunbar, where on the 17th March he received 

 a grant of the abbey of Haddington, which had been held by 

 her late secretary. On the 7th October the queen went to 

 Roxburghshire, ostensibly to hold an assize at Jedburgh, but 

 in reality to strengthen her influence against the lords of the 

 congregation, for which purpose Bothwell had been sent to 

 his Liddisdale estates some time before, with a commission of 

 warden of all the marches. The Border clans, however, 

 which had of late been left too much to provide for their own 

 safety, entertained a lively remembrance of English vengeance, 

 and prudently held aloof. Bothwell therefore tried more 

 stringent measures. Summoning the leading men of the 

 Elliot clan, who occupied the country nearest to Hermitage, 

 he detained them in the castle ; but one of the most influential 

 of their number, John Elliot of Park, having failed to appear, 



* Diurnal of Occurents, 53. News letter from Scotland to Cecil, dated 10th 

 Nov., 1559, Tytler, VI.. 389. 



