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HEPBURN is the name of an old and powerful family located on the
Eastern Marches, and noted throughout the whole history of
Scotland for their turbulence, and, not unfrequently, for their
disloyalty. Their designation is said to have been derived from a
place called Hepborne, or Hayborn, in Northumberland, from which
ADAM HEPBURN, the founder of the family, came, in the reign of
David II. He is said to have received grants of various lands in
East Lothian from the Earl of March, the descendant of the
Northumbrian Prince Cospatrick, and the head of the great family
of Dunbar. The lands of North Hailes and Traprane were conferred
upon him by Robert Bruce, which shows that he must have fought on
the patriotic side in the War of Independence. His eldest son, SIR
PATRICK HEPBURN of Hailes, distinguished himself by his bravery at
the battle of Otterburn (1388), in which his son Patrick, styled
by Fordun, ‘Miles magnanimus, et athleta bellicosus,’ also took
part. In 1402, in the lifetime of his father, the younger Hepburn
commanded a body of Borderers who made a hostile incursion into
England, but were intercepted on their return by the Earl of
Northumberland and the Earl of March, who had turned traitor to
his king and country, and, after a stubborn conflict, the Scots
were defeated, and Hepburn and other East Lothian barons were
among the slain. His eldest son, SIR ADAM HEPBURN, took a
prominent part in public affairs, and when the estates of the
Dunbar and March family were forfeited, in 1435 he was made
constable of the important fortress of Dunbar. In the following
year he was present at the battle of Piperden, in which the Earl
of Angus defeated the Earl of Northumberland, and took Sir Robert
Ogle prisoner, with most of his followers. Sir Adam’s eldest son,
SIR PATRICK HEPBURN, was created a peer of Parliament in
1456, by the title of LORD
HALES. His son ADAM, the second Lord, who married the eldest
daughter of the first Lord Home, was by no means a pattern of
loyalty and obedience to the law; and, in alliance with his
kinsmen, the Homes, took his share in the broils and feuds which
disturbed the peace of the country in the unfortunate reign of
James III. The minor branches of the Hepburn family had by this
time spread themselves through East Lothian and Berwickshire, and
some of them, such as the Hepburns of Waughton [Sir John Hepburn,
the famous soldier, belonged to the Hepburns of Athelstaneford, a
branch of the Waughton family. He fought with great distinction
under Gustavus Adolphus, and afterwards entered the French
service, in which he attained the rank of field-marshal. He was
killed at the siege of Saverne, 21st
June, 1636.] and Whitsome, had become
powerful. GEORGE, the third son of the second Lord Hales, was
Provost of Bothwell and Lincluden, Abbot of Aberbrothock, High
Treasurer of Scotland in 1509, and, in the following year,
Commendator both of Aberbrothock and Icolmkill. He fell, along
with the Archbishop of St Andrews, and several other
ecclesiastical dignitaries, at the battle of Flodden, in 1513.
JOHN, the fourth son of Lord Hales, was Prior of St. Andrews, and
the founder, in 1512, of St. Leonard’s College in that ancient
city. The fifth son, JAMES, was first rector of Dalry and
Parton; then, in 1515, he was elected Abbot of Dunfermline. In the
same year he was appointed Lord High Treasurer, and, in 1516, he
was elected Bishop of Moray. The fact that so many important
offices were conferred upon his younger sons is conclusive
evidence of the great influence to which the head of the Hepburn
family had now attained.
PATRICK HEPBURN,
third Lord Hales and first Earl
of Bothwell, raised the family to a position in the foremost rank
of the great barons of Scotland. He had the command of the castle
of Berwick in 1482, and, after the town had surrendered, he held
out the fortress with great bravery against a powerful English
army, commanded by the Duke of Gloucester (afterwards Richard
III.), and the Duke of Albany, King James’s brother. Lord Hales
was one of the leaders in the rebellion against that unfortunate
monarch, which was caused to some extent by his annexation, to the
chapel royal of Stirling, of the rich temporalities of the priory
of Coldingham, which the Homes had come to regard as virtually
belonging to their family. The selfish and unpatriotic disaffected
nobles entered into negotiations with Henry VII. of England to
betray their country in order to promote their own interests, and
obtained for that purpose a safe-conduct to England; but the
dissensions between them and the King came so rapidly to a crisis
that no use was made of it.
Lord Hales
commanded the vanguard of the rebel forces at the battle of
Sauchieburn (June 11, 1488), in which King James lost his life. On
the surrender of the castle of Edinburgh a few days after this
conflict, the custody of that important fortress was committed to
Lord Hales, with three hundred merks of the customs of that city.
As the government of the country was entirely in the hands of the
victorious party, honours, offices, and estates were showered upon
the person who had contributed so largely to their success. He was
appointed Sheriff-Principal of the county of Edinburgh, Master of
the Household, and High Admiral of Scotland for life. He obtained
a charter of the lands of Crichton Castle and other estates in the
counties of Edinburgh and Dumfries, along with the lordship of
Bothwell, in Lanarkshire, of which Sir John Ramsay, a favourite of
the late King, had been deprived. He was also created (17th
October, 1488) Earl of Bothwell, a title which had been borne by
Ramsay. Shortly after he obtained a grant of the office of Steward
of Kirkcudbright, and of the custody of Thrieve Castle, the
stronghold of the Black Douglases, with its feus. On the 29th of
May of the following year, his covetousness being still unsatiated,
the Earl and his uncle, John Hepburn, Prior of St. Andrews,
received a lease of the lordship of Orkney and Shetland, and were
made custodians of the castle of Stirling. A few weeks later he
was appointed Warden of the West and Middle Marches. On the
slaughter of Spens of Kilspindie, by Archibald Bell-the-Cat, Earl
of Angus, the King compelled Angus, before he would pardon him for
this crime, to exchange the lordship of Liddesdale and the castle
of Hermitage for the barony and castle of Bothwell, which was a
considerable diminution to the greatness and power of the
Douglases, and added not a little to the influence and importance
of the Hepburn family.
Lord Hales was
repeatedly appointed ambassador to the courts of France, Spain,
and England in connection with the negotiations for the marriage
of the young King; and when all arrangements were at length
concluded, and the Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry
VII., was married by proxy to James IV., at Richmond (January 27th,
1503), the Earl of Bothwell officiated as the representative of
the King. He was honoured also to bear the sword of state before
his Majesty when he received his young queen, and escorted her
into the capital. The Earl died about 1507. Of his three sons by
Lady Janet Douglas, only daughter of the first Earl of Morton, he
was succeeded by ADAM, the eldest. JOHN, the second, became Bishop
of Brechin in 1517; and PATRICK, the third, succeeded his uncle as
Prior of St. Andrews. He held for three years (1524—27) the office
of Secretary of State, and, in 1535, was consecrated Bishop of
Moray, and was allowed to hold in commendam the abbacy of Scone.
He was one of those prelates whose licentious conduct brought
great discredit on their sacred office, and contributed largely to
the downfall of the Romish system in Scotland. He had no fewer
than nine natural children—seven sons and two daughters—who were
legitimatised under the Great Seal in 1545, and 1550. When he saw
the Reformation at hand, he made liberal provision for them by
feuing out all the lands belonging to the see.
ADAM
HEPBURN, second Earl of Bothwell,
succeeded his father in his office of High Admiral, as well as in
his titles and extensive estates, but did not long enjoy them. He
commanded the reserve, consisting of the men of Lothian, at the
fatal battle of Flodden, where he fell along with many of his
kinsmen, and the chivalry of the Borders. When the result of the
fight was still in doubt, the Earl advanced to the support of his
sovereign, and attacked the enemy with such vigour as to put the
standard of the Earl of Surrey in imminent danger. An ancient
English poet describes Bothwell as having distinguished himself by
his furious attempt to retrieve the fortunes of the day.
‘Then on the Scottish part,
right proud
The Earl of Bothwell then outbrast,
And, stepping forth with stomach good,
Into the enemies’ throng he thrast;
And Bothwell ! .Bothwell
! cried bold,
To cause his soldiers to ensue;
But there he caught a welcome cold,
The Englishmen straight down him threw.
Thus Haburn through his hardy heart
His fatal force in conflict found.’
Earl Adam left one
son, by a natural daughter of the Earl of Buchan, brother-uterine
of James II.
PATRICK,
third Earl of Bothwell, was an infant
only a few months old at the time of his father’s death. Brought
up among a turbulent nobility, during the unsettled state of the
country in the minority of James V., it need excite no surprise
that at an early age he was involved in the feuds that prevailed
in the Marches. In 1528, when he was in the sixteenth year of his
age, a remission was granted to him and a number of his kinsmen by
the Duke of Albany, the Regent, for treasonably assisting Lord
Home, Home of Wedderburn, and their retainers, who were at that
time proclaimed rebels to the sovereign. A few months later he was
committed to prison by the King for protecting the Border
freebooters. After six months’ confinement, he was released, on
security being given by his friends to the amount of twenty
thousand pounds. We next find him, in December, 1531, paying a
secret visit to England, and holding a treasonable conference with
the Earl of Northumberland, who wrote of him to King Henry in high
terms, describing him as ‘of personage, wit, learning, and
manners, of his years as toward and as goodly a gentleman as I
ever saw in my life, and to my simple understanding he is very
meet to serve your Highness in any thing that shall be your most
gracious pleasure to command him withal.’ His intrigues, however,
were discovered, and on his return to Scotland he was apprehended
by the orders of the King and confined in the castle of Edinburgh,
where he seems to have remained for a considerable time.
Liddesdale, where a large portion of Bothwell’s estates lay, had
long been the headquarters of the Border freebooters, who were
harboured and protected by the nobles to serve their own purposes.
King James saw clearly that it would be impossible to maintain
peace in that lawless district until it was placed under royal
authority. He therefore, in September, 1538, compelled the Earl of
Bothwell to resign his lordship to the Crown. It would appear that
the Earl was at the same time banished the kingdom, and he is said
to have taken up his residence at Venice. In 1542 he was in
England, and, like not a few of his unprincipled and unpatriotic
class at that time, he engaged in treasonable negotiations with
Henry VIII., and it was no doubt owing to the discovery of his
treason that the barony of Bothwell and his other estates were
annexed to the Crown.
The Earl
returned to Scotland after the death of King James (13th
December, 1542), and immediately became one of the prominent
supporters of Cardinal Beaton and the Roman Catholic party in the
kingdom. He, and the other Popish nobles, demanded that the
Cardinal should be set at liberty by the Governor, Arran, and that
the ordinance allowing the New Testament to be read in the vulgar
tongue by the people
should be rescinded. These demands were refused, and the faction
having been charged on pain of treason to return to their
allegiance, durst not disobey, but gave in their adherence to the
Governor. Bothwell, at the meeting of the Estates in 1543, issued
a summons of reduction of the deed of resignation of the lordship
of Liddesdale and castle of Hermitage, and succeeded in obtaining
the restitution of his estates. Sir Ralph Sadler, who found the
Earl in possession of Liddesdale when he visited Scotland in 1543
to negotiate a marriage between the infant Queen Mary and Prince
Edward of England, says, ‘As to the Earl of Bothwell, who hath the
rule of Liddesdale, I think him the most vain and insolent man in
the world, full of pride and folly, and here nothing at all
esteemed.’ Bothwell was prominent and active in all the intrigues
and movements of the Roman Catholic party at this juncture, for
the purpose of preventing the alliance with England, and in
supporting the claims of the Queen-mother, Mary of Guise, to the
regency, in the room of Arran. He was the rival of the Earl of
Lennox in a suit for her hand, and competed with him in his
efforts to gain her favour by the magnificence of his apparel and
his skill in the exercises of chivalry. He is described by
Pittscottie as at this time ‘fair and whitely, something hanging
shouldered, and went something forward, with gentle and humane
countenance.’
Bothwell allowed himself to be made the tool of Cardinal Beaton in
delivering into his hands George Wishart, the martyr, in January,
1546. The Cardinal’s influence had now become paramount in the
country, and Wishart, knowing well the inveteracy of the Romish
priests against him, was aware that he was in imminent danger. At
Haddington he could not obtain an audience even of a hundred, for
‘the Earl of Bothwell, who had great credit and obedience, by
procurement of Cardinal Beaton, had given inhibition to both town
and country that they should in no wise give an ear to the
heretical doctrine, under the pain of his displeasure.’ On leaving
Haddington, Wishart refused to allow John Knox to accompany him,
bidding him return to his pupils, for one was enough at this time
for a sacrifice. He was spending the night at Ormiston, the seat
of Cockburn, a zealous member of the Reforming party. At midnight
the house was surrounded by a body of armed men, under the Earl of
Bothwell, who summoned the inmates to deliver up Wishart, pledging
his honour at the same time for the safety of his person, and
confirming this assurance by an oath. Resistance was hopeless, and
Wishart at once exclaimed, ‘Open the gates; the blessed will of my
Lord be done.’ He was immediately seized, mounted on horseback,
and conveyed to Elphinstone Tower, only a mile distant, where
Cardinal Beaton was then residing, Bothwell all the time assuring
him that his life and person would be perfectly safe, and that he
would either procure him a fair trial, or set him at liberty. From
Elphinstone Tower Wishart was conveyed to Edinburgh, and thence to
Bothwell’s house at Hailes. It is alleged that Bothwell wished to
protect his prisoner from injury, but that the Cardinal and the
Queen-Dowager induced him to violate his pledge, and to deliver
Wishart up to Beaton, who transferred him to St. Andrews, and
speedily brought him to the stake. There is no reason to believe
that Bothwell ever repented of his breach of faith, and complicity
in this foul deed, but it was pleaded for him that he only yielded
to the authority of the Governor and Council, before whom he was
brought on the 19th of January,
1546, and commanded, under the highest
penalties, to deliver up his prisoner. There is no reason to doubt
that this order was issued merely for the purpose of affording
Bothwell an excuse for his violation of his solemn promise.
Notwithstanding his
ready compliance with the wishes of the Cardinal, Bothwell was
soon after again committed to prison, in all probability in
consequence of his intrigues with England, and did not obtain his
release until after the battle of Pinkie, 10th September, 1547. He
immediately waited upon the Duke of Somerset, the commander of the
invading army, and there can be little doubt that he then gave in
his adherence to the English cause. He is described as ‘a
gentleman of a right comely porte and stature, and heretofore of
right honourable and just meaning and dealing towards the King’s
Majesty, (Henry VIII.), whom therefore, my Lord’s Grace did
according to his degree and merits very friendly welcome and
maintain.’ There was good reason why the Earl received a cordial
welcome from the ruthless English invaders, for it has been
ascertained that he had gone over wholly to their side. An
instrument, dated at Westminster, 3rd September, 1549, sets forth
that King Edward had taken the Earl of Bothwell under his
protection and favour, granting him a yearly rent of three
thousand crowns, and the wages of a hundred horsemen for the
defence of his person, and the annoyance of the enemy; and, if he
should lose his lands in Scotland in the English King’s service
for the space of three years, promising to give him lands of equal
value in England. There are good grounds for believing that the
traitorous noble spent the remainder of his life in exile, and
that he died in 1556. He left a son, who succeeded him in the
family title and estates, and a daughter. The latter became the
wife of John Stewart, Prior of Coldingham, a natural son of James
V., to whom she bore Francis Stewart, the turbulent Earl of
Bothwell who so often disturbed the peace of the country during
the reign of James VI.
JAMES HEPBURN,
fourth Earl of Bothwell, whose
foul crimes have stamped his memory with infamy, was born about
the year 1536. His early years were spent in the castle of Spynie,
near Elgin, with his granduncle, Patrick Hepburn, Bishop of Moray,
a prelate who was conspicuous, even at that immoral period, for
the neglect of the duties of his office, and his gross
licentiousness. James Hepburn was only in his nineteenth or
twentieth year when his father died, and he succeeded him not only
in the family titles and estates, including the strong fortresses
of Bothwell, Crichton and Hailes, but also in his hereditary
offices of Lord High Admiral of Scotland, Sheriff of the counties
of Berwick, Haddington, and Midlothian, and Bailiff of Lauderdale.
He was thus the most powerful nobleman in the south of Scotland.
This ‘glorious, rash, and hazardous young man,’ as he is styled by
Walsingham, was, from his youth upwards, the cause of strife and
discord in the country, and of trouble to the public authorities.
Though he professed to be a Protestant, he espoused the cause of
the Queen Regent against the Lords of the Congregation, and showed
himself utterly unscrupulous in the means he adopted to promote
her interests. In 1558, though little more than of age, he was
appointed by her Lieutenant-General of the Middle Marches, and
keeper of Hermitage Castle, which added largely to his already
overgrown power. In October, 1559, having learned that Cockburn of
Ormiston had received four thousand crowns from Sir Ralph Sadler,
for the use of the Protestant party, Bothwell waylaid and wounded
him, and robbed him of the money. On receiving intelligence of
this gross outrage, the Earl of Arran, the Governor, and Lord
James Stewart (afterwards Regent Moray) immediately went to
Bothwell’s house in Haddington, with a body of soldiers, to
apprehend the depredator; but, a few minutes before they reached
the place, he received intelligence of their approach and fled
down the bed of the river Tyne, which is closely adjoining, and
took refuge in the house of Cockburn of Sandybed. Entering by the
back door, which opened to the river, he changed clothes with the
turnspit and performed the duties of that menial. In return for
the protection afforded him in this extremity, Bothwell gave to
Cockburn and his heirs a perpetual ground annual of four bolls of
wheat, four bolls of barley, and four bolls of oats, to be paid
yearly out of the lands of Mainshill, near Haddington. These
quantities of grain continued to be paid to Cockburn’s heirs till
the year 1760, when his estate was sold by his descendant to Mr.
Buchan of Lethem; and he shortly after disposed of the ground
annual to the Earl of Wemyss, who was then proprietor of Mainshill.
Bothwell was one of the nobles who waited upon Queen Mary in
France, in the year 1561, and must, even at that time, have been a
person of some political importance, for, on his departure from
France, Throckmorton wrote to Queen Elizabeth: ‘The said Earl is
departed suddenly from this realm to return to Scotland by
Flanders, and hath made boast that he will do great things, and
live in Scotland in despite of all men. He is glorious,
boastful, rash, and hazardous, and therefore it were meet that his
adversaries should both give an eye to him, and keep him short.’
Darker traits speedily showed themselves in Bothwell’s character.
He became restless and turbulent, and made violent attacks on
other barons, hatched conspiracies against the Government, and was
at length imprisoned, and then banished the kingdom, for a
conspiracy against the Earl of Moray. He was allowed to return
home in 1565 but, on May 2nd of that year, he was proclaimed a
rebel and put to the horn for not appearing to answer for an
accusation of high treason, in conspiring to seize the person of
the young Queen. He was charged with having proposed to the Earl
of Arran to carry her off to the castle of Dumbarton, ‘and thair
keep her surelie, or otherwyse demayne hir person at your plesour,
quhill sche aggre to quhatsumevir thing yo shall desyre.’ It thus
appears that Bothwell’s abduction of the Queen at Cramond Bridge,
in 1567, was no new project.
The private life of
the young noble was as profligate as his public conduct was
treasonable and violent. The Earl of Bedford wrote of him to
Cecil, ‘I assure you Bothwell is as naughty a man as liveth,’ and
accused him of crimes of which ‘it is a shame even to speak.’
There were scandalous reports widely spread respecting his
connection with a certain Lady Reres, and her sister Janet Beaton,
both disreputably associated at a later period with Queen Mary and
him.
It has quite
recently been discovered by Professor Schiern of Copenhagen, [Life
of James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell.
By Frederick Schiern,
Professor of History in
the University of Copenhagen.] that during Bothwell’s exile on the
Continent he had formed a connection with Anna, a daughter of
Christopher Throndesson, a Norwegian nobleman, and one of the
admirals of Christian III. This lady complained that Bothwell ‘had
taken her from her father’s land and paternal home, and led her
into a foreign country away from her parents, and would not hold
her as his lawful wife, which he with hand, and mouth, and
letters, had promised both them and her to do.’ It appears that
the young lady accompanied Bothwell from Denmark to the
Netherlands, but was there abandoned by her villainous betrayer,
and reduced to such straits that she was obliged to dispose of her
jewels. She seems afterwards to have made her way to Scotland,
where she resided for some time, and to have finally returned in
the year 1563 to her own country, where the Earl, in after years,
and in very strange circumstances, once more encountered his
deserted wife.
When Queen Mary and
her brother, the Earl of Moray, quarrelled in consequence of her
marriage with Darnley, and Moray was driven out of the kingdom and
compelled to take refuge in England, Bothwell, ‘the enemy of all
honest men,’ as he was justly termed, was recalled from his exile,
and received into favour. He was shortly after appointed Warden of
the Three Marches, an office never before held by one person, was
restored to his office of High Admiral, and received grants of the
abbeys of Haddington and Melrose, and of extensive Crown lands.
His influence at Court speedily became paramount, and all favours
and preferments passed through his hands. In the autumn of 1566 he
was commissioned to suppress some disturbances which had arisen
among the freebooters in Liddesdale, and was severely wounded (7th
October) in an encounter with one of them named Elliot of Park.
The Queen, who was then holding a justice court at Jedburgh, on
hearing of Bothwell’s wound, rode to Hermitage Castle, where he
lay—a distance of twenty miles, through an almost impassable
district—and returned on the same day. Her rapid journey, fatigue,
and anxiety threw her into a fever, which nearly cost her her
life.
It is not possible
to point out the precise period at which Bothwell’s plot for the
murder of Mary’s husband had its origin; but, in all probability,
it must have been shortly after the Queen left Jedburgh (7th
November) for Coldingham, Dunbar, and Tantallan, accompanied by
the Earl. It is certain that the ‘band’ for the murder of Darnley
was signed by Bothwell and his associates in the month of December
following. This flagitious plot was carried into effect on the 9th
of February, 1567. The whole circumstances connected with the deed
were, of course, not known at the moment; but no doubt was
entertained that Bothwell was the murderer of the ill-fated
prince. He was denounced by name in public placards, and vengeance
was loudly demanded on him and his accomplices; but,
notwithstanding, he continued as much as ever in favour with the
Queen, and was for some time the only one of her nobles who had
access to her presence. On the 21st of February he accompanied her
to Seton Castle, where they remained until the 10th of March, when
they returned to Holyrood. On the 19th of March, Mary conferred
upon Bothwell the command of Edinburgh Castle, along with other
marks of her favour. On the 24th of the same month he again
accompanied the Queen to Seton, and stayed with her till the 10th
of April. His mock trial for the murder of Darnley, and acquittal,
his obtaining from the leading nobility a bond recommending him as
a suitable husband for the Queen, his divorce from his Countess,
Lady Jean Gordon;
[The marriage
between Bothwell and Lady Jean Gordon was dissolved by the
Consistorial Court of St. Andrews, presided over by Hamilton, the
Primate of the Roman Catholic Church, on the plea that they were
related within the prohibited degrees, and that they had married
without a papal dispensation. But a dispensation had in reality
been obtained, as was confidently asserted at the time. That
document was issued on the 17th of February, 1566, only fifteen
months before the marriage of Mary and Bothwell, by the prelate
who declared the prior marriage null and void, with the authority
of Legate a latere. It
is undeniable, therefore, that according to the law of the Romish
church, Mary was never really married to Bothwell. When it is
taken into account that the Queen was the most intimate friend of
Lady Jean Gordon, that she took a special and personal
superintendence of the arrangements for her marriage, that hers is
the first signature to the marriage contract, that she made a gift
to the bride of her marriage dress, and that she and Darnley were
at the expense of the first day’s feast on the occasion of the
wedding, it is difficult to believe that Mary was ignorant of the
fact that a dispensation had been granted. The advocates of the
Queen have always denied that this could have been the case, but
the document was recently found by Dr. Stuart in the charter chest
at Dunrobin.]
his elevation to
the rank of Duke of Orkney and Shetland; his collusive seizure of
the person of the Queen; his marriage to Mary amid mingled horror
and indignation on the part of the people, followed by his coarse
and brutal treatment of the ill-fated princess; the confederacy of
the nobles for the protection of her infant son against the
machinations of this bold, bad man; his flight along with Mary to
Dunbar; his march to Carberry Hill to meet the confederate barons,
and his final separation there from the Queen, succeeded each
other with startling rapidity. Bothwell’s subsequent career has
hitherto been but imperfectly known, and various conflicting but
erroneous accounts have been given of the closing years of his
flagitious and miserable life. The laborious researches of
Professor Schiern have at length brought the whole circumstances
to light.
It appears that on
leaving Dunbar, to which he fled from Carberry Hill, Bothwell had
only two small vessels with him, but on reaching Shetland he
persuaded two Bremen merchants, who happened to be there at that
time, to give him the command of two of their ships, along with
the crews, on condition that he was to pay them a certain sum as
long as he retained their ships in his service, and compensation
if they were lost or not returned. His four vessels were lying at
anchor in Bressay Sound, and part of their crews, along with
Bothwell himself, had gone on shore, when four Scottish ships,
commanded by Kirkcaldy of Grange and Murray of Tullibardine, who
had been sent in pursuit of the murderer of Darnley, hove in
sight. Bothwell’s men, on the approach of their enemies, cut their
cables and took to flight. It has hitherto been supposed that
Bothwell was on board one of these vessels, and that he escaped
capture only by the accident that the Unicorn, Kirkcaldy’s
ship, struck upon a rock, and went down, just as it was on the
point of overtaking his vessel. Professor Schiern has, however,
shown that Bothwell made his escape unobserved across Yell Sound
and the island of Yell, and was taken on board one of his ships at
Unst. Shortly after, his pursuers came up with him, and a battle
ensued which lasted for several hours. One of the Earl’s ships had
its mainmast carried away by a cannon-shot, and Bothwell owed his
escape to an opportune gale, which separated the combatants, and
drove the ship which carried him, and one of its comrades, far out
on the North Sea. He succeeded, however, in reaching the
south-west coast of Norway, but he had scarcely cast anchor in the
Sound of Kharm, when the Danish warship, Bjornen, appeared,
the captain of which, Christian Aalborg, demanded to see the
ship’s papers; but none could be produced, Bothwell alleging that
‘he whose duty it was to issue such papers in Scotland was now in
close confinement.’ Captain Aalborg, finding, as he said, these
two ‘Scottish Pinker, without any passport, safe-conduct, or
commissions, which honest seafaring people commonly use, and are
in duty bound to have,’ determined to carry them to Bergen. By a
dexterous stratagem he contrived to get a portion of Bothwell’s
men on board his own ship, and another portion on shore, and thus
rendered resistance hopeless. Bothwell on this made himself known
to the Danish Admiral, who had some difficulty in believing that
the man whom he saw, ‘attired in old torn coarse boatswain’s
clothes, was the highest of the rulers in all Scotland.’
In spite of his
remonstrances, the Earl was conveyed to Bergen Castle, where he
was hospitably entertained by the commandant, but, to his surprise
and dismay, had a prosecution immediately raised against him by
Anna Throndesson, the lady whom he had so basely deserted in the
Netherlands, but who was now resident in the neighbourhood of
Bergen. On hearing of Bothwell’s arrival, she at once seized the
opportunity of seeking redress for her wrongs. She summoned the
Earl before the Court, and read in his presence the letters in
which he had promised to marry her, ‘Lady Anna being of opinion
that this promise had been of no weight in his eyes, since he had
three wives alive—first, herself; another in Scotland, from whom
he had procured his freedom; and the last, Queen Mary.’ Bothwell,
in the end, succeeded in getting this prosecution quashed by
promising the injured lady an annuity to be sent from Scotland,
and handing over to her the smallest of his two ships. He was
peremptorily refused permission, however, to leave the country;
and the discovery of a letter-case with papers, which he had
concealed in the ballast of his ship—among which was the patent
creating him Duke of Orkney, a letter from Queen Mary, ‘in which
she bewailed herself and all her friends,’ and ‘divers letters
both in print and writing,’ in which the Scottish Council accused
him of the murder of the King, and offered a reward for his
apprehension— made it clear that ‘he had for no good reason
withdrawn from his native country.’ The cautious governor, with
the advice of certain freemen and councillors, on this discovery
resolved to send Bothwell, along with these compromising
documents, to Copenhagen. He reached the Danish capital about the
close of the autumn of 1567. The King of Denmark, Frederick II.,
was absent in North Jutland at the time of Bothwell’s arrival, and
he delayed coming to any decision regarding his disposal till he
himself, at the end of the year, returned to Zealand. The Earl was
speedily recognised by some Scottish merchants at Copenhagen, and
intelligence conveyed to the Government respecting his place of
refuge.
On the 15th
December, Sir William Stewart, the Scottish herald, appeared at
the Danish Court, and delivered to Frederick a formal demand from
the Regent Moray for the surrender of Darnley’s murderer. In this
emergency the Earl proved himself, as Peter Oxe, the High Steward,
and John Frus, one of the Danish councillors, described him, in a
document which still exists, ‘very cunning and inventive.’ He
affirmed that he had come to Denmark to ‘declare the cause of the
Queen of Scotland, his royal Majesty’s kinswoman, and to desire
his Majesty’s good counsel and assistance for her deliverance, as
from the lord and prince on whom, both on account of kinship and
descent, as also on account of the ancient alliance which has been
between both kingdoms from time immemorial, she altogether
relies.’ He pleaded that ‘he had already in Scotland been legally
acquitted of this charge, that he was himself the real regent of
Scotland, that the Queen was his consort, and that his opponents
were only rebels.’ He addressed letters to Charles IX. of France,
declaring that he had left Scotland ‘to lay before the Danish king
the wrongs to which his near relative, the Queen of Scotland, had
become a victim,’ and entreated the French king ‘favourably to
take into account the goodwill with which through his whole life
he had striven, and would further strive, to be of service to
him.’ He also solicited, and, it would appear succeeded, in
securing the interposition in his behalf of Charles Dancay, the
French ambassador at the Court of Denmark. In the end, Frederick
declined to surrender Bothwell, but offered permission to the
Scottish envoy himself to prosecute the Earl in Denmark, for the
crimes laid to his charge—a course, however, which Sir William
Stewart did not think it expedient at that time to adopt.
Meanwhile, orders were given by the King that Bothwell should be
removed from Copenhagen to the castle of Malmoe, where he was
confined in a large oblong vaulted hall, strongly secured with
iron-barred windows, which still exist. During his residence in
the castle of Copenhagen Bothwell composed a detailed memoir of
the transactions in Scotland that had led to the dethronement of
the Queen and his own banishment, which is throughout a tissue of
the most extraordinary falsehoods, denying all participation on
his own part in the murder of Darnley, and ascribing that deed to
Moray and the other Protestant lords.
The seizure of the
Queen at Almond Bridge, and her abduction to Dunbar, along with
other important incidents, are passed over unnoticed in this
narrative, the object of which was to convince the King and
Council that the Regent Moray and his associates were alone the
special instruments and sources of the disturbances that had taken
place in Scotland from the year 1559 down to that time, and to
induce them to give help by land and sea for the deliverance of
the Scottish Queen. A few days after his transference to the
castle of Malmoe, Bothwell drew up another paper, in which he not
only entreated assistance, but with his characteristic ‘cunning
and inventiveness,’ declared that he was empowered to offer to
make over to the King, in return for his help, the Orkney and
Shetland Islands, and, ‘if the King and Council would themselves
state how they wished bonds to be drawn up with respect to the
surrender of these islands, the Earl became surety that they would
be so drawn and sealed by the Queen, by himself, and by the
Scottish Privy Council,’ in accordance with ‘their intention and
final will.’ This was a very dexterous proposal, for Frederick,
like his father, Christian III., had striven in vain to recover
these islands from the Scottish Government, and Christian had even
threatened to enforce his claims upon them by a great naval
armament. There is every reason to believe that this most welcome
offer contributed not a little to the lenity with which Bothwell
was for a good many years treated by the Danish Government. In
vain did Moray renew his demand for the Earl’s extradition;
equally in vain did Elizabeth, as the relative of Darnley, support
the Regent’s demand, and plead that it was a matter which
concerned every monarch, ‘whose majesty ought always to be sacred,
and never violated without punishment.’ Supported by the French
king and his ambassador, Frederick obstinately refused to
surrender the Scottish refugee.
The Regent,
however, was not to be turned from his purpose, and he employed a
Captain John Clark, an officer in the service of the King of
Denmark, and in high favour with Frederick, to support his request
for Bothwell’s extradition. Clark had been employed to enlist
mercenary troops in Scotland for the Danish king, and had been
present with his men at Carberry Hill on the side of the Lords. It
was he who captured Captain Blacater, one of Bothwell’s
accomplices, the first of them that was executed for the murder of
Darnley. Clark set himself with great zeal to support the request
of the Scottish Government that the Earl should be given up to be
tried in Scotland, or that he should be executed in Denmark; but
his efforts were all in vain. He obtained, however, the surrender
of two of Bothwell’s accomplices in the murder: William Murray,
and Nicolas Hubert the Frenchman, usually called Paris, whose
confessions proved highly injurious to the Scottish Queen, though
their genuineness and vefacity have been impeached by her
defenders. A document brought to light by Professor Schiern, dated
October 30th, 1568, has settled the disputed point of time when
Paris was surrendered to Captain Clark; but the problem is still
unsolved what was done with him during the long period which
elapsed before his landing at Leith, in the middle of June in the
following year. There is a curious episode introduced by the
Professor respecting Captain Clark himself, who shortly after fell
under the displeasure of Frederick. Bothwell and his associates
seem to have furnished evidence respecting certain charges brought
against the unfortunate soldier, one of which was that he had
employed the mercenaries whom he had enlisted for the service of
the Danish King, against the Queen of Scotland. He was tried by a
court-martial and found guilty, and ended his days in the prison
in which Bothwell himself was ultimately confined.
After the
assassination of Regent Moray, Lennox, his successor, the father
of Darnley, made another and still more urgent demand for the
surrender of the murderer of his son, and despatched Thomas
Buchanan, a relative of the celebrated George Buchanan, as his
ambassador to press his request that the Earl should be either
given up to the Scottish Government, or punished in Denmark. But
though the arguments which Buchanan employed were both ingenious
and forcible, he, too, failed of success. He discovered, however,
that Bothwell, when in Malmoe, had received letters from Mary, and
that through some channel or other he still kept up a
correspondence with her, though she was now a prisoner in England.
Up to this time the Earl had been subjected to what is known as
‘an honourable imprisonment,’ and the King had given orders to his
High Steward to procure velvet and silk stuff for his apparel. But
after the accession of Morton to the Regency, and the complete
overthrow of Mary’s party in Scotland, Bothwell received very
different treatment. ‘The King of Denmark,’ wrote the French
ambassador to his master (28th June, 1573), ‘has hitherto treated
the Earl of Bothwell very well, but a few days ago he put him in a
worse and closer prison.’ The prison, it appears, was in the old
castle of Dragsholm, in Zealand, where the Earl spent the closing
years of his wretched existence. Professor Schiern says that
tradition still points out, in the part of the prison called
Bothwell’s cell, two iron bars in the wall to which the Earl’s
fetters are said to have been so fastened that he could move round
with them. It is stated in the memoirs of Lord Herries, that ‘none
had access unto him, but onlie those who carried him such scurvie
meat and drink as was allowed, which was given in at a little
window.’ In this ‘loathsome prison’ Bothwell dragged out a
miserable existence for five years. According to unvarying
tradition, he became insane before his death, which took place in
1578. The adjoining church of Faareville, which stands in ‘a
lonely and quiet spot on the west bay of Fsefjord, the haunt of
gulls and seafowl,’ is said to be ‘the last resting-place of him
who once was the husband of Scotland’s Queen.’
Professor Schiern
has devoted a considerable space to a discussion of the
authenticity of Bothwell’s ‘Testament,’ in which he is said
shortly before his death to have declared that the Queen of Scots
was innocent of all complicity in the murder of her husband, and
confessed that he was the originator and perpetrator of that
crime, with the approval of Moray, Morton, and the other
Protestant lords; at the same time accusing himself of other gross
crimes of which the people of Scotland could never have heard. The
author has shown that if any such declaration was ever made it
must have been emitted a number of years before Bothwell’s death,
and that the published extracts alleged to have been made from the
document were in all probability forgeries. He lays great stress
on the fact that James VI., who, while yet a child, had been
greatly moved when the abstract of Bothwell’s alleged ‘Testament’
came under his notice, passed a whole winter in Zealand when he
went to obtain the hand of his bride, and was noted there for his
curiosity respecting everything important or interesting in
Denmark, met with the sons of the men who were said to have been
present when Bothwell made his dying declaration, was within sight
of Malmoe Castle, where the murderer of his father was so long
imprisoned, and was only a few miles distant from the spot where
he was buried, yet apparently made no inquiry respecting this
document, and certainly made no reference to it. That in these
circumstances, says the Professor, James ‘never then nor
afterwards sought to bring to light any such attestation of his
mother’s innocence as that alleged, and never caused it to be
communicated to any of the historians whose works he followed with
such interest, is the strongest proof against its authenticity.’
Bothwell fortunately left no issue.
The title of Earl
of Bothwell was conferred by James VI., 29th July, 1576, on
FRANCIS STEWART, eldest son of John Stewart, Prior of Coldingham,
natural son of James V. by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John
Carmichael. The Prior obtained legitimation under the Great Seal,
7th February, 1551, and married, in 1562, Lady Jane Hepburn,
daughter of Patrick, third Earl of Bothwell, and sister of the
murderer of Darnley. It was no doubt owing to his near
relationship to the Hepburns through his mother, that their
forfeited titles were conferred upon him, along with a
considerable portion of their estates. He was also appointed Lord
High Admiral of Scotland, Sheriff-Principal of the county of
Edinburgh, and within the constabulary of Haddington, and Sheriff
of the county of Berwick, and Bailiary of Lauderdale.
From his early
years Francis Stewart was noted for his restless and turbulent
disposition. He took part against the Earl of Arran, the royal
favourite, and quarrelled with Sir William Stewart, Arran’s
brother, whom he killed in a fray which took place in Blackfriars
Wynd, in Edinburgh, on the 3oth July, 1588. In that same year he
assisted the Popish Earls of Huntly, Errol, and Angus, in their
rebellion, and was imprisoned in Tantallon Castle; but after a few
months’ confinement he was released on payment of a fine to the
Crown. In 1589, when James went to Denmark in quest of his
betrothed bride, he appointed Bothwell one of the administrators
of the kingdom during his absence, in the hope of conciliating him
by this mark of distinction. But on the return of the King the
Earl returned to his former practices. In January, 1591, a number
of wretched creatures were brought to trial and burned on a charge
of witchcraft, and two of them declared that Bothwell had
consulted them in order to know the time of the King’s death, and
that at his instigation they had raised the storm which had
endangered the lives of James and his queen, on their voyage
homeward from Denmark. The Earl surrendered himself a prisoner in
the castle of Edinburgh, to meet these charges, insisting that
‘the devil, wha was a lyer from the beginning, nor yet his sworn
witches, ought not to be credited.’ But after remaining three
weeks in prison he became impatient of restraint, and on the 22nd
of June, 1591, he effected his escape from the castle, and fled to
the Borders. The King on this proclaimed him a traitor, and
forbade, under the penalties of treason, any one to ‘reset,
supply, show favour, intercommune, or have intelligence with him.’
Bothwell, no way intimidated by this procedure, returned secretly
to Edinburgh with a body of his retainers, and on the evening of
December 27th, furtively obtained admission to the inner court of
Holyrood. An alarm was given, and the King, who was then at
supper, rushed down a back-stair leading to one of the turrets, in
which he took refuge. [Spottiswood lauds the firm deportment of
the King when Bothwell was thundering at the door of the Queen’s
apartment But Birrel describes the King’s majesty as ‘flying down
the backstairs with his breeches in his hand’ (Birrel,
p. 30). ‘Such is the
difference,’ says Sir Walter Scott, ‘betwixt the narrative of the
courtly archbishop and that of the Presbyterian burgess of
Edinburgh.’ This scene seems to have been regarded by Sir Walter
with great amusement. In the ‘Fortunes of Nigel’ he represents
Richie Moniplies as describing the array of King James when his
majesty was about to go out to hunt, or hawk, on Blackheath. ‘A
bonny grey horse, the saddle, and the stirrups, and the curb, and
the bit o’ gowd, or silver gilded at least; the King, with all his
nobles, dressed out in his hunting-suit of green, doubly laced and
laid down with gowd. My certy, lad, thought I,’ adds Richie,
‘times are changed since ye came fleeing down the backstairs of
auld Holyrood House in grit fear, having your breeks in your hand,
without time to put them on, and Frank Stewart, the wild Earl of
Bothwell, hard at your haunches.’] The attendants barred and
barricaded the door of the Queen’s apartment, which Bothwell
attempted to force open. Meanwhile notice of this attack was sent
to the Provost of the city, who hastily collected a band of armed
citizens, with whom he entered the palace by a private door
leading to the royal chapel, and compelled Bothwell and his
followers to take to flight. Nine of them were captured, and
without a trial were hanged next morning, on a new gallows erected
opposite the palace gate for the purpose.
Sir James Melville,
who was present, gives a lively picture of the scene of disorder,
brilliantly illuminated by the glare of passing torches; while the
report of firearms, the clatter of armour, the din of hammers
thundering on the gates, mingled wildly with the war-cry of the
Borderers, who shouted incessantly, ‘Justice! justice! A Bothwell!
a Bothwell! ‘
The ‘Abbey Raid,’
as it was called, was so nearly successful that Bothwell was
encouraged to make another attempt to seize the royal person.
Having collected a body of his retainers on the Borders, he made a
rapid march, during the night, to Falkland, where the King was
then residing in peaceful seclusion, and had very nearly fallen
into the hands of his turbulent subject. A messenger, sent by Sir
James Melville to warn the King of his danger, reached the palace
only a few moments before the Earl and his followers. After a
fruitless effort to force an entrance, he withdrew to the Borders,
and shortly after took refuge in England, where he seems to have
been welcomed by Queen Elizabeth. James was so indignant at this
renewed act of treason, that he vented his anger upon Bothwell’s
countess, a daughter of the seventh Earl of Angus, and widow of
Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, and issued a proclamation ordering
that no one should ‘reset her, give her entertainment, or have any
commerce of society with her in any case.’
The Earl, however,
had warm friends at Court, particularly Lennox, Athole, and
Ochiltree—nobles of the Stewart family; and encouraged by their
support, he returned to Scotland in 1593, and on the 23rd of July
was brought secretly to Edinburgh, accompanied by John Colville,
brother of the Lord of Castle Wemyss, and was lodged for the night
in a house adjoining the palace, belonging to the Countess of
Gowrie, Athole’s mother-in-law. Early next morning the Countess of
Athole, taking Bothwell and Colville along with her, entered the
palace by a private passage which communicated with Lady Gowrie’s
house, and conducting them into an anteroom opening into the
King’s bedchamber, hid them behind the arras. She then stealthily
displaced the arms of the guard, and, having locked the door of
the Queen’s bedchamber, to prevent the escape of the King, retired
with her attendants. In a short time Bothwell, emerging from his
hiding-place, knocked loudly at the King’s chamber door, which was
immediately opened by the Earl of Athole. James, who happened to
be at the instant in a closet opening into the apartment, hearing
a noise, rushed out in a state of dishabille, and seeing Bothwell
and Colville standing with drawn swords, attempted to escape by
the Queen’s bedchamber, but finding the door locked he called out,
‘Treason! treason!’ At that moment the Duke of Lennox, Athole,
Ochiltree, and others of Bothwell’s friends, entered the room, and
James, finding that he was completely in their power, threw
himself into a chair, and with unwonted courage faced the danger
which he could not avoid. Bothwell and Colville threw themselves
on their knees before him, but James called out, ‘Come on,
Francis! You seek my life, and I know I am wholly in your power.
Strike, and end thy work!’ But Bothwell, with unexpected
moderation, only stipulated for the remission of his forfeiture.
He declared his willingness to submit to trial on the charges of
witchcraft, and of seeking the King’s life directly or indirectly,
and offered that, after he had been tried and acquitted, he would
leave the country, if it should be his Majesty’s pleasure, and go
to any place he should be pleased to appoint. James yielded to
Bothwell’s entreaties, and subscribed a document, promising him,
on condition of his peaceable behaviour, a fair trial, and in the
event of his acquittal, restoration to his rank and estates. It
was further stipulated that he should in the meantime retire from
the Court; and Bothwell having readily acquiesced, his peace was
next day proclaimed by the heralds at the Cross of Edinburgh.
The trial
accordingly took place on the 10th of August, and lasted for nine
hours. It ended in Bothwell’s complete acquittal, and was
immediately followed by full remission of all his ‘by-gone
offences done to his Majesty and his authority, preceding this
day, never to be quarrelled hereafter.’ A proclamation was also
issued by the King, charging the lieges that none of them ‘tak
upon hand to slander, murmur, reproach, or backbite the said Earl
and his friends.’ James, however, had no intention of keeping the
agreement which he had made with his factious subject, and
Bothwell was informed that if he would renounce the conditions
extorted by force from the King, being a breach of the royal
prerogative, a remission would be granted for his past offences,
but that he must forthwith retire out of the kingdom, and ‘remain
forth of the same,’ during his Majesty’s pleasure. Lord Home and
Bothwell’s other enemies were at the same time permitted to return
to Court, from which his friends were expelled. He was served with
a summons to appear before the King and Council on the 25th
October, 1593, to answer sundry charges of high treason, and,
having failed to appear, he was denounced a rebel, and put to the
horn. Incensed at these proceedings, Bothwell levied a body of
five hundred moss-troopers, and marched to the neighbourhood of
Edinburgh. James went out to meet him at the head of a numerous
but undisciplined body of the citizens, and drew them up on the
Boroughmuir. He had previously despatched Lord Home with a body of
cavalry to attack Bothwell, but they were no match for the warlike
Borderers, and were quickly put to the rout. As soon as the King
saw the fugitives approaching, he fled upon the gallop back to the
city. Bothwell however, in his eager pursuit of the defeated
troops, was thrown from his horse, and so severely injured that he
retired to Dalkeith, where he passed the night. Next morning he
dismissed his followers, and once more sought security on the
English side of the Border. Elizabeth, however, had by this time
discovered that he could no longer be of service to her, and
expelled him from the country. Sentence of excommunication was
pronounced against him by the Church, which rendered him liable to
the highest civil penalties. He was driven from all his castles
and places of shelter, and was chased from one quarter of the
country to another. At length, after being keenly pursued through
the county of Caithness, where he made several hairbreadth
escapes, he found means of retiring to France. He then wandered
into Spain, and afterwards passed into Italy, where he renounced
the Protestant faith. He there led a life of obscurity and
indigence, earning a wretched subsistence by the exhibition of
feats of arms, fortune-telling, and necromancy. He died at Naples
in 1612, in great misery. The forfeited estates of Bothwell
were divided among Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, his stepson, Ker
of Cessford, and Lord Home. The forfeited titles of the Earl were
never recovered, but the greater part of his extensive estates
were restored by Charles I. to Francis Stewart, his eldest son,
who married Lady Isabella Seton, only daughter of Robert, first
Earl of Winton, and ultimately sold his paternal estates to the
Winton family. He left a son and a daughter. In Creichton’s
‘Memoirs’ it is stated that Francis Stewart, the grandson of the
Earl of Bothwell, though so nearly related to the royal family,
was a private in the Scottish Horse Guards, in the reign of
Charles II. This circumstance appears to have suggested to Sir
Walter Scott the character of Sergeant Bothwell in ‘Old
Mortality.’ John Stewart, the second son of the Earl, was the last
Commendator of Coldingham, and he got the lands which belonged to
that priory formed into a barony in
1621. |
