James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell

• 1. The Night at Todrick's Wynd

  ›

  James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, left his lodging at Todrick's Wynd on the 9th of February 1567. He was carrying kegs of gunpowder. He and three accomplices, Dalgliesh, Powrie, and Wilson, carried those kegs to a place called Kirk o' Field. They barely avoided crossing paths with Queen Mary of Scotland along the way. The explosion they set off destroyed part of the building. Two men died inside: Lord Darnley, the Queen's second husband, and his aide. Bothwell was publicly accused of the murder. He was put on trial, acquitted, and within three months had married the widow. How Scotland's most powerful earl arrived at that night is a story that begins with a woman he abandoned in Flanders. It ends at a pillar in a Danish fortress where he would spend his final decade.

• 2. A Norwegian Noblewoman

  ›

  James Hepburn, born around 1534, was the son of Patrick Hepburn, 3rd Earl of Bothwell, and Agnes Sinclair. He became Earl of Bothwell and Lord Hailes when he succeeded his father in 1556. Around 1559, in his role as Lord High Admiral of Scotland, Bothwell visited Copenhagen. He fell in love with Anna Tronds, known in English as Anna Throndsen or Anna Rustung. Her father, Kristoffer Trondson, was a celebrated Norwegian admiral serving as Danish Royal Consul. The two became engaged, or possibly married under Norwegian law; the historical record leaves the question open. Anna accompanied Bothwell when he departed for Flanders. There, he told her he had run out of money. He asked her to sell all her possessions to support him. She did. She then visited her family in Denmark to raise additional funds. By all accounts, Anna was unhappy and often voiced complaints about how he had treated her. He left her behind. His treatment of Anna would play a direct part in his eventual downfall. That reckoning was waiting for him in the harbour at Bergen.

• 3. A Regent's Man

  ›

  On Halloween 1559, Bothwell and 24 followers intercepted the Laird of Ormiston near Haddington. They seized 6,000 crowns of English money intended to fund the Protestant cause against the Regent, Mary of Guise. The Protestant leader, the Duke of Châtelherault, sent his son the Earl of Arran and the Master of Maxwell to seize Crichton Castle. Their aim was to force Bothwell to switch sides. Bothwell was nearby at Borthwick and refused. By January, reports described him as 'weary of his part.' The English diplomat Thomas Randolph hinted at a scandal involving his sister Jean Hepburn. Despite these pressures, Bothwell held his allegiance until the Regent's death in 1560. That autumn, he visited the French court, where the young Queen Mary lived as the wife of King Francis II. She received him warmly. He later recorded her words: 'The Queen recompensed me more liberally and honourably than I had deserved.' She gave him 600 Crowns and appointed him gentleman of the French King's Chamber. He returned to France in spring 1561. By the 5th of July, he was back in Paris for a third visit, accompanied by the Bishop of Orkney and the Earl of Eglinton. By August, the widowed Queen was on her way back to Scotland in a French galley. Bothwell had helped arrange her passage. Back in Edinburgh, the Protestant Lords who now held power saw Bothwell as little more than a troublesome nobleman.

• 4. Storms at Court

  ›

  The Earl of Arran brought a specific charge against Bothwell. He claimed Bothwell had plotted to kidnap Queen Mary and the Earl of Moray from the deer park at Falkland Palace at Easter 1562. The Earl of Arran was later declared mad, but the accusation sent Bothwell to Edinburgh Castle without trial. He escaped while the Queen was in the Highlands later that year and went to Hermitage Castle. His standing recovered in time. On the 24th of February 1566, Bothwell married Lady Jean Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntly, at Holyrood. Queen Mary attended. Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie recorded that the celebrations included five days of jousting and tournaments. The banquet was held at Kinloch's house on the Canongate. That marriage lasted just over a year. In October 1566, after the birth of Prince James, Mary came to Jedburgh to hold justice courts. Learning that Bothwell had been gravely wounded, she went to visit him at Hermitage Castle. That visit has been argued over ever since. Antonia Fraser contends that Mary was already travelling toward Bothwell on matters of state when she heard of his injury. The visit, Fraser argues, is not evidence they were lovers. Alison Weir agrees. She notes that the records show Mary waited six full days after learning of the injury before she set out. The account of an urgent, emotional ride to his bedside was put about later by Mary's enemies to discredit her.

• 5. Noon to Seven

  ›

  Sir William Drury wrote to Sir William Cecil, Secretary of State to Elizabeth I of England, with a stark report on the Queen. She was suffering from 'continuous ill-health, for the most part either melancholy or sickly.' The Earl of Lennox, Darnley's father, and other relatives pressed the Privy Council to act. Proceedings were formally opened on the 12th of April 1567. On the day of the hearing, Bothwell rode down the Canongate. The Earl of Morton and William Maitland of Lethington flanked him. His own Hepburns trotted behind. The hearing ran from noon until seven in the evening. By the following Wednesday, Queen Mary rode to the Estates of Parliament with Lord Bothwell carrying the Sceptre. The proceedings were formally declared lawful according to the law of the land. Rumour spread at once that he would marry her. Before the month was out, Bothwell had opened divorce proceedings from Lady Jean Gordon, citing his adultery with her servant Bessie Crawford as the grounds.

• 6. Married in Mourning

  ›

  Eight bishops, nine earls, and seven Lords of Parliament had signed the Ainslie Tavern Bond on Saturday the 19th of April 1567. The Bond declared that Mary should take a native-born Scottish subject as her husband and pointed to Bothwell as the recommendation. Five days later, on the 24th of April, Bothwell appeared on the road from Linlithgow Palace to Edinburgh with 800 men. He told Mary that Edinburgh held dangers for her and proposed to escort her to Dunbar Castle for safety. She agreed, and arrived at Dunbar at midnight. What happened there has been debated ever since. Later accounts describe Mary as a prisoner at Dunbar, raped by Bothwell to force her consent and secure his claim to the crown. Whether she was a willing participant or an unwilling victim remains a genuine historical dispute. On the 12th of May, the Queen created him Duke of Orkney and Marquess of Fife at Holyrood. Three days after that, on the 15th of May, they were married in the Great Hall at Holyrood according to Protestant rites. The ceremony was conducted by Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, and John Craig. Mary wore mourning clothes, recorded in the accounts as 'dule weed.' William Drury, an English commander at Berwick, reported that only a few witnesses were present. The French ambassador, Philibert du Croc, did not attend the Duke's creation or the wedding. On the day of the ceremony, Mary ordered a gown of black figured velvet embroidered with silver and gold. She gave her new husband a fur-lined night-gown. Celebrations were sparse until two weeks after the wedding, when there was a triumph and tilt at Leith, and Bothwell 'ran at the ring.' Within weeks, opposing Lords had signed their own bond against the couple, and Scotland was moving toward open confrontation.

• 7. Flight to Bergen

  ›

  On the 15th of June 1567, the opposing armies faced each other at Carberry Hill. The confrontation ended without a pitched battle. Bothwell, now Duke of Orkney, fled the field after one final embrace with Mary. They never met again. After Carberry Hill, Bothwell made for Huntly Castle and Spynie Palace. He then took ship from Aberdeen to Shetland. At Dunrossness, he spoke with Olave Sinclair and took a vessel called the Pelican, belonging to Gerdt Hemeling of Bremen. Two Scottish pursuers, William Kirkcaldy of Grange and William Murray of Tullibardine, sailed into Bressay Sound near Lerwick after him. Four of Bothwell's ships set sail north to Unst, where he was negotiating with German captains for additional vessels. Kirkcaldy's flagship, the Lion, chased one of Bothwell's ships, and both were damaged on a submerged rock. Bothwell sent his treasure ship to Scalloway and fought a three-hour sea battle off the Port of Unst. The mast of one of his ships was shot away. A storm then drove him toward Norway. He may have hoped to reach Frederick II of Denmark and raise an army to restore Mary to the throne. Instead, he was caught at Høyevarde lighthouse in Karmsundet off the Norwegian coast without proper papers and escorted to Bergen. Bergen was the native home of Anna Throndsen. Her cousin, Erik Rosenkrantz, held high office in Norway. Rosenkrantz had Bothwell remanded to the Bergenhus Fortress while Anna brought a legal suit against him for abandonment and the return of her dowry. Bothwell settled out of court. He offered one of his ships as restitution and promised an annual payment. He would never be able to make those payments. King Frederick of Denmark, hearing that Scotland sought Bothwell for the murder of Darnley, took him into Danish custody. From Bergen, the Duke was sent to Copenhagen, where the king deliberated on what to do with him.

• 8. Dragsholm's Prisoner

  ›

  From Copenhagen, Bothwell was sent across the Øresund strait to the fortress and prison of Malmøhus Castle. As news arrived from England and Scotland, King Frederick II came to understand that Mary would never reclaim her throne. Without her, he considered Bothwell insignificant. The prisoner was transferred to Dragsholm Castle, 75 kilometres west of Copenhagen. Conditions there were said to be appalling. He was chained to a pillar within those walls. A circular groove worn into the floor by years of pacing around that pillar can still be seen at Dragsholm today. Parliament in Edinburgh stripped him of all his Scottish titles, including the Dukedom of Orkney, in December 1567. He died in April 1578 and was buried in a vault at Fårevejle church, near the castle. In 1858, the body was exhumed. Examiners found it in a dried, preserved state and declared it to be that of Lord Bothwell. It became known as 'Bothwell's mummy.' His extended family sought to have the remains returned to Scotland. The request was refused. In 1976, a body referred to as 'Bothwell's mummy' appeared in the Edinburgh Wax Museum on the Royal Mile. It was the only non-wax exhibit in the building. The guide book claimed it was brought to Scotland in 1858. Whether those remains were truly his is a question no examination has settled.