Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell (c. December 1562 – November 1612), was Commendator of Kelso Abbey and Coldingham Priory, a Privy Counsellor and Lord High Admiral of Scotland. He was a notorious conspirator who led several uprisings against his first cousin, King James VI (they were both grandsons of King James V of Scotland), all of which ultimately failed, and he died in poverty in Italy after being banished from Scotland. Francis's maternal uncle, the 4th Earl of Bothwell (by the first creation), was the chief suspect in the murder of James VI's father, Lord Darnley.
Family Francis Stewart was a son of John Stewart, Prior of Coldingham (d. 1563), who was an illegitimate child of James V of Scotland by his mistress Elizabeth Carmichael. Francis' mother was Jane Hepburn, Mistress of Caithness, Lady Morham (d. 1599), sister of James Hepburn, 1st Duke of Orkney and 4th Earl of Bothwell. Francis is said to have been born in his mother's tower house at Morham.
In 1565, Mary, Queen of Scots, gave Francis a set of red serge bed curtains.Robertson, Joseph, ed., Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 160. When Mary was pregnant in 1566, she made a will bequeathing her jewels. If she had died in childbed, Francis would have received several sets of gold buttons and aiglets, and a slice of unicorn horn mounted on silver chain, used to test for poison.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. xxxix-xli, 110-1.
Commendator, earl, and student
Regardless of his youth, in December 1564, he was made Lord Badenoch and Enzie, and in 1566 he was appointed (nominal) Commendator of Culross Abbey. He was, before 1568, Commendator of Kelso Abbey in Roxburghshire, a position he had exchanged with John Maitland for the offer of Coldingham Priory, which Maitland then held until his forfeiture in 1570. Some historians give Sir Alexander Home as Maitland's successor; he, in fact, declined to accept his appointment, and Priory charters record Francis Stewart as the next Commendator. Francis was succeeded as Prior of Coldingham by his second son, John.
On 10 January 1568, Francis was confirmed in the lands and baronies formerly held by the Earls of Bothwell. These included Hailes, Yester, Dunsyre, Morham, Crichton, Wilton, Bothwell, many others in the sheriffdoms of Edinburgh, Roxburgh, Lanark, Dumfries, and Berwick, and the Stewartries of Annandale and Kirkcudbright.Charter witnesses were: John, Archbishop of St Andrews, the 4th Earl of Morton, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, the 4th Earl Marischal, John Maitland, Commendator of Coldingham Priory, Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland, Mr James MacGill of Nether Rankeillour, Clerk of the Rolls, Register and Council, and John Bellenden of Auchnole & Broughton, Lord Justice Clerk. National Archives of Scotland National Records of Scotland, GD224/890/21; see on-line catalogue.
A letter of Marie Pieris, Lady Seton to Mary, Queen of Scots, mentioned that Francis was "at the Schools, and in good health" in August 1570. His sister Christine was in the king's household at Stirling Castle, but another sister (who is less well-documented) had been sent away by Annabell Murray, Countess of Mar.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1902), p. 314 no. 416.
Francis was 'belted' as Earl of Bothwell by his cousin, James VI, in the Great Hall of Stirling Castle on 27 November 1577, in the presence of his guardian, the 4th Earl of Morton, four days before his marriage to Margaret Douglas, formerly Lady Buccleuch and daughter of the 7th Earl of Angus, in Holyrood Abbey.National Library of Scotland, Adv. Mss. 35.4.2 Francis studied at the University of St Andrews before travelling in 1578 to the Universities of Paris and Rouen (and possibly also to Italy). Recalled to Scotland by the king, he landed at Newhaven in June 1582.
Feuds and military affairs On 29 May 1583, the King, against the advice of the Earl of Gowrie and the other Lords of the Raid of Ruthven, who had controlled him for the past nine months, left Edinburgh, progressing first to Linlithgow Palace, accompanied by the Earls of Mar, Angus, Bothwell and Marischal. At Linlithgow, Bothwell played football with the Earl Marischal. Bothwell knocked him over, and he then kicked Bothwell on the leg. They decided to fight a duel the next day, but the Earl of Angus and the king, James VI, reconciled them. After this, Bothwell returned to Crichton.Miles Kerr-Peterson, A Protestant Lord in James VI's Scotland: George Keith, Fifth Earl Marischal (Boydell, 2019), p. 32: William Boyd, Calendar of State Papers Scotland: 1581-1583, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), p. 475.
Bothwell quarreled with David Home of Manderston at Linlithgow Palace in November 1583.William Boyd, Calendar of State Papers Scotland: 1581-1583, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), p. 658. He killed him in 1584 and, on 23 October 1584, he wrote from Crichton Castle to Sir Patrick Vans of Barnbarroch, asking him to meet him at Dalkeith and support him at his trial in Edinburgh.Robert Vans-Agnew, Correspondence of Sir Robert Waus of Barnbarroch, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1887), p. 307. He also fought with Alexander Home, Prior of Coldingham, and his brother, in the Canongate near Holyrood Palace in November 1583.William Boyd, Calendar of State Papers Scotland: 1581-1583, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), pp. 666, 670, 675.
On 13 May 1585, Bothwell, with others, was commissioned to assist the Warden of the Scottish Marches dealing with rebels. In June 1586, Bothwell was one of three Commissioners appointed by James VI to negotiate a military alliance between the English and Scottish Crowns, which was formally concluded on 5 July. He quarrelled with William Stewart of Monkton and then they fought on Blackfriar's Wynd. Bothwell stabbed him with his rapier and Stewart tried to hide in a cellar, where Bothwell's men "stobbed him with whingers till he was despatched".David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1843), pp. 679-80
The following year, Bothwell and other nobles felt that the beheading of James VI's mother Queen Mary demanded an invasion of England, a course of action the king disagreed with. Bothwell was warded for a time in Edinburgh Castle for his activities in trying to advance this course of action.
On 10 May 1587, Bothwell and other nobles protested their innocence over a raid on Stirling Castle in November 1585. The king accepted their oaths and declared them to be his "honest and true servants".
Francis, Earl Bothwell, swore an obligation in Council on 8 July 1587 as Keeper of Liddesdale to keep the peace there, and on 29 July he was made a full member of the Privy Council of Scotland – a body he had been attending since at least 1582. He attended the wedding of Henrietta Stewart and the Earl of Huntly in July 1588, and his own appearance "set around with mirrors" drew attention.John McGavin, "Spectatorship in Scotland", Janet Hadley Williams & J. Derrick McClure, Fresche Fontanis (Cambridge Scholars, 2013), p. 289 citing NRS GD 75/563, (a "mirror" may be a jewel).
One of the honours he received with his earldom was that of Lord High Admiral of Scotland, and on 1 August 1588, he was ordered "to attend upon his awne charge of admirallitie" in order to resist the Spanish Armada. He remained active at sea, and on 12 November of the same year Frederick Freis, master of the Swedish ship Unicorn, brought an action in the Scottish Privy Council against the Earl Bothwell for the seizure of his ship. The Council ordered Bothwell to restore the ship to Freis within 24 hours.
Bothwell was imprisoned in Holyrood Palace in May 1589, and called to James VI who was in the garden for his release. The king ignored him, and he was transferred to Blackness Castle and Tantallon Castle. Bothwell was so angry that he beat his wife and any of his servants who came near him.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1589-1593, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 85-6, 89, 96, 98. In 1589 an English pirate called Captain Coupland stole one of Bothwell's ships or barques and sold its cannon at Bridlington and Great Yarmouth.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1589-1593, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 216-7.
Outlaw and exile Bothwell, with others, including the Earl of Huntly, was charged with treason for engaging in an armed uprising and plotting to seize the king at Holyroodhouse. He surrendered himself on 11 May 1589 and their trial took place on 24 May. All were found guilty, but sentences were deferred for the king's consideration.
In January 1591 he was reported to have bought the Isle of May and to be building a house near Kelso not far from the English border. This may refer to the repair of Moss Tower at Eckford.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1589-1593, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 411, 450.
Witchcraft accusations Bothwell was arrested on accusations of witchcraft on 15 April 1591.Maurice Lee, John Maitland of Thirlestane (Princeton University Press, 1959), p. 229. Charged with trying to arrange the king's death through sorcery, he was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. These allegations arose through the events of the marriage of James VI to Anne of Denmark in September 1589. She had been expected to sail from Denmark but was prevented by storms three times. The Danish admiral Peder Munk attributed the storms to witchcraft. The same weather caused an accident in the River Forth resulting in the drowning of Jane Kennedy, whom James had appointed to be chief of Anne's ladies-in-waiting. James then asked Bothwell, as Admiral of Scotland, to prepare a fleet to fetch Anne. Bothwell's estimate of the costs involved was high and James decided to raise funds and make the voyage himself.
Bothwell remained in Scotland and was given a share of the government. Subsequently, in November 1590 those accused of witchcraft in North Berwick were tortured and made confessions about causing the storms by magic. The historian Christina Larner proposed that the character of the witch hunt with the "demonic pact" which featured in the confessions was influenced by Danish practice. In July 1590 a number of so-called witches had been arrested in the Copenhagen witch trials in Denmark, including Anna Koldings, for causing the storms. One of the Scottish accused, healer Agnes Sampson, according to James Melville of Halhill, claimed the devil had shown her a picture of James VI saying he should be "consumed at the instance of a noble man Francis Erle Bodowell." Another, magician Ritchie Graham, confessed and insisted he had conspired with the earl, leading to his arrest in April 1591.
Outlaw Francis broke out of the castle on 22 June 1591, while the king was away at the wedding of Lilias Murray and John Grant of Freuchie at Tullibardine, and headed south.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 533-5. He was convinced that the Chancellor, John Maitland of Thirlestane, was behind his accusation. He was proclaimed an outlaw three days later. James VI gave his lands and offices and the castles of Crichton and Hailes to the Duke of Lennox. Anne of Denmark tried to intercede for Bothwell, but found the king so "moved", so angry with those who had requested her intervention, that she dropped the issue. Bothwell spent his days at Crichton but hid at night in woods and other places. One of his chief confederates, Archibald Wauchope of Niddrie, abandoned him.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 543, 547.