Wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Earl of Bothwell

The wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots and James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell took place at Holyrood Palace on 15 May 1567.

Background Mary had been Queen of Scotland since 1542. Her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley was killed at the Kirk O'Field on 10 February 1567. Although the Earl of Bothwell was suspected of involvement in Darnley's murder he had been acquitted at a trial held on 12 April.Retha Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 150.

Parliament in April

Mary went to open parliament escorted by her own guard armed with firearms rather than accepting the "ancient custom" of a guard provided by the bailies of Edinburgh.Allan James Crosby, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 1566–8 (London, 1871), p. 211 no. 1116. Bothwell was given the role of holding the sceptre, one of the Honours of Scotland, at Parliament on 14 April 1567. The Parliament passed an Act against making and posting placards and bills to the "slander, reproach, and infamy" of her majesty, such as the "mermaid and hare" posters or challenges to combat like those made by James Murray of Pardewis.Jenny Wormald, Mary, Queen of Scots: Politics, Passion and a Kingdom Lost (Tauris Parke, 2001), pp. 165–166. Writings called "tickets" denouncing Bothwell and his alleged accomplices in the king's murder had been fixed to Edinburgh's Mercat Cross.John Parker Lawson, History of the Church of Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh, 1845), p. 553, 561–562: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 321 no. 490, 323 no. 493: John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 500, 504.Michael Bath and Malcolm Jones, "Placardes and Billis and Ticquettis of Defamatioun: Queen Mary, the Mermaid and the Hare", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 78:1 (2015), pp. 223–246. When Parliament ended, Bothwell carried the sword to Holyrood Palace.Thomas Thomson, Diurnal of Occurrents (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1833), pp. 108–109.

Bothwell's divorce

On the last day of Parliament, Bothwell's supporters signed a document known as the Ainslie Tavern Bond, which approved him as a potential consort for Queen Mary.Julian Goodare, "The Ainslie Bond", Kings, Lords and Men in Scotland and Britain, 1300–1625 (Edinburgh, 2014), pp. 15, 301-319. Bothwell was already married to Jean Gordon, and a divorce was arranged and completed on 3 May. Bothwell was reported to have had an affair with her servant Bessie Crawford, meeting her at Haddington and in the kitchen tower of Crichton Castle. Bessie, who was about 20 years old, had been a servant of Jean's mother Elizabeth Keith, Countess of Huntly. The witnesses for the divorce said her father was a blacksmith.Historical Manuscripts Commission: Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Salisbury at Hatfield: Addenda, vol. 13 (London, 1915), pp. 72–82.Margaret Sanderson, "Jane Gordon", Mary Stewart's People (Edinburgh: James Thin, 1987), pp. 40–41.Joseph Stevenson, History of Mary Stewart by Claud Nau, (Edinburgh, 1883), p. clxiii. Meanwhile, a "ticket" was fixed to the Mercat Cross, to the effect that that Bothwell could not be divorced in order to marry the widow of someone he had killed.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 321 no. 490.

William Kirkcaldy of Grange opposed Mary's marriage to Bothwell and regarded the proceedings in Parliament with dismay. On 20 April 1567, he wrote to the Earl of Bedford, an English diplomat, that Mary did not care if she lost France, England and Scotland for Bothwell's sake, and said she would go with him to the world's end in a petticoat;Conyers Read, Mr. Secretary Cecil And Queen Elizabeth (New York, 1961), p. 377: Gordon Donaldson, The first trial of Mary, Queen of Scots (New York: Stein and Day, 1969), 66.sho caris not to lose France Ingland and her owne countrie for him, and sall go with him to the warldes ende in ane white peticote or she leve him.Julian Goodare, "The Ainslie Bond", Kings, Lords and Men in Scotland and Britain, 1300-1625 (Edinburgh, 2014), p. 305: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 322 no. 493. Queen Elizabeth disapproved of Kirkcaldy offering his opinions of a fellow queen as if she were "worse than any common woman".Alison Weir, Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley (Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 371. Thomas Randolph talked with Elizabeth, and left with the impression that he "should admonish him [Kirkcaldy] of her misliking". Elizabeth was concerned that if the marriage went ahead, Bothwell would form a stronger alliance with France.Victoria Smith, "Perspectives on Female Monarchy", in James Daybell & Svante Norrhem, Gender and Political Culture in Early Modern Europe (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017), p. 153: W. S. Fitch, A narrative of the principal acts of the regency, during the minority of Mary, Queen of Scotland (Ipswich, 1842), appendix: Puttick and Simpson, Catalogue of Royal Letters and State Papers relating to Scotland (London, 1859), p. 15 no. 47, now National Library of Scotland MS 3657, Randolph to Leicester, 10 May 1567.

Later, in the summer of 1567, when the divorce was called into question,John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 520, 522. the English diplomat Nicolas Throckmorton heard that Jean Gordon (anticipating that the process might be reversed) told Annas Keith that she would "never live with the Earl Bothwell, nor take him for her husband".John Parker Lawson, History of the Church of Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh, 1845), p. 746: British Library, Cotton Caligula C/I f.43r. By 9 August 1567, the Privy Council would assert that the royal marriage was pretended and unlawful, and Bothwell was "ane uther wyffis husband".John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 545.

Jean Gordon carefully kept the Papal dispensation that had been required for her marriage to Bothwell at Dunrobin Castle.Jennifer Morag Henderson, Daughters of the North: Jean Gordon and Mary, Queen of Scots (Sandstone Press, 2022): Rosalind K. Marshall, Queen Mary's Women (John Donald, 2006), p. 134.John Stuart, A lost chapter in the history of Mary Queen of Scots recovered (Edinburgh, 1874), pp. iii, 47–48: HMC 2nd Report, p. 177. John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, in his published Defence of the Honour of Marie Queene of Scotlande, denied a rumour that Jean Gordon was pressured to sign the divorce papers as Mary would then restore the Gordon lands forfeited in 1562 after Corrichie. He asserted that any irregularities were due to Bothwell, who was the dupe of a wider conspiracy.James Anderson, Collections Relating to the History Of Mary Queen of Scotland, 1, pp. 28, 75. Lesley, involved in Mary's later plans to annul her marriage to Bothwell, constructed a second narrative in which Bothwell threatened and cajoled the lords to sign the tavern bond, and confined Jean Gordon at Crichton Castle with the choice of signing the process of divorce or drinking poison.William Forbes-Leith, Narratives of Scottish Catholics (London: Thomas Baker, 1899), pp. 121–122.

According to William Drury, an English commander at Berwick, one factor in the divorce was Bothwell's relationship with Janet Beaton, Lady Buccleuch. Drury wrote numerous letters to William Cecil with news from Scotland.Lorna Hutson, England's Insular Imagining: The Elizabethan Erasure of Scotland (Cambridge, 2023), p. 140. He reported that Mary and Bothwell visited Edinburgh Castle on Sunday 16 April and spoke to the footmen of her guard in the great hall. The soldiers were anxious about pay. Bothwell argued and nearly started a fight. Mary promised to give the Captains 400 gold crowns, two for each soldier.Allan James Crosby, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 1566–8 (London, 1871), pp. 198 no. 1053, 213 no. 1126, 218 no. 1150. Drury heard an inaccurate report that the divorce had passed by law in the Tolbooth, allowing Jane Gordon to remarry, but not Bothwell. He heard at the end of April that Jean Gordon now had doubts about the divorce and said she would "never say untruly of herself, but die with the name of the Lady Bothwell".Allan James Crosby, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 1566–8 (London, 1871), pp. 218 no. 1150.

Thomas Bishop's letter James Melville of Halhill mentioned an incident at Holyrood Palace in Mary's lodgings in the James V tower in his Memoir. Some doubt has been raised about his story by writers including Agnes Strickland. Melville wrote that he had received a letter which appeared to be from Thomas Bishop, an English servant of Darnley's parents. The letter denounced Bothwell for his faults and Mary's plan to marry him. He brought the letter to court and showed it to Mary. She showed it to William Maitland of Lethington, who thought that Bothwell would blame him. Bothwell was still having his dinner in a room below. Melville left the palace to avoid Bothwell's fury. Mary, according to Melville, was displeased that Bothwell was driving away her servants. Melville returned to Holyrood and discussed the letter, which was said not to be from Thomas Bishop after all. At this time, according to Melville, Mary declared that her marriage plan was not yet settled, "matters wer not that far agaitwart".Thomas Thomson, Memoirs of his own life by James Melville (Edinburgh, 1827), pp. 175–177.

At Stirling The Scottish lords who opposed the marriage are known as the Confederate Lords.Gordon Donaldson, All the Queen's men: Power and Politics in Mary Stewart's Scotland (Batsford, 1983), p. 81. These included John Erskine, Earl of Mar who was the keeper of Prince James at Stirling Castle. When Mary came to see James at Stirling on 21 April, Mar was able to limit her access by negotiation. Later, Mary's enemies said she had tried to poison her son at Stirling with a sugarloaf and an apple.Alexander Courtney, James VI, Britannic Prince: King of Scots and Elizabeth's Heir, 1566–1603 (Routledge, 2024), p. 14.

Dunbar

When Mary was returning to the Palace of Holyroodhouse on 24 April she was met by Bothwell to the west of Edinburgh near the River Almond at "Foulbriggis".John Parker Lawson, History of the Church of Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh, 1845), p. 570.Retha Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 153. Mary's party was about 30 horsemen, Bothwell had brought as many as 1,000 men led by Captain William Blackadder. It was said that Bothwell raised his force claiming he was going to capture thieves in far away Liddesdale, but waited at Hatton House instead. He took Mary against her will to Dunbar Castle. Mary was now attended by Bothwell's sister, Jean Hepburn, who had been Mary's sister-in-law, as the wife of John Stewart, Commendator of Coldingham, and by Margaret Beaton, Lady Rires.Retha Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), pp. 152–155: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 667 no. 1117: J. R. Findlay, "Notes on Hatton House", PSAS, 11 (1876), pp. 131–132. James Melville wrote that he was taken with Mary "betwen Lithco and Edenbrough" by Captain Blackadder, but remained only a day at Dunbar.Thomas Thomson, ed., Memoirs of His Own Life by James Melville of Halhill (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1827), pp. 177.