Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell
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.
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.
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.
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.
These included; Hailes, Yester, Dunsyre, Morham, Crichton, Wilton, Bothwell and many others in the sheriffdoms of Edinburgh, Roxburgh, Lanark, Dumfries, and Berwick, and the Stewartries of Annandale and Kirkcudbright.
On 29 May 1583, the King, against the advice of Gowrie and the other Lords of the 'Ruthven Raid', 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.
[7] 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.
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.
[10] 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.
[12] 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.
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.
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.
[18] An English observer wrote of rumours that Bothwell had practiced with witches in some unlawful matter between him and Anne of Denmark, which had made him odious to the king.
[23] Reports of Bothwell at Morham, his mother's tower house, and Coldingham resulted in the king leading a party from Holyroodhouse on 13 January 1592 to apprehend him.
When the Parliament of Scotland met on 5 June 1592 for the first time after nearly five years and the Privy Council was reconstituted, a proclamation was issued denuding Bothwell of honours, titles and lands.
The English border reiver Richie Graham of Brackenhill and his companions sacked the Falkland town, taking horses, clothing and money.
[24] On 29 and 30 June proclamations were issued for Bothwell's pursuit and the arrest of his accomplices, including James Scott of Balwearie, Martine of Cardone, and Lumsden of Airdrie.
On 13 July 1592, a new warrant was issued against Bothwell's supporters in the Borders, including Walter Scott of Harden and Dryhope and John Pennycuik of that Ilk.
He complained that Bothwell had been seen in public at a race meeting at Carter Moor near Ponteland, boasting of receiving financial support from Elizabeth, and was known to have stayed with William Fenwick at Wallington.
However, on Tuesday, 24 July, the Earl, helped by Marie Ruthven, Countess of Atholl, smuggled himself into Holyroodhouse and forced himself at last into the king's presence, in his bedchamber.
[29] The English ambassador Robert Bowes described how on 15 August 1593 James VI and the Earl of Bothwell enjoyed a particularly Scottish form of banquet involving "small provisions of delicates having spice [sweet]meat and wines, of no great matter or value" at the Shore of Leith before the king embarked in a ferry boat for Kinghorn and Falkland Palace.
[30] Bothwell conveyed the queen, Anne of Denmark, to Falkland the next day, and he gave the king two English horses and a dozen hounds.
[32] It was thought at first that Bothwell had not taken this badly and would comply, but feeling betrayed he soon returned to his old ways and in the first days of October his partisans, the Earls of Atholl, Montrose, and Gowrie, had been seen in arms in the vicinity of Linlithgow.
Bothwell found Kroger at Edward Delaval's house near North Shields and took some of the jewels, hoping to use them to bargain his way back into the king's favour.
In July, John Carey, an English officer at Berwick, heard that Bothwell had entered into a truce, arranged by Anne of Denmark's intercession, until after the baptism of Prince Henry.
A new Privy Council proclamation against him, dated 30 September 1594, states that he had "thrown off the cloik of religioun" (meaning Presbyterianism) and openly allied himself in a new confederacy against the king with the Roman Catholic Lords Huntly, Angus, Errol, and others.
The king's pardon being revoked, another formal sentence of treason was proclaimed against Bothwell on 18 February 1595, the day of the execution of his half-brother, Hercules Stewart.
[41] James VI upon hearing this sent a special messenger to Henry IV asking for Bothwell to be banished from France, but the request was declined.
"[42] In February 1602, a rumour circulated that he had left Spain for the Low Countries and was trying to bribe Colonel Edmond or Captain William Brog (who were said to be rivals in emulation), with their Scottish soldiers, to join the Spanish service.
The English ambassador in Venice, Sir Dudley Carleton, reported that Bothwell died at Naples after hearing news of the death of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, whom he had hoped would restore his fortune.
