Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell

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.[1] 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.[2]

Carved monogram of Admiral Francis Stewart and Margaret Douglas, Crichton Castle

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, which position he had exchanged with John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane in place of 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 and many others in the sheriffdoms of Edinburgh, Roxburgh, Lanark, Dumfries, and Berwick, and the Stewartries of Annandale and Kirkcudbright.[3]

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.[4]

Francis was 'belted' as earl Bothwell by his cousin, James VI, in the Great Hall of Stirling Castle on 27 November 1577, in the presence of his guardian, James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, four days before his marriage to Margaret Douglas, formerly Lady Buccleuch and daughter of the Earl of Angus in Holyrood Abbey.[5] Francis studied at the University of St Andrews before travelling in 1578 to the Universities of Paris and Rouen (and, possibly, also in Italy). Recalled to Scotland by the king, he landed at Newhaven in June 1582.

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. At Linlithgow, Bothwell played football with the Earl Marischal. Bothwell knocked him over, then he 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.[6]

Bothwell quarreled with David Home of Manderston at Linlithgow Palace in November 1583.[7] He killed him in 1584, and 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.[8] He also fought with Alexander Home, Prior of Coldingham, and his brother in the Canongate near Holyrood Palace in November 1583.[9]

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 conclude a military alliance pact 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".[10]

The following year Bothwell and other nobles felt that the beheading of James VI's mother Queen Mary, should result in 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.

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 or any of his servants who came near him.[11] 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.[12]

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.[13]

Bothwell was formally attainted by Act of Parliament, dated 21 July 1593. 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. It was said that Bothwell hid behind the tapestry or hangings until the best moment. Soon numerous Bothwell supporters also entered the room. The Provost of Edinburgh, Alexander Home of North Berwick came to the palace to help, but the king said things were fine.[25] The king accepted Bothwell's protestations of loyalty and an agreement for his pardon was reached.[26] (It received the Royal, and other signatures on 14 August). So, just five days after his forfeiture, Bothwell and his accomplices received a blanket Act of Remission and Condonation.

Bothwell rode to Durham on 2 August 1593, meeting Sir William Reed at Berwick-upon-Tweed on the way. He spoke to the Dean of Durham, Tobias Matthew, and described his recent adventure in Holyrood House. He said he had 1,000 soldiers in his pay in Edinburgh.[27]

On Friday, 10 August, a formal trial (described by Spottiswoode as "a farce") of Bothwell was entered into on the old witchcraft charges in order to deal with them once and for all. The depositions of the Ritchie Graham were read out, that he advised Bothwell to poison the king, or burn his effigy in wax, or enchant the king to stay in Denmark in 1590. Bothwell made speeches and other argument on his own behalf, and blamed his enemies Sir George Home and Sir John Carmichael. He was acquitted.[28] 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.[29] Bothwell conveyed the queen, Anne of Denmark, to Falkland the next day, and he gave the king two English horses and a dozen hounds.[30]

The King, however, was not yet finished, and when the Convention of Estates met at Stirling on 7 September he conspired with those opposed to Bothwell to recall his pardon and Royal messengers went to meet Bothwell on the 11th, at Linlithgow, with the news that the king proposed to modify his blanket pardon, and added a condition that Bothwell would have to go into exile. He went first to Crichton, then to Jedburgh.[31]

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. It is not clear whether Bothwell was with them. However a warrant was issued against Bothwell, and others, on 11 October. Failing to appear they were denounced rebels on the 25th. Bothwell had gone to Carlisle Castle and was received by Thomas Scrope.[32]

The Privy Council issued a Proclamation for a muster at Stirling for the pursuit of Bothwell on 2 April 1594, following a collision between the King's forces and Bothwell's in the fields between Edinburgh and Leith, near Arthur's Seat, called in some books The Raid of Leith. There was not much bloodshed, the king remaining at the Burgh Muir, with Bothwell retiring to Dalkeith en route again to the Scottish Borders. Many thought had Bothwell pressed home he would have been the victor and had a warm welcome from the citizens of Edinburgh, as his Protestant cause was gaining popularity.

In April 1594 James VI sent Edward Bruce and James Colville of Easter Wemyss to London to complain about "secret intelligence" which had passed between the ambassador Lord Zouche and the rebel Earl of Bothwell. James VI wrote to the Earl of Essex asking for his support.[33]

In May 1594 Bothwell was in Northumberland and he heard that Jacob Kroger had stolen jewels from Anne of Denmark. 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.[34] The Bailiff of Shields preventing him taking Kroger and his companion Guillaume Martyn back to Scotland.[35] Bothwell seems to have spent some time in Scotland, at Hermitage Castle in these months. 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.[36] In August Joachim von Bassewitz, the ambassador of the Duke of Mecklenburg, (who was Anne of Denmark's grandfather), offered to speak with the English ambassador Robert Bowes on Bothwell's behalf, but Bowes declined.[37]

As a result of his poverty and lack of support, Bothwell had no option left to him but to change religious sides. 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 proceeded north against them. The confederacy collapsed and Huntly and Errol agreed to go abroad.

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.[38] Hercules supported his brother, but was captured, along with another person, by John Colville and William Hume, who promised them their lives. However, they were hanged "in spite of much popular sympathy, at the Market Place of Edinburgh."[39]

Till April 1595 Bothwell continued to lurk about Caithness and Orkney but eventually embarked for France landing at Newhaven in Normandy. On 6 May 1595 Thomas Edmondes reported that he was in Paris and had reported himself to the king, Henry IV seeking help.[40] 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. After several months Bothwell left for Spain. Between 1598 and 1600 it was rumoured he visited London from Gravelines or Dieppe. James VI heard he was in London with John Colville in August 1598 but did not believe it. Walter Raleigh advised Robert Cecil that Elizabeth should detain Bothwell. Raleigh wrote that Bothwell "will ever be the canker of her estate and safety."[41]

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.[42] In June 1602 there was a rumour that Sir George Home and Sir Thomas Erskine wanted to recall him to Scotland to strengthen their faction, and that one of the Bothwell's daughters, who was "a very gallant lady", would marry the young Earl of Morton. These rumours or plans came to nothing.[43] In July 1602 a marriage was contracted for Anna Home, the daughter of Sir George Home, and Sir James Home of Whitrig, Bothwell's nephew, and again it was thought that Bothwell himself might be restored.[44]

Bothwell lived in poverty in Naples where he died in November 1612. The English ambassador in Venice, 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. The Spanish Viceroy of Naples, Pedro Fernández de Castro y Andrade arranged a lavish funeral for the Scottish earl.[45]

Arms of Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell

On 1 December 1577, Francis, Earl Bothwell married Margaret Douglas (d. 1640), daughter of David Douglas, 7th Earl of Angus, and widow of Sir Walter Scott of Branxholme & Buccleuch (d. 1574). Initially, after a brief honeymoon, the new earl was not permitted to come within twenty miles of his new wife 'for reassone of his youngnes'.[46]

James VI made a proclamation against Margaret Douglas for her support of her husband in November 1592. She was said to be "a griter mellair", to have had more involvement in her husband's treasons, "than became a woman".[47]

They had at least four sons and four daughters:

• Francis Stewart, Lord Bothwell and Commendator of Kelso Abbey (b. 1584). His baptism was celebrated by a banquet in Edinburgh, attended by James VI.[48] After his father's death, in spite of the attainder, he was occasionally styled 'Earl Bothwell', and Lord Stewart and Bothwell. Upon his marriage to Isobel Seton, daughter of the Earl of Winton, he obtained a rehabilitation under the Great Seal of Scotland, 30 July 1614, but reserving the rights of those who had been granted his father's forfeited lands. (The rehabilitation was not formally ratified by Parliament until 1633). In 1630 he was 'absent from the country'. He finally obtained recovery, by decreet arbitral of Charles I, of part of the family estates, which he then sold to the Winton family. He lived in straitened circumstances, in 1637 petitioning King Charles 1st to be made Printer to the King in Ireland for 51 years. When he died his Testament-Dative was given in by his creditors at Edinburgh on 21 April 1640. His eldest son, generally called Charles (b. 1617), fought in the Civil War, but is said to have died in England after the Battle of Worcester in 1651,[49] and on 26 November 1656, his brother Robert was cited as the heir to their father's debts when the barony of Coldingham was acquired by the Home of Renton family.[50] He appears to have died without issue, and their unmarried sister was regarded as the last of the line.[51][52]
• John (2nd son), the last Commendator of Coldingham Priory and 1st secular feudal Baron of Coldingham. On 16 June 1622 he transferred the barony to his elder brother, Francis. John was still living in April 1636, and apparently into the 1650s, when he is mentioned by Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet in The Staggering State of the Scottish Statesman.[53] but he seems to have been dead by 1656, when a grandson named Francis was described as his heir in the transaction at Coldingham mentioned above.[54] John Stewart had a daughter Margaret who married Sir John Home, Lord Renton, who was the actual beneficiary of the transaction; their descendants are described as the heirs-general of the Earls of Bothwell.[55][56] John Stewart of Coldingham is also identified as the father of Francis Stewart of Coldingham, "grandson of the Earl of Bothwell", who became a trooper in the Scottish Life Guards after the Restoration, gained a captain's commission in the Scots Greys, and commanded the left wing at the Battle of Bothwell Brig in 1679, and died around 1683.[55][57][58] There seems little evidence to confirm this identification, however, and it is possible that this was the cavalryman son of the titular 6th Earl, who is called "Francis" by Scott of Scotstarvet.[53]
• Frederick, (3rd son) (b. 1594) mentioned in the Privy Council Registers in 1612 (vol. ix, p. 498).
• Henry (Harry), (4th son) (b. 1594?) signed many documents with his elder brothers, and who, in 1627, consented to a lease. Possibly twin with Frederick.
• Elizabeth (b. 1590) (eldest daughter) was baptised at Holyroodhouse on 1 March 1590. The English diplomat Robert Bowes gave a gift of a silver ewer and basin worth £100, made in Edinburgh by the silversmith Thomas Foulis, and Bowes also gave rewards to the nurse, midwives, musicians and servants in Bothwell's household. Bowes asked Francis Walsingham to make arrangements for credit in London for these diplomatic gifts. Elizabeth Stewart wife of James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray was witness for Queen Elizabeth.[59] In July 1602 it was rumoured she would marry the "young Earl of Morton".[60] She married James, Master of Cranstoun (appears to have been banished in 1610); they were the parents of William Cranstoun, 3rd Lord Cranstoun.[55][61]
• Helen, married John Macfarlane of that Ilk.
• Jean (d. after 1624) married Robert Elliot of Redheugh.
• Margaret, married Alan Cathcart, 5th Lord Cathcart, a son of Alan Cathcart, 4th Lord Cathcart (1537-1618).

Francis Stewart is depicted as a major character in the plays Jamie the Saxt (1936) by Robert McLellan, and The Burning (1971) by Stewart Conn. Both plays deal with the period of his conflict, as outlaw and rebel, with King James VI in the early 1590s.

• The Peerage of Scotland, &c., published by Peter Brown, Edinburgh, 1834, p. 174.
• The Royal Families of England Scotland and Wales, with their descendants etc., by John and John Bernard Burke, London, 1848, volume 1, pedigree CXXXIX.
• The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, edited by David Masson, LL.D., vols. IV & V, 1585–1592, 1592–1599, Edinburgh, 1881/1882, see index for two columns of Bothwell references in both editions.
• Scottish Kings, a Revised Chronology of Scottish History, 1005 - 1625 by Sir Archibald H. Dunbar, Bart., Edinburgh, 1899, p. 239.
• The Scots' Peerage by Sir James Balfour Paul, Edinburgh, 1905, vol. ii, pp. 169–171.