Elizabeth I of England
You will remember that Bothwell was imprisoned at Berwick by the English under Randolph’s instruction. In addition, William Cecil had not forgotten the way Bothwell had thwarted his plans in October 1559 by ambushing the money England was sending to support the Congregation rebels.
Bothwell protested his innocence to Elizabeth I herself, via the Earl of Northumberland. He had no wish to be returned to imprisonment in Scotland, and asked to be allowed to remain in England.
Randolph, meanwhile, took great pleasure in telling Mary what he had done, and asking her wishes. She refused to reply (obviously no-one was around at the time to tell her what to think) and hurried off to attend a wedding.
Annoyed at this, Randolph got together with Lord James Stewart and Lethington and between them they came up with a plan. If Bothwell returned to Scotland, the best they could hope for was imprisonment, and Mary would have him released as soon as she needed him for something. So Lord James wrote to Cecil asking that he keep Bothwell imprisoned in England.
Randolph still had to receive an answer from Mary, and she eventually bade him to write to Elizabeth and ask for his return. He followed the advice of Lord James and ignored her.
Randolph to Cecil, 22nd January 1563[Mary told Randolph]"I take it in good part that the Queen my good sister’s officers for good will towards me, have apprehended the Lord Bothwell, who hath over greatly failed towards me; wherefore I pray you write unto the Queen your mistress that I do desire that he may be sent hither again into Scotland, so shall the pleasure be great and I will with glad will requite the same."
[Randolph continues] One thing I must not omit - I know him as mortal an enemy to our whole nation as any man alive, despiteful out of measure, false and untrue as a devil. If his power had been [equal] to the will he hath, neither the Queen’s Majesty had stood in so good terms of amity with this Queen as she doth, nor minister left alive that should be a travailer between their Majesties for the continuance of the same. If I had made any account of his threatenings, or could have doubted his malice, your Honour had heard before this time what just occasion I have had only to esteem him as here I report him to be, but also to seek that revenge which justly I ought to seek of an enemy to my country, a blasphemous and an irreverent speaker both of his own sovereign and the Queen’s Majesty my mistress, and one that the godly of this whole nation hath a cause to curse for ever, that by that thievish act that he committed against the Laird of Ormiston, adventured the loss of the chief nobility of this realm. You will pardon me thus angrily to write; it is much less than I think or have good cause, or he should find if my power were [equal] to the mind I bear to all of his sort. [1]
So it turned out that both Bothwell and his enemies were struggling towards the same end.
There was still no real reason for Bothwell to be imprisoned in England - despite all their investigations, no evidence of guilt of any crime could be found by the English. However, he was moved to Sir Henry Percy’s Castle of Tynemouth until the Privy Council decided what to do with him. Within three weeks Percy was writing to Cecil on Bothwell’s behalf, astutely realising that Bothwell was not the man his enemies painted him. This letter reached Elizabeth, and she ordered that he be allowed increased freedom.
He was then able to learn that the Duke of Guise, whose patronage he had been seeking when he was run aground, had been assassinated.
Even worse news was that Anna Throndsen had applied for and been granted a passport to Scotland. She had permission to dwell in Scotland for as long as she liked, and to leave and re-enter as she wished.
On 18th March 1563 Elizabeth sent orders for Bothwell to be brought to London, where he was escorted to the Tower, for reasons that are not readily apparent. On June 3rd he was released on parole.
Bothwell was penniless, mortgaged to the hilt, and unable to borrow money. His freedoms were curtailed - he was not allowed to leave England and could stay only in approved lodgings. Anna Thronsen, meanwhile, had applied for a passport back to Norway. Once there, she was good enough to send him something described as 'a Portugal piece for a token'. Bet that made him feel better. Plague was ravaging London and he was glad to be offered quarters at Henry Percy’s Castle of Norham in the Borders. From there he moved to Alnwick Castle and met Randolph, who was passing through. But the meeting did him little good, although he kept his temper throughout in the hope that it would.
Return to Scotland looked even less attractive when Bothwell learned that Lord John Stewart, his brother-in-law and Mary’s half-brother, had died. A second death, of the Captain of the Scottish Archers in the French court, seemed to offer the perfect opportunity of escape, especially since the post lay in Mary’s hands. Randolph was quite happy to see Bothwell out of the British Isles, and so Elizabeth was petitioned from many quarters to this end.
At the same time, wild rumours (or were they just rumours) were abounding that Mary had secretly met with Bothwell, probably at Coldinghame, and that he was part of her plans to restore Catholicism to Scotland. Evidence has now been presented on the BBCs ‘Timewatch’ programme to show that Bothwell certainly did meet up with the Queen at Dunbar in 1562 and 1563.
In any event, in March 1664, Bothwell left Alnwick via Tynemouth to await Elizabeth’s permission to sail. He then dissapears until 12th September. Whatever he was doing, it must have been highly secret to have remained so.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, was far more concerned with procuring a husband for Mary. Negotiations had been ongoing for two years. She was determined Mary should not marry a foreigner - she needed a weak and divided Scotland as a neighbour, not a country with powerful allies. Mary wanted to secure a marriage acceptable to Elizabeth, in return for recognition of her right to succeed to the English throne on Elizabeth’s death. Henry Darnley, a Lennox-Stewart with a claim to the English throne, and Robert Dudley, Elizabeth’s own paramour, were the current favourites.
Melville wrote that Darnley ‘more resembled a woman than a man, for he was handsome, beardless and lady-faced’. Sounds fair to me, he’s no great shakes in the looks department, whatever that deluded Antonia Fraser says. In addition, he was a spoilt brainless brat. Still, despite her advisers warning her that Elizabeth was trying to corner her into a demeaning marriage, Mary fell for him. Possibly because he was the only man she’d ever met who was taller than her. More likely because he fell ill and she nursed him. Shame she didn’t realise that though he recovered, he was still sick.
Bothwell was happy enough with Mary’s choice - his name is listed as a supporter of Lennox, and he may even have been actively assisting the match whilst he was 'disappeared'. He was happier to finally meet Elizabeth on 12th September and be given permission to cross the channel to France.
[1] Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots Vol I. Ed. Joseph Bain (HM General Register House, Edinburgh, 1898)