Mary and Bothwell
Following Riccio's murder, Bothwell was rewarded with the Governorship of Dunbar Castle and a grant of lands. Mary cancelled some of his monetary debts to her and he also regained Haddington Abbey from Maitland, who was now in disgrace. More importantly, he had now achieved an envied position as Mary's chief advisor:
"The Earl of Bothwell had now of all men greatest access and familiarity with the Queen, so that nothing of importance was done without him"
The actions of the Privy Council at this time therefore show his influence and his methods of government. These include a Currency Act preventing the importing of counterfeit money from Flanders; two Game laws preventing the shooting of deer and restricting fishing in Highland Lochs; measures to discourage piracy; and limits upon Royal pardons and grants. Courts of Justice would be held on each royal progress.
But by 21st April Moray and Argyll were back in Mary's circle, and next thing you know, there she is trying to get Bothwell and Huntly to be bosom buddies with them by throwing a banquet in their honour. She may have issued a proclamation announcing her success in reconciling the enemies, but there's no way Bothwell and Moray would let go of a mutual hatred so easily.
If there was one man who resented Moray more than Bothwell, it was the King. Bothwell and Darnley teamed up in an attempt to get George Douglas the Postulate pardoned. The plan was that he would then denounce Moray and Maitland as the real authors of the assassination of Riccio. But for once Mary and Elizabeth were working towards the same ends. Mary had no desire to either pardon Douglas or have Moray discredited. Elizabeth was loath to lose Moray's vital intelligence from Scotland, and when she heard of the plan she had George Douglas put under guard. Another potential ally, William Kerr, Abbot of Kelso, was brutally killed on Moray's orders, his head and arms chopped off.
Moray was now quietly rallying Bothwell's adversaries on the Border. He had the co-operation of the Cessford Kerrs, Buccleugh's Scotts, Lord Home, Bothwell's hereditary enemies the Elliots, and the man for whom he had secured a pardon following the Chaseabout Raids, the ungrateful Lord Herries. Bothwell believed that Moray was planning a coup during the Mary's confinement, but she refused to take this idea seriously.
So Bothwell arranged a Royal Progress, with a Court of Justice at Jedburgh. All the nobility, freeholders and landed men were summoned to appear at Peebles on 13th August, to ride to Jedburgh with the royal party.
Meanwhile, Mary went into confinement at Edinburgh Castle. She passed the time by making her will, leaving all her belongings to her unborn child. In the event of both their deaths, she left most of her assets to her husband. Bothwell was to receive a table-cut diamond enamelled in black and a figure of a mermaid set in diamonds with a diamond mirror and ruby comb in her hand.This sounds a bit suggestive to me... Additionally she bequeathed an emerald ring enamelled in white and a jewel containing twenty-one diamonds to Joseph Riccio, each to be given to an un-named recipient.
Bothwell and Huntly were refused lodgings at the Castle, probably because Moray and Argyll were being allowed to lodge there. The King was theoretically at the Castle, but according to Nau ‘vagabondised every night’. Whatever his doings, it’s unlikely that Mary and Bothwell’s ‘affair’ began at this time, as suggested by Darnley’s dimwitted dad, Lennox. Not that he’d have had much experience of being heavily pregnant, but Mary was under the supervision of her husband and half-brother, and her supposed lover was lodging elsewhere. No whiff of Royal scandal emerged at the time - and Bothwell was busy elsewhere.
Bothwell’s marriage seems to have remained an unhappy one. His wife Jean’s previous suitor, Angus Ogilvie, had recently married Mary Beton, and Jean had taken to wearing mourning for her lost love, even in front of her husband.
After the Riccio episode Bothwell and Jean had moved from Seton to Crichton, and on the 17th of May on to Haddington Abbey. It is there that Bothwell began his affair with his wife’s sewing maid, Bessie Crawford. She was the daughter of the local blacksmith, dark-eyed and dark-haired. The details of the affair didn’t stay secret from Jean for long, and it was probably to make amends that Bothwell gave her the lands, houses and Castle of Nether Hailes for her lifetime, signing them over on 11th June 1566.
This seemed to bring about peace between them, and friends and acquaintances later testified that they lived happily enough together.
On 19th June 1566, Mary gave birth to a baby boy, sneering to Darnley, ‘God has given you and me a son, begotten by none but you.....he is so much your own son I fear it will be the worse for him hereafter.’
Five weeks later the Queen and Prince moved on by sea to Alloa, conveyed by Bothwell’s associate, William Blackadder, and his crew. And yes, he had a brother named Edmund, but that’s another story.....
George Buchanan paints this as being a visit filled with debauchery, which is strange since Bothwell didn’t go with the Queen. This leaves the Earls of Moray and Mar as Mary’s partners in ‘unprincely licentiousness’, though obviously they let Maitland and the French Ambassador join in when they arrived for their audiences. Yeah, right.
In fact, far from Mary going astray at this time, the royal couple were as close as they had been since Riccio's murder. Darnley joined the Queen, Bothwell, Moray and Mar on a hunt in Mid August, and Mary gave Darnley a new bed (ooh-er missus).
That's not to say that relations between them were good, since Darnley was complaining to his father about the way Mary treated him, and Mary was appalled at his behaviour at Traquair Castle, when he embarrassed her in front of the assembled guests. Even before James' birth, Mary was rumoured to be looking into the possibility of divorce. Mary may even have feared some plot against her, since she suddenly decided to move James from Edinburgh.
Bothwell escorted Prince James to Stirling, where the baby was placed into the care of the Earl of Mar, the traditional guardian of the heir to the throne. Mary and Darnley joined James after a hunting trip and a visit to Drummond Castle. The 'peace' between them was not to last for long.