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Mary, Bothwell and Darnley

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS (1542-1587).
Fine Letter Signed to the Earl of Bothwell, 1 page large folio, no place, 15 August 1566.
Commanding James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, in his capacity as sheriff of Berwick, Haddington and Edinburgh and baillie of Lauderdale, to search out and apprehend a band of eight named rebels living on the land of Sir William Livingston of Kilsyth at Dernchester. The letter reports that the rebels have burnt Sir William's corn and pursued his wife and servants with the intention of killing them, and urges Bothwell to employ men to bring them speedily to justice.
 A remarkably interesting document, linking the names of Mary, her consort Henry Stewart, Earl of Darnley, and her lover and Darnley's future murderer, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. Sir William Livingston of Kilsyth was one of fourteen Scotsmen knighted by Darnley on 15 May 1565, on the occasion when he himself, two months before his marriage to Mary, was created a knight, baron, baronet, and 'beltit' Earl of Ross. Although a Protestant, who refused to obey Mary's order of February 1566 that her principal followers should all attend Mass, Livingston was one of Mary's most loyal supporters against the rebels. At the time of the murder of David Rizzio, her Catholic adviser, in March 1566, Livingston was one of a small band of her friends who escaped with their lives. The lawlessness perpetrated against his household by the eight rebels may therefore have been political in origin, although the general disregard for law and order during the tempestuous eighteen months of Mary's marriage to Darnley must also have encouraged a certain amount of casual looting and violence for their own sakes.
 Beginning 'Henry and Mary be ye Grace of God king and quene of Scottis', but signed only by Mary as 'Marie R fiat', the document illustrates the ambiguous position of the royal couple, two months after the birth of their son Prince James and on the verge of the final estrangement which would lead six months later to Darnley's murder. Having initially, in November 1565, four months after their marriage, indicated that she would like Darnley to be allowed the title of King of Scotland, Mary later changed her mind when he failed to conform with her campaign to reconvert Scotland into a Catholic country. By then, however, she appears to have been too late. Despite continuing squabbles about whether or not Darnley should be allowed the 'crown matrimonial', he was referred to as King of Scotland for most of the year which led up to his murder in February 1567. In mid-August 1566, when this letter was issued (undated with any place-name), the couple were travelling about Scotland, mainly apart. Secretarial convention would have called for Darnley's name to appear at the beginning of the letter; but by that time he had ceased, effectively, to be an integral part of Mary's household.
'... And gif condigne punissment be not execute there It will give boldness & occasion to sik wicket personis to com[m]it ye like co[n]tempt & tressonable deid To ye greit inquietatioun and hurt of o[u]r com[m]one weill & obedient subjects. We will it theirfore and we charge zow straitle & com[m]andis y[i]t ... in o[u]r name & autorite serche seek apprehend & tak o[u]r saide rebellis & ilkame of yame whair ever yai may be apprenhendit by yis syde of forth. ...'

[No: 0181]


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