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 fluences, it was expected that he would become a catholic. But he remained steadfast in his outward adherence to protestantism. Notwithstanding the queen's express wish, he declined to permit the marriage ceremony to take place during mass in the chapel of Holyrood.

Bothwell's exceptional influence over the queen began after the murder of Rizzio (9 March 1566), which had been arranged by a conspiracy of protestant lords with Darnley's connivance. Bothwell was entirely ignorant of the plot. Having accompanied the queen to Edinburgh on 1 March for the opening of the parliament, he and his brother-in-law, Huntly, lodged in Holyrood Palace on the night of the murder. According to Knox, on ‘hearing the noise and clamour’ they came suddenly to the inner court ‘intending to have made work if they had a party strong enough’ (Works, ii. 521), but were commanded by Morton, a chief of the conspirators, who had seized the palace with a band of armed followers, to pass to their chambers. They obeyed, but shortly afterwards escaped by a back window, and went to Bothwell's house at Crichton (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 90). Mary was now a prisoner at Holyrood, in the hands of her husband and his associates. A plan was contrived by Bothwell and Huntly for her escape, but she found it unnecessary to take advantage of it after she had persuaded Darnley to abandon his allies and aid in her liberation. She and Darnley rode by midnight to Dunbar. There Bothwell and Huntly joined her, Bothwell bringing with him a formidable array of borderers. By her flight the tables had been completely turned on her opponents. Both she and Moray, the leader of the protestant lords, deemed it prudent to feign a reconciliation with each other. As a matter of course she had the best wishes of the catholics, but next to her own deftness and courage she was indebted to Bothwell's resolute support for the advantageous position in which she now found herself. From this time, therefore, their special friendship must be dated. Bothwell's position acquired more and more importance as the breach between Mary and Darnley widened. Knox states that Bothwell, soon after Rizzio's murder, ‘had now of all men greatest access and familiarity with the queen’ (Works, ii. 527); writing on 24 June to Cecil, Killigrew affirms that ‘Bothwell's credit with the queen is greater than all the rest together’ (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1566–8, entry 521); and on 27 July Bedford reports that Bothwell carries all credit at court, and is the most hated man in Scotland (ib. 601). As a special mark of the queen's favour, he obtained, in addition to part of the benefices of Melrose, Haddington, and Newbattle, the ancient fortress of Dunbar with the principal lands of the earldom of March. Previously Bothwell's power had, owing partly to his own extravagance, been seriously crippled by his poverty; but through the special gifts of the queen, he soon came to rank, both with regard to wealth and following, as the most powerful noble in the south of Scotland.

Bothwell manifested at this time a special grudge against Maitland of Lethington, whose talents as an intriguer he probably feared, and of whose influence with the queen he was in any case jealous. Maitland resolved to seek refuge in Flanders, but, hearing that Bothwell had taken means to capture him at sea, he went to Argyll (Killigrew to Cecil, 24 June, ib. 521). The Earls of Argyll and Moray at the queen's command also passed to Argyll, but after remaining there a month were sent for by the queen, and banquetted in the castle, Huntly and Bothwell being present (, ii. 527). This may have been done at Bothwell's instance, but a subsequent proposal to recall Maitland was decidedly distasteful to him. He is stated to have had high words with Moray on the subject (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1566–8, entry 650). Ultimately he permitted Maitland to be numbered for a short time among his friends. Bothwell's progress in the queen's favour was unmistakable. ‘Every man sought to him, where immediately favour was to be had, as before to David Rizzio’ (, ii. 535). Bothwell was ‘mair, as wes reported, familiare with the quenis majestie nor honestie requyrit’ (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 106). There are also several allusions of a similar tenor in the correspondence of the English agents with Cecil. The specific accusations, with place and circumstances, made by Buchanan, avowedly rest to a large extent on the inconclusive statements of Hubert, Bothwell's servant, and of George Dalgleish, his chamberlain; but Bothwell certainly had, in the words of Sir James Melville, ‘a mark of his own that he shot at,’ viz. Darnley's place.

When the queen was about to set out to hold justice ayres at Jedburgh in October, Bothwell, as her lieutenant, was sent forward to make the necessary preparations. On approaching the castle of Hermitage, in advance of his attendants, he was severely wounded in a wood by a notorious outlaw, John Elliot, alias John of Park, and was carried home in a cart for dead. On the 15th the queen rode there and back on the same day to visit him. He recovered rapidly, and by the 21st travelled to Jedburgh on a horse-litter (Foster to Cecil, 23 Oct., Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. entry