Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell - Military Affairs

Military Affairs

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, and thence to Falkland Palace. 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.

The following year Bothwell and other nobles felt that the beheading of his mother Queen Mary, should result in an invasion of England, a course of action the king disagreed with. He was warded for a time in Edinburgh Castle for his activities in trying to advance this course of action.

On 10 May 1587, during the usual faction-fighting, 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.