the Court of France the 24th of November, 1575, reports him to be dead in that year, while others have stated that he died in 1576, and this seems to have been the opinion of Queen Mary herself. The best authorities, however, Danish[1] as well as Scottish, appear to establish it as a fact that Bothwell died on the 14th of April, 1578, at the Castle of Drachsholm, and that his remains were consigned to a vault in the parish church of Faareveile. It seems, too, that the Danish government, wearied by the Scottish and English demands on the one hand, and the French entreaties on the other, willingly permitted the report to be spread abroad that Bothwell died in 1575: this would put an end to a course of diplomacy which was beginning to run unsmoothly, and the Danish government had it in its power to keep him so closely confined at Drachsholm that he might, as regarded foreign powers, be the same as dead to all intents and purposes.
"For an analogous reason some doubt may be entertained, although Dantzay's veracity is entirely unimpeachable, whether Bothwell was harshly treated after his removal to Drachsholm; but such a report would in some measure be agreeable and conciliatory to the Scottish government, which had repeatedly complained of the too great lenity shewn to him at Malmo. The chief object of his removal to Drachsholm seems to have been that of more certain seclusion.
"With respect to the great discrepancies regarding the date of Bothwell's death, it is proper to observe that they may partly arise from a contemporary Danish Memorandum Book[2] of some authority and often referred to, in which we find the following notes: 'In the year 1575, the 14th of April, died John, the chaplain of Drachsholm, and was buried in the church of Faareveile, near Drachsholm.' 'In the year 1578, the 14th of April, died the Scottish earl at Drachsholm, and was buried in the same church. His name was James Hephune (sic, Hepburn is meant), Earl of Bothwell.' Here, it should be observed, that these notices or memoranda are arranged according to the days of the month, not according to the years: and thus, events which occur on the same day, although in different years, are placed in juxta-position."
In the hope, therefore, of seeing with my own eyes the coffin and the remains of this notorious earl, I made an excursion to the north-west part of this island in the summer of 1857, and bent my steps to Faareveile Church, prettily situated
- ↑ "Kong Frederik den Andens Kröniere samlet og sammenskrevet af adskillige Codicibus MSS. fra 1559 til 1588, af Peder Hansón Resen." 1680. The passage may be thus translated: "At the same time also died the Scottish Earl Bothwell after a long imprisonment at Dragsholm, and was buried at Faareveile."
- ↑ "Magazin til den Danske Adels Historie udgivet af Det Kongelige Danske Selskab for Fædrelandets Historie og Sprog." 1824. This work is the commencement of the publication of a Manuscript in the collection or library of Karen Brahe at the Nunnery (Fröhenkloster) at Odense, the chief town of the island of Fyen, and contains only the entries relating to the months January to April.
