They advanced alone, and, though cordially received by the king, were commanded to return home (ib. iii. 715). Nevertheless, Bothwell still retained the royal favour. James was as yet ignorant of his connection with the Ruthven raid. On 28 Nov. a serious brawl occurred between Bothwell and Lord Home [see Home, Alexander, first Earl of Home, d. 1619] in the streets of Edinburgh, and the same evening, ‘after the king had been hanging about his neck’ (ib. iii. 759), he was ordered into ward in the palace of Linlithgow. But this order was countermanded, and he was directed to return to his own house, from which the king sent for him and upbraided him for his connection with the Ruthven raid. Bothwell and the king were never again on the old cordial terms; but in any case Bothwell's position must have been insecure so long as the king was under Arran's influence.
Bothwell was a strenuous supporter of the conspiracy devised by the Master of Gray [see Gray, Patrick, seventh Lord Gray] for the overthrow of Arran in 1585. The dispute between him and Lord Home had been settled by both coming under an obligation in 10,000l. to keep the peace towards each other (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iii. 616, 634), and now the two co-operated in fortifying Kelso, which formed a temporary asylum for the banished lords on their arrival from England (Hist. James Sext, p. 214). It was thence that the insurgents marched suddenly towards Stirling. On their nearing the city Arran fled, and Bothwell was nominally restored to favour. He was one of the commissioners appointed on 19 June of the following year to conclude an offensive and defensive league with England; but on learning the news of the execution of Queen Mary in England (February 1587), he urged the king to undertake an invasion of England to avenge her death. He refused to put on mourning, declaring that the best ‘dule weed’ was a steel coat. Irritated against the Master of Gray on account of his unsuccessful embassy in Mary's behalf, he sided with Sir William Stewart against him, declaring Gray's accusations against Stewart to be false. As the brother of Arran, Sir William was, however, almost necessarily hostile to Bothwell. On 10 July 1588 they had a violent controversy in the king's presence at Holyrood (see Calderwood, iv. 680). On the 30th they met each other with their companies in the High Street, when Stewart, after being stabbed by Bothwell with a rapier, was pursued by Bothwell's followers into a hollow cellar, and there despatched. Stewart's relationship with Arran made him unpopular with the nobles in power, and no notice was taken of the outrage by the king and council. On the following day Bothwell, as lord high admiral, was entrusted with the duty of taking measures to resist the threatened arrival of the Spanish Armada in Scotland. He performed the duty very unwillingly. He had advocated that instead of offering resistance to the Spaniards, advantage should be taken of their arrival to invade England, and avenge the death of the queen. The popish lords, availing themselves of his animosity against England, induced him to join the conspiracy for persuading the king of Spain to despatch a second armada against Elizabeth. To aid the scheme he raised a large force, ostensibly for an expedition to the North Isles, but in reality to co-operate with the Spaniards. He was present with the king when the intercepted letters inculpating Huntly and Errol in the conspiracy were opened. The growth of the influence of the chancellor Maitland, who was now installed as the king's chief favourite, increased his discontent with his position at court. He joined Huntly and Errol, and raised a force to create a diversion during their rising in the north. The rebellion collapsed almost as soon as the king took the field. Two ministers of the kirk, Robert Hepburn and Robert Lindsay (Moysie, Memoirs, p. 76), interceded with the king for Bothwell, and promised to ‘bring him in’ on condition that his ‘life, lands, and goods were saved.’ To this the king agreed, but placed Bothwell under the charge of the captain of the guard. On 20 May 1589 he was examined before a committee of the council, when he denied that he ever intended ‘any practice against the king or religion,’ asserting that his sole reason for collecting a force was a private quarrel between him and the chancellor Maitland (Calderwood, v. 57). He was placed in ward in Tantallon Castle, but with other nobles obtained his release in September ‘to attend upon the arriving of the queen’ from Denmark. The vessels conveying the queen were driven by a storm on the coast of Norway, whereupon the king at first proposed to send Bothwell, as lord high admiral, to bring her home at his own expense. He subsequently resolved, on the ground that Bothwell had already been put to great expense in connection with the marriage, to make the voyage himself (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iv. 428).
During the king's absence Bothwell was appointed to assist the Duke of Lennox as president of the privy council (ib. p. 425)—a position which did not satisfy his aim of obtaining supreme influence with the king. It was to the kirk's intercession that Bothwell
