force to Dunbar, he was declaring to the world that that consent had not been obtained. Moreover, the catholic nobles could now be appealed to for help in delivering their sovereign from one who, after murdering the king, had captured the queen, and virtually usurped the royal authority. A secret council was therefore formed, consisting of catholic as well as protestant noblemen, to ‘seek the liberty of the Queen, to preserve the life of the Prince, and to pursue them that murdered the King.’ Since the queen expressed her readiness to be in Bothwell's custody, and since Elizabeth, to whom they had applied for help, deprecated force, no effort was made to prevent the marriage. But on 1 June 1567 the nobles resolved to capture Bothwell and the queen at Holyrood. Their purpose, however, became known, and Bothwell and the queen instantly fled to Borthwick Castle. It was surrounded by Morton and Lord Home, but Bothwell made his escape by a postern gate, and went to Dunbar. The queen disdainfully refused to return to Edinburgh, and as the nobles did not dare to effect her capture, she some days afterwards joined Bothwell. After collecting a powerful force—a considerable proportion of which was composed of Bothwell's dependents—Bothwell and the queen marched on Edinburgh. They were met by the lords at Carberry Hill, but both parties apparently preferred to negotiate rather than to fight. The queen expected reinforcements, but by engaging in negotiations she virtually lost her cause. Though many were thoroughly loyal to her, the enthusiasm for Bothwell, even among his own followers, was very lukewarm. Du Croc, the French ambassador, expressed, in his letter to the king of France, high admiration both of the manner in which Bothwell bore himself and marshalled his troops, and was confident that if the troops could have been relied on he would have been victorious (letter in Teulet, ii. 312–20). Bothwell declared to Du Croc that those who had come to oppose him were simply envious at his elevation. Out of sympathy with the queen, for whose painful position he declared that he deeply felt, he was, however, willing to waive his royal rank, and to fight with any one worthy, by nobility of birth, to meet him. Knox states that he ‘came out of the camp well mounted, with a defie to any that would fight with him’ (Works, ii. 560). The queen, however, would not permit any of her subjects to engage in single combat with her husband. Meantime, while negotiations were going on, many of the troops of the queen had been leaving the field, and it became evident that a battle in such circumstances would be disastrous to her. Resigning herself to the inevitable, she appears to have made arrangements for Bothwell's escape, and in obedience to her urgent request that he should save himself by flight before it was too late, he unwillingly bade her farewell, and rode off unmolested to Dunbar.
After reaching Dunbar Bothwell sent his servants to fetch the effects which had been kept by him in the castle of Edinburgh. Among these is stated to have been the famous silver casket which the lords avowed they intercepted on 20 June, and opened next day, when it was found to contain, in addition to other documents, certain letters addressed by the queen to Bothwell (see ‘Morton's Declaration’ in Henderson, Casket Letters, pp. 112–16). The discovery, whatever its nature, apparently determined the lords to make more strenuous efforts against Bothwell. Although he remained at Dunbar, and the queen expressed her determination not to give him up, no great zeal was at first shown to effect his capture. On 26 June 1567, however, the secret council declared that they had ‘be evident pruif, alswiel of witnesses as of writinges maid manifest unto thame, that James, Erll Bothuill, was the principal deviser of Darnley's murder’ (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 524). On the following day, probably before he knew of the proclamation, Bothwell left Dunbar for the north, not apparently from any dread of capture, for the castle was strongly fortified, but in order if possible to create a diversion in favour of the queen. But by the queen's best and most loyal friends he was secretly detested. If any were prepared to risk their lives for her, none were prepared to risk anything for Bothwell, who, if they assumed her guilt, had led her into crime, or, if they assumed her innocence, had tarnished her fame. There were, it would appear, even limits to Huntly's debasing devotion to the interests of his former brother-in-law, and he now declined to adventure anything for him (Throckmorton to Elizabeth, 16 July 1567, Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1566–8, entry 1459). One night, possibly dreading treachery, Bothwell departed suddenly from Huntly's residence, and went to the palace of his old tutor and guardian, the Bishop of Moray at Spynie. The bishop not only gave him shelter for a time, but furthered his escape.
Bothwell approached Kirkwall with two small ships, counting apparently on a favourable reception in his dukedom of Orkney, but the keeper of the castle refused to deliver it up. He had no means of capturing it, and therefore set sail for Shetland, where his claims were at once recognised by the inhabitants, and he received the gift of a sheep and an ox, which every benefice was from time immemorial in
