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unusual facts about Francis Stewart, 1st Earl of Bothwell



Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl of Angus

A French diplomat in Edinburgh, Camille de Preau, sieur de Courcelles, heard that Angus claimed she had flirted with a stableboy, which was thought unlikely, and the Earl of Bothwell had joked he would divorce his wife for the same.

Crichton Castle

Francis Stewart, the designer, had travelled to Italy, and was inspired by new styles and technology in buildings there, particularly the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara (c. 1582).

Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell

Like his stepfather, Archibald Douglas, Parson of Douglas, he was a notorious conspirator, who died in disgrace.

Francis, Lord Stewart, Bothwell and Commendator of Kelso Abbey (b. 1584) - After his father's death, in spite of the attainder, he is occasionally styled 'Earl Bothwell', and Lord Stewart and Bothwell.

He was, before 1568, Commendator of Kelso Abbey in Roxburghshire, which position he had exchanged with John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane in place of the offer of Coldingham Priory which Maitland then held until his forfeiture in 1570.

Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell (c.December 1562 – November 1612) was Commendator of Kelso Abbey and Coldingham Priory, a Privy Counsellor and Lord High Admiral of Scotland.

Patrick Hepburn, 3rd Earl of Bothwell

Jean Hepburn (d. before 27 July 1599) whose first husband was John Sinclair, Master of Caithness (d.1578, v.p.), with issue; her second husband was John Stewart, Lord Darnley, Prior of Coldingham, by whom she had Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell; her third husband the notorious Archibald Douglas, Parson of Douglas, a Senator of the College of Justice, and brother of William Douglas of Whittinghame.

Witch trials in early modern Scotland

He subsequently believed that a nobleman, Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, was a witch, and after the latter fled in fear of his life, he was outlawed as a traitor.


see also