James
Hepburn, the son of Patrick Hepburn, 3rd Earl of Bothwell, was born
in 1535. Hepburn became the 4th Earl of Boswell when his father died
in 1556.
Mary
Stuart returned
to Scotland in 1560. The Protestants were
not happy having a Catholic queen and a religious riot took place
soon after her arrival in Scotland. Mary attempted to reduce tension
by accepting Protestants as her chief advisers. This included Hepburn
who gradually became her closest friend in Scotland.
Elizabeth
believed that Mary posed a threat to her throne. To counter this she
suggested that her friend, Robert Dudley,
Earl of Leicester, should marry Mary
Stuart.
Attempts were made to arrange this but in 1565 Mary married Henry
Darnley,
the son of Lady Margaret Douglas, the granddaughter of Henry
VII. The marriage therefore strengthened her descendants' claim
to the English throne.
In 1566 Mary gave birth
to a son named James. The marriage was
not a happy one and when Darnley was mysteriously killed while recovering
from smallpox at Glasgow in January 1567,
when the house in which he was in was blown up by gunpowder.
Suspicion fell on Hepburn.
When Mary married Hepburn two months later, the Protestant lords rebelled
against their queen. After Mary's army was defeated at Langside in
1567, Hepburn fled to Norway. He was seized by his enemies and taken
to prison in Denmark. Never released, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell,
died in chains in 1578.
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