![[MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS (1542-1587)]. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of BOTHWELL and Duke of Orkney (1534/5-1578). Document signed ('James Erle borthuel'), Craigmillar Castle, 29 November 1566.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_16019_0043_000(mary_queen_of_scots_james_hepburn_4th_earl_of_bothwell_and_duke_of_ork060544).jpg?w=1)
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[MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS (1542-1587)]. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of BOTHWELL and Duke of Orkney (1534/5-1578). Document signed ('James Erle borthuel'), Craigmillar Castle, 29 November 1566.
In Scots, 24 lines on one page, 262 x 258mm, the word 'signet' and the place and date completed in another hand, the names of the deputies not completed, papered signet seal (laid down). Provenance: Spiro Family Collection – sale at Christie's, 3 December 2003, lot 52.
Bothwell at the site of the 'Craigmillar Bond' to depose or kill Darnley. Bothwell announces the appointment of (but fails to nominate) deputies in his office of the sheriff of Berwick to find and arrest the rebels John Aickin, Stephen Symontoun, Richard and John Clyntis, Alexander Raburne, Ninian and William Purves and Patrick Acheson, 'dwelland upoun the landis of Dernchester and Graden', and to expel them with their wives, families, servants and goods from these lands, giving possession to Sir William Livingston of Kilsyth.
Mary, Bothwell and other leading nobles stayed at Craigmillar from 20 November to 7 December 1566, and it was there that Bothwell, Argyll, Huntly and others entered (without her knowledge) into the 'Craigmillar Bond' which declared their intention to remove Darnley. Bothwell duly masterminded Darnley's assassination at Kirk o' Field on 10 February 1567. He and Mary married on 15 May, but the marriage, and her reign, effectively ended with his escape from the Battle of Carberry Hill a month later. Bothwell's order is a rather dilatory response to an urgent instruction to him from Mary Queen of Scots on 15 August, which reported that the rebels in question had burnt Sir William Livingston's corn and pursued his wife and servants with the intention of killing them.
In Scots, 24 lines on one page, 262 x 258mm, the word 'signet' and the place and date completed in another hand, the names of the deputies not completed, papered signet seal (laid down). Provenance: Spiro Family Collection – sale at Christie's, 3 December 2003, lot 52.
Bothwell at the site of the 'Craigmillar Bond' to depose or kill Darnley. Bothwell announces the appointment of (but fails to nominate) deputies in his office of the sheriff of Berwick to find and arrest the rebels John Aickin, Stephen Symontoun, Richard and John Clyntis, Alexander Raburne, Ninian and William Purves and Patrick Acheson, 'dwelland upoun the landis of Dernchester and Graden', and to expel them with their wives, families, servants and goods from these lands, giving possession to Sir William Livingston of Kilsyth.
Mary, Bothwell and other leading nobles stayed at Craigmillar from 20 November to 7 December 1566, and it was there that Bothwell, Argyll, Huntly and others entered (without her knowledge) into the 'Craigmillar Bond' which declared their intention to remove Darnley. Bothwell duly masterminded Darnley's assassination at Kirk o' Field on 10 February 1567. He and Mary married on 15 May, but the marriage, and her reign, effectively ended with his escape from the Battle of Carberry Hill a month later. Bothwell's order is a rather dilatory response to an urgent instruction to him from Mary Queen of Scots on 15 August, which reported that the rebels in question had burnt Sir William Livingston's corn and pursued his wife and servants with the intention of killing them.
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