Bothwell, James

James (1536-1578), a Scottish earl, known in history as the third husband of Queen Mary. By various intrigues he obtained high office near the person of Queen Mary with whom he became a great favorite. In 1567 Darnley, her husband, was blown up in a hunting lodge, as was believed with the connivance of Bothwell. At all events the later conducted the queen to Dunbar Castle soon afterward, and married her. The Scottish nobility, however, resented his rise to power, and rescued the queen, as they pleased to term it, from his influence. He fled to the Orkneys, thence to Norway and to Denmark where he died insane. See Mary; Queen Of Scots