Resting Place Of Bothwell

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

Resting Place Of Bothwell

TWO countries contend for the 3 5 0-year-old m urn m y of James Hepburn, fourth - Eirl ofBothwell, Duke of Orkney and Shetland, who married,. Mary • Queen of Scots. One country i s : Scotland, whoso; ships cliased - him as far as the ' "shores ' of ScandinaTia as one "forfaulted";' for treason, for devising the murder: of Mary's husband, Darnley, for perpetrating lese Majeste by "putting violent hands on the Quean," and - for seeking to "allure all pirates" to form a hostile naval force. The other country is Denmark, which refused to deliver him to the Earl of Moray: and Queen Elizabeth of England or agree to his execution. I 'Botlnvell had : offered King Frederick ri. the islands of Orkney and Shetland in return for protection. As they were already forfeited,', the transfer seemed hard- to accomplish, but the proposal won Frederick's "goodwill. Mary's deposition, detention, .escape to . Elizabeth's realm • and imprisonment made Bothwell less important, and he was placed for safekeeping in "one castle dungeon after another. After he went mad from isolation and died, his bodywas embalmed and laid in Faareviele Church in Zealand, not far from Copenhagen, There, under glass, all that is

• mortal of the once lusty, "rash and .hazardous young man" has been exposed -to view. Lately travellers complained that the -Danes were neglecting the tomb. They were letting it disintegrate—the casket loosening to the air. Reference to th© fact having been published in Edinburgh} the Danish Legation at London received and forwarded to the Danish Foreign Office a .Scottish' request that the body be returned to its native heath. Neither Faareviele nor Denmark is inclined to give up this visible link with*; so much British Royal history. The reason for the second refusal to sur-- . render Bothwell arises from the recent growth in importance of the business of "tourism." Faareviele, acknowledging that the body of. Bothwell has been carelessly looked after, engages to provide better curatorsliip. A resting place in the National Museum at Copenhagen has been suggested. Faareviele Church is not convinced that that is necessary. Haying waited three and one-half centuries for travellers to note that it harbours all that is left of one of the few men Mary Queen* of Scots was power-' less to dominate, it holds itself entitled to keep its interesting distinction.