the habit of paying to the feudal lord. Moreover, when it became known that the ex-high admiral of Scotland aspired to become a pirate commander, several of the pirate captains who frequented the islands placed themselves under his orders. Writing on 20 July 1567 Throckmorton reported that Bothwell meant to allure ‘the pirates of all countries to him.’ He clearly wished to collect as large a naval force as possible. Such a force could be maintained only by piracy. Professor Schiern is inclined to give some weight (Life of Bothwell, English translation, p. 303) to the denial of the contemporary writer, Adam Blackwood, that Bothwell was a pirate; but there can be no doubt whatever that Bothwell soon began to capture merchant ships. The abortive attempt of Professor Schiern to distinguish between a pirate and a privateer tends rather to inculpate than exonerate Bothwell. It was discerned that unless Bothwell's proceedings were promptly stopped he might prove a very formidable foe. The magistrates of Dundee were therefore ordered to instruct the skippers of four large vessels belonging to the port to place them at the service of Murray of Tullibardine and Kirkcaldy of Grange in order to attempt his capture (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 544–6). The vessels were armed with cannon, and in addition to the seamen, carried four hundred arquebusiers. In Bressay Sound, while Bothwell and part of the crew were on shore, Kirkcaldy came up with the ships of Bothwell, who had lately captured and armed a large ship of ‘Breame’ (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1566–8, entry 1640). In the eagerness to capture one of Bothwell's ships, Kirkcaldy ran his own ship on a rock, and with difficulty saved himself from drowning. Bothwell's ships then sailed to the northern isles, where Bothwell succeeded in joining them. There the enemy again came up with them. For a time all seemed going against Bothwell, but Kirkcaldy, skilled though he was in military matters, was deficient in seamanship, and a south-west wind having sprung suddenly up, Bothwell made his escape to the North Sea, leaving one of his vessels, which had become disabled, in Kirkcaldy's hands. Kirkcaldy persevered for sixty miles in his chase, but Bothwell drew rapidly away, not slackening sail till he sighted land, which proved to be the south-west coast of Norway. Here he spoke with the master of a Hanseatic vessel, who piloted him into Karm Sound.
No sooner had Bothwell cast anchor than the Danish warship Björnen made its appearance, and Bothwell's papers being found unsatisfactory, his vessels were brought to Bergen. His identity having now become known, he was permitted to take up his residence at a hostelry in the town till further orders should be received regarding him. Meanwhile he was treated with respect, and was frequently entertained by Eric Rosenkrands in the castle. By a curious coincidence Anne Thorssen, whom he had abandoned in the Netherlands, had on the death of her father come with her mother to reside in Bergen. On learning his arrival, she sued him before the court for redress, but by promising her an annuity, to be paid in Scotland, and handing over to her the smallest of his ships, he succeeded in getting proceedings quashed. Bothwell, when examined on board ship, had denied that he had with him any jewels or valuables, or even any letters or papers, but when he was led to believe that his ships would not again be delivered up to him, he stated that in his own ship there were some papers of which he wished to obtain possession. His request for them aroused suspicion, and when the letter-case was opened it was found to contain among other documents various proclamations against him as a traitor and murderer, and a letter in the handwriting of the Queen of Scots, bewailing the fate that had befallen him and her. After an examination held on 23 Sept. 1567, it was decided that Bothwell should be sent to Denmark in one of the king's own ships, accompanied by only four of his servants.
Bothwell arrived at Copenhagen on 30 Sept. Representations made to the Danish government by the regent Moray induced the high steward, in the absence of King Frederick II, to send him to the castle, and the king subsequently gave instructions that he should be detained there till further orders. Bothwell now ingeniously explained in a letter to the king of Denmark that when he was seized at Karm Sound he was really on his way to Copenhagen to lay before him the wrongs committed against the Queen of Scots, the king's near relative, and that he intended to proceed thence to France on a like errand. To the French king he also wrote in a similar strain. The Danish king's ministers had advised that he should be sent to a castle in Jutland, but Bothwell's letter produced so favourable an impression that the king ordered that he should remain in Copenhagen. On 30 Dec. the king, in answer to a request for his surrender, sent by Moray in the name of James VI, replied that Bothwell had informed him that he had been legally acquitted of the murder, and therefore he would not agree to do more than keep him in close confinement, with which he hoped the Scottish king would be satisfied (ib. For. Ser. entry 1889). For greater security he was removed to Malmoe in Sweden, where an old apartment in the north wing is still
