McConnell urged to bring back Bothwell's body

Published on Sunday 12 November 2006 01:05

THE First Minister has been urged to throw his weight behind a campaign to bring home the remains of a Scottish patriot who died in a foreign jail.

James Hepburn, the fourth Earl of Bothwell and husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned by the Danish king in the 16th century after fleeing Scotland after the arrest of his wife. He died, insane, after a decade chained up in a castle jail as a political prisoner, and his body is still kept in the vault of a nearby church.

But MSPs have now joined the earl's descendants in calling for his remains to be brought back to Scotland for a proper burial.

So far, the Scottish Executive has refused pleas to help, on the grounds that the repatriation is a "private matter". But last week, Ted Brocklebank, the MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife, urged ministers, including Jack McConnell, to bring pressure on the Danes to return Bothwell's body.

His family, led by his direct descendant Sir Alastair Buchan-Hepburn, want to bury Bothwell in the grounds of his boyhood home, Crichton Castle in East Lothian.

In a letter to McConnell, Buchan-Hepburn has asked the First Minister to approach the Danish government on the family's behalf. "My family is in full support of Bothwell's return along with others across the globe," he says.

Bothwell's mummified body is currently in the vault of Farevejle church on the Danish east coast, where it has been preserved in remarkably good condition in an atmosphere rich in sea salt. Until 1975, when the Danish royal family intervened after pleas from Bothwell supporters, it was on open display as a grisly tourist attraction.

In a parliamentary debate on Scottish heritage last week, Brocklebank said there was no justification for Bothwell's remains to be held in Denmark.

"In September, the Danish Queen Margrethe II respected the last wish of Maria Fyodorovna, widow of Tsar Alexander III, to be removed from her grave in Denmark and reburied in Russia," Brocklebank said. "Maria was a Danish national, so surely it is even more appropriate that the remains of the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was himself a Scot, should be returned to his homeland."

Bothwell was a controversial character, with some historians claiming that he forced himself on the young queen before their later marriage.

Brocklebank said he had heard that Bothwell "may not be the kind of historical figure whom we wish to commemorate and that that may have contributed to the inertia of officials in trying to retrieve his remains".

"I hope that that is not the case. After extensive research, revisionist historians portray Bothwell in a far more sympathetic light, particularly when judged in a 16th century context."

He added that it was the "united desire" of Bothwell's descendants around the world that his remains should be returned to Scotland, as he wished.

Brocklebank urged ministers to contact the Danish government to press the claim for repatriation. "An appropriate last resting place for the earl would be the Crichton collegiate church in Midlothian, close by Crichton Castle, which played such an important role in the story of James Hepburn and his ill-fated queen."

The Danish government has already responded to pressure from Bothwell's descendants and supporters in Scotland, the United States and on continental Europe, by asking its church authorities to review the case for Bothwell's return. The family suspect, however, that the body will remain where it is unless the case is taken up officially by the Scottish Executive.