Duke of Orkney to return to Scotland?

Conservative MSPs have backed calls for the body of the only Duke of Orkney to be returned to Scotland.

The remains of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell and third husband of Mary Queen of Scots, currently languish in a crypt in Farevejle Church in Denmark. Bothwell was accused of treason in 1567 and fled to Orkney where he hoped to raise support to put Mary back on the throne.

Failing to find sufficient backing, he went to Norway and then to Denmark, where he was imprisoned in appalling conditions for some ten years before he eventually died, insane.

Now Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife Ted Brocklebank, along with Conservative Culture Spokesman Jamie McGrigor, have backed a campaign by one of Bothwell’s descendants, Sir Alistair Buchan Hepburn, for the Earl’s body to be returned to Scotland. They said it’s time Bothwell was allowed to come home.

Ted said “For many years, Bothwell’s mummified body was kept in a glass coffin as a ghastly tourist attraction by the Danish church authorities. Only in 1975, was it moved to a crypt in the church.

“I have been in correspondence with the Scottish Culture Minister Patricia Fergusson about the possibility of the Danish authorities returning Bothwell’s remains to Scotland, where there is no doubt he wished to be buried. A number of Bothwell’s descendants, including Sir Alistair Buchan Hepburn, a constituent of mine, have been in touch with the minister and elders at Farevejle Church seeking to have the remains repatriated.

“In September of this year, Queen Margrethe II respected the last wish of Maria Fjodorowna, a Danish national and widow of Tsar Alexander III, to be removed from her grave in Denmark and re-buried in Russia. How much more appropriate that the remains of the husband of Mary Queen of Scots, himself a Scot, should be returned to his homeland.

“And perhaps an appropriate last resting place for the Earl would be the Collegiate Church of Crichton in Midlothian, close by Crichton Castle which played such an important role in the story of James Hepburn and his ill-fated Queen”.

Mr Brocklebank said he hoped Bothwell’s reputation had not contributed to the inertia of officials in trying to retrieve his remains, arguing that revisionist historians like John Guy and Gore Brown had carried out extensive researches which portray Bothwell in a far more sympathetic light than in he past.

His calls were backed by Highlands and Islands MSP and Scottish Conservative Culture Spokesman Jamie McGrigor who said it was time for Bothwell to come home.

“There is no reason why James Hepburn’s wish to return home, even although expressed 438 years ago, should not be treated with equal respect to the wishes of Czarina Maria, whose body has now been reinterred in St. Petersburg. Maria was consort to the Tsar of Russia and Bothwell was consort to the Queen of Scotland. Both were buried in Denmark, a place they didn’t want to be.

“It’s now time for James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell and Duke of Orkney, to be allowed to come home to Scotland”.