Mary, Queen of Scots marry the queen. Between 21 and 23 April 1567, Mary visited her son at Stirling for the last time. On her way back to Edinburgh on 24 April, Mary was abducted, willingly or not, by Lord Bothwell and his men and taken to Dunbar Castle, where he may have raped her. On 6 May, Mary and Bothwell returned to Edinburgh and on 15 May, at either Holyrood Palace or Holyrood Abbey, they were married according to Protestant rites. Bothwell and his first wife, Jean Gordon, who was the sister of Lord Huntly, had divorced twelve days previously. Originally Mary believed
Whorlton Castle held on to the castle, until a dispute between heirs in 1541 led to it becoming a possession of the Crown. King Henry VIII of England later granted the castle and estate to Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, whose eldest son was Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, wrote to Mary, Queen of Scots in the autumn of 1561, possibly from Whorlton Castle, to propose a marriage between Mary and her son Darnley. Although local tradition claims that the castle was where their marriage contract was signed in 1565, this is erroneous; the contract was actually