Between 1591 and 1594 the peace in Scotland had been disturbed on several occasions caused by the activities of Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, who was a nephew of the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. This had resulted in the serious revolt of the Catholic dissidents in the north-east. However, with the death of John Maxwell, 8th Lord Maxwell, who was a staunch Catholic, at the Battle of Dryfe Sands in 1593 and the fall of the northern Earls after the Battle of Glenlivet in 1594, the Catholic cause was destroyed.