At Seton, the 5th day of April, the year of God, 1567, the right excellent, right high and mighty Princess, Mary, by the grace of God, Queen of Scots, ... in the presence of the Eternal God, faithfully, and on the word of a Prince, by these presents, takes the said James, Earl Bothwell, as her lawful husband, and promises and obliges her Highness, that how soon the process of divorce, intended betwixt the said Earl Bothwell and Dame Jane Gordon, now his pretended spouse, be ended by the order of the laws, her Majesty shall, God willing, thereafter shortly marry and take the said Earl to her husband.... He presently takes her Majesty as his lawful spouse, in the presence of God, and promises and obliges him ... that in all diligence possible, he shall prosecute and set forward the said process of divorce already begun and intended betwix him and the said Dame Gordon, his pretended spouse.... MARIE, R. JAMES, EARL BOTHWELL. Here note, that this contract was made the v of April, within viii weeks after the murder of the King, which was slain the x of February before; also it was made vii days before Bothwell was acquitted, by corrupt judgment, of the said murder. Also it appears by the words of the contract itself, that it was made before sentence of divorce betwixt Bothwell and his former wife, and also in very truth was made before any suit of divorce intended or begun between him and his former wife, though some words in this contract seem to say otherwise, which is thus proved; for this contract is dated the v of April, and it plainly appears by the judicial acts, ... wherein is contained the whole process of the divorce between the said Earl and Dame Jane Gordon his wife, that the one of the same processes was intended and begun the xxvi day of April, and the other the xxvii.--Buchanan's "Detection." Nous Marie, par la grace de Dieu, Royne d'Ecosse, douaryere de France, &c, promettous fidellement et de bonne foy, et sans contraynte, à Jaques Hepburn, Comte de Boduel, de n'avoir jamais autre espoulx et mary que luy, et de le prendre pour tel toute et quant fois qu'il m'en requerira, quoy que parents, amys ou autres, y soient contrayres. Et puis que Dieu a pris mon feu mary Henry Stuart dit Darnley et que par ce moien je sois libre, n'estant sous obeissance de pere, ni de mere, des mayntenant je proteste que, lui estant en mesme liberté, je seray preste, et d'accomplir les ceremonies requises an mariage; que je lui promets devant Dieu, que j'en prantz a tesmoignasge, et la presente, signee de ma mayn: ecrit ce-- MARIE, R. [This contract merely promises to marry Bothwell, without constraint, and refers to the writer's freedom from the necessity of any one's permission, since Darnley's death. It contains no reference to the divorce.] _MORTON'S DECLARATION_ The Discovery of the Letters--1. The Earl of Morton's Declaration.