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Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
The Library of Congress
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The Life and 'Death of
of Qrange, Knight
HISTORIE OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF
ir William Hirikalti^
^ of (Branse, Stntgt)! S&
WHEREIN is declared his many Wise ^Designs and Valiant oAc-
tions, with a True Relation of his Heroic ConduSl in the Qastle of
Edinburgh which he had the Honour to defend for the Queen of Scots.
Now set forth from ^Authentic Sources by Harold Murdock.
Print ED /or CbC €lub Of ODD t^OlumCS ^/Boston in
New England in the Tear of Our Lord^ Mdccccvi
Copyright, 1906, by i:he Club of Odd Volumes
jUBrtARYofCONGRtSt
Two CoDles Roceived
JUN 20' 1906
*
v^v^
" ">■
To the Trader
This sketch of an old-time Scottish soldier^ written in
part more than twenty years since^ is now re-cast and
completed in its present form for publication by T'he Qlub
of Odd Volumes. There have been but two attempts to
present a consecutive narrative of the career of the most
famous soldier of the days ofSWary, Queen of Scots : ( i .)
An introductory chapter entitled Biographical Sketches
of Sir William Kircaldy of Grange, Governor of
Edinburgh Castle, prefixed to Qonstable's edition of
Scottish Poems of the Sixteenth Century, published
in 1801 ; (2.) Memoirs and Adventures of Sir Wil-
liam Kirkaldy of Grange, Knight, &c., published by
^lackwood^ Edinburgh^ 1849. ^^ '^^•*" ^^^^ ^^^^^ inade-
quacy of these accounts to convey any suggestion of the
personality of Qrange, or of the influences which shaped
his striking career^ that led many years ago to the studies
that are responsible for the present sketch.
The Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Halhiliyorw
an important authority in regard to (jrange^ and they
furnish by far the most intimate account of his personal
traits and the motives which controlled his public a£is.
Knox, ^annatyne and Qalderwood give us Kirkaldy as
he appeared to the preachers, both in the days of his ad-
herence to the Qongregation and in the later time when
he
To the iKeaUet
/le had become estranged from his old friend^ the '^B^gent
SVLurray. Interesting allusions to him are found in other
contemporaneous writings. The Chronicles of Scotland
by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie ; the Autobiography and
Diary of James Melville ; the Diurnal of Remarkable
Occurrents ; and the Diarey of Robert Birrel have fur-
nished much of the quoted matter in the following pages.
,\ — -rtrf- - VTKt*:;- .-'J-a
King
and Coninions, in Scotland the sitiialion had resolved
itself into a struggle between the nobility and the
lioman
The Lffe and ?^eatl^ of
Roman Church for the control of the sovereign. In
form the government was liberal enough, all classes
having a place in Parliament, but in its v^orkings it
was otherwise because the commoner was pra6li-
cally a vassal. The nobles were for the most part
ignorant, fierce and self-willed. The greater lords
attended Parliament, and after the Continental fashion
had begun to ere61: town houses in the quaint closes
or lanes that led from the High Street of Edin-
burgh. But the lesser barons shunned the capital and
preferred to live their own wild lives among their
vassals. As a result the dignitaries of the Church and
the heads of a few great families dominated the Par-
liament. Not only was there bad blood between
these fa6lions, but the nobles themselves were es-
tranged by numberless jealousies and feuds. These
people made Edinburgh a turbulent dwelling-place.
Fierce brawls stained the High Street with blood.
The trains of rival barons encountered in narrow
ways, and the wicked steel rang and flashed in the
flickering glare of smoky torches. Again and again
the great bell of St. Giles pealed out upon the night
air, and summoned the Provost and his guard to re-
store the peace.
It was only among the clergy that education and ap-
titude for pubHc affairs were to be found. It was na-
tural that refinements and talents of this sort should
be confined to the one class that was exempt from
bearing arms. In the midst of seditions, raids, and
wars, the Church quietly progressed in power and
wealth. The religious houses, always the principal
seats of learning, became as well the busiest trade
centres in the kingdom. The monastery crops were
the richest, the monastery herds the fattest, and the
monastery brewing the best. It is claimed that at this
time the Roman Church had by its peculiar methods
acquired
Sir mUliam tttrfealDt, Km.
acquired nearly one half of the desirable lands in
Scotland. It is easy to see that the baron had his
grievance against the priest. His battered armour
commanded no such respe6l or favour at Court as
the gorgeous robes which marked the cardinal and
bishop.
The English King, not satisfied with suppressing
the Roman Church within his realm, yearned in his
pious zeal for its uprooting throughout the island of
Great Britain. Upon his good nephew, who reigned
in Scotland as James V, he urged the advantages
that would accrue to God and man were he to em-
ploy drastic measures against the Church within his
borders. But James lacked the personal incentive
that had animated his worthy uncle, and realized that
the social and political conditions in Scotland did not
invite so radical a poHcy. The Cardinal Beatoun was
an aggressive man and James had sometimes chafed
under his counsels, but he knew that it was only
among the clergy that he could find advisers com-
petent to help him in affairs of state. Henry, anx-
ious for his projeft, despatched Sir Ralph Sadler to
Edinburgh to reason with the King. Sadler was a
keen observer and was not long in discovering the
true conditions at the Scottish Court. "The noblemen
be young," he writes (a touching reminder of the
slaughter at Flodden ) . "I see none among them that
hath any such agility of wit, gravity, learning, and
experience to take in hand the dire6tion of things.
So that the King is of force driven to use the bish-
ops and clergy as ministers of the realm. They be
the men of wit and policy ; they be never out of the
King's ear." Sadler understood the situation too well
to expe6l success, but he pressed his suit with loyal
zeal. The King admitted the foibles of the church-
men, but on these matters, writes Sadler, "he spoke
very
The life and ^t^i\^ of
very softly, the Cardinal being present." James con-
tended that the Church was liberal and would give
him all he wanted. Sadler was finally repulsed with
the less sordid sentiment, " I am sure my uncle will
not desire me to do otherwise than my conscience
serveth."
But the downfall of the Roman Church in Scotland
was to be accomplished without the agency of the
Sovereign. The lean and hungry baron yearning for
the rich treasure of the priests, and controlling vas-
sals as needy as himself, was to receive with ardour
the advent of reformatory ideas. The circulation of
the Scriptures among the people, the fierce ha-
rangues of zealous preachers, and the satirical poems
of Sir David Lindesay also had their weight, and ap-
pealed to better motives. But the repressive methods
adopted by the Church itself furnished to the Refor-
mation in Scotland its greatest stimulus. For the hold-
ing of " the heresies of Martin Luther," men were
burned at the stake. The flames were kindled on
high land to the intent that far and wide those " see-
ing the fire might be stricken with terror and fear."
But such measures begat anger rather than dread.
The burning of Patrick Hamilton before the Castle
of St. Andrews stirred such an uproar that John
Lindesay was led to exclaim that "the reik of Mas-
ter Patrick Hamilton had infe6led as many as it blew
upon." Among the students in St. Andrews it was
fiercely asked, "Whairfor was Maister Hamilton
brunt?" The same question passed swiftly from
mouth to mouth throughout Fife and the Lothians. So
the Church in its cruel dealing with zealous and stub-
born men was preparing the way for its own undoing.
About the year 1523 Sir John Melville of Raith, a
scholarly and austere man, came down to Edinburgh
with
■ ^ - '- !- >'
Sir miUiam litfealD^, Knt.
with his son-in-law, Sir James Kirkaldy , the Baron of
Kirkaldy-Grange, and presented him at Court. From
this time the Laird of Grange was a familiar figure
to all those who surrounded the Scottish King. His
Castle of Kirkaldy-Grange, or the Grange, as it was
generally known, stood on the high land between
Kinghorn and Kirkaldy and was in those days a well-
known landmark on that part of the coast of Fife.
Its lofty battlements and embrasured windows com-
manded a broad prospe6l. The golden § coast-line,
dotted with castles and fair towns, stretched away to-
ward the north, while to the south, beyond the gleam-
ing waters, the highlands of Lothian loomed dimly
above the murky pall of Auld Reekie. The site was
a favoured one. It was within easy reach of the Court
at Edinburgh or Falkland, and a pleasant ride in-
land through the very garden of Scotland led to Lin-
lithgow and Stirling. A score of miles to the east, noted
for its University and its great Ecclesiastical Court,
was St. Andrews, that quaint and drowsy city, lulled
to rest by the booming of the sea and the music of
those famous chimes silenced centuries ago.
From the first the King was much taken with the
Baron of Kirkaldy-Grange. He was "a stoute bold
man," we are told, "who always offered by single
combate and at point of the sword to maintain what-
evere he spake;" traits not unusual, to be sure, in those
robust times. But the King found qualities in him which
were lacking in most of his class. " He esteemed him
true," and in 1527 he invested him with the office of
Lord High Treasurer of the realm. To the church-
men this boisterous man with the ready sword was by
no means agreeable, and erelong they were whis-
pering to the King that the Laird of Grange " was
become a heretic and that he had always a New Testa-
ment in English in his pouch." But the King was not
to
lO
The Iffe and l^eatl^ of
to be moved and roundly declared that he valued the
plain, frank gentleman from the castle of Kirkaldy-
Grange. So it remained for his enemies to complain
among themselves " that Grange had become so vain
and arrogant by His Majesty's favour that no man
could abide him."
The King appears to have detefted some signs of
humour in the clashing of the rival faftions, and it was
in sportive mood that he is said to have displayed to
Grange a list of eminent persons in Scotland who in
the judgement of the Cardinal Beatoun it would be
well to burn for heresy. As his own name was promi-
nent in the schedule, it is to be feared that Grange
did not enter fully into the mirthful spirit of the King.
We do not know how well the Baron guarded his
tongue in this matter, but after a little time we find
it murmured in Edinburgh, and also at the English
Court, that " the Cardinal Beatoun is said to stand
in danger of his life from the Baron of Kirkaldy-
Grange."
One result of the spread of the Reformed do6f rines
in Scotland was to modify the old hatred of England.
The Laird of Grange was one of a most formidable
party who urged upon James a marriage with the
sister of the Enghsh King, and the cultivation of
friendly relations with "the auld enemy." Between
this fa6lion on the one hand and the Cardinal Bea-
toun on the other, the head that wore the Scottish
crown rested uneasily indeed. The Cardinal's party
achieved their purpose in bringing about the royal
marriage with a daughter of the House of Guise,
a sister of those famous brothers who were regarded
upon the Continent as the brightest ornaments and
most powerful defenders of the Roman faith. These
nuptials took place in 1538, to the intense chagrin of
Henry VIII and of the Protestant party in Scot-
land.
'•vr"'^'^^/^
Sir milliam iitrfialD^, Ktit.
II
land. Our Fifeshire baron was disgusted with the
vacillation of his Monarch. " My warding or my Hfe
are trifling matters," he complained to the royal face,
" but alas it breaks my heart that the world should
hear your Majesty is so facile."
Henry did not yet abandon the hope of accomplish-
ing something with his nephew, and a short time
after the marriage an agreement was made between
the Sovereigns to meet at York to discuss the issues
that had so long disturbed them. Henry reached the
rendezvous as agreed, but churchly and perhaps
wifely considerations dissuaded James from his pur-
|X)se. For four days his stormy Majesty of England
fretted and fumed at York, and then, his scanty
store of patience exhausted, he let slip the dogs of
war. A fierce scourge of fire and sword swept over
the hapless Borderside. At the head of an imposing
power King James moved southward for the defence
of Scottish soil. But on arriving at Fala and receiv-
ing news that the English bands had been with-
drawn, the nobles refused to continue the advance.
The King was helpless in the face of such wholesale
defection. He managed to push a scanty force across
the Western Border, but they had little heart in their
work, and while engaged in disorder and strife among
themselves, they were attacked on Solway Moss and
disgracefully routed. This was a death-blow to the
King. Stung with shame and chagrin he gave himself
over to profound melancholy. He made his weary way
to Edinburgh, rested a few hours in his new palace
of Holyrood, and then passed on toward Falkland in
great deje61:ion of spirit. He decided to break his jour-
ney at Sir James Kirkaldy's house of Halyards, which
lay high in the wooded country a few miles north
of the Castle of Kirkaldy-Grange. We are indebted
to John Knox for a minute description of this visit.
The
12
The Life and i^eatl^ of
The Baron was absent, but the Lady of Grange " hu-
manely" received her Monarch. " Perceiving that he
was pensive the lady began to comfort him, and willed
him to take the work of God in good part." To
which the King replied, " My portion of the world is
short for I will not be with you fifteen days." When
asked where he would pass the Christmas season
which then approached, he answered with "a dis-
dainful smile," " I cannot tell. Choose ye the place,
but this I tell you on Yule day you will be master-
less and the realm without a king."
This narrative of Knox has an added interest as
introducing for the first time on the historical stage
William Kirkaldy, the eldest son of the Baron, a lad
in his teens, who was travelling in the suite of the
King. No record is preserved of the date of his birth,
but we know that he first saw the light in the old
castle above the Forth, probably at about the time
that his father was made Lord High Treasurer of
the realm. Of his early training no record remains,
but it is safe to say that the " stoute man " with the
ready sword saw to it that he grew up proficient in
all manly exercises. As Knox refers to Lady Kir-
kaldy as a "godly matron," and as her father the
Knight of Raith was everywhere known as an arrant
Calvinist, there can be no doubt as to the religious
atmosphere in which the youth was bred. The mono-
tony of life at the castle and at Halyards must have
been broken by frequent journeys with his father to
Falkland, Edinburgh, or beyond. It is also certain
that he was sent at an early age to the University
of Paris. As a student there, he found George Bu-
chanan teaching in the College of Cardinal Lemoine,
and made the acquaintance of Mr. Thomas Ran-
dolph, whom in later years he was to find in Edin-
burgh as the shrewd Ambassador of England at the
Court
Sir mtlltam i^frfialtit. Km. 13
Court of the Queen of Scots. Why the youth was sent
overseas and how long he remained at the French
capital, we do not know, but it is fair to assume that
the whole proje6l was distasteful to both Lady Kir-
kaldy and her father. Paris to them was the seat of
all iniquity, a stronghold of "the Pope that pagan
full of pride." But the Baron was doubtless of another
mind. Attendance at Court may have convinced him
that a lack of what Sadler had described as "men
of wit and policy" was a serious handicap to his party,
and that for the future Scotland mustbe ruled by those
whose wits were as keen as their swords.
The King rested at Halyards for one night, and
the next morning passed on toward Falkland with
William Kirkaldy in his train. The lad was at Falk-
land a few days later when the messenger came gal-
loping into the courtyard with the tidings from Lin-
lithgow that the Queen had given birth to a daughter,
that hapless Princess destined to win a mournful fame
as Mary, Queen of Scots. He may have stood by the
Royal bedside when these tidings were announced
and heard the lament of the stricken King, " It came
with a lass, it will go with a lass." "He spake little
from thenceforth," says Pitscottie, "but turned his
back to his lords and his face to the wall." It was
seven days later that "with all his lords about him
he held up his hands to God," and so died.
James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, was chosen Pro-
te6lor and Governor of Scotland by the Lords at
Edinburgh, as was fitting in view of his kinship to
the reigning house. To strengthen his hands against
the Cardinal Beatoun, who had coveted this honour
for himself, Arran recalled from exile the Earl of
Angus and Sir George Douglas, who for fifteen
years had resided in England under the displeasure
of James V . The solicitude which King Henry of Eng-
land
14
The Life and J^Catlft of
land had always displayed for his dear nephew was
now transferred to the babe who lay in her cradle at
Linlithgow. Looking to the future union of the realms
he proposed a marriage contra6l between the in-
fant Queen and Prince Edward, his eldest son. The
custody of the Queen was to be given into the hands
of the English King, and pending her arrival at mar-
riageable years an English council would sit at Edin-
burgh, and English soldiers garrison the Gastle that
overhung the town. These proposals were soon urged
as demands. The nobles captured at Sol way Moss
had been allowed to return to Scotland on the promise
of supporting the policy of the King. These men
added much strength to the English party, which, as
we have seen, was already strong in Scotland. This
party also profited much by the home-coming of the
Earl of Angus and Sir George Douglas, who had
pleasant memories of courtesies and hospitality ex-
tended to them at the English Court.
But the fiery Henry seriously embarrassed his ad-
vocates in Scotland, and Sadler vainly urged upon him
the wisdom of patience and fair words. "The Scotch
are a stout nation," said Sir Adam Otterburne, " and
will never consent that an English king rule over
them." Sir George Douglas was no less outspoken:
"It is impossible to be done at this time though the
whole nobilities of the realm would consent unto it,
yet our common people and the stones in the streets
would rise and rebel against it." Unhappily the Earl
of Arran was a man " altered by every man's flattery
and fair speech." While himself of the Reformed re-
ligion he had a wholesome dread of the Cardinal
Beatoun, behind whom he saw looming the vast power
of the Princes of Lorraine and of the Catholic King
of France. His vacillation drove all parties to distrac-
tion. " He is the most inconstant man in the world,"
cried
Sir mtlltam titrfialDt> Knt. 15
cried the Oueen Mother, " for whatsoever he deter-
mineth to-day he changeth to-morrow." It was Sir
George Douglas who suggested the idea to the Re-
gent that the Cardinal be kidnapped and sent into
England. This appealed to Arran's sense of humour.
" He had lever go into Hell," was his delighted com-
ment.
About this time 1 1 we find the Earl of Hertford in
Scotland writing to Henry VIII that "The Laird of
Grange, the Master of Rothes, and others would
attempt either to apprehend or slay the Cardinal as
he shall go through the Fife-land as he doth sun-
drie times to St. Andrews." Nothing came of this
proje6l for the time. The Cardinal was wary, and we
can only speculate as to whether this design of Kir-
kaldy had any connection with the suggestion made
by Douglas to the Regent.
The Parliament, composed largely of King Henry's
faction, finally agreed to the Enghsh match and that
the Queen should be given into English custody when
she became ten years of age.** The Earl of Arran
assented to this arrangement, only to retraft his ap-
proval a few days later. Henry of England could
be controlled no longer. His fleets landed troops at
Leith, which was sacked and burned. Edinburgh was
put to the torch, " and continued burning," says Pits-
cottie, "all that day and the two days next ensuing
so that neither within the walls nor in the suburbs
was left any one house unburnt." We read of the
destruction of "a fair town called Haddington," to-
gether with its famous abbey, long styled in rever-
ential fondness "The Lamp of Lothian." The good
people of Dunbar, newly gone to their beds, perished
in the flames of their dwellings; Jedburgh w^as plun-
dered and wrecked ; while at Melrose a savage sol-
diery cast down the tombs of those mighty men who
in
i6
The life and ^mt\^ of
in bygone ages founded the strength of the House
of Douglas. For days Teviotdale and the Merse saw
the sun dim and ruddy through smoke clouds, while
from the walls of Berwick the English warders be-
held with awe the broad current of the Tweed as it
came down to the sea bearing ghastly trophies of
this "rough wooing" by the English King.
With difficulty the Regent Arran was roused to take
decisive measures against the invader. The name of
Kirkaldy does not appear in the list of those who took
uparms at this crisis, but there is small doubt that father
and son were among those " sundriebarrones and gen-
tlemen of Fife," mentioned by Pitscottie, who " with
jack and spear " joined the Regent " foment Melrose
in guid order." We may rest assured that they were
among that hardy band who under Norman Leslie bore
the Scottish Lion to vi6lory on the bloody field of An-
crum Moor, and that their joy was hardly less fierce
than that of Angus when the bloody corse of Ralph
Evers-f -f was laid to rest in the desecrated aisles of
Melrose.
King Henry's loss of temper had afforded a rare
opportunity to the Catholic party in Scotland, but the
Cardinal Beatoun could see in it only the Heaven-sent
chance to root out heresy in the realm. The Regent
abjured the Reformed dodlrines and was reconciled
to the Roman Church, one of the first fruits of his
recantation being the removal of the Baron of Kir-
kaldy-Grange from his office as Treasurer. A long
list of savageries culminated in theburning of George
Wishart, a Reformed minister, before the Castle of
St. Andrews. This event outraged the public mind
and proved as harmful to the ecclesiastical cause as
the death of Hamilton a few years before. Wishart
suffered under the eyes of the Cardinal, who reclined
in a window of the castle to witness his passing. As
the
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the flames rose the voice of the martyr was heard to
declare something to this effeft, "God forgive yon
man that hes so glorious on the wall head; but
within a few days he shall lie there as shameful as
he is glorious now." The common people in Scotland
held the Reformed preachers in almost superstitious
reverence and set great store by their prophetic
powers. The dying words of Wishart passed rapidly
through the land until thousands came to believe that
the Cardinal was accursed and that his end was near.
Then followed the murder at St. Andrews. In the
early dawn of that May morning in 1 546 we find a
band of sixteen assassins in full possession of the
gates and courtyard of the Cardinal's castle. Norman
Leslie, the hero of Ancrum Moor, is the leading
spirit, and there, too, we recognize again the youth-
ful heir of Kirkaldy-Grange. The lad was not among
those who forced their way to the Cardinal's chamber
and did the bloody deed, but his sword was out and
he made wild work among the castle guards. It was a
black business, and it is to be feared that it was a sense
of personal rather than national wrongs that nerved
the arms of the assassins. Norman Leslie held a bitter
grudge against the Primate, and we have already
seen what the relations were between the Baron of
Kirkaldy-Grange and the chief ecclesiastic of the Ro-
man Church in Scotland. Why the son rather than the
father was engaged in this affair, we do not know,
but before night on the day of the murder the Baron,
with many other Fifeshire gentlemen, had joined the
assassins in the ca.stle. It is to be noted as an evidence
of the temper of the conspirators that the mangled
remains of the great Cardinal were early displayed
from the battlements, to the end that the prophecy
of Ma.ster Wishart might be fulfilled.
Then followed the forfeiture of the assassins by
Parliament
The life and l^eatl^ of
Parliament and the siege of St. Andrews Castle.
English gold found its way within the beleaguered
walls, and doubtless into the pockets of the besieging
nobles whose work was tame indeed. There is no
trace of horror at the crime to be found in the Pro-
testant literature or memoirs of the day , and while Sir
David Lindesay of the Mount burlesqued the event
in verse we find John Knox writing "merrily" of the
" Godly fadl." The war still smouldered on the Bor-
ders and the Catholic party prevailed upon the Regent
to appeal to France for aid. The heats of summer
passed, the autumn waned, the winter blasts from the
German Ocean roared over the castle battlements,
and still the garrison bade defiance to the whole
power of the Kingdom of the Stuarts. It was in the
early spring of 1 547, the late snows were still gleam-
ing on the crests of the Lomond hills, when John Knox,
then just coming into notice as a forceful preacher,
made his way into the castle and cast in his lot with the
defenders. There he found one of the strangest and
most ill assorted assemblies that has ever gathered in
any cause. The fiercest theological zeal went hand in
hand with all viciousness and crime. It was a band
made up on one hand of fanatics who walked grimly
in the ways of the Lord, and on the other of brawling
ruffians who feared neither God nor man. While in
one part of the castle John Knox thundered his doc-
trines and hurled anathemas upon the evildoers, in
another boisterous dissipation held shameless sway.
In the intervals of the siege the good people of St. An-
drews and of the country round about suffered fearful
outrage at the hands of the unruly garrison. As the
summer deepened the rough preacher betook him-
self to prophecy. He declared that the castle walls
should "be but as e^g shells," that England would
not rescue them, that " they should be delivered into
their
u,A L I —•^^esm^K^^^'mm^mmmmmmim
Sir mtUiam l^irfialDt^ Knt. 19
their enemies hands, and carried afarofFinto a strange
country."
The superstitious garrison showed disheartenment
at these words, and on the twenty-ninth of June, 1547,
a fleet of sixteen galleys, flying the standard of
France, made their way into St. Andrews Bay. Then
there was siege in earnest, for the veterans of France
were far different foes from the turbulent vassals of
the half-hearted Scottish peerage. The dash of Nor-
man Leslie and the courage of the Kirkaldys availed
nothing against such enemies as these, direfted by the
skill of Leo Strozzi who had recently foiled the ar-
mies of the Emperor before Siena. On July thirtieth,
the walls of the castle having been fatally breached,
the garrison surrendered to the King of France. The
defenders were taken aboard the galleys and trans-
ported to French ports. William Kirkaldy and Nor-
man Leslie found their prison on the sea-girdled rock
of St. Michel. John Knox, in the valley of the Loire,
pulled wearily at a galley oar throughout the long
winter, while the Baron of Kirkaldy-Grange fumed
and chafed in stri6l confinement within the Castle of
Cherbourg. So the prophecy of John Knox came true
and the Kirkaldys and their ill-starred colleagues were
carried "afar off into a strange country."
The bearing of William Kirkaldy at St. Andrews
had been much to the liking of Knox, and though
scores of miles separated the castled rock of St. Mi-
chel from the rotting galley on the Loire, in some
way the two managed to maintain communication
with each other. That Kirkaldy was true to the re-
former's standards and to the early teachings of the
Lady Janet, his mother, is shown by his refusal to
attend mass at the command of his captors " unless
he should be permitted to kill the priest." This evi-
dence of his hopeful spiritual state was followed by
a
20
The life and f^t^tX^ of
a letter in which he desired to know of Knox "if it
was lawful for him to break his bonds." To this came
in due time an affirmative reply from the preacher,
provided it could be accomplished without the shed-
ding of blood. And now the jailors at St. Michel fell
upon evil times for they had to contend with the ready
wit and the strong arms that had mastered Beatoun's
castle. On the eve of the birthday of Henry II the
vigilance of the castle guards was relaxed because
of overmuch drinking of His Majesty's health. Kir-
kaldy and two companions seized the opportunity,
and as a result of a bloodless scuffle the warders were
soon in confinement and the hardy Scotchmen mak-
ing their way in the early dawn through the shal-
low waters to the mainland. " Great search was made
through the whole country for them," writes Knox,
"but they escaped the hands of the faithless."
It is not clear how John Knox gained his liberty nor
why the Baron of Kirkaldy-G range was released by
the French King, but these men, with Norman Les-
lie and William Kirkaldy, had in 1550 regained
British soil and made their way to London. The at-
mosphere of Scotland was still uncongenial for all
those who had wrought the crime of St. Andrews.
Henry VIII had passed away, and Edward VI held
his mild sway over England; the Queen of Scots
had been betrothed to the Dauphin of France, and at
nine years of age was dwelling at the French Court
under the eyes of her ambitious uncles of the House
of Guise. W^hile Edward lived all went well with the
exiles, though to men of their a6tive habits life in
London may have been dull enough. The city that
Kirkaldy saw had suffered much in appearance in the
past decade. The mansions of the great nobles still
rendered it imposing, and the prosperity of the mer-
chants was evidenced in many a fine hall or palace
rising
Sir 2Ullliam i^ttfealDr, K7it.
ZI
rising here and there above the low timbered roofs
that ckistered thickly westward of the Tower. But
the eye was everywhere offended by the ruins of the
churches and religious houses that had been wrecked
and rifled by the ruthless citizens of King Harry's
day. It is to be feared that Kirkaldy and his friends
gazed upon these sights and found them good, that
they did not mourn for the colour and the pomp with
which the churchmen had invested the capital, and
which had passed away with the fall of their spires
and shrines. Like the rascal rabble thronging as ever
on the Bridge and in old St. Paul's, they regarded
these signs of ecclesiastical woe as a righteous pur-
ging wrought by the hand of God. A pension from
the English Crown soothed them for the loss of
their Scottish revenues until the untimely death of
the young King brought Mary Tudor to the throne.
Then there was an end of pensions and it behooved
the slayers of a Primate to look elsewhere for shelter.
John Knox made his way to Geneva, that famous ren-
dezvous for those of his way of thinking, while Nor-
man Leslie and William Kirkaldy crossed the Channel
and placed their swords at the disposal of the French
King.
The presence of the Queen of Scots in Paris had
drawn many Scotchmen thither, and in such favour
was the nation held at the French Court that our re-
cruits were well received despite the tragedy of St. An-
drews and the escapade of Mont St. Michel. Henry
was preparing for his bold stroke against Charles V,
and stout soldiers were in demand. All sorts of mar-
tial exercises were popular, and at these Kirkaldy
appeared to much advantage. "The King," says Sir
James Melville, " used him so familiarly as to chuse
him commonly upon his side, and because he shott far
with a great shaft at the butts, the King would have
him
22
The Mit and ^t^i\^ of
him to shoot two arrows, one for his pleasure." The
Court of France was doubtless at this time the most
pohshed and splendid in Europe. Great soldiers, keen
statesmen, men of letters and science, thronged the
salons of Henry II, and fair ladies reigned over all.
To men bred to the saddle and the spear the luxury
of this environment formed a strange transition. Kir-
kaldy may well have carried through life vivid mem-
ories of that famous Court: the commanding figure
and haughty courtesy of Fran9ois de Guise, the mar-
tial presence and grave bearing of Coligny, the boy-
ish features and the keen glance of the Cardinal of
Lorraine, the modest deference of Ambroise Pare, the
bent figure of Rabelais, the witty Vicar of Meudon.
There, too, was the dazzling beauty of the fair Diane,
the dark impassive face of the vengeful Queen, and
the childish graces of the Queen of Scots as she moved
radiant among her bright Maries. It was a brilliant
company that thronged the lists to applaud the feats
of mimic war, that swept through the Royal halls in
the mazes of the dance, or sat hushed with bated
breath listening to the latest sonnet or ode of Mon-
sieur Ronsard.
But the trumpets were sounding for the campaign,
and Kirkaldy and Norman Leslie were glad to fol-
low the Great Constable of France to the field. The
campaigns of 1553 and 1554 in the Low Countries
proved a brilliant succession of battles and sieges from
which the Duke of Guise snatched fair laurels at
Metz, and the armies of the Emperor final vi6lory
at St. Quentin. These two years of hard campaign-
ing with the greatest captains of the time, employing
all the most modern machinery of war, afforded Kir-
kaldy the experience that enabled him to hold un-
disputed throughout his life the title of the first sol-
dier of Scotland. Norman Leslie met a hero's death
on
Sir miWimx l^ttfialDi?, Knt. 23
on the hillsides of Renti, and we are assured that " no
man made greater dole for his death than the laird
of Grange." At the close of the campaign Kirkaldy
accompanied the King to Paris, his name known and
respe(5led throughout the army. " He was extolled,"
said Sir James Melville, " by the Duke of Vendome,
Prince of Conde and Duke of Aumale, governors
and colonels then in Picardy and I heard the King,
Henry II, point unto him and say, ' Yonder is one of
the most valiant men of our time.' The Great Con-
stable of France would not speak with him uncov-
ered, and the King gave him an honourable pension,
whereof he never sought payment."
But the young Scotchman had faced the hosts of
the Emperor without love for the cause he had es-
poused. His heart was in the Fifeland, and he longed
to be back among his people at the castle above the
Scottish Sea.];]; It filled him with rage to hear how the
Queen Mother reigned for the Roman Church with
French soldiers at her back. Neither the respe6l of
his comrades, the allurements of the Court, nor the
good will of the King could win his afFe6f ion for the
great dynasty beneath whose silver lilies he had
marched and fought. Under date of March first,
1 557, we find Sir Nicholas Wotton, the English Am-
bassador at Paris, writing as follows to Lord Paget at
London : " I have heretofore certified to the Queen's
Majesty what good will this bearer Kirkaldy seemed
to bear to Her Majesty and to the realm of Eng-
land, how little he is contented with the present state
of Scotland, and how desirous he is to see it freed from
the yoke of Frenchmen and restored to its former
liberty, and also what offx^rs he hath divers times
made to serve the Queen's Majesty. . . . Forasmuch
as he returneth now to Scotland, and thereby hath
occasion to pass through England, I advised him to
do
24
Sir aatuiam Ittfealtii?, Knt.
do that which I perceived he was before of himself
disposed to do — to visit you by the way."
It is a singular fa6l in regard to this letter that many
historians have made the error of disregarding its
date and assuming that Elizabeth was "the Queen's
Majesty" to whom it refers. But Mary Tudor had
yet many months to live and it was as her Ambassa-
dor that Wotton was dwelling at the Court of France,
and it was to her that he declares Kirkaldy bore
"good will." With the life of the camp and at the
Tournelles as an antidote for the teachings of John
Knox, we can fancy that Kirkaldy 's political and re-
ligious views had undergone some modification since
the day he broke his bonds at Mont St. Michel. De-
spite the fa6l that Bloody Mary ruled in England, he
believed the real danger to Scotland lay in the am-
bition of the Princes of Lorraine. He had much cause
to love the French King; he remembered well the
*' rough wooing "of Henry VIII, but he was still of the
opinion in which he had been bred, that lasting peace
with England was not only necessary to the welfare
of Scotland, but quite possible of achievement. How-
ever much his conscience may have been concerned
in the do6lrines of Master Knox, he had also come to
see that in the spread of Protestant ideas throughout
the island of Great Britain there was an influence at
work that made for political unity.
'BOOF^ II
"BOOK^II
"BOOK^II
HOW COilliam I^irkalDp returned to SCOTLAND
as HaitD of (Grange, how he overthrew JRalpf) (!Btiet0
in single Qomhat^ and how as a Soldier of the Congrega-
tion he defended the FIFE LAND against the JTr0ncf)=
men.
OW the young soldier was re-
ceived in London, we do not
know,nor whether he urged that
the troops of the Enghsh De-
fender of the Faith should be
employed to expel from Scotland
the troops of His Most Christian
Majesty of France. Before the
summer had passed he trod again the far-viewing
battlements of that ancient castle in which he had
been born. It was as Baron of Kirkaldy-Grange that
the young man reappeared among his friends in Fife,
for his stout old father had died a few months before
and now slept with his ancestors in the httle church
that nestled in the shadow of the castle wall. Nor was
this the only bereavement he had suffered during his
exile. His grandfather, the stern Knight of Raith, had
in the last days of the reign of Edward VI been put
to death at Stirling, by order of the Regent, for con-
ducing a treasonable correspondence with England.
The devotion of the father and the grandfather to the
cause of the English alliance came home to Grange
with new force now that they were both gone.
Aside from his personal sorrows the home-coming
of
28
The tilt and J^eatl^ of
of Grange was dreary enough. He found public af-
fairs in a sad state. The tyranny of Mary of England
had filled Scotland with refugees who stirred the com-
mon people by their tales of persecution suffered, and
of Smithfield bonfires. John Knox had made his way
home in 1 556, and his voice was ringing up and down
the land calling the Roman Church to account. One
by one the great nobles were declaring for the Re-
formed faith, thereby winning favour with the com-
mons and a reasonable surety of increased wealth
when the treasures of the Church should be divided.
Mary of Guise, the Queen Dowager, who had dis-
placed Arran as Regent, while inclined by nature to
leniency was much influenced by her bigoted bro-
thers in France. She pursued a shifting policy, at one
moment fierce and cruel, at another weak and relent-
ing. It was in the hope of placating the rapidly in-
creasing Protestant party that she recalled the offend-
ers of St. Andrews. While the presence of a Roman
Catholic Princess on the English throne had, as we
have seen, stimulated the growth of Protestant doc-
trine among the common people in Scotland, it had
dampened the political ardour of the English party
north of the Tweed. True to her engagements with
her brothers in France, the Regent strove to employ
her power in threatening measures against the Eng-
lish posts on the Border. But the Scottish nobles failed
her as they had failed the King, her husband, when
any aggression was attempted on English soil. She
could rely only upon her French troops, and they
were too few for offensive measures. In view of these
circumstances, and considering Wotton's letter of the
spring of 1 557, it is surprising in the fall of that year
to find Lord Wharton, who commanded for England
on the Borders, writing to London of a conference
held with the Laird of Grange, who, with the Lord
James
Sir mniimx MrfialDt, Knt. ^^
James Stuart and others, is clearly a6ling in the in-
terest of the Regent and her French allies. Whether
the attitude of Grange at this time was brought about
by the memory of some rebuff encountered during
his stay in London, or because of the evidence Scot-
land offered of the savage policy of Mary Tudor, we
can only conje6lure. His course may be traceable to
the influence of the Lord James Stuart, with whom he
consorted much in these days. This young man was
a natural son of James V, and as a child had been
created Prior of St. Andrews. He had gone to France
in 1 548 in the train of his sister, the Scottish Queen,
and did not reappear in Scotland until six or seven
years had passed. With fine natural endowments, the
Lord James had eagerly improved the varied advan-
tages afforded by a residence at the French Court.
A close student of military affairs, he attained even
greater proficiency in those graceful and subtle ac-
complishments that mark the scholar and the states-
man. It was in Paris that Grange first met this accom-
plished scion of the House of Stuart, and a warm
friendship resulted. The intimacy between the young
men was destined to endure for many years and to
exercise a strong influence upon the chara6ler, con-
du6l and fate of the Laird of Grange.
It was during his service on the Border in the spring
of 1 B5^ that Grange underwent the challenge of Sir
Ralph Evers. Pitscottie states "that the Lord Evers'
brother desired to fight with William Kirkaldy, Laird
of Grange, in single combat upon horseback with
spears and the said William was very well content
thereof." The combat took place on the slopes of the
Halidon Hill in the presence of the two armies. Evers
was accompanied by his brother, Lord Evers, the
Governor of Berwick ; Grange by Monsieur D'Oy-
sel, the Lieutenant of the King of France in Scotland.
"The
30 The Life and J^eatl^ of
" The Laird of Grange," says Pitscottie, " ran his ad-
versary the Englishman through the shoulder blade
and off his horse, wounded deadlie and in peril of his
life. But whether he died or lived I cannot tell, but
Grange wan the vi6lorie."
Aside from the light it throws upon the chara6ter
of Grange, this incident is memorable as being the
last of those knightly jousts which form so pi61;ur-
esque a feature in the history and tradition of Border
strife. Kirkaldy with his Fifeshire spearmen may have
been back in Edinburgh before the summer months,
and the Regent could hardly be indifferent to the ser-
vice he had done. But so shrewd a woman may well
have feared that in this stalwart scion of a brave and
heretical ancestry there was the nucleus of much
trouble for her cause.
The year 1558 was marked by more important
events than the vi61;ory of Grange over Evers. In
April the Queen of Scots was married in Paris to the
Dauphin of France, and in the fall Mary Tudor
yielded up her troubled life and the Princess Elizabeth
ascended the throne of England. The Scottish Par-
liament despatched a deputation of distinguished men
to represent the nation at the nuptial festivities in Paris,
but before they reached the French coast on their
homeward journey, no less than five of these emi-
nent persons were seized with sudden illness and died.
The Lord James Stuart was among those stricken,
but recovered. Poison immediately suggested itself
to the popular mind in Scotland, and as the Protestant
element was largely represented in the deputation,
the Princes of Lorraine and the Roman Church were
roundly charged with murder. An event that might
have been the happy occasion of allaying party bit-
terness thus became the means of widening the breach
between the religious faftions and of advancing the
interests
Sir muiimx l^irfealDr, Knt. 31
interests of the Reformation. The accession of Eliza-
beth and the reiistablishmentof Protestantism in Eng-
land came at a happy moment for this cause. So in
1559 what Pitscottie quaintly styles "the uproar of
religion" was let loose upon the land. The Church
met the rising influence of the preachers and the grow-
ing defeftion among the nobles as unwisely and as
savagely as of yore. The venerable Milne was burned
at the stake, and the Reformers responded with a6ls
of savage vandalism. It was the display of idols in the
procession on St. Giles day in Edinburgh that moved
the rabble to frenzy. Although the Regent herself
rode in the pageant, the mob could not be restrained.
"Then, "says Knox," the priests and friars fledfaster
than they did at Pinkie Cleuch. Down go the crosses,
off go the surplices, round caps and cornered crowns.
The Grey Friars gaped, the Black Friars blew, the
priests panted and fled."
The unhappy Regent would fain have effe6led some
honest compromise, but with the marriage of her
daughter in Paris the influence of her brothers be-
came too strong to be resisted. The events of the
years i559 and 1560 form a sad and weary chapter
in the annals of Scotland. The preachers were sum-
moned to appear at Stirling to answer charges of
heresy and sedition, but they came so strongly at-
tended that there was nothing for it but to dismiss
them with courtesies and fair words. The godly peo-
ple of Perth stoned tlie frightened priests and then
wrecked their fair cathedral. The Regent was re-
strained from retaliatory measures by the uprising of
the gentlemen of Fife. She was allowed to enter Perth
at last on conditions that she promptly violated; her
march upon St. Andrews was checked by a superior
force. The fall of 1 ,559 found her at Dunbar, worsted
and humiliated at every point. Her duplicity at Perth
had
32 The Mit and ?^eatl^ of
had cost her the support of the Earl of Argyle and
also of the Lord James Stuart, who, however, had no
great love for the extreme views and measures of
Knox and his ministers. One by one her friends
dropped away until Lord Seton and that ill-omened
peer, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, were almost
the only men of rank or influence that remained true
to her cause. Under the name of the Lords of the
Congregation the Protestant nobility advanced upon
Edinburgh, occupied the city and then sat down be-
fore Leith, blockading the French troops there.
Grange appears to have joined the Congregation at
about the time of the affair at Perth, and was proba-
bly under arms in season to welcome the Lord James
Stuart to the cause. For a time he appears to have
been more aftive with his pen than with his sword,
and certain it is that men were few in Scotland who
could wield the gentler weapon with skill and efFe6l.
In the spring of 1559 Knox was at St. Andrews,
having just returned thither from another visit to
Calvin in Geneva. He vvas joined in St. Andrews by
Grange, and there, in the words of the preacher,
they " entered into deep discourse." The steadily in-
creasing strength of the Regent's French forces dis-
turbed their peace of mind. To Knox their presence
meant the giving over of the land to Antichrist and the
delivery of thousands of souls to the pains of ever-
lasting perdition. To Grange it meant the vassalage
of Scotland to France, and ruinous and never-ending
strife with "the auld enemy." "If England," ex-
claimed Knox, " would foresee their ane commodity,
yea if they did but consider the danger wherein they
themselves did stand, they would not suffer us to
perish in this quarrel, for France hath decreed no
less the conquest of England than of Scotland." So
Grange took his pen in hand, and his letters at this
time
IMi
Sir milliam l^itfialD^, Knt. 33
time give much insight into the posture and desires
of the Congregation. On June twenty-third he writes
to Cecil in London, "If ye suffer us to be over-
thrown ye shall prepare a way for your own destruc-
tion; if you will advisedly and friendly look upon us,
Scotland will in turn be faithful to England to de-
fend the liberties of the same."
Again on July i, 1559, we find Grange writing to
Sir Henry Percy from Edinburgh, where, he says
with military exa6lness, the Congregation had ar-
rived that day " by three of the clock ."" I assure you ,"
he says of his comrades, "you need not have them
" in suspicion ; for they mean nothing but the refor-
" mation of religion, which shortly throughout the
" realm they will bring to pass. . . . The manner of
"their proceeding in reformation is this; they pull
" down all manner of friaries and some abbeys which
" willingly receive not the Reformation ; as to parish
" churches they cleanse them of images and all other
" instruments ofidolatry and command thatnomasses
" be said in them, in place thereof the book set forth
" by godly King Edward is read in some churches.
" They have never as yet meddled with a penny-
" worth of that which pertains to the kirk ; but pre-
" sently they will take orders through all the parts
" where they dwell that all the fruits of the Abbeys
" and other churches shall be kept and bestowed
" upon the faithful ministers until such time as other
" orders be taken. Some suppose the Queen seeing
" no other remedy will follow their desire; which is
" that a general Reformation be made throughout
" the realm, conform to the pure word of God, and
" the Frenchmen sent away. If her Grace will so do,
" they will obey and serve her and annex the whole
" revenue of the Abbeys to the Crown. If her Grace
" will not be content, they will hear of no agree-
" ment." There
3+
The life and ^mt\^ of
There is no record of protest by any of the lords
or gentlemen of the Congregation against the a6ts
of vandalism to which Grange refers. Even the more
worldly sort like the Lord James Stuart and Douglas
Earl of Morton seem to have accepted the formula of
Knox that the way to be rid of rooks was to pull
down their nests. No Southron army ever worked
such havoc in Scotland as the hosts of the Congre-
gation. St. Mungo'Sjin Glasgow, was happily spared,
as was for the time the Cathedral of Elgin, that stately
fane so fondly described as "the mirror of the land
and the fair glory of the realm." But what the Eng-
lishmen had left of Kelso and Dryburgh now fell by
Scottish hands. Tall spires that had loomed as sacred
landmarks for generations of pious souls came crash-
ing down in dust and rubbish. The wind howled
through broken belfries now silent forever. The bells
of Melrose no longer sounded in the vale of Tweed ;*
the sailor coasting the shores of Fife listened in vain
for the sweet melody of St. Andrews' chimes. Pic-
tures, carved woods, the sacred vestments, all the
beautiful and glittering paraphernalia of the priestly
orders served to feed bonfires throughout the king-
dom. The sacred vessels of gold and silver were
melted down, and their value found its way into the
pockets and coffers of those who Grange inno-
cently beHeved had not "meddled with a pennyworth
of that which pertains to the kirk." Grange saw
things through honest eyes, he heard with honest
ears, and his faith in his colleagues was still high
when he declared to Cecil "that the world shall see
that a league made in the name of God hath another
foundation and assurance than fa61:ions made by man
for worldly commoditie." But even his enthusiasm
could not blind him long to conditions as they really
were. On July eighteenth we find him ruefully ad-
mitting
im
Sir 2Htlliam i^ttfealtit^ Knt.
35
mitting to Cecil that "some of our number are poor
and we fear corruption by money."
Kirkaldy's correspondence was not in vain. Cecil
instru6led Percy " to say unto him, that for his letter
" I do privately thank him for so friendly a parti ci-
" pation with me of such a matter ; and ye may as-
" sure him, that rather than that realm should be un-
" der foreign nation and power, oppressed and de-
" prived of the ancient liberties thereto belonging,
" and the nobility thereof, and specially such as at
" this present seek to maintain the truth of the Chris-
" tian religion, be expelled, the authority of England
" would adventure with power and force to aid that
" reabn against any such foreign invasion ; and, in-
" deed, I dare also affirm, would be as sorry to see
" that ancient nation to be overthrown and oppressed,
" as this our own." The interest of England in ex-
pelling the French and maintaining the Congrega-
tion in Scotland is readily understood. In July, 1559,
the brain of Henry II had been pierced by Montgom-
ery's fatal lance, and as consort of Francis II, Mary
Stuart now reigned as Queen of France. Under the
pressure of her ambitious uncles she had assumed the
arms and title of English Queen, and there were few
good Catholics in Europe who did not regard her as
the rightful successor of Mary Tudor. The ministers
of Elizabeth could not be indifferent to Scottish affairs
nor to the welfare of any fa61:ion that opposed the
House of Guise.
In the fall, then, of 1559 we find nearly the whole
nobility of Scotland in arms against the Regent, and
the French troops blockaded in Leith. Then William
Maitland of Lethington, the most brilliant scholar,
the brightest wit and the ablest diplomat of his day,
abandoned the Regent and "rendered himself unto
Maister Kircaldie, Laird of Grange." Maitland had
declared
36 The Life and i^eatlft of
declared " that the mark he always shot at " was " the
union of England and Scotland in perpetual amity,"
and the friendship which developed between Grange
and himself doubtless had its root in a sense of polit-
ical accord. The French troops at Leith, admirably
trained and commanded, easily held at bay the rough
chivalry of Scotland. A sum of money despatched from
England was waylaid and seized by the Earl of Both-
well, and the Congregation soon found itself in straits.
It required but little skirmishing to convince Grange
that the vassals of the Scottish peers were not the men
to cope in open field with the best soldiers in Europe.
The infantry of the Congregation was badly worsted
in an encounter near Restalrig, and the Lord James
Stuart was only saved from capture or worse by a
whirlwind charge of Kirkaldy's Horse. Then fol-
lowed the retreat of the whole army upon Stirling,
and the Regent in exultation despatched Monsieur
D'Oysel with a picked force to lay waste the sedi-
tious Kingdom of Fife. This favoured distri61: so far
removed from Border strife and Highland raids had
grown rich and populous. Its ports were famous for
their commerce, while its shores were studded with
thrifty villages and the imposing castles of the no-
bility and gentry. Marching by Linlithgow, D'Oysel
crossed the Forth at Stirling bridge and pushed east-
ward towards St. Andrews. He established head-
quarters in the Castle of Wemyss, within whose
bowers a few years hence the Queen of Scots was to
be wooed and won by Henry Darnley. The French
march was at first almost unopposed. Kirkaldy's
house of Halyards beat off" an attack, but his village
of Grange was put to the torch, while the old castle
was first pillaged and then mined and shattered by
gunpowder. "William Kirkaldy of Grange," says
Calderwood, "the day after his house was demol-
ished.
Sir 2IllUiam i^ttfealDl?, Knt.
37
ished, sent a defiance to Monsieur D'Oysel and the
rest of the French, declaring that to that hour he had
used the French favourably ; he had saved their Hves,
when he might have suffered their throats to have
been cut. But now seeing they had met him with such
rigour, willed them not to look for like favour again.
As for Monsieur D'Oysel he bade say to him, he
knew he would not get him to skirmish with, be-
cause he knew he was but a coward. But it might be,
he should requite him in full either in Scotland or
France." Lord Ruthven and the Lord James Stuart,
as well as Grange, were soon in the field. It was a bit-
ter winter in Fife; the ice formed thick on the lochs,
and the snow that lay deep on the land was whirled
into impassable drifts by the rough winds that swept
in from the sea or came roaring down from the
Grampian Hills. Too weak to confront the French
advance Kirkaldy kept the open country, and by day
and night, guided often by the smoke or glare of
wanton conflagrations, he pursued and harried his
foe. Knox writes with enthusiasm to Cecil of the pru-
dence and courage displayed by Grange. " They did
" so valiantly that it passed all credibility ; for twenty
" and one days they lay in their clothes ; their boots
" never came off; they had skirmishing almost every
" day, yea some days from morn until even. They
" held the French so busy that for every horse they
" slew in the Congregation, they lost four French sol-
" diers. . . . They have casten down to the ground
" the Laird of Grange's principal house called the
** Grange and have spoiled his other places. God will
" recompense him I doubt not, for in this cause and
" since the beginning of this last trouble especially
" he hath behaved himself so boldly as never man
" of our realm hath deserved more praise. He hath
" been in many dangers and yet God has delivered
" him
38 The Life and J^eatl^ of
" him above mere expe6lations."
But despite all resistance Monsieur D'Oysel forced
his slow way toward St. Andrews. On the twenty-
fourth of January, 1 560, he gained the promontory of
Kincraigie, and his eye sweeping the grey expanse of
the Firth descried eight ships of war making their
way in from the sea. For the moment he hailed them
as reinforcements from France, but when the leading
ship displayed a broad standard with the red cross
of England his illusions were dispelled. What he
saw was Mr. Winter's English squadron, the first
tangible response of Elizabeth to the appeals of the
Congregation. The French retreat began at once.
Betwixt the bitterness of the season and the energy
of the Scots the indomitable qualities of the French
were sorely tried. " The Laird of Grange," says Pits-
cottie, " slew many of them ere they won Dumferm-
line." A certain Captain Labattie, " ane verrie manlie
sharp man," was cut off from the main body near
Kinghorn, and while his men were slain or captured
he died an honourable death on the sword of the
Master of Lindesay. At Tullibody, Grange destroyed
the bridge over the Devon. The French were obliged
to bivouack all night in the snows, but at dawn they
stripped the village church of its rafters and re-
bridged and crossed the stream. Jaded, bleeding and
in sad plight the remnants of D'Oysel's column at
last reentered Edinburgh, but before this Grange
had been shot through the body " and the bullet did
stick in one of his ribs."' Gunshot wounds in the six-
teenth century were unpleasant affairs, and it is sur-
prising to find Grange again a61:ively engaged in the
field in the early spring of 1560. When he rejoined
the camp he found the Congregation reinforced by
an English army under Lord Grey de Wilton and
engaged in laying siege to the French in their de-
fences
Sir miUiant i^irfialDt, Knt.
39
fences at Leith. Grange found also that the Queen
of England had agreed to aid the Lords upon most
surprising conditions. They would retain her favour
only so long as they remained loyal to their rightful
Princess. She drew the sword for Religion, but not
against the Queen of Scots.
The sad-hearted Regent was received into Edin-
burgh Castle by Lord Erskine, who held a somewhat
neutral position in these stormy days. On April thir-
tieth Sir Henry Percy wrote to Cecil from the camp
before Leith extolling the military services of the
Laird of Grange. The English cannon silenced the
French guns in St. Anthony's Tower and partially
breached the walls. Lord Grey prepared for an assault,
and on May sixth we find Sadler, Crofts and Grange
critically examining the ground before the French
defences. Grange promptly decided against the pro-
je6l. In his judgement the French lines were too
strong and the allies too inexperienced to justify such
vigorous taftics. Crofts was to inform the Lord Grey
of their decision, while Sadler and Grange returned
to the camp. But in some way a misunderstanding
arose. In the early morning of May seventh the as-
sault was made. Not only did Crofts fail in delivering
his message, but he w^as not on hand with his own di-
vision to support the attack. The scaling ladders were
found to be six feet short, a fa6l that Knox ascribed
to their being made in St. Giles Church to the cur-
tailment of the accustomed preaching. "God would
not suffer such contempt of the Word to be long un-
punished." The attackers were beaten back with
great slaughter. From the window of her sick-room
in the Castle the Regent watched the sun rise out of
the Firth, and in the red glow of the dawn she saw
the lilies of France wave in triumph above the ram-
parts of Leith. Lord Grey and the leaders of the Con-
gregation
40 The life and J^eatlft of
gregation were much alarmed and urgent messages
were despatched into England for reinforcements.
There was much parleying between the opposing
commanders, and in writing to the Duke of Norfolk
under date of May thirteenth, Lord Grey refers to a
conference between two honest men, — that stanch old
Catholic peer, Lord Seton, and the Laird of Grange.
The position of the French, despite their success
just mentioned, was most critical. Winter's squadron
held the sea, while the power of two kingdoms lay
encamped against them. France was racked by in-
ternal dissensions, and was coming to think that the
services of her veterans were misspent beyond the
seas. Negotiations were soon under way to establish
a permanent peace, and in the early summer of 1560
the representatives of England, France and Scotland
concluded that remarkable pa6f known as the Treaty
of Edinburgh. The French troops sailed for France
in their own galleys, and the English soldiery re-
crossed the Border. While the treaty required the
sanation of Francis and Mary to make it valid, and
while that sanftion was never obtained, its provisions
still remained in efFe6l and the Scottish Reformation
became an accomplished fadf . In the meantime, Mary
of Guise had passed away and had made a right
Christian and queenly ending. She requested the
presence of the leaders of the Congregation, and as
they stood about her regretted the errors she had
made and her overmuch dependence upon her kins-
men in France. With a beautiful courtesy she even
listened to the upbraiding and spiritual admonitions of
Master Willcock, a Reformed preacher, and then be-
sought the loyalty of all toward her youthful daugh-
ter, the Oueen of the realm. " She embraced and with
a smiling countenance kissed the nobles one by one,
and to those of inferior rank who stood by she gave
her
Sir miUiam i^ttfialDt, Knt. 41
her hand to kiss as a token of her kindness and dying
charity." She was a princess of noble and generous
chara6ler. It was Sir Walter Scott who said "that
her talents and virtues were her own ; her errors and
faults the effe6l of her deference to the advice of
others."
The Scottish Estates met in July, 1560, the juris-
di6lion of the Catholic clergy was abolished and the
celebration of the mass prohibited under extreme
penalties. So far the godly were in accord, but now
trouble began. The preachers urged that the Church
revenues should be devoted to their proper support,
to the cause of education and for the help of the poor
within the realm. The Scottish nobles saw only maud-
lin sentiment in a measure that had so little regard
for them, and put aside the proje6l as "a devout
imagination, a well meant but visionary system which
could not possibly be carried into execution." Mait-
land of Lethington was much amused at the attitude
of the clergy, and in his chara6leristic fashion de-
sired to know "whether the nobility were now to
turn hod bearers to toil at the building of the Kirk."
Knox was shocked and grieved at the rapacity of
these greedy peers. "Who would have thought,"
he groaned, "that when Joseph ruled in Egypt, his
brethren would have come down thither for corn and
returned with sacks empty.'' Men would have thought
that Pharaoh's storehouse would have been emptied
ere the sons of Jacob were placed in risk of starving
for hunger."
In the midst of this plundering Grange appears
to have maintained clean hands. He obtained the
Castle of Wester-Kinghorn to replace the loss of the
Grange, but this was a small recompense for the ser-
vices he had rendered and the sacrifices he had
made.
'BOOK^ III
"BOOK^III
"BOOt^III
WO^ ^^X^^iWQXi reigned in^Q,OT\.K^\i and how
<©ran00 accused her of Evil 'Doing ; how he bore himself
at CARBERRY HILL and at LANGSIDE FIELD,
and how he afterwards pursued the dBatl Of T6Otf)tP0U
/»^ Me' NORTHERN SEAS.
EFORE the close of the year
1560 that gentle soul the King
of France had breathed his last
in Paris. This event not only left
the Queen of Scots a widow, but
destroyed the supremacy of her
ambitious uncles at the French
Court. In view of this discomfi-
ture of the Princes of Lorraine the Scottish Parlia-
ment thought it safe to invite their rightful Princess
to return to the land of her ancestors. The Lord
James Stuart was despatched to Paris to bring about
this happy event, and as a result of his mission we
find the widowed Queen in the early summer ap-
plying to her "dear sister" of England for a safe-
condu6l to pass into Scotland. The Treaty of Edin-
burgh was still unratified, the claim to the English
throne had not been withdrawn, and the safe-con-
du(5l desired by the Scottish Queen was never
granted. "Neither those in Scotland, nor we here,"
declared Cecil," do like her going home. The Queen's
Majesty hath three ships in the North Seas to pre-
serve the fisheries from pirates. I think they will
be sorry to see her pass." Randolph writing to Cecil
from
46 The Life and J^eatl^ of
from Edinburgh states that the Lord James, the Earl
of Morton and Maitland of Lethington" wish as your
honour doth, that she might be stayed yet for a space ;
and if it were not for their obedience' sake some of
them care not though they never saw her face."
But despite the lack of a safe-condu6f and those ships
that would be sorry to see her pass, the month of
August found the Queen on board a French galleon
that ploughed its way through summer seas toward
the land of her birth. The grey mists settled down
upon the waste of quiet waters, and shrouded in their
prote6ling haze the Royal ships passed safely to their
anchorage at Leith. The Queen's escort had hailed
the fog as the a6f of Heaven which preserved her
from watchful enemies. John Knox also saw in it the
hand of God, but to him the skies were overcast and
the air was dim to mark the divine displeasure. " That
forewarning God gave unto us, but alas! the most
part were blind." However lukewarm the nobility,
the common people received their Queen with much
delight. Fires flashed out on the high lands of Lo-
thian and Fife, and a motley crowd was on hand to
accompany the Royal cortege to Edinburgh. There
were pageants in which the Church of Rome was de-
rided, and for successive nights companies of Knox's
godly youths with three-stringed instruments per-
formed fearful serenades beneath the windows of
Holyrood. The great nobles made their way to the
capital to pay their doubtful court. The unstable Cha-
telherault,* the rough and crafty Morton, the savage
Lindesay, the fanatical Glencairn, honest Seton, the
rash and boastful Both well, thronged the town with
their armed retainers. The Queen's priests celebrating
the mass in the palace chapel barely escaped death
by the sword of the Master of Lindesay. The zeal-
ous baron was restrained by the Lord James whose
blade
Sir mtUtattT i^trfealD^, Knt.
M
blade was also drawn. Knox lamented this weakness
in the brother of the Oueen. Was not one mass more
dangerous to the realm than a hostile invasion by ten
thousand men?
And now for a time the name of Grange drops out
of the correspondence and memoirs of the day, for
there was a succession of peaceful months when men
of the sword could doff their armour. He was doubt-
less much at Court during the first year after the
Oueen's return, for the Lord James Stuart was his
bosom friend, and it was upon her brother at this
time that the Queen leaned much for counsel and
support. The Lord James was granted the Earldom
of Mar, and we can fancy the honest satisfa6lion of
Grange at the well earned honour that had come to
his prudent and brilliant friend. In Edinburgh Grange
met again the Due D'Aumale, his old friend and ad-
mirer who had accompanied the Queen from France,
and also D'Elboeuf and D'Amville, Admirals in the
French service, whom he had known at the Court of
Henry IL D'Elboeuf and D'Aumale were uncles of
the Queen, and the former consorted much with the
Earl of Bothwell, finding in him a fit companion with
whom to disturb the precarious peace of the capital
and set St. Giles bell a-ringing. In keen contrast to
D'Elboeuf, the courtly Brantome was in Edinburgh,
drawn thither from the allurements of Paris by the
charms of the youthful Queen. We can fancy that
Grange was not at ease with him, and indeed there
were few at this rough Court, save Lethington, who
could reciprocate his fine phrases or admire his pol-
ished wit. Holyrood had become transformed, and
what with the tapestries and rich adornments she
had brought from France, the Queen had made her
cramped and low-ceiled rooms suggestive of the more
spacious and splendid interiorsof theFrenchchateaux.
The
mmmmmm
48 The Life and J^eatl^ of
The French customs and diversions introduced by the
Queen drove Knox to distra6lion. "So soon as ever
her French fillocks, fiddles and others of that band
got the house alone there might be seen skipping not
very comely for honest women. " He laboured fiercely
with the youthful Princess, and "knocked so hard at
her heart" that she shed tears. He assured her that
her judgement could not make "that Roman harlot
the true spouse of Christ," and roundly condemned
her priests as "Baal's shaven sort." Lethington did
not approve of his harsh methods. " I could wish," he
wrote, " that he would deal more gently with her but
surely in her comporting with him she doth declare a
wisdom far exceeding her age." Knox saw porten-
tous visions in the misty air, and in the roaring of the
gale heard the wrathful complaint of God. But at the
palace they were blind. "The Queen and our court
made merry ! "
The Queen sate daily among her council with her
gold embroidery in hand, and in the mornings she
was wont to read Livy or Virgil with Master George
Buchanan whom Grange had known in Paris. When
the Court rode out or followed the chase the people
exclaimed, " God bless her fair face ! " But Knox saw
naught of this and inveighed against " the superfluity
of clothes, the targeting of their tails and the rest of
their vanity." At night the lights streaming from the
palace windows were marked with misgiving by
pious eyes, and the voluptuous music of the dance
that floated out upon the midnight air fell upon godly
ears. It is to be feared that Mar and Grange both
bore some modest part in these vanities, for they
knew well the manners of polite courts and how to
carry a good figure in a galliard. As for Lethington
he was restrained by no religious consideration; he
was unconvinced in an age of theological fanaticism.
Moreover,
Sir 22IiUiant l^trfealDi^, Km.
49
Moreover, his politic heart had become ensnared. He
had fallen viftim to the bright eyes of one of the
Queen's Maries and followed Mary Fleming wher-
ever she chose to lead him.-f It is likely that he fol-
lowed her to mass. It was gorgeously celebrated in
the palace chapel, and the choir had gained the ser-
vices of a rare musician in the secretary of the Ambas-
sador from Piedmont, who had recently arrived in
Scotland. The Queen and her ladies heard with rap-
ture, above the swelling harmony of the chant, the
rich melodious voice of David Rizzio.
In the late summer of 1 562, the Queen entered upon
that "cumbersome, painful, and marvellous long"
journey to the North which was to result in the hu-
miliation of the House of Gordon. The Earl of Mar
accompanied her with an armed force, and in her suite
was Mr. Randolph, the English Envoy, whose facile
pen was to preserve for all time the pi6lure of the
joyous Queen riding fearless and free over hill and
moor. After the first tragedy at Inverness the Queen
found herself in the midst of war. It was clear that old
Huntley, hopeless of pardon, would defend his strong
places to the last. In this predicament the Queen sent
into Fife for the Laird of Grange, and ordered the
cannon at Aberdeen to be made ready. Randolph re-
cords these fa6ls under date of September thirtieth.
Kirkaldy must have spurred hard in obedience to the
Royal summons for it was he who, on the ninth of Oc-
tober, made a dash upon Huntley's castle of Strath-
bogie, where the said Earl barely escaped capture
by scrambling "over a low wall without a boot or a
sword." Grange was also present at the a6lion a few
days later where Huntley lost his life.
In September the Earl of Mar had been created Earl
of Murray, the title by which he is best known in Scot-
tish history, and it is clear that he was in high favour
with
50 The life and j^eatlft of
with the Queen. As for Grange he was as loyal a sub-
je6t as his devotion to the English alliance would per-
mit, and in the rise of the Lord James to the Earl-
dom of Murray he had been drawn closer to the Court
and to the person of his Sovereign. There was nothing
ambiguous in his attitude at this time. His career was
known to the Queen, and he had never expressed re-
gret for the part he bore against her mother in the
wars of the Congregation. To attempt to follow the
course and examine the motives of the Earl of Mur-
ray during the seven years that his sister reigned in
Scotland is a hard and intricate task, but Grange had
neither taste nor talent for the subtle courses which
his friend pursued. He was a soldier who could give
and take hard blows in the open, but he was dull and
heavy in finding indireft ways to an end. It is doubt-
ful if in the early sixties he had realized the hopes of
the Baron, his father. The University of Paris had
failed to equip him as "a man of wit and policy" of
the sort with which the slaughtered Beatoun was wont
to surround himself. How many of the intrigues and
cabals of the day were intelligible to Grange it is im-
possible to say. Murray and Lethington could hardly
afford to be frank with each other, and Grange was
too outspoken to be trusted with the full confidence
of either.
Early in i ^6s the first hints were given that Henry
Darnley was to be raised to the throne of Scotland.
In July of that year the nuptials were celebrated, and
one may still read the entry in the Canongate Register
of Marriages, " Henry and Marie, Kyng and Qweine
of Scotis." Murray had laboured in vain against the
proje6f , was not present at the wedding, and in Oc-
tober we find him with Chatelherault,Argyle, Rothes,
Glencairn and Grange in open rebellion against the
Queen. Grange swept into Edinburgh at the head
of
Sir milliam i^trfealDt, Km.
51
of a thousand horse, but found the burghers stolidly
loyal. Then follows the spe6lacle of the best soldiers
in Scotland driven in wild flight before the enthusi-
astic power which had rallied to the Queen on her
first call to arms. At Hamilton, Captain Brick well, an
officer in the English service, finds Murray, Grange
and their friends, and describes them as " very pen-
sive and dismayed men, desperate altogether of their
well doing." It is clear from Bedford's correspond-
ence with Cecil that Elizabeth was in Murray's con-
fidence, and that he looked to her for support in the
measures undertaken. To Brick well he complained
of the "littell help" received. Murray, Rothes and
Glencairn retired into England, and late in 06fober
we find Grange writing from Alnwick to the Earl
of Leicester, pleading for support in men and ships.
With the failure of this revolt, derisively known in
Scotland as the Run-about Raid, the English Queen
was prompt to disavow all knowledge of the matter.
She summoned Murray before her and he, in the
presence of the French Envoy, acquitted her of any
knowledge or share in the enterprise. Murray was
a brave man and a shrewd courtier, and we find him
here in the most pitiable plight of his career.
In the meantime Rizzio had run his course at the
Scottish Court. Darnley had thrown oflfthe mask and
stood revealed to all in the full measure of his be-
sotted insolence. The Queen had determined that at
the next session of Parliament the Run-about Raid-
ers should suffer the forfeiture of their estates, a
policy that found small favour with Morton, Ruth-
ven, Lethington and other prominent men in the
realm. Rizzio was said to approve the Queen's course.
Darnley was told that Rizzio did argue with the
Queen against granting him the Crown Matrimonial.
With dull ears the tipsy youth had heard from crafty
lips
52 The life and ^eatJ^ of
lips that the exiled lords favoured his claims upon
the Crown, and that Rizzio was more intimate with
the Queen than was fitting. On the ninth of March,
1566, there was a frightful tragedy in Holyrood.
Rizzio, in the very presence of the Queen, was done
to death by the dirks of Scottish nobles, and when
his mangled corpse was thrown aside for burial the
King's dagger was still sticking in its side. On the
day after the murder Murray and Grange rode down
the High Street of Edinburgh, and repaired to the
palace to wait upon the King. Murray was sum-
moned to the Queen's presence, and Grange beheld
the unhappy woman as she sobbed upon the breast
of her brother and lamented that he had not been
by to prote61: her from such cruel handling. Did
Grange know of the plot against Signor David.? The
murder was but an episode in a broad conspiracy in
which the nobility and the Kirk itself appear to have
been engaged. Randolph told Cecil on March sixth
that Murray and Grange were privy " to a matter of
no small consequence that was impending in Scot-
land. "On March eighth Bedford announces that Mur-
ray is homeward bound, will reach Edinburgh on the
tenth, and that " the thing which is intended shall be
executed before his coming there." Upon these state-
ments, fortified by his arrival at Holyrood on the day
predi6led, rests the case against Murray and against
Grange as well. But this evidence is not conclusive,
and we can only conje6f ure as to the extent of Mur-
ray's fore-knowledge of the palace tragedy and as to
whether Grange would have stood in his confidence
in such a matter. Still, as in the case of Beatoun's
murder, there is small trace of horror or disapproval
in the contemporary accounts of the event. To the
preachers it seemed '*a just a6l and most worthy of
all praise."
Upon
Sir mniiam MtfialDt, Knt. 53
Upon Murray's revolt the Queen had restored the
Earldom of Huntley to the Lord Gordon, and to
strengthen her cause had recalled from exile the
Earl of Bothwell. This brawling, foul-mouthed peer
had displayed a loyalty to the Crown of which
Murray, Lethington and Grange seemed incapable.
His Protestantism was of the lukewarm sort and it
had never tempered his hatred of "the auld enemy."
In the wars of the Congregation we have seen how
his waylaying of the English gold had brought the
godly to confusion at Leith. On the night of Rizzio's
murder Bothwell was housed within the palace. He
crossed swords with Morton's vassals in the close,
and finally escaped from one of the palace windows
by means of cords. He rode hard to Dunbar and
raised the Borderside for the Queen. On the twelfth,
two days after Murray's return, the Queen escaped
from Holy rood, and on reaching Dunbar found her-
self at the head of a powerful force. The feeble and
repentant King was with her, and she had drawn
from him the full list of his colleagues in the con-
spiracy. Again the enemies of the Queen took to
flight. Morton, Ruthven and Lindesay crossed the
Border, and John Knox himself departed for Ayr-
shire in much haste. The Queen reentered her capi-
tal in triumph, escorted by a brave array of Hep-
burns and Gordons. Murray and Grange were
pardoned and the former restored to favour. Both-
well liad proved a friend in need. He was confirmed
in his offices of Lord High Admiral of Scotland and
Lieutenant of the Southern Border. He misdoubted
Murray, however, and retired for a time to his Castle
of Hermitage, in Liddesdale, where he indulged his
restless energy in wild rides over the broken coun-
try and in fierce scuffles with "stark moss-troopers
and arrant thieves."
After
54 The tilt and ^t^i\^ of
After the return of the Court to Edinburgh, Grange
appears to have retired into Fifeshire. The Queen
repaired to Edinburgh Castle for her lying-in, and it
was on the morning of the nineteenth of June that
Mistress Mary Beatoun crept down the narrow stair
and bade Sir James Melville ride to London with
the glad tidings that the Queen of Scots was "the
mother of a fair son." The Reverend James Melville
has recorded his boyish recolle61;ion of passing "to
the head of the muir to see the fire of joy burning
upon the steeple head of Montrose at the day of the
King's birth." From his Castle of Wester-Kinghorn,
Grange must have seen the red glare on Arthur's
Seat and the flaring of beacon-fires all along the
Haddington shore from Leith to Berwick Law.
During his seclusion in Fife, Grange doubtless heard
enough to convince him that the Court was no longer
merry, and that the Queen would have done well
had she listened to her brother when he warned her
against mating with Henry Darnley. It was in De-
cember of this year that Huntley ,Argyle, Lethington
and Sir James Balfour agreed at Craigmillar "that
such a young fool and proud tyrant should not reign
nor bear rule over them, and that for divers causes
he should be put ofFby one way or other." The young
fool had indeed become insufferable to every one
with whom he came in conta6l. He was again pee-
vish and sullen. He was not present at the christen-
ing at Stirling, and when the Queen graced that
happy occasion by extending full pardon to the Riz-
zio conspirators, he was much disturbed. He had
betrayed them all and they were vengeful men. On
January ninth, 1567, Bedford informs Cecil that
Darnley is with his father at Glasgow, " and there
hes full of the small pox," On the twentieth of Jan-
uary the Queen left Edinburgh for Glasgow to visit
the
Sir milliam iSfrfialt)^, Knt. 55
the King. The Lord Bothwell as Sheriff of Lothian
conduced her as far as the Calendar, a place of Lord
Livingstone's near Falkirk. On the twenty-seventh,
Darnley, convalescent and repentant, was brought
by the Queen from Glasgow to the Calendar on his
way to Edinburgh. On the thirtieth the Royal party
approached the capital and was met a little east of
Linlithgow by the Earl of Bothwell. "It was first
designed in Glasgow that the King should have lain
in Craigmillar but because he had no will thereof
the purpose was altered, and conclusion taken that
he should lie beside the Kirk of Field."
The house fitted up for the patient was the prop-
erty of Sir James Balfour. The Queen passed daily
with the gentlemen and ladies of her court to visit
her sad and docile consort. On Sunday, February
ninth, the nobility was strongly represented in Edin-
burgh, but the Earl of Murray left town in the
morning bound for Fife upon important business. At
four o'clock on the afternoon of that day the Queen
attended the banquet given by the Bishop of Argyle
to the departing Ambassador of Savoy. From there
with all the noble company, save Bothwell, who
slipped away, she proceeded to Balfour's house to
wait upon the King. As darkness fell the lights
twinkled merrily in Holyrood, for there was mask-
ing and dancing to grace the marriage of Sebastian.
The night deepens and the Queen is still with the
King, but at eleven o'clock there is a glimpse of" light
torches" as "the Queen's Grace" passes along the
Black friars Wynd. Shortly after midnight Holyrood
grows dark and deep gloom settles upon the town,
save for a single light burning in the window of the
Archbishop Hamilton, over against the Kirk of Field.
About three hours before dawn there is "a blast
and crack ; " a ruddy glow flashes in the air. Houses
tremble
56 The Life and ji^eatl^ of
tremble and the sleeping town awakes. The light
in the Archbishop's window goes out. Then the bell
of St. Giles booms upon the air, and again there is the
flashing of torches in the Blackfriars Wynd as Lord
Bothwell hurries toward the Kirk of Field with the
palace guards. Balfour's house is found wrecked to
its foundation stone, and that "noble and mighty
Prince, Henry King of Scotland, husband to our
sovereign lady," has ended his brief and wicked
life.
How the Earl of Bothwell was accused of murder
" by placards privily affixed on the public places of
the Kirk of Edinburgh," how the Earl of Lennox be-
sought the Queen to bring the slayer of his son to jus-
tice, and how Bothwell did in April stand trial for the
crime, are recounted in all the histories of the day.
The assize was held on April twelfth and Bothwell
was acquitted of any share in the King's murder.
Lennox was not present. He was forbidden to enter
the town with more than six followers, and finding
his enemies in great force he feared for his life, and
withdrew to Stirling. It was doubtless a fine sight
on this fateful day to see Bothwell surrounded by
his arquebusiers, and followed by some four thou-
sand gentlemen, pass "with a merry and a lusty
shout" to the Tolbooth. It was just a week from the
" cleansing " of Bothwell to that pi6luresque supper
in Ainslie's Tavern whereat the great nobles of the
realm signed a band, "upoh their Honours and Fi-
delity obliging and promising to set forward the
marriage betwixt her Highness, and the noble and
mighty Lord, James, Earl Bothwell."
" The Earl of Murray," says Melville, " did foresee
the great trouble likely to ensue," and departed for
France only a few days before the Bothwell trial.
Grange on the other hand regarded the wild rumours
from
Sir mtlliam i^itfealD^, Knt. 57
from the capital as a call to aftion. He was probably
present at the funeral of King Henry, and doubtless
heard "the merry and lusty shout" which greeted
Both well as he rode to trial. In these days of trick-
ery and terror, when a sense of guilt and danger bore
heavily upon the minds of a score of Scottish nobles,
we find Grange alone a6ling with decision for the
achievement of an honest end. Murray's wisdom
was not now at his command, and Lethington of the
ready wit was with the Queen, He turned for help
and counsel to his old friends in England, and in his
letter to Bedford dated April twentieth, we find his
conception of the crisis stated with a martial frank-
ness. " It may please your lordship to let me under-
" stand what will be your Sovereign's part concern-
" ing the late murder committed among us ; for albeit
" her Majesty was slow in all our last trouble, and
" therefore lost that favour we did bear unto her,
" yet nevertheless if her Majesty will pursue for the
" revenge of the late murder, I dare assure your
" Lordship she shall win thereby all the hearts of all
" the best in Scotland again. Further, if we under-
" stood that her Majesty would assist us and favour
" us, we should not be long in revenging of this
" murder. The Queen caused ratify in Parliament
" the cleansing of Both well. She intends to take the
" Prince out of the Earl of Mar's hands, and put him
" into Bothwell's keeping, who murdered the King
" his father. The same night the Parliament was dis-
" solved. Both well called the most part of the noble-
" men to supper, for to desire of them their promise
" in writing and consent for the Queen's marriage,
" which he will obtain ; for she has said that she cares
" not to lose France, England, and her own country
" for him, and shall go with him to the worlds end in
" a white petticoat ere she leave him. Yea, she is so
"far
The Life and J^tatlft of
" far past all shame, that she has caused make an
" A6t of Parliament against all those that shall set
" up any writing that shall speak anything of him.
" Whatever is unhonest reigns presently in this
" Court. God deliver them from their evil."
Events moved rapidly at the Scottish capital, and on
April twenty-fourth, five days after the supper at
Ainslie's Tavern, Bothwell met the Oueen as she
passed from Linlithgow toward Edinburgh. He had
an armed force at his command, and with or without
her consent the Queen was conveyed to Dunbar
Castle.J
Lethington was taken with the Queen in this affair,
and how Grange regarded it is shown by his writ-
ing to Bedford under date of April twenty-sixth :
" This Queen will never cease until such time as
" she hath wrecked all the honest men of this realm.
" She was minded to cause Bothwell seize her, to
" the end that she may the sooner end the marriage
" whilk she promised before she caused Bothwell
" murder her husband. There are many that would
" revenge the murder, but they fear your mistress.
" I am so suited, too, to enterprise the revenge, that
" I must either take it upon hand, or else I maun leave
" the country, whilk I am determined to do if I can
" obtain licence. But Bothwell is minded to cut me off,
" if he may, ere I obtain it, and is returned out of
" Stirling to Edinburgh. She proposes to take the
" Prince out of the Earl of Mar's hands, and put
" him in his hands that murdered his father, as I writ
" in my last. I pray your lordship let me know what
" your mistress will do; for if we seek France, we
" may find favour at their hands; but I would rather
" persuade to lean to England. This meikle in haste."
The energy and purpose of Grange had become
infe6lious. The nobles gradually drew together, the
honest
Sir maiiam iSirfialDi?^ Km. 59
honest sort to punish Bothwell and preserve the
Queen and Prince; the guilty because they saw an
opportunity to crush that overbearing man who held
their tarnished reputations at his command. By the
first week in May the very men who had sworn to
support Bothwell in Darnley's murder, and to uphold
him in his suit for the hand of the Queen, are buc-
kling on their armour to rid the land of so foul a mis-
creant.
At this time Sir James Balfour was governor of
Edinburgh Castle. He had been placed there by Both-
well, but Sir James Melville besought him to hold it
free from Bothwell's influence as a possible refuge
for the Oueen and Prince. Balfour hesitated, stand-
ing much in dread of the strong Border peer, but
finally yielded to Melville's urgency on condition
" that the Laird of Grange would promise to be his
prote6lor in case the nobility might alter upon him."
Grange agreed to this condition, and Balfour lightly
betrayed his trust.
On the fifteenth day of May the Queen married
Bothwell, whom she had already created Duke of
Orkney. Morton, Home, Lindesay and Grange now
took the field, and by a rapid night march narrowly
missed capturing the Duke as he lay at Borthwick
Castle. They then moved upon Edinburgh, and when
Huntley offered resistance in the King's name, they
battered in St. Mary's Port and took forcible pos-
session. They were now joined by Glencairn, Athol
and Ruthven, while Lethington also came over to
them, being in great fear of his life from the Duke
of Orkney. On the fifteenth of June they moved
eastward through Musselburgh, and came upon the
Royal army as it lay upon the upper slopes of Car-
berry Hill. Grange, who commanded the Horse upon
his side, promptly seized a position that threatened
the
6o The Mit and J^Catl^ of
the flank and rear of the Royal army. "He is one
of the best warriors among our adversaries," was
the comment of Bothwell. Du Croc, the French Am-
bassador, laboured vainly throughout the morning to
arrange a peace. Bothwell was splendid on horse-
back and looked "a great commander." Though his
army comprised few men of note save Seton, whose
sword was always at the disposal of the Stuarts, and
though half his soldiers were disloyal, yet he spoke
with great confidence and his bearing was gay and
bold. The Queen, arrayed "unqueenly" in short
jacket and bright red skirt, rode her palfrey apart.
The day was warm. The sea and sky melted together
in the summer haze, the heat shimmered in the low
valley of the Esk where the Lords were drawn up
in martial array. Grange in his post of vantage was
a grim menace to the Royal cause. The Queen had
much confidence in his honour. She dreaded blood-
shed, and Du Croc, hopeless of peace, had left the
field. Here, in the words of Sir James Melville, is
what took place :
"When the Queen understood that the Laird of
" Grange was chief of that Company of Horse-men,
" she sent the Laird of Ormistoun to desire him to
" come and speak with her under surety, which he
" did after he had acquainted the Lords with her de-
" sire, and had obtained their permission. As he was
"speaking with her Majesty the Earl of Bothwell
" had appointed a Soldier to shoot him, until theQueen
" gave a cry, and said that he would not do her that
" shame, seeing she had promised that he should
" come and return safely. Grange was declaring un-
" to the Queen that all of them were ready to honour
" and serve her, upon condition that she would aban-
" don the Earl of Bothwell, who had murthered her
" husband, and could not be a Husband unto her, who
"had
Sir muiiam i^irfealti^, Knt. 6i
" had but lately married the Earl of Huntley's Sister.
" The Earl of Bothwell hearkened and heard part of
" this language, and offered the Combat to any who
" would maintain that he had murthered the King.
" The Laird of Grange promised to send him an an-
" swer shortly thereunto. So he took his leave of the
" Queen, and went down the Hill to the Lords, who
" were content that the Laird of Grange should fight
" with him in that quarrel. For he first offered him-
" self, and acquainted Bothwell that he would fight
" with him upon that quarrel. The Earl of Bothwell
" answered, That he was neither Earl, nor Lord, but
" a Baron, and so was not his equal. The like answer
" made he to Tullibardine. Then my Lord Lindesay
" offered to fight him, which he could not well re-
" fuse, but his heart failed him, and he grew cold
" in the business. Then the Oueen sent ae^ain for the
" Laird of Grange and said to him, that if the Lords
" would do as he had spoken to her she should put
" away the Earl of Bothwell, and come unto them.
" Whereupon he asked the Lords if he might in their
" name make her Majesty that promise, which they
" commissioned him to do. Then he rode up again,
" and saw the Earl of Bothwell part, and came down
" again and assured the Lords thereof. They de-
" sired him to go up the Hill again, and receive the
" Queen, who met him, and said, ' Laird of Grange,
" I render myself unto you, upon the conditions you
" rehearsed unto me in the name of the Lords.'
"Whereupon she gave him her hand, which he
" kissed, leading her Majesty's horse by the bridle
" down the Hill unto the Lords, who came forward
" and met her."
There is a quaint contemporaneous pi6ture, painted
for the Earl of Lennox, that gives a crude idea of
the field of Carberry and shows the opposing arma-
ments
62 The Life and J^eatlft of
ments drawn up in battle array. The Queen is rid-
ing down the hill toward the Lords and Grange
walks on foot by her side, with uncovered head.
The sun was westering when Bothwell galloped
almost unattended from the field, and the evening
shadows were creeping down the hillsides as the
principal Lords moved forward to receive the Queen.
There was some interchange of gracious and loyal
phrases, but the march to Edinburgh had hardly
begun when the rough soldiers began to crowd
about their Sovereign and to fill the air with deri-
sive shouts and foul epithets. "The nobility," we
are told, "well allowed of this," but Grange rode
in to her side, "drew his sword and struck at such
as did speak irreverent language." In the dark-
ness the tumultuous procession entered the narrow
wynds of the capital, the rabble joining in the uproar
and disorder. The Queen was detained in the Pro-
vost's house, from the windows of which she made
frenzied appeals to her persecutors. Grange was
furious. He stormed at his colleagues and threatened
to abandon their perjured cause. Betwixt the rav-
ings of the Queen and the wrath of Grange, the
Scottish peerage was hard put to it. Some whispered
that the Queen's face had bewitched the best sol-
dier in Scotland. Toward midnight, just at the crisis
of the matter, when the defe6lion of Grange seemed
certain, it was reported among the Lords that a let-
ter from the Queen to Bothwell had just been de-
livered into their hands. Who produced it, or whether
it really was displayed is not clear, but there were
some high and mighty peers who declared they had
seen it with the ink still damp, — that it had been
written within the hour and that the infatuated wo-
man had styled the Earl " her dear heart, whom she
would never forget nor abandon." This is the only
appearance
Sir mtlliam iattfealD^, Knt. 63
appearance in history of this most timely letter. It was
not among the mass of dociuTientary evidence that in
later years was produced against the Queen, nor do
we find it alluded to again.
Grange was dumbfounded, but with fine chivalry
he endeavoured to excuse the Queen. "She had in
eflPeft," he urged, "abandoned the said Earl, and it
was no wonder that she gave him yet a few fair
words. He did not doubt if she were discreetly han-
dled and humbly admonished what inconveniences
that man had brought upon her, she would by de-
grees be brought not only to leave him but ere
long to detest him." The Lords argued that until
she had attained this state of mind she should be
held in ward. Grange still urged gentle dealing with
her, but admitted that while Bothwell was alive it
were better she should be detained in custody. He
then oflPered to pursue the Earl and bring him dead
or alive to Edinburgh. And now came another let-
ter from the Queen, this time addressed to Grange,
complaining of the violation of his plighted word and
of cruel and disrespectful usage.
' Whereunto," says Melville, "he answered that he
' had already reproached the Lords for the same ;
' who showed him a letter sent by her unto the Earl
' of Bothwell, promising among many other fair and
' comfortable words, never to abandon or forget
' him, which though he could scarcely believe it was
' written by Her Majesty had stopped his mouth.
' He marvelled that Her Majesty considered not,
' that the said Earl could not be her lawful husband,
' being so lately married with another, whom he
' had deserted without any just ground, albeit he
' were not so hated for the murder of the King her
' husband. He entreated Her Majesty to put him
' clean out of her mind as otherwise she could never
"gain
64 The tXiZ and ^t^i\^ of
" gain the love and obedience of her subje6ls. This
" letter contained many other loving and humble
" admonitions which made her bitterly to weep."
Their distrust of Grange, and the attitude of the
mob whose rage against the Queen had given way
to pity, led the Lords to adopt extreme measures. She
was hurried from Edinburgh at midnight on the six-
teenth, and the next day found her safely immured
within the Castle of Lochleven.
While Grange was most sensitive to any disre-
spe6lful treatment of the Queen it is clear that he
believed it wise to hold her for a time in some mea-
sure of restraint. He even agreed that the King should
be proclaimed — this as a provisional measure, to
assist in the preservation of good order within the
realm. Before Lindesay rode to Lochleven in July
to gain the Queen's abdication, we find Grange with
others urging Sir Robert Melville "to tell her the
verity,'' and how "that anything she did in prison
could not prejudge her being again at liberty." Sir
Robert agreed to report this to the Queen as com-
ing from those "he knew to be her true friends,"
and it is clear that her abdication was due to this
advice rather than to that rough grasp of Linde-
say 's iron gauntlet. The Queen requested that the
Earl of Murray should assume the Regency, and
that nobleman was making his way northward
through England. On August eleventh he reached
Edinburgh, and was besought by Grange "to bear
himself gently and humbly unto the Queen. , . .
Time might bring about such occasion as they
should all wish her at liberty to rule over them."
Perhaps the Lord Murray was not altogether pleased
with the attitude of Grange. It is clear that he did
not follow his advice. On the sixteenth he reached
Lochleven and there arraigned his sister so fiercely
that
Sir mniiam IStrSalti^, Km. 65
that she retired that night "in hope of nothing but
God's mercy." She was especially cautioned to bear
" no revenge to the Lords and others who had sought
her reformation," meaning, of course, all those high-
born gentlemen who had banded together for the
slaying of the King and her marriage with the Earl
of Both well.
While Grange contended for the courteous treat-
ment of the Queen he was yet more insistent that
Bothwell should be seized or slain. This in his judge-
ment was the first step toward the restoration of
the Queen. There were many among the nobility
who believed it wiser that "sleeping dogs should
lie." There were others who believed that any re-
sult arising from a mortal combat betwixt Bothwell
and Grange would prove a benefit to many peers
and barons who had a load of guilt upon their
souls. On the eleventh of August a commission was
granted to Grange and to his friend, the Laird of
Tullibardine, to pursue by sea and land with fire
and sword the Earl of Bothwell and his accom-
plices. Bothwell had fled to Orkney, and on the
nineteenth Grange set sail from Leith with four
vessels manned by four hundred men. On the eve
of departure he wrote as follows to the Earl of Bed-
ford:
" For my own part though I be no good seaman, I
" promise me to your Lordship that if I once en-
" counter with him either by sea or land, he shall
" either carry me with him, or else I shall bring him
" dead or quick to P^dinburgh. I take God to witness
" the only occasion that moved me either to procure
" or join myself to the Lords of this late enterprise
" was to restore my native country again to liberty
" and honour. For your Lordship knows well enough
" how we were spoken of amongst all nations for that
" treasonable
66 The Life and '^Ztit\^ of
" treasonable and horrible deed which was com-
" mitted by the traitor Both well."
Sailing from Leith in the Unicorn, Grange in a few
days saw the stormy seas breaking on the coasts of
Orkney and heard the deep-toned bells of Kirkwall
sounding above the roar of unquiet waters. He bore
away to Shetland, and in the Sound of Bressay he
first sighted the armada of Both well. This glimpse
of his enemy had set the blood dancing in his veins,
and in spite of their protests he compelled his fright-
ened seamen to crowd on all sail. Bothwell's pilots
threaded safely these treacherous and shallow waters
but the Unicorn was soon hard and fast upon a reef
with the great seas beating her in pieces. Both well
steered for Denmark, while Grange made his peril-
ous way to another ship and without the loss of an
hour followed in hot pursuit. Off the Norwegian
coast Grange again drew up within cannon-shot.
The mainmast of the Earl's ship was splintered by
a ball, but at this crisis a great wind arose from
the southwest and the warring galleys were driven
far apart. Bothwell's craft drifted helplessly upon a
sandy beach, but he managed to escape over her
side and make his way to higher land. He passed on
to a more cruel fate than that for which Grange had
destined him. Late in September the ships of Grange
came gliding again into Scottish waters, " frustrate of
their prey,'' but bringing captive with them the shat-
tered galley of Both well. Aboard this ill-fated craft
were Bolton, Hay and other servants of the Earl, who
were to suffer torture and death for the misdeeds of
their master, and whose grim and wavering deposi-
tions were to chill with dread the noblest blood in
Scotland.
The Regent Murray found a hard task upon his
hands. The complications which had their root in the
Darnley
Sir milliam i^itfealUt^ Knt. 67
Darnley conspiracy threw the nobility of Scotland
into strange groupings. Religious lines that had so
keenly divided the faftions seemed swept away.
The minds of many of the great ones in the realm
had ceased to refle6l upon the pains of Hell, but
the scaffold and the block had become a very pre-
sent terror. Perhaps a ta6lful course on the part of
the Regent might have done much toward quieting
the fears and jealousies of these tainted men. But the
Regent was not ta6fful and carried matters with a
strong hand. As the Lord Morton grew in favour
with him, the Hamiltons and the great people of the
West who hated the house of Douglas drew away
from his interest. These gentlemen soon espoused
warmly the cause of the imprisoned Queen. They
were heartily ready to receive her when on that" Sun-
day at even" in the spring of 1568 she escaped from
the island keep. There were warm hearts and good
swords in that band of horse with which Lord Seton
met her as she stepped upon the strand of Lochleven.
Who has not read with delight those pages in The
Abbot wherein Sir Walter Scott describes that wild
night gallop of the Queen's with Seton and his trusty
men ; and of that morning view from her casement at
Niddry where, " instead of the crystal sheet of Loch-
leven," she saw a landscape of wood and moor, a
glimpse of banners " floating in the wind as lightly as
summer clouds." There were Hamiltons, Setons and
Flemings under anns, "swords and spears in true
hands, and glittering armour on loyal breasts."
The Regent lay at Glasgow on the night that
the Queen was riding for Niddry. He met the cri-
sis calmly and with decision. The vassals of Len-
nox and the burghers of Glasgow were promptly
under arms, and Morton and Glencairn joined in
good season. The Lord Home brought in his Border
spears
IB
The life and j^eatl^ of
spears, Balfour appeared with the arquebusiers from
the Castle of Edinburgh. But the eyes of the Regent
gladdened when, stained with dust and the marks
of hard travel, the best soldier in Scotland came
riding on to Glasgow Green at the head of his
armed retainers. It is fair to suppose that Murray
doubted Kirkaldy's coming, and we can well believe
that Kirkaldy was ill at ease in the crisis. Doubt-
less he still bore much love toward the Regent,
though he had lost the full confidence that he had
once reposed in him. But Grange did not relish the
manner or the season of the Queen's reappearing.
She should have taken counsel of wiser friends.
Bothwell was still alive and there was no surety
that she had conquered her ill-starred love. The
triumph of the Hamiltons would plunge the nation
into a long period of civil war. Grange must have
reasoned in some such fashion as this before he rode
westward to join the Regent.
The Queen desired no bloodshed, but would go to
Dumbarton Castle "and there endeavour little by
little to win again the obedience of all her subje6ls."
She tried to bring about " a communing for concord
by the means of the Secretary Lethington and the
Laird of Grange; and for her part she would send
the Lord Herries and some other." But the Hamil-
tons, and especially the Queen's General, the Duke
of Argyle, confident in superior numbers, were anx-
ious for battle. The Regent, moreover, had divined
the Queen's plan to move upon Dumbarton, and
Grange having surveyed the ground, his whole
army took up a strong position on Langside Hill,
which lay direftly in her line of march. "The Re-
gent," says Melville, "committed to the Laird of
Grange the special care as being an experimented
Captain, to oversee every danger, and to ride to every
wing
Sir milliam Mt^alhi^, Km. 69
wing to encourage and make help where greatest
need was." A thorn tree a few rods from the ruins
of Cathcart Castle marks the spot from which on
July 18, 1568, the Queen of Scots is said to have
looked down upon the battle. Her partisans rushed
fiercely up the hill and locked spears with the Re-
gent's pikemen. Some hagbutters, posted by Grange
at the head of the lane on Langside Hill, staggered
the vanguard of the Hamiltons;§ the archers of the
Regent beat off an attack by Lord Herries' Horse.
Then Grange brought up the reserves and struck
the flank of the Queen's pikemen still struggling in
the lane. A rout set in. Seton was captured, sword in
hand. The Regent forbade pursuit. "Grange was
never cruel," says Melville, "so that there were but
few slain and taken." The Queen was away on her
famous ride to Dundrennan Abbey, from whence she
was to pass out of Scotland forever.
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HOW Grange kcame Qdptain ^ //;c CAST LE OF
EDINBURGH, /mi' he came to ^lis doubt the Carl
Of l^Urrap, and ho-n: he xvas Persuaded to 'Declare that
he stood for the £lUCCn Of ^COtS.
IR James Balfour had fought
stoutly at Langside, hut the Re-
gent was anxious to have the
Castle of Edinhurgh out of his
hands. He had been a minion
of Both\veirs,and his reputation
for i:)ersonal honour even in
these dishonourable times was
not of the best. Mindful of the pledge that Grange
had made, Balfour declared that he would yield his
trust to him and to none other. To this suggestion the
Regent readily agreed. He was fond of Grange, and
though he had been worried by his attitude toward
the Queen, he felt reassured now that the unhappy
Princess was a fugitive beyond the Border. So on
September 5, i,56'8, Grange entered the Castle as its
Captain. The old familiar haunts in Fifeshire were to
know him no more, and for the remaining short mea-
sure of his life he was to dwell watchful and armed
within the walls of Scotland's greatest stronghold.
The Scottish Queen had been dethroned by her
nobles. This was a bad precedent for Elizabeth to
condone. But the Scottish Queen had not ratified the
Treaty of Edinburgh, and was in tlie eyes of good
Cathcjlics the riglitful Oueen of England. Tiiese facts
made her a dangerous and unwelcome guest on l'>ng-
lish
74
The life and i^eati^ of
lish soil. While it was clearly for Elizabeth's interest
that the insurgent nobles should be called to account,
it was even more imperative that the fugitive Prin-
cess should be forever discredited as a claimant for
the English crown.
Not long after the taking over of the Castle by
Grange, we find Murray passing into England to
justify the course of the insurgent Lords. Morton,
Glencairn and Lennox were in his company, and
they had among them those famous letters taken
from the gilded Casket, and those strange deposi-
tions which had been racked from Bothwell's ser-
vants before they laid their heads upon the block.
The Scottish peers were face to face with a desperate
problem. It was no easy matter to incriminate the
Queen in a guilty love for Bothwell and in the
tragedy of Kirk of Field without revealing their
own share in the marriage and the murder. Grange
had urged that nothing should be asserted contrary
to the Queen's honour, but while he remained in the
Castle, Morton was in England plying the Regent's
ear with contrary advice.
The events that took place at York and Hampton
Court during the closing months of the year 1568
have been the subje6l of endless argument for suc-
cessive generations. The Regent makes but a sorry
figure in the pi61:ure. Chatelherault, Herries and
Lesley defend the Queen, but there is a suggestion
of fear and half-heartedness in their bearing. The
mystery of Lethington grows more impenetrable.
At one moment that crafty man seems anxious that
the guilt of the Queen should be established ; at an-
other we find him whispering to Norfolk "in the
fields " that the evidence against her has been forged,
that she is innocent of the crimes that are laid to
her charge. She is not allowed to confront her ac-
cusers
Sir mniiam Mvfialhv, Knt. 75
cusers nor to see those cruel papers on which the ac-
cusations rest. At last, after weeks of unseemly pro-
cedure, the English Queen declares that nothing
has been shown refle6ling upon the honour of her
" dear sister." But she finds that the rebellion against
Mary's authority was not altogether blameworthy
and the accusing Lords are suffered to depart for
Scotland. Her dear sister would for the present re-
main in England under some restraint; the Regent
Murray would administer Scotland for James VI.
It was a discordant band of gentlemen that re-
crossed the Border from England in the early days
of 1 s6q. From Stirling, Murray issued a proclama-
tion in the King's name asserting the guilt of the
Queen in Darnley's murder. Huntley* was in re-
bellion in the North, while the Hamiltons were rest-
less and insubordinate. In April the Regent resorted
to extreme measures. At a convention of nobles held
in Edinburgh on the tenth of the month he seized
upon the Duke of Chatelherault and Lord Herries
and gave them over to the keeping of Grange.
But this high-handed aft was not relished by the
new Captain of the Castle. He protested vigorously,
and Mr. John Wood was sent to reason with him
on the Regent's behalf. " I marvel at you," declared
the worthy emissary, "that you will be offended at
this; for how shall we who are my Lord's defend-
ers, get rewards but by the wrack of such men.?"
To which Grange responded, "Is that your Holi-
ness? I see nothing among you but Envy, Greedi-
ness and Ambition, whereby you will wrack a good
Regent and ruin the country!"
Here was a declaration that struck cold to the
Regent's heart. The gulf betwixt him and his old
friend was widening fast. Another event was at hand
to deepen the estrangement. Early in September
Lethington
76 The tiit and J^tati^ of
Lethington was formally accused in the Privy Coun-
cil at Stirling of complicity in Darnley's murder.
The charge was brought by a retainer of the Earl
of Lennox, but it was believed at the time that the
Regent's distrust of the Secretary was at the root of
the accusation. Lethington was arrested, as was Sir
James Balfour, in whose house by the Kirk of Field
the tragedy had been ena6led. Balfour promptly ap-
pealed to Grange reminding him of his pledge of pro-
te6lion given in the days before Carberry Hill. To
the heated protests of Grange, the Regent pleaded
his inability to preserve these gentlemen from prison
and asserted it was against his will that they were ac-
cused of the King's murder. He declared that Grange
should know " his honest part" at their next meeting
and begged that he would suspend his judgement.
Grange in his rage urged that a like charge of mur-
der should be brought against the Earl of Morton
and Mr. Archibald Douglas, a suggestion that raised
up against him in the person of the said Earl a fierce
and implacable enemy. Murray now offered as a
pledge of his confidence in Grange to place Lething-
ton in the Castle, to be warded by him. He journeyed
to Edinburgh with the Secretary, and sent for the
Captain to come down into the town to confer with
him. But Grange had been informed that this was
a ruse to draw him without the Castle, whither he
would not be allowed to return. He also learned that
the Earl of Morton had hired assassins to slay him
as he passed out of the Regent's lodgings. So the
Captain concluded to remain within his walls, but in
the dead of night his men-at-arms came down into
the streets, removed the Secretary from his prison
and conveyed him to the Castle. This was a terrible
blow to Murray. Lethington in Kirkaldy's keeping
was a dangerous man, possessing as he did full
knowledge
Sir mauam i^irfealDt, Knt.
11
knowledge of all those awful secrets that had so wor-
ried the Lords in recent years. Concealing his anger
the Regent passed up to the Castle on the day fol-
lowing the event. "He durst trust Grange, though
Grange would no longer trust him" — such is Mel-
ville's significant comment. The Regent used many
fair words, we are told, but Grange was suspicious
and took all such speech "in evil part." He had a
logical defence to urge for his seizure of Lethington.
The Regent had expressed himself as opposed to his
arrest and had declared his inability to prevent it.
The Captain explained that he had done the Regent
a friendly service in accomplishing that good deed
which for the moment he was unable to bring to pass
himself.
It appears that at this time Grange would willingly
have given up the Castle if the security of Lething-
ton and Balfour could have been assured. Sir James
Melville endeavoured to arrange for the transfer of
command on the terms suggested by Grange, but the
Regent declined to consider the proposal, being still
anxious to regain the loyalty of his old friend. He
desired that Grange should still hold the Castle for
the King. " He had too many obligations to him, and
too great proofs of his fidelity to mistrust him ; he
was never minded to take the Castle from him, and
if it were out of his hands, he would give him the
keeping thereof before any other." He went up
again to the Castle and there found the Captain and
Lethington together. "He conferred friendly with
them of all his affairs with a merry countenance and
casting in many merry purposes minding them of
many straits and dangers they had formerly been
together engaged in." It is a pathetic episode, this
effort of the Regent to win again the confidence of
Grange. Perhaps Murray was dissembling in these
trying
78 The Hit and l^eatl^ of
trying days. Sir James Melville believed him to be
insincere, and there is no doubt that Lethington used
all his powers to convince Grange that this was the
case.
So the Regent made his way down into the town
again, unhappy and chagrined. The King's standard
floated over David's Tower, but already the Queen's
fa6lion had taken heart at the attitude of the Cap-
tain. The rising for the Queen of Scots in the North
of England occurred in December of this year. The
rebels were driven over the Border where Murray
met them with a strong hand. The Duke of North-
umberland was captured and lodged in the Keep of
Lochleven. In this rough Border campaign the Re-
gent had missed Grange sadly. For the first time
he had confronted serious military problems unas-
sisted by the Fifeshire soldier. Their days of com-
radeship were over and they were never again to
grasp hands or to look in each other's eyes. On Jan-
uary 20, 1570, as Murray rode into Linlithgow on
his way to Edinburgh, Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh
fired his stealthy and fatal shot. There was a spon-
taneous outburst of grief in the capital when it was
known that the Regent lay dead. He was indeed
"the Good Regent" to the preachers and to their
loyal followers in the towns. "My Lord Regent's
corpse," says the Diurnal of Occurrents ,'' was brought
in a boat by sea from Stirling to Leith where it was
kept in John Wairdlaw his house, and thereafter car-
ried to the Palace of Holyrood." The mournful pro-
cession passed between lines of sobbing people. In
the West there was unseemly rejoicing among the
Hamiltons, and there were few indeed of the nobles
who would have called the dead statesman back. But
Grange mourned honestly for his old friend, and on
the day of the funeral we learn from the Diurnal
of
Sir mniiam i^itfealDt, Knt.
79
of Occurrents , that the procession which bore the re-
mains from Holyrood to the College Kirk of St.
Giles was headed by William Kirkaldy of Grange,
who "rade from the said palace in dule weird,"
bearing the Lyon standard of Scotland. Behind him
came the Master of the Regent's household with the
standard of Murray, and then followed Athol, Mar,
Glencairn, Ruth v en, Graham, Lindesay and a great
concourse of barons and lesser people. Within the
crowded cathedral the English Ambassador reported
"as great a sorrow as he ever saw." When the re-
mains had been placed before the pulpit, the harsh
voice of John Knox rang through the dim aisles of
the old church as he preached from the words,
" Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." " Three
thousand persons," says Calderwood, "were moved
to shed tears for the loss of such a good and godly
Governor."
The chara6ler of the Earl of Murray has been as
much debated as that of his royal sister. His private
life was above reproach. He ruled Scotland with a
strong hand, and yet his government on the whole
was mild and just. He was conscientious in the dis-
charge of his duty toward the young King. His zeal
for religion had increased with succeeding years,
and touching this side of his life the eulogy of John
Knox was well deserved. He was a brave man, but
we have seen him cringing before the English Queen
after the Run-about Raid. He was not cruel, but he
makes a harsh figure in the conferences at Loch-
leven. He was more honest than many of his col-
leagues, but his bearing at York and Hampton
Court was not creditable to an honest man. Lething-
ton had declared when the idea of Darnley's re-
moval was first suggested that Murray "would
look through liis fingers and behold their doings,
saying
8o The Life and ^t^t\^ of
saying nothing to the same." It is in some such pos-
ture as this that history leaves the Good Regent. We
can see him through the dimness of three centuries
looking askance upon more than one doubtful deed,
not assenting, not protesting, but " saying nothing
to the same."
It is a hard matter to acquit the English Queen of
deliberately fomenting civil strife in Scotland during
the year 1570. Indeed, before the close of that year
we find Thomas Randolph exulting over the fires
of dissension and hate which he had kindled beyond
the Tweed. There was no lack of fuel for such a
conflagration. Argyle and the Hamiltons had not
been represented at the Regent's funeral, but they
repaired to Linlithgow and from there to Edinburgh
in the month of March. Linlithgow was the head-
quarters of the Queen's Lords, who had become too
powerful a fa6lion to be lightly reckoned with. On
April eighteenth there was, according to Bannatyne,a
*' conference appointed betwixt the Linlithgow Lords
and such as stood by the King's authority, at Dal-
keith, the end whereof is feared to be that all shall
go to the devil together." The preachers were evi-
dently losing faith even in the King's Lords. John
Knox upbraided them fiercely for their greed and
worldliness and predi6led dire troubles that should
come to them. To make matters worse at this crisis,
the Earl of Sussex invaded the Scottish Border to
punish all such as had extended comfort and asylum
to the English rebels of the year before. Sussex him-
self had no relish for such duty. He had informed
Melville at Berwick "that if he did any enterprise at
that time against any Scotsman it would be against his
heart, and that of all Scotsmen he liked best those
who were in the Castle of Edinburgh and their de-
penders." He had urged upon Cecil the dangers that
would
Sir mUlimvi Mtiialti^, Km. si
would arise from the invasion unless it were made a
prelude to a broader scheme for the pacification of
all Scotland. He besought the Queen to declare her-
self openly for one party or the other. "These mat-
ters have too long slept." He was ready to go either
way according to the Queen's order, but some decla-
ration was necessary to prevent anarchy in Scotland.
But the English Queen spoke not. The rival faftions
thronged in Edinburgh, the Queen's Lords haunt-
ing Maitland's lodgings, while the King's people fre-
quented the house of the Earl of Morton. In vain
Maitland warned Cecil that the measures of his Sov-
ereign would drive all Scotsmen into the arms of
France. Sussex was ravaging the Merse in April and
laying it waste after the fashion of the " auld enemy."
Buccleuch's stronghold of Branxholm was thrown
down, as was the castle of Lord Home. Then Drury,
the Marshal of Berwick, passed swiftly northward
with a force of sixteen hundred men, and after a short
halt at Edinburgh made his way into the West to
lay waste the Hamiltons' country. There had been
no warning given of this raid. It was Elizabeth's
method of declaring that she did not favour the pre-
tensions of the Queen's fa6lion in Scotland. Drury
did his work thoroughly. The castle at Glasgow,
from which Darnley had been taken on his last jour-
ney to Balfour's house by Kirk of Field, was sacked
and burned. The Palace of Hamilton was plundered
and then put to the torch, while the lands of Flem-
ing and Livingston were overrun. It was largely
through the efforts of Lethington that France was
induced to interfere, and it was the representations
of the French Ambassador at London that brought
about the recall of the English troops.
" Before the armies returned to Edinburgh, the bird
in the cage " — so Bannatyne was pleased to style the
Secretary
82 The Life and l^eatlft of
Secretary — "took his flight from the Castel of Edin-
burgh and lighted in the Blair of Athole where he
remained pra61:ising his auld craft till the month of
August. Confound him and his malicious mind ! "Leth-
ington was a free man in the sense that he had under-
gone his purging from the charge of complicity in the
King's murder. Availing himself of the gathering of
the nobles in Edinburgh during the days after the
Regent's funeral, he had put himself on trial for the
crime with which he was charged. For the moment
his friends seemed numerous and he was believed to
have the Castle at his back. We are told that he made
"a very perfe6l oration," and was washed as white
as Bothwell had been before him. But he feared the
presence of Drury in the West would encourage
Morton, Lennox and the rest of his enemies to at-
tempt some mischief against him. So we find him in
July slipping away to Blair in Athole where he had
found a refuge in more than one stormy crisis. -f-
On July 17, 1570, the King's Lords at Stirling de-
clared for the Earl of Lennox as Murray's succes-
sor. He was favoured by the Earl of Morton, who,
as the most powerful peer in Scotland, found it
remunerative to stand as the good friend and sup-
porter of the policies of the English Queen. It is not
hard to understand the sordid courses followed by
this forceful peer who had Thomas Randolph ever
at his elbow. But the appointment of Lennox as
Regent meant nothing else than civil war. He was
not a Scottish subje6l. As the father of Darnley he
held a blood feud against Argyle and the Hamil-
tons, and it was Crawford, a retainer of his, who
had charged Maitland at Stirling with being art and
part in the King's murder. He had been with Drury
during his ravages in the West, and in the eyes of
the Lords who had suffered he was held as hateful
as
Sir mniiam MxMltiVi Km. 83
as though it had been his hand that applied the
torch which set Hamilton Palace aflame. Thomas
Randolph might well congratulate himself upon
what the spring-time had brought to pass in Scot-
land.
Throughout these trying days the standard of
James VI had waved from the walls of the Castle
of Edinburgh. Before Murray's death the Captain
had agreed with the Provost of the town to main-
tain the authority of the youthful Prince within their
jurisdiftion. We have seen how the later course of
the Captain had given comfort to the adherents of
the Queen until, despite the banner it displayed, the
Castle had become an enigma to the rival fa6tions.
Toward Grange, in his altered attitude, the wrath
of the preachers was tempered by sorrow, but for
Lethington they had only loathing and hate. "That
Great God, the Secretary," snarls Bannatyne in
wrathful derision. Maitland was credited with a
knowledge of the Black Art, and the backsliding of
the Captain was laid to the power of his magic. A
few weeks after the Regent's death Grange had set
free Herries, Balfour, Seton and the Duke whom
he had been warding in the Castle. Then late in
April we find the armed Hamiltons received within
the town by the Captain's orders.]; A few days later
Lord Home, fleeing from the wrath of Sussex, found
a refuge within the Castle walls. At the door of
"that Great God, the Secretary," was laid the re-
sponsibility for all these comforts extended to the
enemies of the late Regent. The worthy Bannatyne,
like his master, Knox, appears to have hoped against
hope in the Captain's case. "Let men now judge
whether the Captain of the Castle be changed or
not." Such was his lament when the Hamiltons came
to town. "The former honestie of the man stayed
the
84 The Life and ^t^i\^ of
the hearts of all the faithful in their former good
opinion of him, unto such time as his rebellion so
brusted forth as none could excuse it." By May
first it was common talk that Grange had aban-
doned the King's cause, and "was clean revolted
without any further hope." It was said that the
Queen of Scots had bribed him with the Priory of
St. Andrews, and Randolph availed himself of the
rumour to send this bantering note to the friend of
his college days: "Brother William, it was indeed
most wonderful unto me when I heard that you had
become a prior. That vocation agreeth not with any-
thing that ever I knew in you saving for your re-
ligious life under the cardinal's hat when we were
both students in Paris." But the faithful saw no
room for mirth in the defe6lion of their bravest cap-
tain. They were ready at last to believe the worst of
him, and disregarding his scornful denial of the cur-
rent rumour, Bannatyne breaks forth passionately in
this fashion: "Alace, Sir William Kirkaldy some-'
tyme stout and true Laird of Grange. Miserable is
thy fall who now draws in yoke with known and
manifest traitors, that sometyme had place among
honest hearts, yea, amongst the saints of God, who
for the pleasure of that father of traitors the Secre-
tary, left, yea betrayed, the Regent who promoted
thee, and now is bruted to sell the castle for two
thousand crowns and for the priory of St. Andrews
to be given thee and thine in fee. But Judas joyed
not long the price of innocent blood!"
Perhaps the preachers were not far wrong in lay-
ing at the door of Lethington a large measure of
responsibility for what they regarded as the back-
sliding of Grange. But with his understanding of the
Captain's nature, his keen knowledge of all the con-
spiracies of the Queen's reign, and his diplomatic
handling
Sir militant i^trfialDt, Knt. 8s
handling of the truth, the Secretary needed no magic
beyond that of his engaging personality to aid him in
his conquest. Lethington had been quick to divine the
state of the Captain's mind, disturbed as it was by the
treachery of Carberry Hill and the harshness em-
ployed by the Earl of Murray toward the Queen. In
the past Lethington and Grange had been in accord
on more than one important matter, and now the Sec-
retary was earnest in his efforts to gain the confi-
dence of his blunt and outspoken friend. It would be
of the keenest interest to know what passed between
the Captain and his subtle guest as in the early days
of their companionship in the Castle they walked the
sunny terraces, or as through long evenings they sat
in close conference within the Great Hall, where the
flickering glow from the chimney-place cast strange
lights and shadows upon the ancient walls. What
was it the Secretary had to say of the handling of the
Casket Letters, of the manner of the King's dying,
and of Both well's meeting with the Queen on the
Linlithgow road.'' It is likely that Lethington assured
Grange, as he had assured Norfolk, that he knew
the truth of Darnley's taking off, that Morton, as
well as Both well, was a chief conspirator, that the
Queen was no murderess, and that the Casket Let-
ters were filthy forgeries. He may have unfolded
the vision of a united Britain under a Scottish Prin-
cess, and urged that the Queen's honour should be
maintained, so that in case Elizabeth died, the Eng-
lish as well as the Scottish crown might be placed
upon a Stuart brow. Lethington would hardly have
laid much stress upon religious considerations save
as they affe6led the political situation. But the zeal
of Grange for the Kirk had grown cool, and he saw
among his old comrades of the Congregation no-
thing but "Envy, Greed and Ambition," as he had
declared
86 The life and j^eati^ of
declared to Master Wood.
Doubtless the Earl of Murray, as well as Morton,
fared ill in these conferences, but the Captain ap-
pears to have carried from them the convi(51:ion that
the Secretary Maitland of Lethington was a man of
honour and patriotism, and that the Queen of Scots,
despite her ill-starred love for Bothwell, was yet a
noble Princess worthy the homage of all English
as well as of all Scottish hearts. The position in
which Grange stood was a most trying one and a
grave responsibility rested upon his shoulders. It
was clear that Scotland needed repose and it was
also plain that the King's party was far the stronger
in the land, and that with the aid of the Castle they
must surely and swiftly prevail. The readier way
to pacify the realm would seem to lie in his frank
espousal of the King's cause. But the arguments of
Lethington found reinforcement in the stormy events
that had racked the Border. Not only had Home, flee-
ing from the vengeance of Sussex, passed within the
prote6lion of the Castle, but thither came young Fer-
niherst, who was husband to the Captain's daugh-
ter, and Buccleuch of Branxholm, a good friend to
Grange, loving him, we are told, "better than any
of his own kin." These men bore a fearful hatred
to Sussex and Lennox and all that they represented.
So while the Captain yearned for peace, the griev-
ances of the Border Chiefs, his own mistrust of
Morton, his old pledge to Balfour, his sympathy for
the Queen, all conspired with the arguments of the
Secretary to draw him away from what at the mo-
ment seemed the dominant fa6lion in the land.
If it be true, as Melville asserts, that Morton made
his way stealthily into the Castle by night and solic-
ited the aid of Grange in a plot which had for its
aim the substitution of the crafty Douglas for the Earl
of
Sir mtllfam i^irfealDt, Km. 87
of Lennox as Regent of Scotland, the King's cause
was certainly no gainer thereby. Grange hotly re-
fused to lend a hand in such a matter. Vacillating
and bewildered among the complications that beset
him, Grange had recourse to Randolph, the English
Ambassador. "There had been great friendship be-
tween them in France," and through Melville the
Captain begged that the Ambassador would "be
plain with him" as to the purposes the Queen of
England had in hand. To Melville's solicitations
Randolph replied in this fashion: "Tell your friend
from Mr. Randolph, but not from the English Am-
bassador, that there is no lawful authority in Scot-
land but the Queen's; she will prevail at length and
therefore her course is the surest and best for him."
It is not clear what impression this made upon the
Captain's mind, but a little later the Ambassador con-
veyed a suggestion to him that destroyed forever
what was left of the friendship that had been so
strong in France. Randolph desired to know, if in
case the two Queens should agree upon an English-
man for the Captain of the Castle, Grange " would
condescend also for great commodity to himself to
deliver the said Castle unto that person that should
be appointed." This Grange "refused utterly in a
great anger."
There was much correspondence with England
passing in and out of the Castle during the years
from 1571 toi573,andwhile the signature of Grange
appears with that of Lethington on important mis-
sives, it is clear that those astute papers were solely
the produ6l of the Secretary's subtle mind. Leth-
ington had reentered the Castle in the spring of 1 5 7 1 ,
sorely stricken by disease, but with his brain as clear
and alert as of yore.§ Once again he was recog-
nized as the Secretary of Mary of Scotland, and
henceforth
The L(fe a7id J^eatl^ of
henceforth he was to be steadily loyal to her cause.
While he fashioned diplomatic sentences and plied
all his arts in behalf of his imprisoned mistress, we
find Grange sensitive and testy under criticism and
breaking forth into menaces and threatenings in a
manner strange for him. His mind was not at peace.
He winced under the lashings of his old friends, the
preachers, and when he could trace back rude slan-
ders to men of the sword he was quick to give the
lie and to offer to maintain whatever he said by single
combat. Had he been a free man his hands would
have been full proving the slanders of his enemies
upon their bodies, but when it came to a6lion he was
held in check by his comrades in the Castle. They
all insisted that his life, of the first importance to the
State, should not be hazarded in private quarrels.
Moreover, they declared "that their only comfort
under God consisted in the preservation of his per-
son." The Captain's altercation with Alexander
Stuart of Garlics may be found set forth at length
in Bannatyne, and it forms an almost unworthy note
in the record of the Knight of Grange. It is a sorry
matter that his associates who prevented the combat
could not likewise have checked the correspond-
ence.
Another regrettable incident in which Grange was
involved occurred at Leith late in 1570. It appears
that in the fall of that year the life of John Kirkaldy,
a kinsman of the Captain, had been attempted at
Dumfermline by George Durie, Henry Seton and
others. On a day not long after, Seton being then in
Leith, the Captain sent six of his followers to trun-
cheon him, with stri6l orders not to draw their swords.
The rapier of Seton proved troublesome and danger-
ous however, and before the scuffle was over he had
been mortally wounded by the steel of his adversa-
ries.
Sir milliam ItlttfealDt, Km. 89
ries. The assassins escaped to the Castle with the
exception of one James Fleming, who was seized and
locked up within the Edinburgh Tolbooth. Now this
offender was a favourite henchman of the Captain's,
who vainly endeavoured to secure his release. So in
the darkness of a December night, we find the men-
at-arms from the Castle battering in the doors of the
jail and removing Fleming therefrom. The affair was
accomplished in the midst of terror produced by the
booming of the Captain's artillery. It would hardly
have caused comment in these stormy times had it
not formed the basis for a quarrel between Knox and
the Captain which was destined never to be recon-
ciled. The preacher from his pulpit stormed in right-
eous indignation, proclaiming that in his days he had
never seen "so slanderous, so malapert, so fearful
and tyrannous a fa6l. ... If the committer had been
a man without God, a throat cutter, and such as had
never known the works of God it had not moved
him, but to see a star fall from heaven and a man of
knowledge commit so manifest treason, what Godly
heart cannot but lament, tremble and fear." It was
reported to the Captain that he had been called "a
throat cutter," and he retorted hotly upon Knox, car-
rying his complaint against the preacher before the
Kirk session. The arguments of the contestants are
set forth at length by the worthy Bannatyne, and
on the whole the preacher makes the more dignified
figure in the dispute. It was during this trouble, and
after nearly a year's absence from service, that we
find Grange on a certain Sunday clanking up the
aisle of St. Giles, followed by a guard of soldiers in
full armour, to do honour, as he said, to the presence
of Margaret, the Dowager Countess of Murray.
Among the soldiers there were some who had borne
a part in Fleming's rescue. The ire of Knox was
roused
90 The Hit and ^mt\^ of
roused at such a display of force within the House
of God, and from the pulpit "he forewarned proud
contemners that God's mercy appertained not to
such as with knowledge proudly transgressed, and
after more proudly mentioned the same." Grange
took affront at this and other pointed sayings, and
soon we find it bruited abroad in the town, that " the
Laird of Grange had become sworn enemy to John
Knox and would slay him." Glencairn headed a peti-
tion praying the Captain for a statement as to the
truth of this charge, while the faithful within the
town formed a guard for the prote6lion of the
preacher against his enemies. This guard was for-
bidden by Grange, who took upon himself the re-
sponsibility of safeguarding the person of his old-time
friend and very present enemy.
In April, 1571, the Castle of Dumbarton, which
had been stoutly held for the Queen by Lord Flem-
ing, was betrayed to the King's fa6lion. It was a
treacherous deed and the Queen's Lords were in de-
spair. The Archbishop Hamilton, he whose light had
burned so steadily on the night of the King's mur-
der, was taken prisoner at Dumbarton and without
any form of trial was hanged at Stirling by the Re-
gent's orders. Here was new matter for hatred be-
twixt the Hamiltons and the followers of Lennox.
The Regent issued a proclamation in May branding
Grange as a traitor, and a few days later appeared
the Captain's defence and defiance nailed to the
Market Cross of Edinburgh. He was not dismayed by
the loss of Dumbarton. In the face of odds he grew
strong. The Castle of Edinburgh was no longer an
enigma, for the King's flag had come down from
David's Tower and in its place a broad standard
streamed out in the wind, proclaiming to all Scotland
that Grange stood for the Queen.
The
Sir mUlimX MxUl^Vi Knt.
9'
The King's Lords moved in force to Leith, and oc-
cupying the Canongate of Edinburgh proceeded to
hold a Parliament, wherein was decreed the forfeit-
ure of Grange and the other leaders of the Castle
party. The Regent's forces were held at the Nether-
bow Port, for the Castle garrison had barricaded
the streets, while cannon were lifted to the steeple-
head of St. Giles and from thence raked the length
of the Canongate almost to Holyrood House. At this
time we find the Regent's fa6fion described by the
burghers as the Lords of the Canongate, while the
others were known as Castilians. Grange on his part
opened a Parliament at the Tolbooth in the Queen's
name, where the Duke, Huntley, Home and Max-
well seem to have been the commanding figures. The
Castle guns wrought havoc in many quarters, and
there was fighting without the town where hostile de-
tachments frequently met. The exploits and dismal
fate of Captain Cullayne, the death of Captain Mel-
ville, and the stout address of Grange to his bereaved
command are given in Bannatyne and other chroni-
cles of the day. We read of the Regent placing ord-
nance on the Calton Hill with which to "ding" the
town; of Huntley bringing down Mons Meg from
the Castle to Black Friars Yard from whence she
pounded John Lawson's house with stone ball; of
the Captain's loopholing of the vaults of St. Giles for
musketry ; and of the Regent's cavaliers pricking day
by day over Halkerston Croft menacing the Castle in
wild bravado and drawing its ready fire. The peace-
ful burghers were driven to distra6lion in the midst
of such uproar and disorder. In May, John Knox was
persuaded to leave his spiritual charge and pass over
to St. Andrews — a caliver ball had entered the win-
dow of his house, and the faitliful trembled for his
safety. Grange was well content that he should go,
for
92 The Mit and J^Catl^ of
for there was bad blood between the Hamiltons and
the preacher. The Duke declared he could not an-
swer for his followers in this matter. "There were
many rascals among them that loved him not, and
they might do him harm without his knowledge,"
so John Knox departed and soon after the Regent
retired also, drawing off his forces toward Stirling to
the great relief of the battered capital.
These events constituted the beginning of what was
to be known as the Douglas Wars, from the un-
happy prominence therein of James Douglas, Earl
of Morton. More savage deeds for more selfish
ends are rarely recorded in history. Melville is frank
in saying that private enmities rather than devo-
tion to any public cause fired the warring parties.
"Neither King nor Queen was in any of their minds
but they were only possessed by their own ambi-
tion, greediness and vengeance." The taint of greed
has not stained the reputation of Grange, but there
is little in his career during his governorship of the
Castle that indicates deep personal devotion to the
Queen. He laboured with the preachers to pray for
her cause in public, but from such records as have
come down to us it would seem that he had far
more to say about his own wrongs and those of his
friends — Balfour whom he prote61:ed and Maitland
whom he had rescued — than about the virtues and
just claims of the Oueen of Scots.
There was one occasion during the sitting of the
Canongate Parliament when Grange may be said
to have declared his political faith. We have few
glimpses of him in these troubled days, or of what
went on within the Castle walls, but at this time we
are permitted, in the pages of Bannatyne, to pass
within the fortress in company with a deputation of
the preachers. They sought conference with the Cas-
tilians
Sir millimx lirfealD^^ Knt.
93
tilians in the hope " to pacify the troubles of the coun-
try.
"At our entry in the Castle," so runs the quaint
narrative in Bannatyne, " we past to the Great Hall
on the south side, where soon after Sir James Bal-
four came to us, and thereafter my Lord Duke, and
last the Captain of the Castle, who desired My Lord
Duke and us also to enter within the Chamber
within the said Hall, where the Lord Secretaire was
sitting before his bed in a chair. My Lord Duke sat
down, so the Captain desired us all instantly to sit
down which we did."
After some diplomatic fence in which his keenness
appears even through the medium of the preacher's
narrative, Lethington declares that he will explain
the proceedings of his fa6lion from the beginning.
There were two reasons, he said, that led the no-
bility to appear in arms at Carberry Hill: the first
was to punish Both well for the King's murder, the
other to dissolve the marriage between him and the
Queen. It was no part of their plan to dethrone
the Queen, and had she consented to separate her-
self from Bothwell they would have continued in her
obedience. They had hoped that all Scotsmen would
assist them, but after Carberry their numbers fell
away until they were opposed by the greater part
of the realm. In this crisis the cloak of some new
authority was required to preserve order, and so the
King was proclaimed. But the setting up of the King's
authority was but a "fetche or shift" to save them
from grave inconveniences, and it was never meant
that it should stand or continue. "And for my own
part," pleads Lethington, "plainly I confess I did
very evil and ungodly in the setting up of the King's
authority; for he can never justly be King so long
as his mother lives." Then turning to his colleagues,
the
tftfitt
94 The life and ^^Catlft of
the Secretary declared that he was assured that they
were in agreement with him upon this point. " At this
speaking," says Bannatyne, *' My Lord Duke, Sir
James Balfour, and the Captain confessed with mu-
tual consent, nodding with their heads, and without
speaking, the same to be the truth."
Here we have Kirkaldy's confession of faith. A sign
from the Duke or from Balfour has no significance,
for one was old and fickle and the other always
false ; but from the silent gesture of Grange we may
understand that not only would he fight for the
Queen, but that he believed himself at fault when he
acknowledged her son. There was more unprofita-
ble conversation in which Balfour bore a part, until
Lethington, irritated by the arrogant dogmatism of
his guests, is fain to enquire if they be of " the Al-
mighty's secret council." The meeting breaks up.
Mr. Andrew Hay passes to the Captain and speaks
with him apart, and then "Mr. John,"|| who had
a6f ed as spokesman of the party, likewise exchanges
a few words with Grange ere he takes his leave.
No word passes from Grange during this long in-
terview in which Maitland bears so keen a part. It
is a subie6l for a painter, that strange group gath-
ered within the dim chamber whose windows looked
southward across the Lothian plain to the slopes of
the Pentlands flooded in sunlight: the preachers,
soberly gowned, with thin eager faces; the crippled
Secretary, crouching in his chair and stroking the
little dog that lies upon his lap; My Lord Duke,
solemn and drowsy from age; Balfour restless and
quick at retort, and the Captain sitting apart, intent
and silent.
In September, 1571, the King's Parliament sate at
Stirling. Cassilis, Boyd and Eglinton had abandoned
the Queen, and Argyle seemed wavering. Morton,
who
Sir milliam Mtkathv, Km. 95
who had threatened to change sides, was brought
to order by a bribe from England and by other con-
siderations, including a grant of the estates and
revenues forfeited by the Laird of Grange. The
timid hearts within the Castle were cheered by the
Captain's courage. In August he planned for a bold
stroke that was to bring his enemies to tenns. He
would make a sudden descent upon Stirling, seize
upon the persons of the Regent's leaders, and bring-
ing them to Edinburgh, compel an agreement in
which the just rights of all should be safeguarded
and peace established. It was a soldier's scheme,
and the Lords in the Castle thought it " exceedingly
good." But trouble came when Grange declared his
intention to ride with his soldiers and command in
person. This his friends "would in no ways grant,"
again urging the importance of his life to the State.
Grange argued that " he was experimented with dif-
ficult enterprises," and feared that if he were not
present, his men " would not follow rightly or care-
fully his dire6lion." But the consternation of his col-
leagues was so great that he was compelled to aft
against his judgement. So he called Ferniherst, " his
good son," and Buccleuch, " a man of rare qualities,
wise, true, stout and modest," and obtained their
" assurances that they would follow his instructions
faithfully and restriftedly." When Grange finally
decided to remain within the Castle a great danger
for the King's cause had passed. The force of six
hundred men picked by the Captain was made up
largely of the Borderers of Home and Buccleuch,
with a sprinkling of Hamiltons and Gordons. Hunt-
ley also rode with the party, and Grange laboured
with each commander, explaining the details of his
duty with care and precision.
On Sunday, September second, when Grange was
arranging
^M
96 The life and l^catl^ of
arranging for his raid, Mr. John Rowe from his pul-
pit at Stirling was arraigning the Lords for their
covetousness, and prophesying "God's hasty ven-
geance to fall upon them." At daybreak on the
Tuesday following, when the preacher leaped from
his bed, alarmed by the shouting, the shots, and
the ringing of steel, he may have given a terrified
thought to his words and dreaded that the wrath
of God had come indeed. No good watch had been
kept within the town, the Border riders were raging
through the streets and lurid flames were curling
from Morton's lodgings before the late stars had
ceased to twinkle in the sky. Glencairn and others
were promptly seized, the Regent fell into the hands
of the Laird of Wormistoun, but Morton, despite the
terror of the flames, defended his house to the last
extremity before yielding to Buccleuch. His stout re-
sistance had not been in vain. What Grange dreaded
had come to pass and the Borderers were dispersing
in search of plunder. The garrison of Stirling Castle
was aroused and came down upon the raiders as they
were disordered in the flush of vi6lory. Morton,
Glencairn and the others were rescued, but the Re-
gent fell, mortally wounded by a Hamilton bullet.
The brave Wormistoun, who had been charged by
Grange with the prote6lion of the Regent, died in his
defence. What for the moment had seemed a bril-
liant success became because of lax leadership a dis-
mal failure. Naught was accomplished save the em-
bitterment of old feuds and the killing of Lennox.
Few mourned the fate of that selfish man. "The sil-
lie regent was slane" — such was Bannatyne's com-
ment.
When the discomfited party regained the capi-
tal " they were," says Melville, " very unwelcome
guests to the Laird of Grange, who lamented heav-
Sir mUliam Mtkalh^, Km.
97
ily the Regent's slaughter, and said that if he knew
who did that foul deed, or who dire61:ed it to be
done, he would take revenge thereof with his own
hand. And whereof he used to be meek and gentle,
he now broke out with hard language against the
disorder and greediness of them and called them
snafflers and beasts."
The Earl of Mar was chosen Regent, and he
promptly undertook measures against those in the
Castle. Grange had made himself full master of the
capital, and the Regent's forces took up their quar-
ters at Leith. It was a fearful winter in Lothian, with
hunger and suffering within the city, and savage
campaigning and the gibbeting of unhappy prison-
ers without the walls. The Earl of Mar was a man
of honour, and sickening of such proceedings he
withdrew early in 1572 to Stirling. But Morton con-
tinued in command before the capital, and stamped
his savage chara6ler as well as his name upon the
cruel events occurring there. Randolph had been
supplanted by Killigrew in Scotland, and we find
Sir William Drury, the Marshal of Berwick, passing
to and fro between Edinburgh and the Tweed on
diplomatic missions. The Regent would fain have
composed the troubles, and he sent Melville pri-
vately to the Castle to persuade Grange to agree to
a truce. Lethington was against any concessions at
this time. He knew that Mar was not the real ruler
in the land and he dreaded the wrath of Morton.
Moreover, the Queen's fortunes had brightened.
Though Herries had deserted to the Regent, the
Hamiltons were again dominant in the West, while
Adam Gordon was waging a conquering campaign
in the North. But Grange "had great displeasure to
see Scotsmen so furiously bent against each other;"
he believed in Mar, and the Secretary for once was
obliged
98 Sir mniiam Mthalhv, Knt.
obliged to yield. So it fell out that in the midsummer
of 1572 an Abstinence was concluded betwixt the
Regent and the party of the Queen.
"BOOE^V
"BOOK^V
n
'BOOK^V
HOW (Grange defended the Qastle against the (JBn0=
liSf) who were assisted by all SCOTLAND, and how the
Prophecy of 3!0f)n ISnor was at length Fulfilled.
N the first of August, 1 572, the
rampart guns were blank-shot-
ted and their rapid booming an-
nounced to all the countryside
that the truce had begun. The
townsfolk came thronging back
to their long-deserted homes,
the Market Cross was adorned
with tapestries, banners were displayed and the old
town seemed merry in the first joy of returning
peace. The great guns were removed from the city
walls, from the Kirk of Field and from the steeple-
head of St. Giles, and carried back within the Castle.
Grange was clearly in a yielding mood. He declared
that " he would not sell his duty to His Prince and
Country for advantage but would serve the King to
settle the Estate. If God should be pleased to grant
the Queen her liberty he doubted not but she and her
son should agree betwixt themselves, to which all
honest and good subjects would consent." For him-
self and his colleagues he desired"only liberty peace-
fully to enjoy their own Livings." In this statement
lay the very kernel of the Captain's difficulty. Their
own livings had been forfeited to the Earl of Morton,
and that powerful peer was unlikely to yield up his
spoil for the asking. Then both Maitland and Bal-
four
I02
The Life and ^^Catl^ of
four were in deadly terror of being called to account
for Darnley's murder, and it would be difficult to ar-
range a guarantee strong enough to tempt these men
beyond the Castle walls. In the meantime Grange
stood bovnd for their protection.
Two events now occurred to cloud still further the
fair prospeCl of peace; the first was the death of
the Regent Mar, the other the arrival of the news
of the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day in Paris.
The Regent was nobly treated by the Earl of Mor-
ton at his house of Dalkeith, and shortly after, he
was seized with "a vehement sickness" which in a
few days caused his death. The reputation of Mor-
ton was such that it was freely bruited abroad that
the Regent "had gotten wrong at His banquet." It
was late in August that the news arrived of the
massacre in Paris. All the old hatred of the Roman
Church flashed up again in Scotland. The Queen's
flag, floating from David's Tower, became to the
people of Edinburgh the emblem of idolatry and
murder. The preachers cried out in wrath against
those who would bring in the Popish Queen, and
cause the streets of Edinburgh, like those of Paris,
to run with the blood of the faithful. We can well
believe that these were trying days for Grange. He
was standing for the safety of his friends, for the
rights of his Queen, whom he believed to have been
wronged; but his whole nature must have revolted
against this latest news from France. His enemies
taunted him with fighting the battle of the Pope,
and claimed that he kept his flag afloat by the aid
of Charles IX and the Duke of Alva. He could not
altogether give the lie to such charges as these. For
him the times were clearly out of joint. He had been
driven far from the paths in which he walked be-
fore Mary Stuart had returned to Scotland.
Among
Sh' millxmx l^itfealD^, Km. 103
Among those whom the truce had brought back
to the Scottish capital was John Knox. Again he
took up his abode at the old house in the High
Street. He made his way with pain to the pulpit in
St. Giles, and lifted his now feeble voice to comfort
his faithful brethren and to warn and admonish all
such as opposed his doctrines. As the autumn waned
he lay upon his death-bed, and in these last hours of
his stormy life his heart yearned for his pupil within
the Castle. "That man's soul is dear to me, and I
would not have it perish if I could save it.'' He ex-
plained to those about him that the severity he had
used against Grange was only to bring him to ac-
knowledge his shameful declining, that thereby he
might be brought to repentance. "You have been
witnesses of the former courage and constancy of
Grange in the cause of God; but now, alas, into
what a gulf has he precipitated himself." Then he
called to him Master David Lindesay, the Minister
of Leith, and besought him in this fashion: "I have
desired all this day to have you that I may send you
to yon man in the Castle whom ye know I have loved
so dearly. Go, I pray, and tell him that I have sent
you once more to warn him, and bid him, in the
name of God, to leave that evil cause and give over
that Castle. If not, he shall be brought down over the
walls of it with shame, and hang against the sun.
So God has assured me."
" And now Mr. David, howbeit he thought the mes-
sage hard and the threatening over particular, yet
obeyed, and passed to the Castle." He held speech
with the Captain and thought him" somewhatmoved "
by the message he brought from the friend and
counsellor of his youth. From him the Captain passed
to the Secretary Lethington, with whom he con-
ferred a while, and then came out to Mr. David
again,
I04
The Life and J^mtl^ of
again, and said to him, " Go tell Mr. Knox he is but
a drytting prophet." We have seen that among the
preachers Lethington was held responsible for the
perversion of Grange, and this episode forms a sug-
gestive pi6lure in support of the theory. At first
the Captain seems moved, but then coming under
the influence of Maitland's charm and subtle tongue
he returns a scornful message. This is doubtless the
way that things went within the Castle in the year
1572. When the Captain's message was delivered
to the dying preacher he murmured sadly, "I am
sorry that so it should befall him, yet God assures
me there is mercy for his soul." Then at the thought
of Lethington the old fierceness flashed for a mo-
ment in his dimming eyes, and his voice took on new
strength with the words, " For that other, I have no
warrant that ever he shall be well." On the twenty-
fourth of November, 1572, the spirit of the stern
preacher took its flight, and from now on it was
common talk among the faithful that the doom of
Grange was sealed, that he was to be dragged forth
from the Castle and hanged in the face of the sun.
On the same day that John Knox died, James Doug-
las, Earl of Morton, became Regent of Scotland. He
had been the dominant fa6lor in Scottish politics
ever since the death of Murray, and his eleftion to
the Regency was but the acknowledgement of his
standing. The alliance between Elizabeth and him-
self had proved of mutual advantage. He served her
necessities far better in Scotland than if he had been
a man of more honest sort. For the moment the new
Regent seemed anxious that the arrangement in-
tended between Mar and the people in the Cas-
tle should be carried out. Sir James Melville was
charged by Morton to confirm the offers of the late
Regent, and further to suggest that the Bishopric of
St.
Sir mUliam ISitfialt)^, Knt.
105
St. Andrews and the Castle of Blackness be con-
ferred upon the Laird of Grange. " Every one within
the Castle should be restored to their lands and pos-
sessions as before." To these suggestions Grange
ag:reed. " He would cause all the rest of the Oueen's
party to agree with the Regent," but he refused to
take the Bishopric of St. Andrews and Castle of
Blackness, desiring only his own lands. But now the
Regent discovered to Melville the evil subtlety of
his ways. He did not, he explained, wish an agree-
ment upon the part of the whole faftion of the
Queen. On the contrary he desired that this danger-
ous party should be broken and divided. He pre-
ferred that the responsibility for great crimes and
extortions committed during the late troubles should
be laid upon Huntley and the Hamiltons rather than
upon those in the Castle, for by the wreck of the
former he would gain greater profit, as they had
much wealth and broad lands to reward him for his
labour. He charged Melville to say this unto Grange,
and that he "must agree without the Hamiltons and
the Earls of Huntley and Argyle, or the said Lords
would agree without him and those in the Castle."
To this suggestion Grange replied that it "was
neither godly nor just dealing;" that he would have
none of it. " If his friends would abandon him and
agree without him and those in his company he had
deserved better at their hands, yet he had rather
that they should leave and deceive him than that he
should do it unto them." There was nothing more
to be said as betwixt the Castle and the Regent
Morton. On the morning of January 1, 1573, the
Queen's flag again floated above David's Tower,
and the booming of a culverin on the Castle walls
announced that the truce was over. The Regent had
made good use of his time. " Money is the man in
Scotland,"
io6 The Life and l^eati^ of
Scotland," was Drury's comment after a negotiation
with Morton, and with England behind him the Re-
gent had indeed engaged in some profitable bribery.
The Queen's party had not recovered from the dis-
may into which the news from Paris had plunged
it, and many of the leaders proved vulnerable to
the Regent's persuasions. The universal hatred of
the burghers in Edinburgh for the Castle, and what
it was believed to stand for, made it easy for Mor-
ton during the last days of the truce to throw a
considerable force of King's men into the town and
ere6l defences at important points. He had to vio-
late a solemn agreement in order to effe6l this, but
perhaps Grange was the only man surprised by such
perfidy. When the Captain looked down upon the
crowded roofs of the old town in the grey light of
the New Year's morning, it was barricaded against
him and swarming with armed foes.
What Morton had threatened in regard to the
Hamiltons he brought to pass. In February, at Perth,
a reconciliation was efFe6led between the King's
party and the Hamilton faftion. Sir James Balfour,
for whose security Grange had pledged his honour
and risked his life, was one of the most prominent
figures at this love-feast in Perth. He had slipped
away from the Castle and succeeded in making his
peace with the Regent. He now turned his back
upon Grange and his comrades. There is in the his-
tory of these times no mystery of Balfour. He was
an arrant knave, the falsest of the false in an age
when few men were true. Grange was notified of
the defe6f:ion of Huntley, Argyle and the Hamil-
tons in a letter " lamenting that the straits they were
in had compelled them to accept that agreement
which the Regent had offered them, praying him
not to take it in evil part, seeing they had no house
nor
Sir milliam MtfiHiav^ Knt.
107
nor strength to retire themselves to. They gave him
many thanks for the help and assistance he had
made them, which they said they would never for-
get so long as God would lend them their lives."
So Grange found himself isolated and deserted
within the walls of the Maiden Castle. There were
with him the Lord Home and a few other gentle-
men of note. Not only had Balfour proved recreant,
but Chatelherault, bowed with age and illness, had
made his peace with the Regent and been allowed
to retire to his estates. The garrison numbered
hardly two hundred men, and the situation was
complicated from a military standpoint by the pre-
sence of the Countess of Argyle, of Lady Kirkaldy
and of Lady Maitland, the Secretary's wife, whom, as
Mary Fleming, we have met before at the Queen's
Court. It is clear that Grange had no illusions as to
what the future had in store for him, but Maitland,
racked with disease and in dread of Morton's hate,
still grasped at straws. He assured the Captain that
his wit could still hold the English Queen in play ;
he was certain that Charles IX and the Duke of
Alva would not leave them to their fate. Killigrew,
the English Ambassador, urged warmly the surren-
der of the Castle, but Morton would no longer con-
sider terms. "Though my friends have forsaken
me," said the Captain, "and the city of Edinburgh
have done so too, yet will I defend this Castle to the
last."
The Captain's guns were a6live throughout the
montli of January, and the Regent made no pro-
gress in his attempt upon the Castle. Great barricades
protc6ted the entrance to St. Giles and to the Tol-
booth, and in the shelter of these we find the burgh-
ers passing calmly to service in the one, and tiie
Lords to sittings of Parliament in the other. But the
shot
,o8 The Life and J^tati^ of
shot from the Castle searched many quarters of the
town, and made life therein difficult and precarious.
So long as England lay quiet and his supplies held
out, Grange became satisfied that he could hold his
own against the Regent. But the Castle was ill fur-
nished for a siege. The Captain's brother, James
Kirkaldy, returning from France with a supply of
money and necessaries for the garrison, had landed
at Blackness Castle. He found Sir James Balfour in
command there, and not knowing of his treachery
to Grange fell a prisoner into his hands. He was
further undone by the wiles of Helen Kirkaldy, his
wife, who had been seduced by the Earl of Morton.
James Kirkaldy barely escaped with his life, but at
last made his way through great perils to the Castle
of Edinburgh, where he arrived with empty hands.
Goaded, perhaps, by the tale of the sufferings his
brother had undergone. Grange, in the dead of a
stormy February night, made a savage sortie against
the besieging lines. The trenches were cleared and
their affrighted defenders were driven through the
Lawnmarket in wild confusion. The torch was ap-
plied to buildings in the Castle Wynd, and fanned
by the strong gale, a conflagration was soon in
progress. To add to the terror of the flames the
Castle guns played fiercely upon the stricken dis-
tri6l, and rendered perilous the efforts of the burgh-
ers to control the fire. This event added to the
hatred of the town against the Castle, nor, after the
lapse of three centuries, is it clear that any military
purpose was served by this savage foray. It must
be regarded as the method chosen by the Captain
to notify the Regent and the city that James Kir-
kaldy had rejoined the garrison.
Early in March the Regent, who had been ham-
pered by the lack of engineering skill among his
forces.
Sir mUliam Mtkalhv, Knt.
109
forces, was joined by a body of English pioneers.
Thereupon he began the erection of a battery in
Castle Hill Street. But the work was much impeded
by the Castle guns, and on the night of the fifteenth
the Captain headed another sortie, routed the pio-
neers and cast down their work. Morton was dis-
couraged, and a few days later he arranged with
the Castle for a truce which should continue for the
remainder of the month.
The Queen of England now realized that the
Castle of Edinburgh would prove a hard nut for
her Scottish friends to crack. As the last hold of
Mary Stuart's power in Scotland she could not af-
ford that it should remain untaken. To be sure, she
was under treaty to Charles IX not to interfere by
force of arms in Scottish affairs ; but this treaty was
now more than twelve months old, and all England
was of the opinion that agreements with the mon-
ster who fired upon his subje61;s from the windows
of the Louvre were not of a binding nature. So an
arrangement was soon made by which the Marshal
of Berwick should advance his troops to Edinburgh
to assist the Regent against the Castle. We have
seen how the mission of James Kirkaldy to France
was brought to naught. Lord Seton had fared no
better in his efibrts to succour the Oueen's friends,
and was wandering through England in the guise
of a beggar. As Grange trod his far-viewing bat-
tlements he knew that the game was nearly over.
The spring-time was at hand, and the budding green
of the coming season lay bright upon the broad
landscape, from the sparkling waters of the German
Ocean to where Ben Lomond and Ben Ledi lifted
their snow-capped summits against the west. At his
feet lay the stricken city, and now from the dark and
narrow ways there floated up to his ears the roll of
the
no The life and J^eatl^ of
the English drums. Day by day he could see the Old
Bands of Berwick marching in the town, — arque-
busiers, sappers and cannoneers, — while over the
road from Leith came rumbling all the cumbersome
machinery of their siege and battering trains. Grim
redoubts began to arise all about him, planned by
skilful heads and built by sturdy hands. It was now
the Castle against all Scotland and England.
Sir William Drury, the Marshal of Berwick, was
in command of the forces of her English Majesty.
He had with him, besides Sir Thomas Sutton, Mas-
ter General of English Ordnance, such experienced
captains as Sir George Carey and Sir Henry Lee
of Ditchley. The Castle was soon well-nigh girdled
by the English batteries, and on the seventeenth of
May they opened fire. Edinburgh had never ex-
perienced such a flaming and thundering of great
ordnance. Day and night the uproar went on. Leth-
ington could not abide the din, the shouting of the
cannoneers, the roar of the guns, the rattle of great
shot against the Castle masonry, and the clanking
and creaking of the crude machinery of war. He
was moved to the low vaults under David's Tower,
where these sounds were dulled. After forty-eight
hours of cannonading, three of the Castle towers
had been demolished and several guns dismounted
and wrecked. Before the close of the week David's
Tower had been so battered that the English gun-
ners could see through ragged rents in the wall the
vaulted ceiling of the great hall within. On the
twenty-third of May this whole stru6f ure, which had
frowned upon its cliff for nearly four centuries, came
crashing down in utter ruin. Still the Captain and his
men toiled manfully at their guns. The fire from
St. Margaret's Tower was so severe that Drury's
batteries on that side were silenced more than once.
"There
Sir Giitliiam i^trfialDi?, Knt.
1 1 1
"There was a very great slaughter amongst the Eng-
Hsh cannoneers," writes Robert Birrel in liis Diary,
"sundry of them having their legs and arms torn
from their bodies in the air by the violence of the
great shot."
On the twenty-fourth of May the English fire
concentrated upon the Constable Tower, and as it
crumbled under the bombarding, great fragments of
the masonry went crasliing over the clili". Within
the town the faithful bethought themselves of the
sayings of Knox as to the Captain's fate, and how
the Castle should "run like a sandglass." On the
twenty-sixth of the month, or the ninth day from
the opening of the cannonade, Drury delivered his
infantry attack, hi the early morning he moved his
lines in from the west, and then stormed the Spur
overlooking the town. With his sadly depleted gar-
rison Grange could make no adequate resistance
against this formidable movement. On the wx\st the
English were thrown back, but at ten o'clock, after
three hours of fighting, tliey were masters of the
Spur. With this position the garrison lost their last
supply of water, the other wells having become
choked with the fallen rubbish. After dark an at-
tempt was made to obtain water from "St. Mar-
garet's well without the Castle on the north side,"
men being lowered over the clifi" by cords. The Re-
gent pnjniptly discovered this move, poisoned the
supply, and .so made greater havoc within the gar-
rison than had been accomplished by all the gun
fire. At last, on the twenty-eighth of May, there
was a lull in tlie fighting, and the English can-
noneers descried a tall figure in full armour stand-
ing anfid the wreck of the Castle walls. It was the
Captain, and he held in his hand a white wand as a
token of peace. lie (Icsircd to speak with "his old
Irleiul
I 12
The Life and l^eatl^ of
friend and fellow soldier, the Marshal of Berwick."
And now because the Castle entrance was closed by
the wreck of the bombardment, the Captain came
down over the side of the walls. When John Knox
had declared from his pulpit in St. Andrews that
the Castle "should run as a sandglass" and that the
Captain should not pass out by the gate, his friend,
Robert Hamilton, had ventured to question the wis-
dom of such statements.* To which the preacher
had vehemently rejoined, "God is my warrant, and
ye shall see it." And now behold, on this twenty-
eighth day of May, 1573, Master Hamilton found
himself in the shadow of the Castle rock. He beheld
"the foreworks of the Castle all demolished, and
moving like a sandy brae ; he saw the men of war
all set in order, the Captain with a little cut of a
staff in his hand, taken down over the wall upon
the ladders." He was compelled to glorify God and
to declare that John Knox was a great prophet.
Within the walls of Drury's lodging. Grange, with
Sir Robert Melville, held frank and manly discourse
with the Marshal of Berwick. Grange desired to
yield the Castle on condition that Maitland and
Home should be permitted to retire into England,
and he to live on his estates in Fife. Drury was
consenting to this arrangement, but when the mat-
ter was submitted to the Regent he would hear of
no such agreement. Grange and Maitland, with four-
teen other gentlemen of the garrison, must submit
unconditionally to him, though the English Queen
should be the arbitress of their fate. So Grange
made his way back behind his ruined walls, deter-
mined to abide the worst and die sword in hand.
But now he found his soldiers in open revolt. They
had done all that men could do. They were tortured
by illness, wounds, hunger and thirst. The Castle
must
Sir mtlltam i^trfialDt^ Knt.
113
must be given up, or within six hours they would
hang Maitland from the walls. On the day follow-
ing these events the Captain came quietly down and
yielded himself to the Marshal of Berwick. That
stout soldier received his brave enemy with assur-
ances of his prote61:ion and the favour of his Sov-
ereign. Then the little garrison, bearing arms and
carrying their standard, passed down into the town
followed by the hootings and execration of the
people. Lethington, in the last stages of a torturing
malady, was conveyed to Leith; Grange and his
Lady were entertained at the quarters of the Mar-
shal of Berwick. The Regent was in a rage at the
course pursued by Drury. Killigrew, the English
Ambassador, harshly criticised the Marshal's a6lion,
and wrote to London, agreeing with the Regent that
Grange and Maitland were fitter for the next world
than for this. Elizabeth disowned the terms of her
General, and ordered that the prisoners from the
Castle should be delivered into the hands of the Re-
gent as the representative of the King's power in
Scotland. Drury took "heavy displeasure" at this.
He was, we are told, "so affronted because of the
breach of his promise, and that the appointment
which he had made with the Castle of Edinburgh
was not kept, that he would tarry no longer in his
office at Berwick, seeing he had lost his credit and
reputation, for he was a plain Man of War, and
loved Grange dearly."
The Captain was removed to the Palace of Holy-
rood, and kept in stri6t ward within gloomy cham-
bers which he had seen bright and merry in the first
days of the Queen's Court. Here he learned of Leth-
ington 's death, " after the old Roman fashion, as was
said, to prevent his coming to the shambles with the
rest." There was no lamentation for that strange,
shrewd
1 14 The UiZ and J^eatl^ of
shrewd courtier whose charm no man could resist and
whose word no man could trust. He had fascinated
the English Queen,who had styled him" The Flower
of the Wits of Scotland," and it was to her that he
was indebted for the last poor favour of a Christian
burial. He was the Scottish Macchiavelli, the " Cha-
maeleon"-f of Buchanan ; and more than three hun-
dred years after his squalid ending men still debate
the mystery of his chara6ler and life.
Grange underwent some form of trial, few details
of which have come down to us. There were no four
thousand gentlemen to acclaim him with "merry
and lusty shouts," and to compel his purging by their
show of swords and spears. He was condemned to
die upon the gibbet as a traitor to James VI. There
were many among the Lords who deplored his sad
fate, but the fanatical Lindesay, now Provost of Edin-
burgh, alone made open protest. He it was who
would have slain the Queen's priest at the altar and
who had threatened her at Lochleven. But Grange
was an old comrade in arms. They had fought to-
gether against the French in Fife and against the
Queen at Langside battle. He denounced the ver-
di6l that would bring so stout a soldier to a felon's
death. One hundred barons and gentlemen, kinsmen
of the House of Kirkaldy, came forward with the of-
fer to bind themselves to serve the House of Douglas
in perpetual man-rent if the life of Grange should be
spared. Large sums of money were also offered to
purchase the clemency of Morton. That eminent
man was in straits betwixt his avarice and his fierce
yearning for revenge. For the moment he leaned
toward the sordid solution of the affair. But now the
preachers interfered. Had not John Knox prophe-
sied the Captain's fate .'' Had not the whole city wit-
nessed the truth of his pious forecastings in regard
to
Sir mUliam lattfealD^, Km.
115
to the Castle? It only remained for the Captain to
"hang in the face of the sun," and the words of the
man of God would have been fulfilled ! The Regent
declared to Killigrew that considering what has been,
and daily is, spoken by the preachers "it were bet-
ter that Grange should die." It is to the preachers
that we are indebted for our knowledge of the last
hours of a gallant man. Mr. David Lindesay, the
Minister of Leith, whom we have seen before upon
a notable occasion, was with the Captain on the last
day of his life. Like Knox he had loved him well,
but his affe6f ion was of a human and genial sort.
" Mr. David, the morn by nine hour, comes again to
" the Captain and resolves him that it behooved him
" to suffer. 'O then, Mr. David,' says he, 'for our
" auld friendship and for Christ's sake, leave me
" not ! ' So he remains with him, who, pacing up and
" down a while, and seeing the day fair, the sun
" clear, and a scaffold preparing at the Cross in the
" High Gate, he falls in a great study, and alters
"countenance and colour; which when Mr. David
" perceived, he came to him, and asked him what
" he was doing. ' Faith, Mr. David,' says he, ' I per-
" ceive well now that Mr. Knox was the true ser-
" vant of God, and his threatening is to be accom-
" plished;' and desired to hear the truth of it again.
" The which Mr. David rehearsed, and added there-
" unto that the same Mr. Knox at his returning had
" told him that he was earnest with God for him,
" was sorry for the love he bore him that that should
" come to his body, but was assured that there was
" mercy for his soul. The which he would have re-
" peated over again to him, and thereupon was greatly
" comforted, and began to be of good and cheerful
" courage. In the end he beseeches Mr. David not
" to leave him, but to convoy him to the place of
"execution.
ii6 The tiiZ and ?^eat]^ of
"execution, 'And take heed/ says he, 'I hope in
" God, after I shall be thought past, to give you a
" token of the assurance of mercy to my soul, ac-
" cording to the speaking of the man of God/ So
" about three hours after noon, he was brought out
" and Mr. David with him; and about four, the sun
" being about west of the north-west neuk of the
" steeple, he was put off the ladder, and his face first
" fell to the east; but within a bonnie while turned
" about to the west and there remained against the
" sun; at which time Mr. David ever present, says
" he marked him, when all thought he was away, to
" lift up his hands that were bound before him and
" lay them down again softly ; which moved him with
" exclamation to glorify God before all the people."
Surely so good a soldier had earned a better fate, yet
had he died with Norman Leslie at Renti, or fallen
in the defence of the Fifeland against the French,
one of the darkest epochs in Scottish history would
have been unrelieved by those honourable and gentle
qualities that appeared in him, and were sadly lack-
ing among the high-born men with whom his lot
was cast. It is a fine thing to have inspired the beau-
tiful tribute with which Sir James Melville has
adorned his Memoirs:
" He was humble, gentle, and meek like a lamb in
" the house, but like a lion in the fields. He was
" a lusty, stark, and well proportioned personage,
" hardy and of a magnanimous courage; secret and
" prudent in all his enterprises, so that never one
" that he made or devised miscarried when he was
" present himself. And when he was viftorious, he
" was very merciful, and naturally liberal, an enemy
" to greediness and ambition, and a friend to all men
" in adversity. He fell oft in trouble in prote61:ing
" innocent men from such as would oppress them.
"... He
Sir mUlimx i^itfealtJt^ Knt.
117
"... He was as much envied by them that were of
" a vile and unworthy nature as he was beloved by
" all honest men."
It was early in June, 1573, that the Queen of
Scots, pining in her English prison, learned of the
fall of the Castle. The Earl of Shrewsbury was a
harsh jailor, and he found joy in being the bearer of
such tidings. "She makes little show of any grief,"
he writes to Burleigh, "and yet it nips her very
near." A few weeks more and the Earl was able
to pass again into the presence of his captive and
report the death of the Knight of Grange. Which
tidings the Queen received with much emotion,
and with these words, " How can your Queen ex-
pe6t that I will thank her for depriving me of my
only friends.^ Alas! Henceforth I will neither hear
nor speak of Scotland more!"
There is in the possession of the Honourable Mrs.
Baillie Hamilton a portrait which is claimed to be a
likeness of the hero of this sketch. It is attributed to
Fran9ois Clouet, and is believed to have been painted
about the year 1555, or when Grange was serving
in the cavalry of Henry II. Tradition, as well as the
internal evidence, is in its favour, and in point of
authenticity it stands in the same category as the
Holyrood portrait of the Earl of Murray which has
long been accepted as a faithful likeness of that
distinguished man. The face of Grange in this work
is refined and commanding, the mouth firm, the
complexion pale, the hair and moustache light in
colour.
But what portrait can displace the memory we
have of Grange as the army of the Lords takes up
the march for Edinburgh on the evening of Car-
berry Hill.'* The west is reddening behind the dark
and broken outline of old Edinburgh town, the fierce
soldiery
ii8 Sir 2:^iiitam MrfealD^^ Knt.
soldiery are thronging toward the Queen with disre-
spe6lful menace, the frenzied woman cowers in ter-
ror upon her frightened palfrey, and then we see the
Knight of Grange, ere6l, with head uncovered, rid-
ing alone at her bridle-rein, his great sword flash-
ing in the sunset light as he beats back the ruffians
that would affront her. Is there any finer pi6lure
than this in Scottish history?
'"'' He was of a Magnanimous Courage''
'■'■and a Friend to all Men"
'■''in Adversity."
containing
e^ Hallat^ ^hQotes on this Work
&c.
The ^allat
IT appears that Grange was accused in his day of being
a bad poet, as well as a bad subject to James VI. Ban-
natyne prints in full the "rowstie ryme," with the follow-
ing preface: "At this time come fourth a ballate, direct
(as it had bene) from the captane of the castell, complean-
ing, as he lay vpoun the craig of Edinburgh : And becaus
we neuer vnderstoud the vaine of his poesie of befoir, ye
sail reid, gif ye pleis, that ye may judge out of what arrow-
bag sic arrowes are shott."
At the cajlle of Edinburch,
Vpoun the bank baith greine and rouch,
"As myne alone I lay,
Ifith paper, pen, and inke in hand,
Mufmg, as I could vnderfiand,
Offthefuddan decay '
'That vnto this puir natioune
Apeirandly dois come:
I f and our Congregatione
Was caus of all, andfome
Whois au6lhoris, infiruUtoris,
Hes blindit thamefo long,
That, blameles andfchameles.
Both riche and poure they wrong.
Thefe wicked, vaine veneniaris.
Proud poyfoned Pharifianes,
With thair blind guydis but grace,
Hes caufed the puire cuntrie
AJfft vnto thair traitorie,
Thair
122
The ^Ballat on
Hhair Prince for to difplace:
For teine I can not tefiifie
How wrangoujlie they wrocht.
When thai thair Prince Jo pitioujlie
In frifone ftrong had brocht;
Abufed hir, accufed hir,
With fer pent war dis fell.
Of fchavelis and rebellis,
Lyk hiddeous houndis of hell.
'Thefe dif paired hirdis of Beliall,
Hhocht nocht but to advance thaimfell,
Fra thai had hir down throwin ;
With errore and kypocrifie,
To committ open traitorie.
As cleirlie now is knowin:
But the grit God omnipotent,
'That fecreitis thochtis doisferche,
Releivit hes that innocent
Out of thair rage fo fearce ;
Provydet and guyded
Hir to vncouth land,
Whair wander andfclander
With enemeis none Jlio f and !
Sen tyme of which eje5fione,
This cuntrie is come in fubje£tione
And daylie feruitud.
With men of weir in garifone.
To the commones opprejjione,
Byflicht, andfuddrone bloud;
Whofe craft, ingyne, and poly cie
Full reddy bent is euer.
Be treafone vnder amitie
Our nobles to dijjeaver:
Some
Sir milliam latrftaltiv, Kfit. ,23
Some rubbing, fame budding,
Thair Jlndie thai employ,
Thatjlicktlie, vnrichtlie.
They may this realme enjoy.
'This guy ding gart grit greif aryfe
In me, vsha nawayis culd devyis
To mend this grit ?mfchance ;
And als I argoued all the cais,
I hard anejay, within this place,
'■'■IVith help of God and France
I fall, within ane litillfpace.
Thy dolour is all to drcfel
With help of Chrif thovj fall, or Pafche,
Thy kyndlie Prince poJJ'es;
Detrufaris, refuifaris.
Of hir authoritie;
Nanc cairand or fpairand,
Shall outher die or Jlie.
^'•Thought God, of his jufl jugment.
Thole thaini to be ane punijhmetit
To hir, thair fupreme heid ;
Tit fen thay war participant
With hir, and Jlio now penitent,
Rycht fuirly they may dreid;
As wicked fcourges lies bene feine
Get for the feu r gene hyre,
Whenfynneris repentis from the fplene,
Thefcourge cajl in the fyre:
Swa M or tone, be for tone.
May get this fame reward;
His boa/ling, nor pnfling,
I doe it not rcguard.
''Bayth
124 ^^^ 'Ballat on
'■''Bayth him and all thair cumpany^
Hkocht England wald tliaim fortifie
I cair thaim nocht a leike;
For all thair grit munitione,
I am infuire tnitione,
'This hauld it fall me hip.
My realme and Princes libertie
Thairin I fall defend.
When traitouris falbe hangit hie.
Or make fome fchamfull end.
AJpuire thame, I cuire them,
Ewin as thei do deferve;
Thair trejfone, this cejfone.
It fall not make mefuerue:
'■'•For I haue men and meit aneugh.
They know I am ane tuilzeour teoch.
And wilbe rychtfone greved;
When thei haue tint als many teith
As thei did at thefeige of Leith,
They wilbe faine to leive it.
Then quha, I pray you, falbe boun
Thar tinfall to advance.
Or gifftc compofitione
As thei gat then of France?
This fy lit, begylit.
They will bot get the glaikis ;
Cum thai heir, thir tuo yeir.
They fall not mijje thair paikis.
'•'As for my nychtbouris, Edinburch toun.
What falbe thair part, vp or downe,
I can not yit declair;
Bot one thing I make manifefi,
Gif thei me ony thing moleji
'Thair
Sir mtlliam iStrfealt)^, Knt. 125
Tkair bnithis falbe made hair.
Gif fyre may thair buildingis facke^
Or bullat beat thaim downe.
They fall nocht faill that end to mak
Thejtaires made in this toun.
Swa vfe thaim, and chufe thaim.
What pairt thei will enfew;
Forfake me, or take me.
They fall drink as thei brew!"
He bade me rife and mufe na mair.
But pray to God both lait and aire,
Tofaue this noble ludge.
Which is, in all profperitie.
And lykwayis in aduerfitie.
Our Princes plane refuge.
Thairfoir, all trew men I exhort.
That ye with me accord.
That we all, baith in erneft andfport,
Afke at the leving Lord.
That hanged, or manged.
Mot ilk man mak his end,
Wha dewlie and trewlie
Wald nocht this houfe defend!
Finis.
U^tes
Gtriie t)aafome aDmontttotm fc
tff|% TLamp of ICcl)t,anTi pn'cleis 0r(tU of itjipre.
1119 £D ttencip bnfcbt in manfail deiDfs moanfits
^ ^ pet^e |&;u>ue(l,but maib into ti)i0 isins
i3D guOeip dSiange, but fpot bnto t^i0 ^ouie.
CH tbe befeib to call to memojiie,
Wit tooiittietieitis bone be t^at (a^ince (fncefr
l&ing 3lame0 t^e f pft,qtil)a teais in ^euin (b l^e,
Co toe qubatoas W tenHet; fetuanD betv.
{^otD in tbe bap^e bOt tbe astfjS prtr,
ainD liu'fit t^e Co a{! man tuR) luFe ane btljer
ait nicbt to beb ^t0 fellotv anb W feic
Cfteming t^e 80 t^o\D bab bene m b^tber.
Cr3Inb bo\» bi£t S>one out iRegent oflRenottn
mt&t xmi mitb (l5ob,qui)a bib tbic tbingi^ pet&if,
•Cbocbt be be gone,anb toitb W Mi put boun
Zit in t)i8 ipfe be luift tbe bp tbe laif.
aip gentng tbe qubat tbing tbat tbott toalb !jaif,
Benping nocbt tbat lap into bid banbid
jfo^ tbP ferutce tbp fie tuajaf not to ctaif,
Sot recompantit tottb golb, ttitb geir anb lanbiiJ.
Canb qubcntbe BuKe put tbe to banifcbment,
ainb fiom tbe belb tbp Ianbt0 monp jeie
'Urbob) bnatoiB tbp felf gif be xom bf ligent
%Q get tbp peav.anb flatb tbe of tbat boeie.
ainb to tbe get tbp Ianb0 tbp gubis anb geir,
■Cbocbt tbait toai fum tbat tuib tbp xotaxAi$ fnfeto
Zit be to tbe gat tbame a0 is maift eleiv,
CO p^eifbe tsais to tbe ane ^aifter trebo.
Cfra tpme tbe 2lo;b bib call btm to tbat erne.
3[Into tbCts iReaime tbat be Oilb ring allone
l^e tbe eftemit of ftetbfoft faitb nioft fuce
'Ql^baitfoic tbat baulb.anb mojitbie bous of Sone.
l^e gaif to tbe toitb ^jotnallitt monp one,
M bnto bim tbat be luifftt bp tbe teit
Cbe qubiiti in betb be tvaib baue bone to none,
^faiibi$b;etbettbat bcluiSxtbea.
cr&eptoun.^cbtt James.botef tbe jfethteef of
efter tbe feilb be gaif tbame in tbp cute mx
'Cbe Buhe bim felf,anb i^etets tbotn bab tbair,
f 0? in tbp banbis be tbotbt tbame ap moll tUte.
&um faib to bim tbairin be bib ^jniure
%o put ra motip greit men in tbp banbist
i^ift anftoet t»a»,qubill tbat be mitbt Jnbure,
0is( Ipfe anb ail.be tJoalb put in tbp banbis.
Cl^auing tm baulD.ag J baue bone beclair,
3[ln Counfcll boue tbe Coun uoitb ane tonfent
CbeiCTit tbe to be tbait jBjioueft anb tbait flWafc
310 man tbairto mrtt anb conuenient.
mubilft oaf(te i0,eU ^aucb put bonn\
.iK«?l?S '^^''8«<'|int»)o>» toa0 ticbtfeiuent.
50b gif tbe grace tbairin to petreucit
WtpmeatzLeitb tbait toaanamanmait bent
wi ipte no? lanbis tbat tpme tbotn tuib na felt,
ap bentutanb qubaic gtiiteft tear Se banSa
fliTh ?^i^^«""^«««''n«fra ttrangeria.
<»RihJS2.?-^J'"l*' '"^•''oto n»onp boismXa
25att5 tpmeanb tpbe fcbatoanb thahfoice ftS
Jo^Jat^ntenttbatierabellfolbS^^^^
lri«Sw'''S'^ ^"^^ t^ap luib be aimapi0 treto
Rrw,h*!?i?%°"'^^?ail laegent Oeto
^baifl bi0 ftith Call baue tbe oner banb
^bato anb bfe.be b?otbt in mebliiB
^^^^ f^^ ^*"8<0 autbojiitie fall ttanb
^^T}^ E'? ^^"^' ^8»" ^tt" Wm moleft
asbtberta betfin qupetne0anb reft.
(cr Cbfe goblp cau0 bib euer ptoftier m
^&y^^ ^•"S' °"^ . Bfl). fll?. B. jLjEJ.
53
o
^^'C SS3 SJ 2 ss ^
SL « 5* a f-i ^ «r el
«-» ^ a*
I
J\(ores
BOOK I
* Fought in September, 1513.
t It is estimated that the population of England at the
beginning of the sixteenth century numbered nearly four
mDlion souls. Scotland could show less than a fifth of this
number.
J The Earl of Surrey "was appointed by King Henry at
his going into France to be Lieutenant of the North Parts
to defend the same against the King of Scots, if he chanced
to invade the Kingdom, and had Commission and Author-
ity to raise the Powers of the Counties of Chester, Lan-
caster, Northumberland, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and
the Bishoprick of Durhani." Histoiua Axglo-Scotica.
§ James \T is credited w ith comparing the Kingdom of
Fife with its girdle of fair towns to "a grey cloth mantle
with its golden fringe."
II April 17, 1544.
**This comjiromise was due to the arguments of Sir
George Douglas. "If we agree to this treaty," he urged,
"we avoid a ijJoody and d(,'structi\e war and have a long
period Ijefore us, during w hich the King of England, his
son Prince I'xlw ard, or the infant Queen Marv mav one of
them die so that the treaty will be broken off."
it Evers, will I Sir Ijriaii Lalr)ini, had cxjnni landed ilic I^ng-
lish who laid waste llie Pjoidcr. Ij(a1i were slain (;ii Ancruni
Moor.
;{;;}] The lirlh was so known in Scotland during the six-
teenth centurv .
HOOK II
128
IJOtejS on the tilt of
BOOK II
* Among the abbeys and churches desecrated within a few
weeks after the march of the Congregation upon Edin-
burgh were the following: Aberbrothick, Cupar, Cambus-
kenneth, Dunblane, Dunkeld, Edinburgh, Kelso, Paisley,
Stirling, St. Ninians, Scone and Dumfermline.
BOOK III
* The Regent Arran had accepted a pension from France,
and had been created Duke of Chatelherault within that
kingdom.
t Maitland's wooing found no favourwith his friends. "The
Secretary's wife is dead," growls Grange, "and he is a
suitor for Mary Fleming who is as meet for him as I to
be a page." Randolph was amused, and expressed him-
self in this fashion : ' ' My old friend Lethington hath lei-
sure to make love; and in the end, I believe, as wise as
he is, will show himself a very fool, and stark staring
mad."
X The official view of the transaction is given in the Act
of Parliament for Both well's forfeiture passed December
20, 1567, from which the following is an extract:
He, with a great number of armed men — to wit, a
thousand horsemen in mail, and others equipped in
warlike manner — did, on the twenty-fourth day of the
month of April last, waylay our dearest mother Mary,
then Queen of Scots, on her journey from Linlithgow
to our city of Edinburgh, she suspecting no evil from
any subject of hers, much less from the said Earl of
Both well, to whom she had vouchsafed as many tokens
of liberality and bounty as any prince could show or ex-
hibit to a faithful subject; and with force and treason-
able violence did seize upon her august person, and did
lay violent hands upon her, not permitting her to enter
the city of Edinburgh peacefully; but committed the
heinous crime of ravishment upon her august person,
by apprehending our said dearest mother on the public
highway, and by carrying her away on the same night
"to
Sir ^lilltam l=iirfealDt, Knt. ,29
'to the Castle of Dunbar, which was then in his keep-
' ing ; bv forcibly and \ iolentlv incarcerating and holding
'her therein ca})tive for the space of twelve days or
'thereby; and by compelling her, through fear, to which
'even the most constant of women are liable, to give him
'a promise of marriage at as early period as it possibly
'could be contracted."
§ "The Laird of Grange had already viewed the ground
' and with all possible diligence caused e\ery horseman
'take on a footman of the Regent's guard behind him, and
'ride with speed to the head of the Langsyde hill, and
' set down the said footmen with their culverins at a strait
'lane head, where there were some houses and gardens of
' great advantage; which soldiers, with their continual shot,
' dropped down divers in the vanguard led by the Hamil-
'tons. . . . Grange cried, at the joining, to let the enemy lay
' down first their spears, and to bear up theirs ; which spears
' were so thick fixed in others jacks, that some of the pis-
' tols and great staves that were thrown by them that were
'behind, might be seen lying ui)on the spears." Memoirs
OF Sir James Melville.
BOOK IV
" George Gordon, fifth Earl of Huntley, w ho succeeded to
the title in 1567. In this year was rescinded the sentence
of forfeiture which had been passed upon his father's
corpse in 1562.
t The Earl of Athole had married Margaret Fleming, sis-
ter to the Secretary's w ife.
;{l " Upon Saturday, the t\v entv-second of Aj)ril, the Lord
"Seton assembled all hi^ forces at the palace of Holyrood
"House and made no small brag, that he would enter the
" town of Fxlinburgh and strike his drum in clesjjite ol' all
"the cairles. . . . That same night the Hamilton traitors
"and others joined with him, \\ lujm the Captain, llicn
"Provost of the town, caused to bi- received, notw ilhsland-
" ing his former vows." Hannaiv.ne's MEMOittvi^i.
^"On Tuysflav the Innl ol' Aprvlc, the hcid of wit the
" Secretaire,
3°
l^otejs
'Secretaire, landit in the nyght at Leyth whare he re-
'mained till the morne, and was borne up with six work-
'men with sting and ling, and Mr. Robert Maitland
'haulding up his head, and when they had put him in
'at the castle yeat, ilk ane of the workmen gat iii sh.
'which they receavit grudginglie, hoping to have gottin
'mair for their laboure. And being put in Lord Homes
' chalmer, he maid the Lord exceedingly angrie that he
'suld be discharged for sic a one." Bannatyne's Memo-
rials.
li Mr. Burton assumes that this person was none other than
John Knox, but it seems clear that Knox was in St. An-
drews at this time, and the identity of "Mr. John," the
spokesman for the preachers, is thus left in doubt.
BOOK V
*That Knox, shortly after his arrival in St. Andrews, was
prophesying the fate of Grange is shown in the following
extract from the Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James
Melville :
This year (l57l) in the month of July, Mr. John David-
son, one of our Regents, made a play at the marriage
of Mr. John Colvin, which was played in Mr. Knox's
presence; wherein, according to Mr. Knox's doctrine,
the Castle of Edinburgh was besieged, taken, and the
Captain, with one or two with him, hanged in effigy."
tA bitter satire upon the Secretary, printed by Robert
Lekpreuik at Edinburgh. For this and other offences
against the Castilians, Lekpreuik was compelled to leave
the city, after narrowly escaping arrest by Grange.
>
THIS ^OOYi is one of an edition of One Hundred and
Fourteen copies printed on A* ^ •rail
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