As Kirkcaldy was in the receipt of ample pay from Henry II., and as even his detractors never accused him of avarice or greed—a charge which it would be difficult to substantiate in the face of the distinct statement made by Melville, that he never sought payment of the ‘honourable pension’ granted him on his retirement from the French service—it cannot be supposed that he was actuated by mercenary motives when, in 1556, he again offered his services to Queen Mary, through Dr Wotton, promising that she should have ‘good intelligence of the affairs of Scotland and of France by his intimacy with those of both nations.’ No answer having been vouchsafed to these overtures, Kirkcaldy resolved to return to Scotland, where, as his knowledge of the negotiations carried on with the French Court enabled him to foresee, important events were about to take place. Before leaving Paris, however, he again applied to the English Ambassador, Dr Wotton, from whom he received a letter of introduction to Lord Paget, Lord Privy-Seal, and Sir William Petre, Secretary of State. It laid special stress on the bearer’s discontent with the present state of Scotland, and on his desire to see it delivered from the yoke of the French and restored to its former liberty. It referred to his English sympathies, but added a very important and very honourable qualification; for it was only ‘next to his country’ that he was represented as having ‘a good mind to England.’
On the 28th of May 1557, Lord Wentworth, writing to Queen Mary, informed her that Kirkcaldy was then at Dieppe, ‘tarying only the wind to pass to Scotland.’
V. HOME AGAIN
About the year 1556, Sir James Kirkcaldy closed his chequered career. The latter years of his life, those subsequent to his return from captivity, had been spent in retirement and comparative obscurity. After mentioning his liberation, and the amnesty which put an end to his exile from Scotland, the chronicles and letters of the period make no further reference to him; and it is only from an entry in a writ of Chancery that the approximate date of his death can be determined.
It was as Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange that his son returned to his native land. The first incident in which he figures, though but of slight importance in itself, is too characteristic of his chivalrous nature and martial spirit to be omitted. It had chanced, some time previously, that in the course of one of those raids, which were of constant occurrence on the Border, John Kirkcaldy had been made prisoner, by a party of Englishmen, belonging to the garrison of Berwick, of which Lord Evers was governor at the time. According to the recognised custom of the age, the young Scotsman was kept in confinement until such time as his friends should pay the ransom demanded by his captors. But, from the account which he gave after his release, it appeared that he had been treated with undue harshness by Lord Evers during his enforced stay within the walls of the English fortress. John Kirkcaldy himself was not of sufficient rank and standing to demand satisfaction of the governor. His cousin, however, was a soldier whose reputation made it no disgrace for the bravest Englishman to break a lance with him. As his kinsman’s champion, the Laird of Grange sent a challenge to the Governor of Berwick to meet him in single combat. But he had not reckoned on the punctiliousness of the English lord. Evers pleaded no justification of his conduct, nor did he deny the Scotsmen’s right, according to the established laws of chivalry, to demand satisfaction; but he would not recognise the simple Scottish Baron as his equal, and consequently declined the encounter. To ignore the cartel altogether, would, however, have exposed the English to taunts too insulting to be borne with equanimity; and for the honour of his country and of his family, Lord Evers’s brother, Sir Ralph, gallantly made known his readiness to fight with the Laird of Grange ‘ane singular combatt upoun horsback with speares.’ To this he received the reply, that Sir William was ‘verrie weill content thairof, and to meitt him in ony place he pleised.’ It was accordingly arranged that the duel should take place at Halidon Hill, in presence of the two garrisons of Berwick and of Eyemouth, but that under pain of treason, no man should come within an arrow’s flight of the two champions. Each of them, however, was allowed to have an attendant to bear his spear. There were also to be two trumpeters, and two lords ‘to be judges to see the matter finished.’ On the appointed day, the two knights rode into the field. Sir Ralph Evers was accompanied by his brother, the Governor of Berwick, in whose cause he was about to fight, and by eleven other English knights. With Sir William Kirkcaldy, there were also twelve gentlemen, of whom one was Monsieur d’Oysel, the King of France’s lieutenant.
When the judges of the field examined the armour of the two champions, some difficulty arose by reason of Kirkcaldy’s better equipment. According to the English annalist Hollinshed, who is as scrupulous in mentioning the detail as the Scottish chronicler Pitscottie is careful to overlook it, they objected that ‘Grange was armed in a coat of plate, and a cuirass aloft upon it,’ whilst Evers ‘was clad onelie in a single coat of plate, without anie other pieces of armor for defense of his body.’ The English knight, however, declared himself satisfied; and the duel was proceeded with. The description given of it by the two writers who have thought it worthy of record, is very characteristic. It shows how national sympathies influence them, even in trifling matters; and may serve to convey some notion of the difficulty which there is in arriving at the truth with regard to more important events. Hollinshed is content with the statement that the combatants ‘ran together, and brake both their staves,’ and that ‘as it fortuned, Master Evers was hurt in the flank.’ Pitscottie has expanded this into a picturesque narrative. ‘When all things war put to ordour,’ he says, ‘and the championes horssed, and thair speares in thair handis, then the trumpetteris soundit, and the heraldis cryed, and the judges leitt thame goe, and they ran togidder verrie furiouslie on both sydis, bot the laird of Grange rane his adversar, the Inglisman, throw the shoulder blaid, and aff his hors, and was woundit deadlie, and in perrill of his lyff. Bot quhidder he died or leived I cannot tell; but the laird of Grange wan the victorie that day.’
In spite of the irregular and desultory fighting of which the meeting between Kirkcaldy and Evers was an incident, Scotland and England were not actually at war with each other. France, it is true, was using all its influence to create a diversion in its own favour by inducing the Queen-Regent to send a Scottish army across the Border; and, in anticipation of a conflict between the two nations, the restless and warlike Barons of the Marches were already making inroads into the country of the prospective enemy. But when Mary, after having assembled an army at Kelso, announced her intention of declaring war on England, a powerful party, with Chastelherault, Huntly, Cassilis, and Argyle at its head, obliged her to desist. With a view to checking the power of those noblemen, the Regent formed a plan for recalling the Earl of Lennox from his exile in England. This gave rise to negotiations, in which Kirkcaldy acted as agent, and of which a cessation of the Border warfare also appears to have been one of the objects. They were opened by the Bishop of Caithness, who, on the 10th of November 1557, wrote to Lord Wharton:—
‘My Lorde; This shall be to chardge and request your Lordshipp in homelye manner to be so favourable and good for such love and favour as I do knowe you bear unto my Lorde my brother, and to tayke the paynes to cause this lytell mass of writings to be wyth all diligence conveyed unto his Lordshipp, so being that passage cannot be had to Wyllyam Kyrkaudye, unto whome the said writings are directed, to be presented by him unto my Laydy’s grace, my sister, trusting that your Lordshipp will do so moche for myne owne request, tho’ the matter appertained not unto my Lorde or my Laydy forsayd, whose affaires I doubte not but your Lordshippe dothe regarde and weigh as your owne, which movethe me to be the more homely with you at this tyme. Referring the premisses unto your Lordshipp’s good mynde, and thus wyth my mooste hartie comendacions unto your good Lordshipp, bid you mooste hartely to farewell. Of Edenboroughe the xth daye of November 1557, by the hande of