During the troubled days that intervened between the death of Murray and the regency of Lennox, Sir William Kirkcaldy, whilst continuing to assert his allegiance to the youthful King, maintained his intercourse with Maitland and the other leading men of the party which openly favoured the captive Queen. The correspondence of the time bears evident testimony to the importance which his possession of the Castle gave him, and to the doubts and fears with which his conduct inspired Elizabeth’s ministers. On the 7th of April 1570, Randolph, who had returned to Scotland, wrote to Cecil that he had found in Grange great honesty and dutifulness to his sovereign. Less than a week later he repeated the statement, but with a suggestive limitation, and with the expression of his fears that the Laird of Grange might be ‘enchanted’ by Lethington, whose efforts to bring back his mistress to Scotland were attributed rather to a desire ‘to spite others than to profit himself.’ Writing to Cecil on the 21st of the same month, Sussex, the leader of the English forces that had recently spread devastation through Teviotdale, informed him that ‘Grange was vehemently suspected of his fellows;’ and ‘the defection of Grange’ was one of the indications which, about the same time, he gave Elizabeth of the gradual falling off of the King’s adherents. In a communication bearing the date of the 25th, Morton forwarded a scarcely less unfavourable account. The furthest they could get from the Captain of the Castle, he told Randolph, was that he should remain neutral. In explanation of this luke-warmness, the writer repeated a rumour current at the time, that Kirkcaldy had been bribed by Mary with the gift of the Priory of St Andrews. That, he added, was the Secretary’s device, for Judas non dormit.
A similar report had reached the Governor’s ears, and he gave it a direct and emphatic denial, in a letter which he addressed to Randolph on the 26th of April, and which deserves notice as containing his own apology for the line of conduct he was following:—
‘Brother Thomas,—I received your writing this Wednesday at nine of the clock, and perceive thereby of divers and sundry reports ye have heard of me, and of your desires therefore to be assured, either by word or writ, what ye may trust unto. Therefore, this is to assure you, that I remain, and shall continue, the King’s faithful subject, and shall maintain his authority aye and while the same be taken away by order of law. As to the pursuit of my Lord Regent’s murder, I shall be as ready to the revenging thereof as any in Scotland; but I will not take the deadly feud upon me of all the Hamiltons, as some would I should do.
‘My grey hair has let me understand what truth and constancy is in our nobility; therefore, brother, albeit I will not enterprise as I have done, yet I pray you and others not to have the worst opinion of me; for since he is dead I mind never to subject myself over-far to any of them that are left behind, for I know their humour and condition too well. I am sure it is come to your ears, that I should give over this house for the Priory of St Andrews, to the Lord Seaton; which, truly, was never meant nor yet laid to my charge, but is only sown abroad by them that hate me, and would make me odious to the world. Therefore, this shall be to assure you, and all others, that I shall keep this house to the King’s behalf, until an order be taken, or else the highest house in it shall be the lowest. But now, to be plain with you, your manner of proceedings make many to suspect ye intend to do otherwise with us than ye have set out by your proclamation; for so have ye begun upon the Lord Maxwell, who has never offended you, nor yet left the King’s obedience, nor yet had to do with your rebels.
‘As I wrote before unto you, seeing that ye have wrecked Teviotdale, whereby your Mistress’s honour is repaired, I pray you seek to do us no more harm; for I am sure in the end you shall lose more than you can gain thereby; for the Queen your Mistress shall spend much silver, and lose our hearts in the end; for whatsoever ye do to any Scotsman, the whole nation will think them interested thereby. Amongst other things, I am sure there come many evil reports of me to you, for the putting to liberty of my prisoners. But when ye shall understand what I had for me so to do, I trust ye shall be satisfied. As I spoke to you and wrote, if your Mistress pleases she may take up this whole division that is in Scotland, and make the whole to be hers and at her devotion. I will trouble you no further; but, I pray you, do as ye would be done to; or else, all the cloaks ye can cover your cause with will be disclosed in the end. I am preparing this house to resist all that shall pursue, and to hold you at the gate, whensoever ye put on your jack. Till farther occasion, I bid you heartily well to fare. At Edinburgh Castle, 26th April, at eleven hours, in haste.—Your brother in perpetuum,
W. Kirkcaldy.’
Following closely upon this, Grange dispatched to the Earl of Sussex a further and fuller explanation of his conduct. It was in reply to a letter which the Lord-Lieutenant had written a few days earlier, and of which the substance may easily be inferred from Kirkcaldy’s reply.
‘My very good Lord,—I have received your letter, dated at Berwick, the 26th of this instant, the sum whereof is to utter unto me such occurrents as by report have gone to your Lordship of my doings, to the end that by my affirmation or reproving of them, your Lordship may understand what credit may be given to the said reports. The whole matter rests in two heads—the one that I have declined from mine old friends in this realm, which heretofore have desired the amity of England; the other that I have given countenance, or gone further, with others that have showed another course of their doings, and capitulated with the French. Both the points are general, and therefore the more difficult for me to answer them particularly. Yet for your Lordship’s satisfaction, I will not leave you altogether unanswered. As to the former point—that I have declined from my old friends—I trust none of themselves will blame me of inconstancy in friendship; and by the contrary, sure I am such as have of old used friendly dealings with me, and were worthy of themselves with whom an honest man might maintain friendship, are yet still with me in the same degree of amity they were wont to be. No occasion hath proceeded of me, by my behaviour, to the breaking thereof; as also that all my friends, so far as I know, are yet still desirous of the amity of England. If any man in this realm will charge me herein particularly, when, by his own letter or speech to myself, he will utter his mind, I shall answer him accordingly. As to the other point, I have not altered my accustomed form of dealing with the nobility of this realm, nor used me otherwise towards them than becomes a man of my mean estate. I have not given countenance to any that, to my knowledge, mean unhonestly either to Scotland or England; nor yet have gone either further or nearer with any that in their doings have showed an undutiful course. Who have capitulated with the French, or after what sort, I know not. A Frenchman, indeed, was lately here, sent, as he affirmed, from the King of France. With him I spake, upon his desire; and therein, I think I have done nothing against my duty. For, this realm being at peace with all nations, I see no cause why the subjects of all nations may not freely resort amongst us, and have communication with us in peaceable manner, principally Princes’ avowed servants. In all his conference with me, I assure your Lordship, he used no language with me prejudicial to the amity betwixt these two realms. How others have in particular dealt with him, I know not. But for mine own part, I wish no occasion be offered, on either part, to disturb the quietness of this Isle; and whosoever shall offer best means for the maintenance thereof, his doings I shall best allow. For conclusion, as I have ever naturally been affected towards the amity of England, and, in particular, at my poor power, have borne a special devotion towards the Queen’s Majesty, as well for benefits received of her father and brother, by me and my friends, as for Religion’s sake, and her honourable dealings with this realm, in the beginning of her Majesty’s reign, so I will wish her Highness shall procure the union of this nobility, and I doubt not she may bring it to pass, if it please her. And if your Lordship will take that course in hand, I trust assuredly it shall be easy for your Lordship to begin and for her Majesty to end whereby the whole nobility of Scotland may remain at her Majesty’s devotion; and I, for my part, most earnestly desire it. And so, leaving to trouble your Lordship further, for the present, I commit your Lordship to the protection of God. At Edinburgh Castle, the 29th of April, 1570.
Wm. Kirkcaldy.’