‘If anie gentleman undefamed, of my qualitie and degree, of his factioun and perteaning to him, will say the contrare heerof but I am a true Scotish man, I will say he speeketh untruelie, and leeth falslie in his throat; and denounce by thir presents to whatsomever persons will take the said querrell in hand, I sall be readie to fight with him on horsebacke or on foote, at time and place to be appointed, according to the lawes of armes.’
When the Captain’s preparations were complete, he set himself to the task of training the garrison. For that purpose he devised a sham assault, which the chronicler who records it, ignorant of military matters, sets down as a foolish skirmish, and as mere boastful display. His graphic description of it, however, is interesting as a quaint picture of mediæval warfare. ‘The one part of the Captan’s souldiours tooke upon them to skirmishe, in manner of an assault to the Castell; the other part of the Captan’s gentlemen took upon them the defence and keeping of the Castell. The skirmishe continued from eight houres at night till nyne. It was demanded from the Castell, who these were that troubled the Captan, under silence of night? It was answered by the other partie below, that they were the Queen of England’s armie. These beganne brawling and flytting; and these in the Castell answered, “Away, lubbard! Away, blew-coat! I defy thee, white-coat!” “Dirt in your teeth!” “Hence, knaves, and goe tell that whoore, your mastresse, yee sall not come heere. We lett you know, we have men, meat, and ordinance for seven yeeres.” About the end of the skirmishe, three cannons were discharged, and the counterfoot assaulters tooke the flight.’
That no misrepresentation of the course which he had been driven into adopting should supply the English Government with a pretext for laying the resumption of hostilities to his charge, Kirkcaldy wrote a full justification of his conduct to Sussex, Leicester, and Burghley. It ran as follows: ‘I have received your letter, dated at Westminster the 7th of this instant, and thereby understand that your Lordships have, upon the sight of my letters and the Marshal of Berwick’s report, rightly conceived my meaning touching the pacification of these inward troubles and continuation of the amity between these two realms, which course I intend still to follow further, so far as I may conveniently. I greatly mislike that a part of this nobility should go about by all means to destroy the other; and would wish that on both parts they should moderate their passions, being content every one of his own rank and degree, and not seek by extraordinary means one to overthrow the other. As to the amity between the realms, if any occasion has fallen out of late time, or shall fall out hereafter, which may disturb, change, or diminish the intelligence happily begun, I protest that I have detested, and shall detest such as are the occasioners thereof; and wish that your Lordships hold hand to remove all such incidents as may breed a misliking on your part; the best whereunto is to procure that the Queen’s Majesty, your sovereign, hold the balance equal to both the sides, showing like favour and good countenance to both, so that neither party may think themselves prejudged till the difference for the title for the Crown may by her means be compounded, or brought to an end. For my own part, the Earl of Lennox (whom I never thought a fit person to bear any rule, for the great imperfections which are known to be in him) has so ungently, unreasonably and unlawfully used me, that he has compelled me to provide for my own security, and of the place which I have in charge, and to stand upon my guard with him. Besides many injuries and wrongs which he before had done, against all good order, to me and my friends, whereat I partly winked, and lightly overlooked them, he has of late charged by open proclamations, that all the soldiers which I keep for the preservation of this place, do depart from me and leave my service, by which doing he has uttered his ill-will and intention he had to denude me of my forces, whereby the place, for lack of men to defend it, might fall as a prey in his hands. And when he saw that his commands in that behalf were not obeyed, his malice has burst out further, to set further false and calumnious proclamations against me, full of injurious language, such as neither he nor any of his faction dare maintain, thinking thereby to have made me odious to the people. But my behaviour in times past, and hazarding of my person and goods, for the liberty of my country and duty to my friends is so well known in Scotland, that I am not afraid that anything the Earl of Lennox or his faction can speak or do, who has not as yet given the like proof, may make men that know me to doubt of my honesty. Since he has made open demonstration to be my enemy, I could do no less than let him know the like of me, and so have been forced to join myself with such of the nobility as would concur with me, and provide every way for my own surety, wherein I doubt not but your Lordships will not only bear with me, but also allow of my doings.
‘For nature teaches both men and beasts to procure means for their own preservation, and to avoid all things tending to the contrary. And yet I dare undertake, if it shall please the Queen’s Majesty your mistress, to prosecute the course she has begun, for according the difference for the title of the Crown, and to show her favour in the mean season indifferently to both parties, that number of noblemen, with whom I have joined myself, shall be as far at her Majesty’s devotion, and as able every way, and as willing, to entertain the good intelligence between the realms as any others; and, indeed, they are no less able to serve her Majesty’s turn. As to the abstinence mentioned in your Lordships’ letter, I shall willingly accommodate myself to everything accorded between the Commissioners for both parties, not only in the order of the Castle of Edinburgh, but all other things lying in my power; and shall attempt nothing farther than the surety of myself and place I have in charge shall force me, unless the others attempt to do injury to me or my friends, in which case the Earl of Lennox shall have no cause to look for quietness, if he make occasion to me and my friends to stand in doubt of our own surety; for I am resolved to use him as he shall do me and my friends. I have seen heretofore how the former abstinences have been kept on his part, and I know what harm my friends have sustained under the colour thereof; so that I would look for little better at his hand now, were not the trust I repose in her Majesty, who I doubt not will overrule him and bridle him from disordered doings; upon the confidence whereof, her Majesty shall have experience what reverence I bear to her Highness, and how far I respect your Lordships’ advice. As to the common quietness in the town of Edinburgh, and people therein, I assure myself none of them will complain; for of truth, there is no man within the compass of the same has received injury or violence, by word or deed, of me or any of mine; whereof I desire your Lordships to assure her Majesty. So, not willing to trouble your Lordships farther, I commit your Lordships to the protection of the Almighty God. From Edinburgh Castle, the 21st of April 1571.
Your Lordships’ to command,
W. Kirkcaldy.’
Hostilities between the garrison of the Castle and the Regent’s forces, which were encamped at Leith, began on the 29th of April, with a skirmish at Lowsilea. Next day, Kirkcaldy issued a proclamation, commanding all who sympathised with Lennox, to leave the city within six hours, and requiring the citizens to be within doors, after nine o’clock every night. Two days later, he followed this up by demanding the keys of the city from the bailies, and setting his own men to guard the gates; and his next step was to plant artillery on the roof and steeple of St Giles’s.
About the beginning of May, the Regent made an attempt to hold a Parliament, but was driven off by the Castle guns. On learning this, Queen Elizabeth made a great show of indignation. It was ‘necessary for her that the Regent and his party should not be ruined.’ Nor, indeed, did it suit her that either faction should obtain the upper hand independently of her. She consequently directed Sir William Drury to tell Grange and the noblemen joined with him, that she strongly disapproved of their conduct in preventing the Regent and his friends from holding a Parliament to appoint commissioners to treat with those of the Queen of Scots. In energetic language she desired him to ‘condemn Kirkcaldy of falsehood and untruth’ if it were actually the case that he had said, as had been reported to her, that Lennox was ‘sworn English against his country,’ and meant to deliver all the castles and strongholds to her; and to require him to give her full satisfaction on this point. She further instructed him to inform the Captain that, if he continued to increase the troubles of the realm, she would ‘judge that to be true which, by some had been long doubted, that he and his companions were partially disposed, for their own lucre and to maintain their disordered authorities, to continue these inward troubles, by pretending to favour the Queen, with whom it was known that, before time, they could not be content.’ If this should not be enough, Drury was to add “some sharper speech” of his own.
In his reply to this communication, Kirkcaldy assured the Queen of England that his enemies had misreported him. Had it really been the intention of Lennox and his party to choose persons authorised to carry on the negotiations referred to by her Highness, he would have given them free access to Edinburgh. But he had been told by Morton himself, that ‘the treaty was dissolved in England, and clean cut off without any promise of abstinence, or hope of recontinuation.’ He pointed out that, if the Lords did not get entrance into the town, they, nevertheless, did hold a Parliament outside the walls; and, as they did not then appoint commissioners, he concluded that it had never been their object to do so. He denied ever having told the people, in his proclamations, that Lennox was ‘sworn English against his country;’ but he admitted that, in private conversation, he had said that the Earl was the Queen of England’s subject by oath. Again protesting his pacific intentions, his unselfish aims, and his respect for Elizabeth, he offered to do battle against any gentleman undefamed, of England or Scotland, who dared charge him with having written or uttered any word against her honour.
Elizabeth admitted that Grange’s reply was not unreasonable, and that she did not mislike it. In truth, she found it admirably suited to her purpose. On the strength of its conciliatory tone, she could approach Lennox, and bring pressure to bear on him, by declaring that his opponents were ready to accept her mediation, and by making him responsible for the continuance of hostilities, unless he, too, consented to submit the whole quarrel to her arbitration. It was in this sense that, on the 7th of June, she addressed another long letter of instructions to Sir William Drury.