War With England, Service With France, and The Reformation
William, with other courtiers, had been a witness to the instrument made at Falkland Palace at the deathbed of James V of Scotland in 1542 which Cardinal Beaton used to attempt to claim the Regency of Scotland. However, William assisted to compass this murder, and when the St Andrews Castle surrendered to the French in July 1547 he was sent as a prisoner to Normandy, whence he escaped in 1550.
He was then employed in France as a secret agent by the advisers of Edward VI, being known in the cyphers as Corax; and later he served in the French army, where he gained a lasting reputation for skill and bravery. Grange was in London in December 1553, discussing border issues with the French ambassador, Antoine de Noailles.
The sentence passed on Kirkcaldy for his share in Beaton's murder was removed in 1556. Returning to Scotland in 1557 he became prominent by killing Ralph Eure the brother of the Governor of Berwick upon Tweed in a duel. As a Protestant he was one of the leaders of the Lords of the Congregation in their struggle with the Regent of Scotland, Mary of Guise. Grange fought the French troops in Fife and they destroyed his house at Halyards. In January 1560 he took down part of Tullibody bridge to delay the return to Stirling of French troops commanded by Henri Cleutin.
Grange opposed Queen Mary's marriage with Lord Darnley, and was associated with her half-brother the Earl of Moray at the time of the Chaseabout Raid. For this defiance, he was forced for a short time to seek refuge in England. Returning to Scotland, he was an accessory to the murder of Rizzio, but he had no share in Darnley's assassination.
Kirkcaldy was opposed to Mary's marriage with Bothwell and regarded the proceedings in the Scottish Parliament with dismay. He wrote to the Earl of Bedford, an English diplomat, that Mary did not care if she lost France, England and Scotland for Bothwell's sake, and Mary had said;
"she sall go with him to the warldes ende in ane white peticote or she leve him."
Kirkcaldy was one of the lords who banded themselves together to rescue Mary after her marriage with Bothwell. After the fight at Carberry Hill the queen surrendered herself to Kirkcaldy. Bothwell escaped and Kirkcaldy sailed to Shetland as Lord High Admiral of Scotland in pursuit, but his ship, the Lion, ran aground north of Bressay.
After Mary escaped from imprisonment at Lochleven Castle, his military command was mainly responsible for her defeat at the Battle of Langside. He seems, however, to have believed that a peaceful settlement with Mary was possible, and coming under the influence of William Maitland of Lethington, whom in September 1569 he released by a stratagem from his confinement in Edinburgh, he was soon vehemently suspected by his fellows.
Read more about this topic: William Kirkcaldy Of Grange
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