



Produced by Giovanni Fini, Shaun Pinder and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)









KIRKCALDY OF GRANGE




FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES


_The following Volumes are now ready_:--

  THOMAS CARLYLE. By HECTOR C. MACPHERSON.

  ALLAN RAMSAY. By OLIPHANT SMEATON.

  HUGH MILLER. By W. KEITH LEASK.

  JOHN KNOX. By A. TAYLOR INNES.

  ROBERT BURNS. By GABRIEL SETOUN.

  THE BALLADISTS. By JOHN GEDDIE.

  RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor HERKLESS.

  SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By EVE BLANTYRE SIMPSON.

  THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor W. GARDE BLAIKIE.

  JAMES BOSWELL. By W. KEITH LEASK.

  TOBIAS SMOLLETT. By OLIPHANT SMEATON.

  FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. By G. W. T. OMOND.

  THE BLACKWOOD GROUP. By Sir GEORGE DOUGLAS.

  NORMAN MACLEOD. By JOHN WELLWOOD.

  SIR WALTER SCOTT. By Professor SAINTSBURY.

  KIRKCALDY OF GRANGE. By LOUIS A. BARBÉ.




[Illustration:

    KIRKCALDY
    OF GRANGE

       BY

      LOUIS
    A. BARBÉ

      FAMOUS
      SCOTS
      SERIES

   PUBLISHED BY:
      CHARLES
  SCRIBNER’S SONS
     NEW YORK]




PREFACE


THE materials available for a biography of Sir William Kirkcaldy of
Grange are very unequally distributed over the two portions into which
his life naturally divides itself. For the first of them, I have been
obliged to content myself with the rather meagre and fragmentary
information to be gathered from the old chroniclers. As regards the
incidents that occur during those earlier years, I cannot, therefore,
claim much novelty for my sketch. By looking closely into dates,
however, I have been able to rectify some minor details, and to set
forth events in their proper sequence.

On the second part of Sir William’s public career, the documents
preserved in the Record Office throw considerable light. Some of them
have been utilised, to a certain extent, in connection with the general
history of the time; but, so far as I know, no attempt has yet been
made to base on them a connected narrative of this important period
of Grange’s life, or to draw from them an explanation of his policy.
By using his own correspondence--both the letters which he wrote, and
those which were addressed to him--I have endeavoured to represent the
man as he wished to be understood by his contemporaries.

It has not been my special object to justify Kirkcaldy’s conduct;
but I am not without the hope that the impartial account of it which
I have striven to give, may show how unfair it is to form an estimate
of him from a consideration of the bare fact that he was, in turn, the
champion of two conflicting parties.

  L. A. B.

  8 WILTON MANSIONS, GLASGOW,
  _October 1897_.




                               CONTENTS


 CHAPTER I

                                            PAGE

  THE KIRKCALDYS                               9


 CHAPTER II

  THE TRAGEDY AT ST ANDREWS                   18


 CHAPTER III

  THE CONSPIRATORS AT BAY                     26


 CHAPTER IV

  IN FRANCE                                   41


 CHAPTER V

  HOME AGAIN                                  53


 CHAPTER VI

  THE UPROAR OF RELIGION                      63


 CHAPTER VII

  HARASSING THE FRENCH                        73


 CHAPTER VIII

  AT CARBERRY                                 80


 CHAPTER IX

  LANGSIDE--AND AFTER                         97


 CHAPTER X

  DEFECTION?                                 108


 CHAPTER XI

  THE HOLDING OF THE CASTLE                  125


 CHAPTER XII

  THE MERCAT CROSS                           137




                    SIR WILLIAM KIRKCALDY OF GRANGE

_I._ THE KIRKCALDYS


IN the parish of Kinghorn, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth,
a farm-house known as the Grange still marks the spot where, three
centuries ago, the ancestral seat of the Kirkcaldys stood. The greater
part of the present structure is comparatively modern; yet it bears
a look of antiquity which indicates that its transformation has been
gradual and fragmentary, and not wholly uninfluenced by the design
of the original builder. The only date to be seen about it figures,
accompanied with an illegible monogram, on the lintel of what is now
an inner door, and commemorates some addition or alteration made in
1687. Two portions, however, show traces of even greater age, and may,
with some plausibility, be looked upon as relics of the old baronial
mansion. They are a dovecot, and a flanking tower of solid masonry. A
low recess, near the foot of the latter, is traditionally believed to
have been the entrance to a subterranean passage leading down to the
shore, beneath the village which the cottages of the dependents of the
family formed, and on the site of which a few dwellings still cluster
together. That, in the days when the prosperity of the Lairds of Grange
was at its height, this village was of some size and importance, may be
inferred from the fact that it possessed a chapel of its own, dedicated
to St Mary, and used as a burial-place for the family.

The Kirkcaldys, who took their territorial appellation from their
estate of Grange, and who probably derived their name from the ancient
town near which that baronial seat was situated, were amongst the
oldest and most influential families in the county of Fife. As early as
the thirteenth century, Sir William de Kirkcaldy is mentioned amongst
the nobles on whom the fortune of war imposed temporary submission
to Edward I., and who were compelled solemnly to take the oath of
allegiance to him, on the Gospels, in presence of his Commissioners. In
1440, the name of Sir George de Kirkcaldy appears in a charter which
made over to him one half of the lands of Seafield and of Tyrie.

About the middle of the sixteenth century, the family of Kirkcaldy
was represented by Sir James, who, having married Janet, daughter
of his neighbour Sir John Melville of Raith, was introduced by his
father-in-law to the court and service of King James V. He was first
appointed to be a simple Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, but was soon
afterwards advanced to the more important and responsible post of
Treasurer. The confidence and favour with which he was honoured by his
royal master excited the jealousy and the fear of Cardinal Beaton, to
whom he was opposed in religion, as an adherent to the doctrines of
the Reformation, and in politics, as an ardent advocate of an alliance
with England. All the efforts of his rival to bring about his fall
proved ineffectual as long as the King lived. Under the regency of the
Earl of Arran, however, the influence of the Churchman prevailed; and
the Treasurer was set aside to make room for John Hamilton, abbot of
Paisley.

Contemporary chronicles testify to the important part played by Sir
James Kirkcaldy during the troubled days of his tenure of office. He
is described by Melville as ‘a stout bold man, who always offered
by single combat, and at the point of the sword, to maintain what
he spoke.’ That, in those turbulent times, the fiery and rather
overbearing temper of which these words are only a veiled and too
partial description, should have brought trouble upon him, was but
a natural consequence; and it is not surprising to learn from the
evidence of a remission granted him in 1538, that respect for law and
order did not always guide his conduct. A few years later, the energy
of his character showed itself in the prompt and decisive action which
he took under circumstances as critical for the State as they were
dangerous to his liberty, and even to his life. It was he who, with Sir
Thomas Erskine and Sir James Learmonth, on the authority of a verbal
message brought to him by a youth, and with the King’s ring for his
sole warrant, ordered the arrest of Sir James Hamilton, the powerful
and notorious Bastard of Arran, lodged him in the Castle, brought him
to immediate trial on a charge of being in secret intelligence with the
banished Earl of Angus, the Douglasses, and other declared enemies of
the realm, and of having formed a plot to break into the King’s chamber
to slay him, and sent him to a traitor’s doom before influence could
be brought to bear upon the fickle monarch in favour of his former
favourite.

It was to the Treasurer that the delicate negotiations between James
V. and his uncle Henry VIII. were entrusted; and it was owing to his
influence that, whilst the King of England was at Pomfret, during his
northern progress, ‘one of the King of Scots’ most secret councillors’
appeared at the Court, to arrange a meeting between the sovereigns.
Unfortunately for Sir James’s scheme, his opponents discovered it at
the critical moment. For the purpose of bringing him into discredit,
they accused him of favouring the new creed, as in truth he did, though
he had not yet made public profession of it; and they put his name on
a list of noblemen whom they urged the King to burn as heretics. But
inconstant though he was, James was not so easily to be turned against
his Treasurer, for he believed him to be loyal, trustworthy, and
thoroughly devoted to his sovereign’s interests. At their next meeting,
he showed Sir James the black roll, and jestingly, or perhaps only half
jestingly, asked him what objection he could raise to the Churchmen’s
suggestions. Having thus been invited to plead his cause, Kirkcaldy
availed himself to the utmost of the opportunity which the King’s
good-nature afforded him. Not only did he draw a glowing picture of
the advantages which would accrue to both sovereign and people from an
alliance with England, and warningly point out the danger of rejecting
King Henry’s friendly advances, he also denounced the selfish policy
of his opponents, represented the gross abuses of the Roman Church,
inveighed against the ungodly and scandalous lives of the prelates,
and advised the King, not indeed to send the Cardinal and his bishops
to the stake, as they wished to do by their enemies, but, if he would
be well and rich, to take home again to the profit of the Crown all
vacant benefices, by little and little, as they fell by the death of
each prelate. The proposal to turn the tables on the Churchmen, besides
holding out a promise of much-needed pecuniary help, contained an
element of grim humour, which, for the time at least, caught the King’s
fancy; and his resolve to adopt it was so far sincere, that it led to a
characteristic scene at his next conference with the Cardinal and his
prelates at Holyrood. Gradually working himself into a passion as he
rebuked them for their treacherous and cruel advice, he disconcerted
them by his indignant words and impetuous threats of violence.
‘Wherefore,’ he asked, ‘gave my predecessors so many lands and rents to
the Kirk? Was it to maintain hawks, dogs, and concubines, to a number
of idle priests? Pack, you javells! Get you to your charges, and reform
your own lives; and be not instruments of discord betwixt my nobility
and me, or else, I vow to God, I shall reform you, not as the King of
Denmark doth, by imprisonment, nor yet as the King of England doth,
by hanging and heading, but by sharper punishments; if ever I hear
such a motion made by you again, I shall stick you with this whingar!’
And as he drew his dagger to emphasize his meaning, the terrified
priests, more careful of their personal safety than of their dignity,
precipitately fled from his presence.

This temporary check did not discourage the Treasurer’s opponents. As
a proof that they, too, were actuated by disinterested and patriotic
motives, they offered to make the King an annual grant of fifty
thousand crowns, out of the rents of the Church, for the maintenance
of hired soldiers, in case King Henry should levy war against him
because of his refusal to keep his promise with regard to a personal
interview at York. Even this bribe might have failed to win James over
to their views but for a circumstance which deprived him for a while
of the counsel and support of the Treasurer. He had lately sanctioned
the betrothal of Helen Leslie, heiress of Kellie, who was a ward of
the Crown, to Kirkcaldy’s second son; and Sir James found it necessary
to go over into Angus on business connected with this advantageous
matrimonial alliance. His rivals did not neglect to make the most of
the opportunity which his absence from Court afforded. They renewed
the charge of heresy against him, basing it on the fact that he always
carried an English version of the New Testament about with him in his
pocket; they complained of the haughtiness and arrogance which had
characterized his conduct ever since he thought himself secure in
the King’s favour; they denounced his greed, of which his anxiety to
marry his son to an heiress with a dowry of twenty thousand pounds
was adduced as a proof; and they questioned his fitness, in point of
honesty, for the responsible position to which he had been raised.

Seeing that James was wholly unmoved by accusations which he knew to
be prompted by malice and envy, and which he met by unhesitatingly
declaring his esteem and affection for Kirkcaldy, to whom, if he had
not done it already, he would willingly entrust the fortune of his
ward, they insidiously changed their tactics, and directed their attack
against what they well knew to be the weakest point in the dissolute
monarch’s character. ‘Sir,’ said the Prior of Pittenweem, himself a
notorious and unscrupulous libertine, ‘the heiress of Kellie is a
lusty, fair lass, and I dare pledge my life that, if your Majesty will
send for her presently, the Treasurer shall refuse to send her to
you.’ On this point, too, James asserted his absolute confidence in
Kirkcaldy’s fidelity and devotedness; nevertheless he so far yielded to
the tempters as to consent to their putting him to the test. The plan
devised by them was, that a letter should be written and entrusted to
the Prior of Pittenweem, who was to deliver it in person, and, if the
Treasurer obeyed the order contained in it, to bring Helen Leslie to
the King.

The event was precisely such as had been anticipated when choice
was made of an agent who, to his evil reputation joined the further
qualification of being at deadly enmity with the Laird of Grange. Sir
James refused to entrust his son’s intended bride to the unprincipled
messenger, at whom he did not hesitate to cast the plain and vigorous
epithets which his flagrant licentiousness deserved, and which the
blunt and unconventional language of the time justified. Rejoicing in
the failure of his mission and the success of his scheme, the Prior
hastened back to Edinburgh. On hearing his carefully and craftily
framed report of what had taken place, the King flew into a violent
passion, and in the heat of it, consented to the issue of a warrant for
the arrest of Sir James as soon as he returned.

When the Treasurer, who had no difficulty in penetrating the designs of
his enemies, and who consequently followed close on the Prior’s heels,
presented himself at Holyrood, he was refused admittance. Disregarding
the prohibition, however, he made his way to the presence of the King,
who was just then at supper; but only to be received with ominous
silence by the angry monarch. This did not awe him into a passive
submission, which would have been interpreted into a confession of
guilt. Respectfully, yet firmly, addressing his sovereign, he begged
to be told what offence he had committed, and why he had suddenly been
deprived of the favour with which he had so lately been honoured.
The reply was such as he expected it would be. ‘Why,’ asked James,
‘why did you refuse to send me the maiden whom I wrote for, and give
despiteful language to him I sent for her?’ Put in this form, the
charge was easy to meet. Kirkcaldy dared anyone present to accuse him
of disobedience to the King’s command. He had, he admitted, declined
to give Helen Leslie into the Prior’s keeping; but his refusal was
justified by the messenger’s too well-known character--a character
which he did not veil his words to denounce. Moreover, as he had stated
at the time, he considered himself the fittest person to accompany the
young lady to Court; and, in proof that he had never been unwilling to
yield compliance to the King’s wishes, he was able to answer in the
affirmative when asked whether he had brought the gentlewoman with him.

James understood from his Treasurer’s undaunted manner, no less than
from his straightforward explanation, that a faithful servant had been
falsely accused and unjustly condemned; but if he could recall the
warrant which had been extorted from him, he could not prevent the
consequences of a more momentous step which he had also been induced
to take. Beaton and his party had prevailed on him to adopt their
policy, and decisively to reject the proffered alliance with England--a
slight to Henry, which that imperious monarch was not slow to resent,
and which was the immediate cause of one of the most disastrous and
humiliating defeats ever inflicted on Scotland.

Once again Sir James