General Notes

REFN: 1195AN
REFN: P1195
KIRKALDY, WILLIAM, one of the earliest converts to the protestant faith
in Scotland, and a brave and accomplished man, was the eldest son of Si r
James Kirkaldy of Grange, high treasurer to James V. of Scotland. [The
fa cts in this article are in general taken from the memoir of Kirkaldy of
Grang e by Mr Graham Dalyell, a gentleman who has been so minute in his
investigati ons that it would be difficult to find a fact of importance
omitted by him.] Of the period of his birth and the method of his
education we have been unabl e to discover any satisfactory information;
but like the greater number of th e Scottish barons at that time, he seems
to have chosen, or to have been devo ted by his parents, to the profession
of arms. At the death of James, his fat her seems to have lost his
situation in the government; yet with a view of pr ocuring that nobleman’s
assistance to the cause of protestantism, he was one of the most active
assistants in raising Arran to the regency; but in the hop e he had
formed, he was to a considerable extent disappointed.
Young Grange, as well as his father, had embraced the principles of the
Reformation; and h is first appearance in the historic page is as one of
the conspirators agains t the persecutor, cardinal David Beaton. The
circumstances of this renowned c onspiracy have already been commemorated
in these pages. The conspirators hav ing, by an act which cannot be
justified, avenged the death of the martyr Wis hart by assassinating his
murderer, shut themselves up in the castle of St An drews, which they held
for several months, and only surrendered, after being besieged by a
French force, in the end of July or the beginning of August, 15 46. It was
stipulated that the lives of all that were in the castle should be
spared; that they should be transported to France, whence, if they did
not choose to continue in that country, they were to be transported to
whatever other country they chose, Scotland excepted. The victors,
however, did not fi nd it necessary or convenient to attend to the terms
of the stipulation; the greater part of the garrison were sent to the
galleys, and the leaders immure d in different dungeons. Norman Leslie,
Peter Carmichael, and the subject of this memoir, were imprisoned in
Mount St Michael, where they lay a considerab le time. From this place
they wrote a letter to John Knox, who was in the gal leys, asking the
somewhat superfluous question whether they might not with a good
conscience break their prison. To this Knox naturally answered in the
affirmative, with the proviso, that they were not morally entitled to
shed bl ood in the attempt.
Embracing the opportunity of a festival night, when the ga rrison were
intoxicated, they bound every man in the castle, locked the doors , and
departed, having it is said, strictly adhered to the humane
recommend ation of Knox. The two Leslies came to Rohan, and speedily
escaped; but Kirka ldy and Peter Carmichael, disguised as beggars,
wandered through the country for upwards of a quarter of a year; at the
termination of which period they g ot on board a French ship, which landed
them in the west of Scotland, whence they found their way into England.
Kirkaldy appears to have spent a considerab le portion of the ensuing
period of his life in France, where he entered the army, and was
distinguished as a brave and skilful soldier in the wars betwee n the
French king and the emperor Charles V. Sir James Melville informs us,
that in these wars he commanded a hundred light horsemen; and for his
useful services, received the commendation of the duke of Vendome, the
prince of Co ndé, and the duke of Aumale. Henry II., he adds, used to
point him out and sa y, "Yonder is one of the most valiant men of our
age." Henry indeed seems to have used him with the most endearing
familiarity, and in all the pastimes wh ich he attended, is said to have
chosen Grange