The Captain of the Castle:
The knight of Grange is a somewhat larger than
life personality of a type that would have appealed to Robert Dudley. Both of them were popular with the ladies,
and both enjoyed being cast in the role of a warrior. Both were avid Protestants but neither of
them were bigots.
Kirkcaldy had been one
of the Castilians of Saint Andrews, a group which in 1546 stormed the Episcopal
palace of Cardinal David Beaton, leaving Beaton dead and the Castle in the
hands of a ragtag band of Fifeshire Calvinists, a group which eventually included
John Knox.
When the Scottish regent
attempted to starve them out, Kirkcaldy was one of three men smuggled to
England to borrow money from dying Henry VIII.
After their return, the castle fell to a French naval force. Kirkcaldy
was sent to France as a prisoner and incarcerated in the water bound fortress
of Mt. Saint Michel. Within a year he had not only managed a spectacular prison
break but was soon riding to battle against the Emperor Charles V at the side
of French king, Henri II, who dubbed him one of the ‘first soldiers of Europe’. At the same time, he was spying on behalf of young
Edward VI of England with the stipulation that he would not betray Scots.
During this episode he met King Edward’s knight Sir Nicholas Throckmorton and
later, William Cecil, who would later become principal advisor to the woman
then known as the bastard Lady Elizabeth.
In 1557, adolescent
Marie Stuart, who had been living at the French court since 1548 as the
intended bride of the Dauphin Francois, issued Kirkcaldy a pardon and sent him
home. Initially he became an agent of her mother, Regent Marie of Guise. On her
behalf, he was dispatched on a mission to England to meet with the Earl of
Wharton as and to deliver secret letters to Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of
Lennox. The Regent sought to enlist Lady
Margaret to induce her husband Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox to return to
Scotland to join her in her power struggle with those who opposed her
pro-French policies. For decades Lennox had been feuding with the earls of
Arran for the slot of Scottish heir apparent, but resisted the temptation of
the Regent’s offer, probably heeding the counsel of his more intelligent wife.
Not long after his return from his English
mission, Kirkcaldy joined the rebellious Lords of the Congregation in arms
against Marie of Guise, who was garrisoning the Borders and the Midlands with
French troops and planning to entice one of her young brothers of the House of
Guise to relieve her as Regent. Many
Scots, not just those who were of the auld religion, feared that under the
Regent’s rule, Scotland would soon become the new Provence. Kirkcaldy was not the only one in her circle
who joined the opposition.
The Regent’s stepson Lord James Stewart (later Moray) and Secretary Maitland also left her service and joined the rebel camp. Shortly after Marie of Guise was forcibly relieved, she died. Her friend king Henry Valois had died the year before and was succeeded by his frail son Francois II. The Queen of Scots was thus the Queen of France. She planned to grant Francois the Scottish crown matrimonial, but before that could be arranged, fragile Francois II was also dead. The adolescent Marie Stuart found herself a Queen Dowager in a France dominated by a hostile mother-in-law Catherine de’Medici, who thwarted Marie’s efforts to secure a second European royal marriage. With encouragement from her half-brother Lord James Stewart, she elected to return to Scotland to assume personal rule of a country she had not visited in thirteen years and which had adopted Calvinism in her absence.
The Regent’s stepson Lord James Stewart (later Moray) and Secretary Maitland also left her service and joined the rebel camp. Shortly after Marie of Guise was forcibly relieved, she died. Her friend king Henry Valois had died the year before and was succeeded by his frail son Francois II. The Queen of Scots was thus the Queen of France. She planned to grant Francois the Scottish crown matrimonial, but before that could be arranged, fragile Francois II was also dead. The adolescent Marie Stuart found herself a Queen Dowager in a France dominated by a hostile mother-in-law Catherine de’Medici, who thwarted Marie’s efforts to secure a second European royal marriage. With encouragement from her half-brother Lord James Stewart, she elected to return to Scotland to assume personal rule of a country she had not visited in thirteen years and which had adopted Calvinism in her absence.
As long as she followed the lead of her
half-brother James and his friends, made peace with the men who had abandoned
her mother, and resisted interfering with the new religion, she did reasonably
well at it. She was pretty, young,
charming and vigorous and the people loved her, everyone but John Knox, who
made her cry.
Kirkcaldy pledged his
loyalty to the young queen when she returned to Scotland in 1561, and fought beside
her and her half-brother Lord James Stewart and the powerful Earl of Morton at
Corrichie Burn. The knight had spent much
of his youth at the court of James V, where Lord James was the favorite among
the king’s sizeable brood of illegitimate children. He and James Stewart (soon
to become Earl of Moray) were lifelong friends. A decade later when Moray was assassinated, even
though they had political differences, Kirkcaldy was the chief mourner at his
funeral, which was presided over by Knox. Like Moray, Kirkcaldy remained loyal to his
queen until 1565 when she married her hated second husband Darnley, son of the turncoat
Scottish Earl of Lennox whose claim to fame was that he had married Henry
VIII’s niece Margaret Douglas and that he stood high in the Scottish
succession.
Illustrations Wikimediacommons
About the Author
Linda
Root lives in Yucca Valley, California with her husband Chris and two
giant Alaskan Malamutes. Root is a former prosecutor with more than 140
trials to her credit, several sufficiently newsworthy to attract the
national media. Two were featured episodes of The Prosecutors and Arrest
and Trial. She has taught research and writing at the law school
level.
Since college, Root has pursued an avocation provoked by the duality of the historical treatment of the Queen of Scots. Following an early retirement she combines her expertise as a researcher with her love of Tudor-Stuart history to a quest to rediscover the Queen of Scots. The result is a series of stand alone but related historical novels beginning with the epic The First Marie and the Queen of Scots, a tale of Marie Flemyng, one of the famous Four Maries who had served the queen since they were five years old.
The second segment, The Last Knight and the Queen of Scots explores Marie Stuart through the fictional adventures of colorful and controversial William Kirkcaldy of Grange, Europe's first-ranked soldier who later became her last champion.
The third book, a work soon to be released, is The Midwife's Secret:Book One The Mystery of La Belle Ecossaise, a look at the stunning aftermath of the years of Marie's personal rule, imprisonment and death as it impacted the life of a young woman of mysterious origin, hidden in France. A fourth book coming in mid to late 2013 is The Midwife's Secret, Book Two, The Other Daughter, the adventures of the illegitimate child born posthumously to the knight of Grange, and her personal quest.
Book five, The Reluctant Countess, is in the early planning stages.and its tragic aftermath from the prospective of a Scottish expatriate sent to France as a secret agent of her son, James VI and I. Root is a member of the Marie Stuart Society and a regular contributor to the Marie Stuart discussion group, an in active member of the State Bar of California and numerous historical and indie writer forums.
Reach her on her Facebook page or at lindaroot8@gmail.com.
Linda's Amazon page US:
Linda's Amazon page UK
Since college, Root has pursued an avocation provoked by the duality of the historical treatment of the Queen of Scots. Following an early retirement she combines her expertise as a researcher with her love of Tudor-Stuart history to a quest to rediscover the Queen of Scots. The result is a series of stand alone but related historical novels beginning with the epic The First Marie and the Queen of Scots, a tale of Marie Flemyng, one of the famous Four Maries who had served the queen since they were five years old.
The second segment, The Last Knight and the Queen of Scots explores Marie Stuart through the fictional adventures of colorful and controversial William Kirkcaldy of Grange, Europe's first-ranked soldier who later became her last champion.
The third book, a work soon to be released, is The Midwife's Secret:Book One The Mystery of La Belle Ecossaise, a look at the stunning aftermath of the years of Marie's personal rule, imprisonment and death as it impacted the life of a young woman of mysterious origin, hidden in France. A fourth book coming in mid to late 2013 is The Midwife's Secret, Book Two, The Other Daughter, the adventures of the illegitimate child born posthumously to the knight of Grange, and her personal quest.
Book five, The Reluctant Countess, is in the early planning stages.and its tragic aftermath from the prospective of a Scottish expatriate sent to France as a secret agent of her son, James VI and I. Root is a member of the Marie Stuart Society and a regular contributor to the Marie Stuart discussion group, an in active member of the State Bar of California and numerous historical and indie writer forums.
Reach her on her Facebook page or at lindaroot8@gmail.com.
Linda's Amazon page US:
Linda's Amazon page UK
No comments:
Post a Comment