William Kirkcaldy

Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange (c. 1520 –3 August 1573) was a Scottish politician and soldier who fought for the Scottish Reformation but ended his career holding Edinburgh castle on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots and was hanged at the conclusion of a long siege.

Grange held lands at Hallyards Castle in Fife. William's father, James Kirkcaldy of Grange (d.1556), was lord high treasurer of Scotland from 1537 to 1543 and a determined opponent of Cardinal Beaton, for whose murder in 1546 William and James were partly responsible.

William was married to Margaret Learmonth, sister of Sir Patrick Learmonth of Dairsie and Provost of St Andrews. A few days before Grange's execution in August 1573, Ninian Cockburn reported a rumour that he had a child with a young woman and had written a letter in code to her.

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 participated in the Cardinal's murder in May 1546, and when St Andrews Castle surrendered to the French in July the following year 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. Kirkcaldy was in London in December 1553, discussing border issues with the French ambassador, Antoine de Noailles.

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