William Maitland

William Maitland

William Maitland of Lethington (* between 1525 and 1528 ; † June 9, 1573 in Leith ) was a member of the Scottish nobility who shaped Anglo-Scottish politics from 1558 to 1573. From 1561 Maitland worked as State Secretary of Mary Stuart for a union of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland.

Origin and family

William Maitland of Lethington was born as the eldest of seven children of the Scottish poet and statesman Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington (1496-1586) and Mariota Cranstoun, daughter of Sir Thomas Cranstoun of Crosbie.

Richard Maitland of Lethington served sixty years in the civil service and was Scottish Great Seal Keeper from 1561 to 1584. Richard's father, William Maitland of Thirlestane and Lethington, fell against the English at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. Richard's mother, Martha Seton, came from the influential Seton clan , from which the Gordons clan broke away in the 15th century .

Williams younger brother, John Maitland of Thirlestane (1545–1595) was also a politician and served King James VI from 1587 to 1595. as the Scottish Lord Chancellor and Chief Advisor.

The Maitlands belonged to a new, politically well-trained class of landlords whose possessions were in the vicinity of Edinburgh and who had been affected by the English occupation of Haddington since 1547. William, who was educated politically by his father as a child, tried his whole life to heed his advice. So he should never become a flatterer or mocker, never disregard the impermanence of happiness and always "skillfully elicit his secrets from every person" . He later studied theology at St. Andrews and then continued his studies abroad. However, his interests were not religion, but politics. He read the writings of Machiavelli enthusiastically and, as an adaptable and pragmatic politician, was guided by his principles.

William Maitland of Lethington was a member of the Protestant Church since 1555.

Political life

The years 1558 to 1561

In 1558, the Scottish regent Marie de Guise appointed the aspiring William Maitland of Lethington as her secretary of state. She sent him to London for negotiations in February 1558 and to Paris in March 1559 for negotiations. Maitland joined the Protestant rebels around Lord James Stewart, later Earl of Moray, and James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran , in the fall of 1559, despite the regent's support . These "Lords of the Congregations" , self-appointed patrons of the Protestant Church, asked England for military and political help.

Soon after, the rebels occupied Edinburgh and demanded the removal of the regent Marie de Guise. On February 27, 1560, the Lords of the Congregation signed the Treaty of Berwick with England, allowing England to intervene to protect Protestants. The regent Marie de Guise then requested French help, but due to the Amboise conspiracy , France was unable to provide military support. A little later, on June 11, 1560, Marie de Guise died.

William Maitland of Lethington then conducted negotiations with Elizabeth I and William Cecil . On July 6, 1560, England and Scotland signed the Treaty of Edinburgh , which will lead to the rapprochement of the two kingdoms. Despite the still existing Scottish-French alliance " Auld Alliance " , Mary Stuart was supposed to commit to friendship with England and to introduce the Protestant religion in Scotland. The latter was also advocated by Maitland, who assumed that Mary would not necessarily insist on keeping the Catholic mass. Furthermore, the Queen of Scots should confirm Elizabeth's right to the throne of England and her own renunciation of the use of the English coat of arms and title.

After the Treaty of Edinburgh, French influence in Scotland ended. The country was run by Lord James Stewart, William Maitland of Lethington and John Knox .

In September 1560, Maitland, who by now was one of the most experienced Scottish diplomats, negotiated again with Elizabeth I in London, who was advised by William Cecil and Robert Dudley. Maitland took the view during the negotiations that the Edinburgh Treaties would only be ratified if the succession of Mary to the English throne were settled. Elisabeth confirmed Maitland's views, but Cecil and Maitland were to settle the succession to the English throne, initially under the supervision of their queens, in private correspondence. Cecil now valued Maitland as “people with good qualities” .

Maitland realized that the presence of the young queen in Scotland was urgently needed. Therefore, on June 10, 1561, Lord James Stewart wrote a letter on behalf of the Protestant Lords Mary, in which he asked his half-sister to return to Scotland. Maitland also wrote the Queen a letter in which he undertook to support her with advice and action. Because of these letters, Mary Queen of Scots decided to return to Scotland in August 1561.

The years 1561 to 1562

Maria Stuart took over Maitland as State Secretary. Maitland, unwilling to be influenced by the emerging religious fanaticism of John Knoxes, proved to be the Queen's ideal advisor. For the next four years he became the most important ally of James Stewart , Earl of Moray since 1562. Together they led a pragmatic, the Protestant religion promoting and pro-English policy.

Maitland was commissioned by Mary Queen of Scots at the beginning of September 1561 to travel to London and negotiate with the English Queen about the question of her succession. Negotiations turned out to be difficult because Maitland rejected Henry VIII's will . In his will, Henry VIII determined the exclusion of the descendants of his older sister Margaret Tudor from the English throne.

Maitland argued that Henry VII would never have married his daughter to the Scottish King James IV with the intention of excluding her descendants from the line of succession. The consequence of Maitland's argument was that the descendants of Margaret's second marriage to Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus , had their claim to the English throne confirmed. Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley , the future husband of Maria Stuart, was a grandson of Margaret Tudor through his mother Margaret Douglas , Countess Lennox, and thus had, albeit subordinate, hereditary claims to the English throne.

On September 24, 1561, while Maitland was in London, Lady Catherine Gray gave birth to her son Eduard Seymour. Lady Catherine was the younger sister of the Nine-Day Queen Jane Gray and was considered the rightful heir to the throne by the English Parliament because of her Protestant beliefs. She was a granddaughter of Henry VIII's younger sister, Mary Tudor , and thus a potential rival of Maria Stuart in the British succession plan. The birth of their son weakened Maitland's negotiating position. Elisabeth and Cecil now urged him to return to Scotland and there to accelerate the ratification of the Treaty of Edinburgh.

In May 1562 Maitland convinced Cecil that a personal discussion between the two queens would only bring benefits for their countries. On July 6, 1562, Elisabeth and Maitland agreed the terms for a collaboration. The meeting of the two queens was to take place in Nottingham between August 20 and September 20, 1562. However, the outbreak of the Huguenot Wars in France prevented this meeting. Another meeting was to take place between May 20 and August 31, 1563 in York or Nottingham, but this meeting did not take place because of the wars of religion in France.

In August 1562, William Maitland of Lethington accompanied the Queen of Scots on her campaign against George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly , who rose up against the Queen as a powerful Catholic magnate in the north of Scotland and her on October 28, 1562 in battle von Corrichie was defeated. Maitland was then one of the Queen's advisors who advised her to execute all of the Gordon's sons. However, Maria resisted this advice and pardoned the Gordon's sons Adam and George to prison terms.

The years 1563 to 1565

Since January 1563, Maitland was looking to find a suitable marriage candidate for the queen, who had been widowed since 1560. His main intention was to prevent a marriage between Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley, fearing that this marriage would lead to the rise of Darnley's father, Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox . That is why Maitland negotiated with Elizabeth in London, who seriously suggested that she marry her own lover Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester , to Mary Queen of Scots. Instead, Maitland suggested that Elizabeth marry Dudley first and, after her death, bequeath her husband and kingdom to Mary Queen of Scots. Thereupon Maria publicly declared that she would never marry a man suggested to her by the Queen of England. In reality, however, Maitland favored the English magnate Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk , as a possible spouse for Maria Stuart.

Furthermore, since the autumn of 1563, Maitland negotiated with the Spanish ambassador in London, Alvaro de la Cuadra (Quadra), Bishop of Aquila, about a possible marriage between the Spanish Infante Don Carlos and the Queen of Scots. The Spanish King Philip II expected a marriage between Mary Queen of Scots and Don Carlos to solve the religious questions in Scotland. Since Philip II was already correctly assessing the unstable state of mind of his son at this point in time, he actually favored the Austrian Archduke Karl of Styria as the marriage candidate for Maria. He therefore asked his envoy to buy time in the negotiations with Maitland and not to make any binding commitments. Thereupon Maitland announced that if the wedding is not desired in Spain, a marriage of the Queen of Scots with the French King Charles IX. will take place.

Moray and Maitland saw a Spanish marriage as a political alternative for Scotland. Mary Queen of Scots would move to Catholic Spain and Protestant Scotland would be ruled on her behalf by Moray and Maitland. However, the Scottish reformer John Knox warned strongly against a political alliance with Spain. Moray and Maitland also expected that Elizabeth I, as a result of these negotiations with Spain, would finally uncover her succession plan. However, they did not expect that the French Queen Mother Catherine de Medici would see the negotiations with Spain as directed against France and therefore stop her payments to the Queen of Scotland.

Since negotiations with Spain remained unsuccessful, Maitland again negotiated with the English Queen in 1564 about a marriage between Maria Stuart and the Earl of Leicester. In April 1565, Mary Queen of Scots sent Maitland to London to inform Elizabeth of her wish to marry Lord Darnley. Elisabeth refused this request. Nevertheless, on July 19, 1565, the wedding of Maria Stuart and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley took place. A few days later, the Earl of Moray began to rebel against the Queen. Maitland did not support this uprising ("Chaseabout Raid") of his former ally, although the marriage between Maria and Darnley contradicted his political ideas.

The years 1565 to 1567

Maitland formally remained her secretary of state after Maria's marriage. But its influence waned as, from October 1565, Maria increasingly sought advice from her private secretary David Rizzio , an Italian musician who conducted her correspondence with France and the Pope. The Scottish nobles, including Maitland, feared a return to pro-French and pro-Catholic politics and a loss of personal power. William Maitland of Lethington was expelled from court in late 1565.

Since he feared the failure of Moray's previous Anglo-Scottish policy at the beginning of 1566, he allied himself with James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton , who was also disempowered because of Rizzio's influence , and who initiated him into his plans to eliminate Rizzio. Rizzio was murdered on March 9, 1566 by Morton and other nobles in front of the pregnant queen. Maitland did not participate in the assassination attempt, but neither did he warn the Queen. For this reason he feared her revenge and fled to Dunkeld a few days after the attack .

At the end of September 1566, the Queen pardoned William Maitland. The Queen, disappointed in her marriage to Darnley, awaited Maitland's assistance in her proposed divorce. In November 1566, Maitland and Moray conferred with Bothwell and Huntly on the royal couple's divorce. However, the Queen feared that her son James, who would later become James VI, who was born on June 19, 1566, would be declared a bastard after their divorce. Maitland reassured her: "Let us deal with the matter between ourselves, and your graces will see that nothing but good happens and nothing that has not been approved by Parliament."

In January 1567, Scottish nobles, including Huntly, Bothwell, Morton and Maitland, met in Whittingham, a castle owned by the Douglas family, and signed the "Craigmillar Bond," which sealed the planned assassination of Darnley. Maitland preferred not to be in Edinburgh on the night of the 9-10 February 1567.

A little later, Maitland supported Bothwell, who was charged with the murder. Maitland ordered the plaintiff, Darnley's father, the 4th Earl of Lennox, to appear in Edinburgh. Since Lennox did not appear in Edinburgh, Maitland reached Bothwell's acquittal on April 12, 1567. Then on April 19, 1567 Bothwell invited twenty-eight prelates and nobles, including Morton and Maitland, to the Ainslie Tavern. The nobles should undertake to recommend Bothwell as Mary's husband. This would have meant that he would have been recognized as the King of Scots. Maitland signed the "Ainslie Bond" . Three days later Huntly and Maitland wanted to accompany the Queen to Edinburgh. However, Bothwell seized Mary Queen of Scots and brought her to his Dunbar Castle.

On June 6, 1567, the choleric Bothwell tried to kill Maitland. The killing of Maitland could only be prevented by the intervention of Maria Stuart. Nevertheless, Maitland left the Queen on the same day and retired to his estates. After the battle of Carberry, lost on June 15, 1567, the desperate Queen of Maitland tried to get help, but he refused.

Since June 20, 1567, the Scottish lords had the cassette letters as important evidence against the Queen. Maitland's involvement in the appearance of the cassette letters is still controversial today.

On July 24, 1567, Mary Queen of Scots, imprisoned at Loch Leven Castle, was forced to abdicate so that her one-year-old son could be named Jacob VI. could be crowned King of Scots. The reign for Jacob VI. took over Maria's half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray.

The years 1567 to 1573

William Maitland of Lethington joined Moray's party in July 1567 and accompanied the regent to York in December 1568. Negotiations took place there from October 1568 to January 1569 between the supporters of Queen Elizabeth of England, the former Queen of Scots Maria Stuart and the Scottish regent Moray. Moray and Maitland presented the cassette letters to the British delegation.

Maitland negotiated with John Leslie , Bishop of Ross and Plenipotentiary of Maria Stuart, who would play an inglorious role as negotiator during the Ridolfi conspiracy of 1571. He presented the cassette letters to the bishop to prove Mary's guilt in Darnley's murder.

Despite the blame, Maitland secretly negotiated with Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, about his possible marriage to Mary Queen of Scots. This marriage was supposed to solve the “Scottish problem” , but also to end the advances made by France or the Habsburgs around Elizabeth and Mary. Maitland convinced the Duke that the cassette letters were not the encumbered evidence against Maria that they appeared to him to be. A little later, Norfolk asked for Mary's hand, although she had not yet divorced Bothwell. The regent Moray was ready to accept a marriage between Mary and Norfolk. Norfolk, who was not a Catholic, would then head a Catholic rebellion in England and overthrow the English government. Mary was to live with her husband in England and be kept away from Scotland forever.

Maitland's double-faced policy led historian Antonia Fraser to hypothesize that if the cassette letters were forged, he was the forger or ordered the forgery. She bases her opinion on the fact that Maitland, as Maria's long-time Secretary of State, acquired precise knowledge of her handwriting. His assistant may have been Mary Fleming, to whom Maitland had been married since January 6, 1567 and who had known Mary Stuart very well since their childhood together in France. Since the originals of the cassette letters have disappeared since 1584, their origin can no longer be clarified.

In early 1568, the most important Protestant candidate to succeed the English throne, Lady Catherine Gray, died. As a result, Norfolk found the approval of parts of the Scottish and English nobles as a husband for Mary. Following a proposal by Queen Elizabeth of England, forty against nine Scottish nobles voted in Perth in the summer of 1569 against the reinstatement of Mary as Queen of Scots. Maitland was one of the nine Scottish nobles who voted for Mary. Because of this, Maitland and the regent Moray fell apart.

After Moray's assassination on January 23, 1570, Maitland stood up against the new regent Lennox. In March 1570 Maitland fell seriously ill, possibly suffering from paralysis. Nevertheless, in the civil war that broke out, he led the party of the queen (Maria Stuart) against the supporters of the king (James VI), who were led by the respective regents Lennox, Mar or Morton.

The troops of the reigning regent Morton since 1572, whom Maitland despised as illiterate and awkward, waged the war against the Marian party with merciless severity. Maria Stuart was denied her claim to the English throne in May 1572 because of the cassette letters, but above all because of the failed Ridolfi conspiracy . Elizabeth also ordered that Mary's return to Scotland be forever excluded. Mary's prospective husband, the Duke of Norfolk, was executed as a traitor in June 1572. From August 1572 Maitland and William Kirkcaldy of Grange defended Edinburgh Castle against the troops of regent Morton. With the help of English soldiers, his troops took Edinburgh Castle in May 1573.

The regent Morton sentenced Maitland and Kirkcaldy to death. William Maitland of Lethington then judged himself on June 9, 1573 in Leith, his campaigner Kirkcaldy was hanged on August 3, 1573 in Edinburgh.

Maitland's widow, Mary Fleming, sought mercy from William Cecil, Lord Burghley, for her children and herself. Maria Stuart is said to have sincerely mourned the death of Maitland, which did not always serve her faithfully.

Marriages and offspring

From the first marriage with Janet Menteith, daughter of William Menteith of Kerse, comes:

• Marion Maitland ⚭ Robert Fawside

On January 6, 1567, William Maitland of Lethington married Mary Fleming (* 1542), daughter of Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming . Mary Fleming (her mother was Jane Stuart (1520–1563), the governess of Queen Maria I, and mistress of the French king Henry II. ) Was a close confidante of Maria Stuart. She accompanied the Queen of Scots as one of the four Marys to France in 1548 and returned with her to Scotland in 1561. From 1561 to 1567, Mary Fleming was a lady-in-waiting to the court and to the closest circle around Maria Stuart. From the happy marriage with William Maitland:

• James Maitland (* 1568; † 1625) ⚭ 1584 Agnes Maxwell, daughter of William Maxwell, 5th Lord Herries
• Margaret Maitland ⚭ 1587 Sir Robert Ker, 1st Earl of Roxburghe (* 1570 - 16 January 1650)

literature

• Antonia Fraser : Maria Stuart - Queen of the Scots ; License issue 1989 for Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herrsching; ISBN 3-88199-636-2
• Jenny Wormald; Maria Stuart ; Verlag Ploetz Freiburg-Würzburg, 1992; ISBN 3-87640-500-9
• John E. Neale; Elizabeth I - Queen of England ; unabridged licensed edition for Eugen Diederichs Verlag Munich; 2nd edition 1995; ISBN 3-424-01226-2
• William Neville: Elizabeth I of England - ruler of a world empire ; Wilhelm Heyne Verlag Munich; 7th edition 1991; ISBN 3-453-55028-5
• Geoffrey R. Elton : England under the Tudors ; Callwey Verlag Munich, 1983; ISBN 3-7667-0683-7
• Cesare Giardini: Don Carlos - Infante of Spain ; Eugen Diederichs Verlag; Munich 1994; ISBN 3-424-01227-0

Web links

• family tree

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quoting from: Fraser, p. 227
2. ↑ from: Fraser, p. 327