MAITLAND (MAITLAND OF LETHINGTON), WILLIAM (c. 1528-1573), Scottish statesman, eldest son of Sir Richard Maitland (1496-1586) (q.v.) was educated at St. Andrews, and in 1558 became secretary of State to the regent, Mary of Lor raine. In 1559, however, he threw in his lot with the lords of the congregation. He was sent to Elizabeth for assistance and worked consistently for a union between the two crowns. In 1561 he was appointed secretary of State, and for about six years he directed the policy of Scotland and enjoyed the confidence of Mary Queen of Scots. John Knox was consistently antagonistic to him, and their encounter in the general assembly of 1564 is famous. Maitland was doubtress concerned in the conspiracy against David Rizzio, and after Rizzio's murder was obliged to leave the court and was himself in danger of assassination. In 1567 he was again at Mary's side. He was a consenting party to the murder of Darnley, although he had favoured his marriage with Mary, but the enmity between Bothwell and himself was one of the reasons which drove him into the arms of the queen's enemies, among whom he figured at Langside.
He was one of the Scots who met Elizabeth's representatives at York at 1568; here he showed a desire to exculpate Mary and to marry her to the duke of Norfolk, but he was arrested in Sept. 1569 on account of his share in the Darnley murder. He was delivered from his captors by a ruse on the part of his friend, Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange. Maitland now became the leader of the remnant which stood by the cause of the im prisoned queen, and with Kirkcaldy held Edinburgh castle against the regent Morton. The castle surrendered in May 1573 and on June 7 or 9 1573 Maitland died at Leith.
"Secretary Maitland" was a man of great learning with a ready wit and a caustic tongue. He placed his country above the claims of either the Roman Catholic or the Protestant religions. Among the testimonies to his abilities are those of Queen Elizabeth, of William Cecil and of Knox.
See J. Skelton, Maitland of Lethington (1894) ; A. Lang, History of Scotland, vol. ii. (1902).