Sir Richard Maitland, lord Lethington [q. v.], and younger brother of William Maitland of Lethington [q. v.], was, according to the statement of his age on his tombstone, born about 1545. He completed his legal education in France, and on his return to Scotland obtained the abbacy of Kelso in commendam, which on 6 Feb. 1567 he exchanged with Lord John Stewart for the priory of Coldingham. On 20 April of the same year he succeeded his father as lord privy seal, and after the imprisonment of Queen Mary in Lochleven was confirmed in his office by the regent Moray on the 26th of the following August. On 2 June 1568 he was constituted a spiritual lord of session.
Maitland was one of a commission appointed by the regent's parliament, in December 1567, to report on the jurisdiction of the kirk (Calderwood, ii. 390). Nevertheless, he was a secret favourer of the queen (Labanoff, ii. 257–64), and at the Perth convention in July 1569 voted for the queen's divorce from Bothwell [see Hepburn, James] (Reg. P. C. Scotl. ii. 8). In September 1570 he attended a meeting of the queen's party in Atholl. Thereupon he was, along with his brother, summoned to take his trial at Edinburgh, and failing to appear was denounced a rebel. By the parliament of the regent's party held in the following May he and his brother were forfaulted. Subsequently he joined his brother in the castle of Edinburgh, and on its surrender, 29 May 1573, was sent a prisoner to Tantallon Castle (Calderwood,, iii. 284). In February 1573–4 he was permitted to reside at Lord Somerville's house of Cowthelly on finding sureties for 10,000l. to appear before the council when called on (Reg. P. C. Scotl. ii. 334). Ultimately the bounds of his confinement were enlarged to the counties of Ayr and Renfrew, but he did not obtain full liberty and pardon till 15 Sept. 1578 (ib. iii. 29), when Morton had resigned the regency.
Morton's rigorous treatment of him and the other defenders of the castle necessarily rendered Maitland one of the most irreconcilable of Morton's foes; and immediately after obtaining his liberty he set himself, along with Robert Melville, to contrive with the catholics the plot for his overthrow which was finally matured by Esme Stewart. After Morton's imprisonment he was, on 26 April 1581, restored to his seat on the bench. On 29 Aug. 1583 he was elected a privy councillor, and soon began to exercise a special personal influence with the king, which, on the fall of Arran, and after him of the master of Gray, continued till the close of his life. On 18 May 1584 he was made secretary of state, and on the 22nd the act of forfeiture against him was rescinded, and he was restored to his estates. In February 1584–5 certain ‘articles and injunctions penned by him’ (cf. Calderwood,, iv. 349–50) were imposed upon the ministers, whereupon a libel was set forth against him, in which Justice was brought in, ‘lamenting that one of Cameleon's clan or of the disciples of Matchiavell had so great a place in the commonwealth’ (ib. p. 349). Maitland connived at the plot against Arran, and reaped from it great personal advantage. But although pretending to favour the league with England (Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser. pp. 501, 513, 518), he was suspected of indirectly manœuvring to prevent its conclusion (ib. pp. 525, 526, 527). The treaty was signed on 5 July 1586. Previous to this Maitland, on 21 May, had been appointed vice-chancellor.
The execution of Queen Mary greatly grieved Maitland, and the evident relief of the king when he learned that all was over, and that there was now no rival to his throne, made Maitland ‘so ashamed’ that he took means that ‘there might be few or no spectators’ of James's behaviour (Calderwood,, iv. 611). In May 1587 Sir William Stewart, brother of the Earl of Arran, sought to charge Maitland and the Master of Gray with complicity in the plot for Arran's overthrow, but they were formally declared by the king to be untouched by Stewart's statements and to be ‘his honest and true servants’ (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iv. 165). Subsequently, however, Gray was accused of various other crimes, including an attempt to assassinate Maitland. Gray left Scotland on 7 June, and Maitland acquired new influence. At the meeting of the parliament in the following August, the chancellorship formerly held by Arran was ratified to him.
In closing the parliament, Maitland made an impassioned speech against the conduct of Elizabeth in sanctioning the execution of the Queen of Scots. The impression produced by it encouraged in no small degree the plots of the catholic nobles for a Spanish invasion of England; but Maitland personally took no part in them; and on the news reaching Scotland of the sailing of the Spanish Armada, he opposed the proposal of Bothwell [see Hepburn, Francis Stewart] for an invasion of England, and advised that Scotland should adopt an attitude of neutrality, and act merely in self-defence. This advice and his increasing influence with the king so aroused the jealousy of Bothwell and the northern catholic lords, that they made a combined attempt to raise a rebellion. On
