lord chancellor of Scotland from 1587 to 1595 and chief adviser to King James VI (later James I of Great Britain and Ireland). His father was the poet and statesman Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, East Lothian, and his brother, William Maitland, was a prominent supporter of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (reigned 1542–67).

Maitland succeeded his father as keeper of the privy seal in 1567 and became a lord of session the following year. He supported the partisans of Mary Stuart in their war against the supporters of young King James VI and was briefly imprisoned upon the final defeat of the queen's cause in 1573. He was made a privy councillor in 1583 and became the king's principal adviser by 1586. Appointed chancellor in 1587, Maitland was the first person in that century to hold that office who was not a noble or a prelate. He was created Lord Maitland of Thirlestane three years later. His policy included alliance with England, compromise with the Scottish Presbyterians, and an endeavour to keep James on conciliatory terms with both. Nevertheless, his great influence aroused the jealousy of powerful nobles, one of whom, Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, brought him into royal disfavour in 1592. Maitland then sponsored the “Golden Act” (1592), which sanctioned the Presbyterian hierarchy of church courts; he never recovered his former power.