4^ 
 
A HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 IDouse of Douglas 
 

 Digitized by 
 
 the Internet Archive 
 
 
 
 
 in 2014 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/historyofhouseof01maxw_0 
 
A HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 1bou0c of Douglas 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES DOWN TO THE 
 LEGISLATIVE UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Right Hon. Sir HERBERT MAXWELL 
 
 Bart., M.P., F.R.S., LL.D. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 W. A. LINDSAY, Windsor Herald 
 
 IN riVO FOLUMES 
 
 DoUime ! 
 
 LONDON 
 FREEMANTLE & CO. 
 
 217 PICCADILLY W 
 MCMII 
 
Charles Alexander Doii^las-Home, 12th Earl of Home, 2nd Baron Douglas of 
 Douglas, etc. 
 
DEDICATED TO 
 
 CHARLES ALEXANDER DOUGLAS 
 XII EARL OF HOME 
 
 %ovb Bouolas of 2)ouGla8 
 
 IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF 
 THE ASSISTANCE RENDERED BY HIM IN 
 COMPILING THIS WORK 
 
/ 
 
 1 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 List of Illustrations in the Text ...... xiii 
 
 List of full page Illustrations ...... xiv 
 
 List of Coloured Shields ....... xiv 
 
 Principal Authorities quoted ...... xvii 
 
 The Principal Individuals of the House of Douglas referred to in this 
 
 Work ......... xix 
 
 Introductory Notice by the Editor . . . . . . xxiii 
 
 Author's Preface ........ xxvii 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The making of Scotland, a.d. 1054-1263 — Foreign settlers, 1 100-1200 — 
 First appearance of the name Douglas, ii 74-1 199 — Doubtful origin 
 of the family — Suggested connection with that of Moray — Meaning of 
 the name of Douglas — i. William de Douglas, c. ii'J4-c. 1214 — The 
 family of Scoti of Piacenza — ii. Brice de Douglas, Bishop of Moray, 
 1203-1222 — iii. Sir Archibald de Douglas, c. 1214-c. 1240 — St. 
 Bride's Church of Douglas — iv. Sir William de Douglas, " Long-leg," 
 c. 1240-1274 — V. Hugh de Douglas, c. 1274 — vi. Sir William de 
 Douglas, " le Hardi," c. 1274- 1302 — Abduction of Eleanor de Ferrers, 
 1288 — Swears fealty to Edward, 1291 — The sack of Berwick, 1296 — 
 Douglas imprisoned, 1296 — Wallace's rising, 1296 — The submission 
 of Irvine, 1297 — Second imprisonment of Douglas, 1297 — His death 
 in the Tower, c. 1302 ....... 1-28 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 vii. "The Good" Sir James of Doulgas, died 1330 — Declares for 
 Bruce, 1306 — Battle of Methven, 1306 — Raid of Brodick, 1307 — The 
 Douglas larder, 1307 — Second assault on Douglas Castle, 1307 [?] — 
 Affair of Raploch Moss, 1307 — Battle of Loudon Hill, loth May 
 1307 — Third assault on Douglas Castle, 1307 [?] — Capture of 
 Thomas Randolph, 1308 — Battle of Pass of Brander, August 1308 — 
 
 vii 
 
viii 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Capture of Roxburgh Castle, 6th March 1314 — Battle of Bannockburn, 
 24th June 1 3 14 — Pursuit of King Edward by Douglas, 24th June 13 14 
 — Repeated raids into England, 1314-1316 — Affair of Lintalee, 1316 
 — Single combat with Nevill, 1316 — Siege and capture of Berwick, 
 1 31 7 — The " Chapter of My ton," 13 19 — Secret treaty with Lancaster, 
 1320 — Edward 11. invades Scotland, 1320 — Battle of Biland, 14th 
 October 1322 — The Emerald Charter, 1324 — Campaign of Weardale, 
 1327 — Douglas's Camisade, August 1327 — Treaty of peace, 1328 — 
 Death of Robert i., 7th June 1329 — Expedition with the Heart of 
 Bruce, 1330 — Death of Sir James Douglas, 25th August 1330 . 29-65 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 viii. William, Lord of Douglas, died 1333 — ix. Hugh, "the Dull," Lord 
 of Douglas, c. 1 294- 1 342 — X. Sir Archibald Douglas, "the Tine- 
 man," Regent of Scotland, c. 1296- 13 33 — The disinherited Lords, 
 1332 — Reappearance of Edward Baliol, 1332 — Camisade of Annan, 
 December 1332 — Sir Archibald appointed Regent, 1333 — Battle of 
 Halidon Hill, 19th July 1333 — xi. Sir William, ist Earl of Douglas 
 and Earl of Mar, c. 1327-1384 — Slaughter of the Knight of Liddes- 
 dale, August 1353 — War renewed with England, 1355 — The Burnt 
 Candlemas, 1356 — Battle of Poitiers, 19th September 1356 — Libera- 
 tion of King David, 3rd October 1357 — Douglas created Earl, 26th 
 January 1358 — Marries Margaret of Mar, c. 1357 — Douglas takes 
 arms against the King, 1363 — Negotiations with Edward iii., 1363 — 
 Renewed disaffection of Douglas, 1363- 1369 — Douglas resigns lands 
 of Dalkeith, 6th April 1370 — Disputes the Succession, 1371 — Becomes 
 Earl of Mar, c. 1374 — Disturbance on the Border, 1378-1380 — 
 Capture of Sir Thomas Musgrave, 1377 — Douglas invades England, 
 1380 — Capture of Lochmaben, 4th February 1384 — Death of the 
 Earl of Douglas and Mar, 1384 ..... 66-98 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 xii. James, 2nd Earl of Douglas and Mar, c, 1 358-1388 — Arrival of 
 French knights in Edinburgh, April [?] 1384 — French expedition to 
 Scotland, May 1385 — Richard 11. invades Scotland, 1385 — Douglas 
 leads the French into Cumberland, 1385 — Raids Cockermouth, 1386 
 — Fresh invasion of England, August 1388 — Douglas captures Percy's 
 pennon, August 1388 — Battle of Otterburn, 12th [?] August 1388 — 
 Death of the Earl of Douglas, August 1388 . . . 99-1 13 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 xiii. Sir Archibald "the Grim," 3rd Earl of Douglas, Earl of Wigtown 
 and Lord of Galloway, c. 1325- 1400 — Taken prisoner at Poitiers, 
 1356 — Appointed Constable of Edinburgh Castle, c. 1361 — Sent as 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 ix 
 
 envoy to France, 1369 — Receives the lordship of Galloway, 1369 — 
 Purchases the earldom of Wigtown, 1372 — Marries Joanna Moray, 
 heiress of Bothwell, 1371 — Builds the Castle of the Thrieve, c. 1372- 
 1379 — Amends the codes of Galloway and the Marches, 1385 — 
 Succeeds as 3rd Earl of Douglas, 1388 — Invades England with the 
 Earl of Fife, 1389 — Stands umpire in a duel, c. 1395 — Refuses a 
 dukedom, 1398 — Anarchy in Scotland, 1398 — The Duke of Rothesay's 
 marriage, 1400 — Death of Archibald "the Grim," 1400 — xiv. Sir 
 William Douglas, Lord of Nithsdale, od. c. 1392 — Marries Egidia, 
 daughter of Robert il., 1387 — Expedition to Ireland, 1388 — Killed 
 at Danzig, c. 1392 — xv. Sir William Douglas, 2nd Lord of Nithsdale, 
 c. i388-<r. 1408 ...... 1 14-128 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 xvi. Archibald Douglas, ist Duke of Touraine, 4th Earl of Douglas, etc., 
 c. 1372-1424 — Marries Margaret, daughter of Robert iii., c. 1390 — 
 Defeats March and Hotspur Percy, 1400 — Henry I v. invades Scot- 
 land, August 1400 — Siege of Edinburgh Castle, August 1400 — ■ 
 Archibald Douglas succeeds as 4th Earl of Douglas, 24th December 
 1400 — Death of the Duke of Rothesay, 27th March 1402 — Battle of 
 Homildon Hill, 14th September 1402 — Capture of Douglas, 14th 
 September 1402 — Battle of Shrewsbury, 25th July 1403 — Recapture 
 of Douglas, 25th July 1403 — His capitivity in England, 1402-1413 — 
 Becomes Lord of Annandale, 2nd October 1409 — Travels to France, 
 1412 — The Foul Raid, 1416 — Douglas takes service under the King 
 of England, 30th May 1421 — And under the King of France, 1423 — 
 Created Duke of Touraine and Lieutenant-General of France, 19th 
 April 1424 — Battle of Verneuil, 17th August 1424 — Death of the Earl 
 of Douglas, 17th August 1424. .... 129-148 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 xvii. Archibald, 5th Earl of Douglas, Earl of Wigtown and Longueville, 
 Lord of Galloway and Annandale, c. 1390-1439 — Battle of Bauge, 
 2 1st March 1421 — Rout of Fresnay-le-iComte, 1421 — Battle of 
 Crevant, July 1422 — Return of James I. to Scotland, 1424 — Exe- 
 cution of Murdoch, Duke of Albany, 1425 — Douglas appointed 
 Lieutenant-General of Scotland, March 1437 — His death, 26th June 
 1439 — xviii. William, 6th Earl of Douglas, Earl of Wigtown, Lord 
 of Galloway, etc., 1439-1440 — Murder of Douglas and his brother, 
 24th November 1440 — Division of the Douglas estates, 1440 — xix. 
 James "the Gross," 7th Earl of Douglas, ist Earl of Avondale, and 
 Lord Balvany — Slaughter of Sir David Fleming, 14th February 1406 
 — ^James the Gross created Earl of Avondale and Justice- General, 
 1437 — Succeeds as 7th Earl of Douglas, November 1440 — His death, 
 24th March 1443 ...... 149-161 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XX. William, 8th Earl of Douglas, 2nd Earl of Avondale, Lord of Gallo- 
 way, etc., 1424-1452 — Is appointed Lieutenant-General, April 1443 
 — Raises war against Chancellor Crichton, 20th August 1443 — 
 Marries the Fair Maid of Galloway, 1444 — Feud between the Black 
 Douglas and the Red, 1443 — Douglas claims the Duchy of Touraine, 
 
 1448 — Renewal of Border warfare, 1449 — Fall of the Livingstones, 
 
 1449 — Douglas travels to Rome, November 1450 — His reconciliation 
 vv'ith the King, 1451 — Forms a league with the Earl of Crawford, 
 1451 — Murder of the Earl of Douglas, February 1452 — xxi. Archibald 
 Douglas, Earl of Moray, €. 1427-1455 — Raids Strathbogie, May 1452 
 — Defeats Huntly at Dunkinty, 1452 — Is forfeited, 1452 — And rein- 
 stated, August 1452 — His death at Arkinholm, 1455 — x^"* Hugh 
 Douglas, Earl of Ormond, c. 1429-1455 — Battle of the Sark, 23rd 
 October 1449 — Execution of Ormond, 1455 — xxiii. John Douglas, 
 Lord of Balvany, c. 1430-1463 — Escapes from the battle of Arkin- 
 holm, 1455 — Acts in the service of Edward iv., 1461 — His capture 
 and execution, 1463 — xxiv. James, 9th Earl of Douglas, 3rd Earl of 
 Avondale, etc., c. 1425-1488 — Defies King James, 17th March 1452 
 — Makes submission to King James, 28th August 1452 — Marries his 
 brother's widow, 1453 — Release of Malise, Earl of Strathern, 1453 — 
 The King makes war on Douglas, 1455 — Douglas seeks refuge in 
 England, 1453 — Battle of Arkinholm, 1455 — Forfeiture of the 
 Douglases, loth, 12th June 1455 — Taking of the Thrieve, 1455 — 
 Douglas's embassy to the Lord of the Isles, June 1461 — The affair of 
 Kirtlebank, 24th July 1484 — Capture of the Earl of Douglas, 24th 
 
 July 1484— His death, 1488— The Fair Maid of Galloway . 162-207 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 XXV. Sir Andrew Douglas of Plerdmanston, etc. — xxvi. William Douglas 
 of Herdmanston, c. 1277 — xxvii. Sir James Douglas of Lothian, 
 c. 1307 — xxviii. Sir William Douglas, "Knight of Liddesdale," 
 c. 1300-1353 — Made Warden of the Marches, 1330 — Captured by Sir 
 Antony de Lucy, 1333 — Battle of Borough Moor, 1st August 1335 — 
 Battle of Kilblain, 30th November 1335 — Douglas reconquers Teviot- 
 dale, 1 339- 1 342 — Capture of Edinburgh Castle, i6th April 1341 — 
 Douglas encounters the Earl of Derby, December 1341 — Ramsay 
 captures Roxburgh Castle, 31st March 1342 — Slaughter of Sir 
 Alexander Ramsay, 1342 — Fall of William Bullock, c. 1343 — 
 Douglas is restored to favour, 1342 — David ii. invades England, 
 October 1346 — Battle of Neville's Cross, 17th October 1346 — 
 Douglas is captured, 17th October 1346 — Slaughter of Sir David 
 Barclay, 1350 — Douglas becomes King Edward's man, 17th July 
 1352 — His death, August 1353 — xxix. Sir Henry Douglas of Lugton, 
 died 1393 ....... 208-228 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 xi 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XXX. Sir James Douglas of Dalkeith and Morton, c. 1355-1420 — Marries 
 Agnes of Dunbar, 1372 — Founds the Collegiate Church of Dalkeith, 
 June 1406 — His death, 1420 — His will, 1 390-1 392 — xxxi. Sir 
 James Douglas, 1st Lord Dalkeith, c. 1372-r. 1441 — Created a 
 Lord of Parliament — His death, c. 1441 — xxxii. Sir James 
 Douglas, 2nd Lord Dalkeith — Marries Elizabeth Gifford — 
 xxxiii. Sir James Douglas, 1st Earl of Morton, 3rd Lord Dalkeith, 
 ob. c. 1504 — Created Earl of Morton, 1458 — Marries Lady Joan, 
 daughter of James I., 1458 — His death, c. 1504 — xxxiv. Sir John 
 Douglas, 2nd Earl of Morton, 4th Lord Dalkeith, ob. c. 1528 — 
 Marries Janet Crichton — His death, c. 1528 — xxxv. James 
 Douglas, 3rd Earl of Morton, 5th Lord Dalkeith — Marries 
 Katharine Stuart — Deprived of his earldom and lands, 17th October 
 1540 — Deprivation of Douglas of Lochleven, January 1541 — Morton 
 is restored, 24th April 1543 — His death, 1552 . . 229-245 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 xxxvi. James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, Regent of Scotland, 
 1516-1581 — Marries Elizabeth, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Morton 
 [xxxv.], 1543 — Joins the Lords of the Congregation, December 
 1557 — Signs the Reformers' Covenant, 27th April 1560 — Appointed 
 Chancellor of Scotland, 1562 — The Countess of Lennox renounces 
 her claim to the earldom of Angus, 1 565 — Murder of David Riccio, 
 9th March 1566 — Morton flies to England, 1566 — Is recalled, January 
 1567 — Conspiracy against Darnley, 1567 — xxxvii. Archibald Douglas, 
 parson of Glasgow, died c. 1600 — Civil War, June 1567 — Surrender 
 of Queen Mary, 14th June 1567 — The Casket Letters, 20th June 
 1567 — Queen Mary escapes from Lochleven, 2nd May 1568 — Battle 
 of Langside, 13th May 1568 — Earl of Lennox appointed Regent, 
 I2th July 1570 ...... 246-267 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Slaughter of Regent Lennox, 4th September 1571 — Morton elected 
 Regent, 24th November 1572 — Pacification of Perth, 23rd February 
 1 573 — Deprived of the Regency, 8th March 1 578 — Resumes authority, 
 5th May 1578 — Arrested on a charge of murder, 29th December 
 1580 — His trial and execution, 1st and 2nd June 1581 — Treachery of 
 Archibald Douglas, 1572 — He flies to England, December 1580 — 
 Is tried for Darnley's murder, 26th May 1586 — Goes as ambassador 
 to England, 1586 . . . . . . 268-293 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN 
 THE TEXT 
 
 FIGS. PAGE 
 
 1. Seal of Brice of Douglas, Bishop of Moray (1208) . . .15 
 
 2. Reverse side of seal . . . . . . .15 
 
 3. Opening words of charter by Brice Douglas, Bishop of Moray (1208) . 15 
 
 4. Seal of Sir William of Douglas (le Hardi) (1296) . . .26 
 
 5. Seal of William, Lord of Douglas (<r. 1332) . . . .68 
 
 6. Matrix of same seal ....... 68 
 
 7. Seal of Hugh of Douglas, a canon (^•. i294-(:. 1342) . . .70 
 
 8. Seal of William, Lord of Douglas (1342-1384) . . .76 
 
 9. Seal of the Earl of Douglas . . . . . .81 
 
 10. Seal of the Earl of Douglas and Mar ..... 88 
 
 11. Seal of Isabella Douglas, Countess of Mar {c. 1400) . . .94 
 
 12. Signet of the Earl of Douglas and Mar . . . .94 
 
 13. Seal of Sir Archibald of Douglas (the Grim) (1373) . . .115 
 
 14. Seal of the Earl of Douglas and Lord of Galloway (1389- 1 400) . 117 
 
 15. Seal of the Earl of Douglas and Lord of Galloway (1389-1400) . 1 19 
 
 16. Seal of Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas (1400) . . .130 
 
 17. Signet of Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas . . . .131 
 
 18. Seal of Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas, Lord of Galloway (1400) . 146 
 
 19. Seal of Princess Margaret, Duchess of Touraine . . .147 
 20,21. Seals of Archibald, 2nd Duke of Touraine, 5th Earl of Douglas, 
 
 etc. (1424-1439) . . . . . . .153 
 
 22. Seal of William, 3rd Duke of Touraine, 6th Earl of Douglas, etc. 
 
 (1439) 155 
 
 23. Justiciary Seal of James, 7th Earl of Douglas (1440-1443') . . 160 
 
 24. Seal of William, 8th Earl of Douglas (1443-1452) . . . 164 
 
 25. Seal of William, 8th Earl of Douglas (1443- 1 45 2) • • .166 
 
 26. Seal of James, 9th Earl of Douglas (1452-1488) . . . 173 
 
 27. Seal of Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray . . . .177 
 
 28. Seal of James, Master of Douglas (^7;z/^ 1452) . , . . 182 
 
 29. Signature of James, 9th Earl of Douglas (1454) . . . 202 
 
 30. Ruins of the Collegiate Church of Dalkeith .... 239 
 
 31. 32. Armorial stones in Dalkeith Church .... 240 
 33> 34> 35- Seals of James Douglas, Earl of Morton, Regent . . 286 
 
 36. Signature of James Douglas, Earl of Morton (1565) . . . 287 
 
 37. Seal of Elizabeth Douglas, Countess of Morton . . . 293 
 37A. Signature of Matthew, Earl of Lennox (1565) . . • 293 
 
 xili 
 
xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, Regent of Scotland, 1572-1581 Frontispiece 
 Arms of Moray and Douglas, Both well Castle . . Facing page 1 1 
 
 Tomb of *'the Good Sir James" in St. Bride's Church of 
 
 Douglas ...... 
 
 The Thrieve, Galloway .... 
 
 Tomb of Margaret, Countess of Douglas, in Lincluden Church 
 x\rmorial bearings on Countess Margaret's tomb 
 Tomb of James "the Gross," 7th Earl of Douglas, in St 
 
 Bride's Church of Douglas ... 
 Arms and Inscription on the tomb of James " the Gross " 
 Bothwell Castle, Lanarkshire . . . . , 
 
 Hermitage Castle, Liddesdale 
 Morton Castle, Dumfriesshire 
 
 Tomb of 1st Earl and Countess of Morton in Dalkeith 
 
 Church ...... 
 
 Monument to Lady Margaret Douglas 
 James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton (Regent), from a painting 
 
 at Dalmahoy . . . . . • 5, », 253 
 
 LIST OF COLOURED SHIELDS 
 
 Charles Alexander Douglas-Home, 12th Earl of Home, 2nd 
 
 Baron Douglas of Douglas, etc. . . . Opposite Dedication 
 
 Sir James de Douglas 1330) .... Facing page 14 
 
 Moray of old . . . . . . . 14 
 
 Douglas of Dalkeith {c. 1300) 
 
 Sir Henry Douglas of Lochleven {ob. 1350) 
 
 Enrico Scotti-Douglas, Conte d'Agazano (1900) 
 
 Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich, Master of Angus (1550) 
 
 Douglas of Mains (1590) ..... 
 
 Sir William Douglas of Glenbervie, afterwards 9th Earl of 
 Angus (1587) . 
 
 John Douglas of Bonjedward {c. 1450) 
 
 William Douglas of Drumlanrig (141 2) 
 
 Archibald Douglas of Cavers (141 2) . 
 
 William Douglas of Whittingham (1567) 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 XV 
 
 William Douglas, Earl of Wigtown (142 1 ) . . . Facing page 143 
 
 William Douglas, 9th Earl of Angus (i?!^. 1591) . . ,, ,,143 
 
 William, 1st Marquess of Douglas (<?/^ 1660) . ' . . ,, ,, 143 
 
 The Regent Morton {ob. 1660) . . . . ,, ,, 143 
 
 Sir William Douglas, Lord of Nithsdale (1387) . . ,, ,, 201 
 
 James, last Earl of Douglas ((9(5. 1488) . . . ,, 201 
 
 Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray ((?/^. 1455) • • j> 201 
 
 Hugh Douglas, Earl of Ormond {ob. 1455) . . . ,, 201 
 
PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES QUOTED 
 
 ABBREVIATED REFERENCE. 
 
 Acts of Pari. Scot. 
 Atuhinleck . 
 
 Bain .... 
 
 Barbour . 
 £00/: of Carlaverock . 
 Border Papers 
 
 Bower 
 Bowes 
 
 Calderwood . 
 Diurnal of Occurrents. 
 
 Exchequer Rolls . 
 
 Fcedera 
 FORDUN . 
 
 VOL. I 
 
 The Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, 1844- 1 875. 
 12 vols. 
 
 Ane addicioun of scottis CornikUs and Deidis (usually 
 known as the "Auchinleck Chronicle"), edited by 
 Thomas Thomson. 1819-1877. 
 Calendar of Documents relating £0 Scotland, 1 1 08- 1 509, 
 4 vols., edited by Joseph Bain, H.M. General Regis- 
 ter House, Edinburgh. 1881-88. 
 The Brus, writ be Master Johne Barbour. Spalding 
 Club, 1856. 
 
 The Book of Carlaverock, by William Fraser. 2 vols. 
 
 Privately printed, 1872. 
 Calendar of Letters and Papers relating to the Affairs of 
 the Borders of England and Scotland, preserved in 
 H.M. Public Record Office, London. Edited by 
 Joseph Bain. 3 vols. 1894- 1900. 
 Johannis de Fordun Scotichronicon cum supplementis et 
 continuatione Walt eri Bower i : cura Walteri Goodall. 
 Edinburgh, 1759. 
 The Correspondence of Robert Bowes of Aske, Esq., 
 the Ambassador of Queen Elizabeth in the Cozirt of 
 Scotland. Surtees Society, 1842. 
 The History of the Kirk of Scotland, by Mr. David 
 
 Calderwood. 8 vols. Edinburgh, 1843. 
 A Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents that have passed 
 within the Country of Scotland since the Death of 
 James IV. till the year MDLXXV. Bannatyne 
 Club, 1833. 
 
 The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 1 264-1 507. 12 vols. 
 H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh. 1878- 
 1888. 
 
 . Fcedera, Conventiones, Literce, etc., accurante Thoma 
 
 Rymer, 2nd edit. 20 vols. London, 1727. 
 . Johannis de Fordzm Chronica Gentis Scotorum, 2 vols., 
 edited by W. F. Skene. Edinburgh, 1871. 
 
 b 
 
xviii PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES QUOTED 
 
 ABBREVIATED REFERENCE. 
 
 Fraser 
 
 Hamilton Papers 
 
 Henry VIII. Letters . 
 Historical MSS. 
 
 Lane re OS t . 
 Letters and Papers 
 
 Melville . 
 Memoriales 
 
 Morton 
 PiTCAIRN . 
 PiTSCOTTIE 
 
 Phiscarden 
 
 Scalacronica 
 
 Stevenson 
 
 Wyntoun . 
 
 The Douglas Book, by William Fraser, C.B., 4 vols. 
 Privately printed, 1885. 
 
 Letters and Papers illustrating the Political Relations of 
 England and Scotland in the X Vlth Century, formerly 
 in the possession of the Dukes of Hamilton, now in 
 the British Museum. Edited by Joseph Bain. 2 vols. 
 H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh. 1890. 
 
 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign 
 of Henry VIIL, Rolls Series. 1867. 
 
 Repoj'ts of the Historical Manuscripts Com?nission. 
 Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command 
 of Her Majesty. 
 
 Chronicon de Lanercost, MCCI.-MCCCXL VI. Mait- 
 land Club, 1839. 
 
 Letters and Papers illustrative of the Wars of the Eng- 
 lish in Frajice dtiring the reign of Henry VI., Rolls 
 Series. 1861, 
 
 Memoirs of his own Life, by Sir James Melville of Hal- 
 hill, MDXLix-MDXCiii. Bannatyne Club, 1827. 
 
 Alemoriales of Transactions in Scotland, 1 569-1573, by 
 Richard Bannatyne, Secretary to John Knox. Ban- 
 natyne Club, 1836. 
 
 Registrum Honoris de Morton, 2 vols. Bannatyne 
 Club, 1853. 
 
 Criviinal Trials in Scotland from 1488 -1624, by 
 
 Robert Pitcairn. 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1833. 
 The Historie and Cronicles of Scotland, fro?n the 
 
 slauchter of King James the First to the ane thousande 
 fyve hundreith thrie scoir fyftein yeir, by Robert 
 
 Lindesay of Pitscottie. 2 vols. The Scottish Text 
 
 Society, 1899. 
 
 Liber Plusca7'densis, edited by Felix Skene. 2 vols. 
 Edinburgh, 1877. 
 
 Scalacronica, by Sir Thomas Gray of Heton, Knight. 
 Maitland Club, 1836. 
 
 Dociwients ilhistrative of the History of Scotland, 
 MCCLXXXVI.-MCCCVL, edited by the Rev. J. 
 Stevenson, H.M. General Register House, Edin- 
 burgh. 1870. 
 
 The 0?ygynale Crony kil of Scotland, by Andrew of 
 Wyntoun, edited by David Laing. Edinburgh, 1872. 
 
THE PRINCIPAL INDIVIDUALS OF THE 
 HOUSE OF DOUGLAS REFERRED TO 
 IN THIS WORK 
 
 ♦ 
 
 VOL. PAGE 
 
 i. William de Douglas, c. ii74-<:. 1214 . . . i. 9 
 
 ii. Brice de Douglas, Bishop of Moray, 1222 . • 14 
 
 iii. Sir Archibald de Douglas, ob. c. 1240 . . . 16 
 
 iv. Sir William de Douglas, " Long-leg," 1276 . • 18 
 V. Hugh de Douglas, married 1259 . . . - 19 
 
 vi. Sir William de Douglas, " le Hardi," c"^. 1302 . . 20 
 
 vii. Sir James Douglas, *' the Good," 1290-1330 . • ,> 29 
 
 viii. William, Lord of Douglas, 1333 . . • 66 
 
 ix. Hugh Douglas, " the Dull," 1 294-1 342 . . . ,, 69 
 
 X. Sir Archibald Douglas, " Tineman," i?^. 1333 . • ?> 71 
 
 xi. Sir William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas and Earl of Mar, 
 
 c. 1327-1384 ,,76 
 
 xii. James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas, 1 358- 1388 . . ,, 99 
 
 xiii. Sir Archibald Douglas, " the Grim," 3rd Earl of Douglas, 
 
 Earl of Wigtoun, and Lord of Galloway, c. 1325-1400 114 
 
 xiv. Sir William Douglas, 1st Lord of Nithsdale, <r. 1 367-r. 1392 ,, 126 
 XV. Sir William Douglas, 2nd Lord of Nithsdale, ob. c. 1408 . ,, 128 
 
 xvi. Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas, Duke of 
 
 Touraine, etc., c. 1372-1424. . . • 129 
 
 xvii. Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas, etc., r. 1390-1439 ,, 149 
 xviii. William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas, etc., c. 1425- 1440 ,, 154 
 
 xix. James Douglas, "the Gross," 7th Earl of Douglas, etc., 
 
 ob. 1443 . . . . . • 157 
 
 XX. William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas, etc. . . 163 
 
 xxi. Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray, (?(^. 1455 . . 174 
 
 xxii. Hugh Douglas, Earl of Ormond, 1455 . . ,, 177 
 
 xxiii. John Douglas, Lord of Balvany, ob. 1463 . . • 180 
 
 xxiv. James Douglas, 9th and last Earl of Douglas, etc., 
 
 c. 1425-1452 . . . . . . ,, 181 
 
 XXV. Sir Andrew de Douglas, ancestor of the Earls of Morton, 
 
 alive in 1259 . . . . . • 209 
 
 xxvi. William de Douglas of Herdmanston, r. 1350. , 209 
 
 xix 
 
 • 
 
XX 
 
 PRINCIPAL INDIVIDUALS OF 
 
 VOL. PAGE 
 
 xxvii. Sir James de Douglas of Lothian, fii^^. 1320 . . i. 209 
 xxviii. Sir William de Douglas, " Knight of Liddesdale," 
 
 c. 1300-1353 . . . . . . „ 209 
 
 xxix. Sir Henry Douglas of Lochleven and Lugton . . 227 
 
 XXX. Sir James Douglas of Lothian, 1420 . . • 229 
 
 xxxi. Sir James Douglas, ist Lord Dalkeith, ob. c. 1450 . ,, 235 
 
 xxxii. Sir James Douglas, 2nd Lord Dalkeith, ob. c. 1456 . 237 
 
 xxxiii. Sir James Douglas, 3rd Lord Dalkeith and ist Earl of 
 
 Morton, ob. c. 1504 . . . . • 238 
 
 xxxiv. John Douglas, 2nd Earl of Morton, 4th Lord Dalkeith, 
 
 ob. c. 1515 . . . . . . 240 
 
 XXXV. James Douglas, 3rd Earl of Morton, 5th Lord Dalkeith, 
 
 ob. 1553 „ 242 
 
 xxxvi. James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, 6th Lord Dalkeith, 
 
 Regent of Scotland, 15 16-1 581 . . . ,, 246 
 
 xxxvii. Archibald Douglas, Parson of Glasgow . . • 258 
 xxxviii. George DouglaSj'-ist Earl of Angus, 1376-1402 . , ii. 5 
 
 xxxix. William Douglas, 2nd Earl of Angus, 1 398-1437 . ,, 8 
 
 xl. William Douglas of Cluny, c. 1475 • • • II 
 
 xli. James Douglas, 3rd Earl of Angus, ob. 1446 . • 12 
 
 xlii. George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus, ob. 1462 . • )j 14 
 xliii. Archibald Douglas, " Bell-the-Cat," 5th Earl of Angus, 
 
 1449-1514 22 
 
 xliv. Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven . . . i, 243 
 
 xlv. George Douglas, Master of Angus, 1469-1513 . . ii. 48 
 
 xlvi. Sir William Douglas of Glenbervie, 1513 . . 54 
 
 xlvii. Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, Poet, 1474-1522 . 55 
 xlviii. Sir Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie, " Greysteil, " 
 
 c. 1480-^:. 1540 . . . . . 96 
 
 xlix. WiUiam Douglas, Abbot of Holy rood, 1 495- 1 5 28 . ,, 61 
 
 1. Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, c. 1489-1556 . 64 
 li. Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich, Master of Angus, 
 
 c. 1490-1552 „ 68 
 
 lii. Sir James Douglas, 7th Lord of Drumlanrig . • 251 
 
 liii. Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis, ob. 1537 . . • jj loi 
 
 liv. George Douglas, Bishop of Moray, c. 1590 . . ,, 128 
 
 Iv. David Douglas, 7th Earl of Angus, c. 15 1 5-1557 . • ,5 129 
 
 Ivi. Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl of Angus, 1555-1588 . ,, 130 
 
 Ivii. William Douglas, 9th Earl of Angus, 1532-1591 . 150 
 Iviii. Sir William Douglas of Lochleven, 7th Earl of Morton, 
 
 ob. 1606 . . . . . .5, 156 
 
 lix. George Douglas, younger brother of Iviii. . . . 158 
 
 Ix. William Douglas, loth Earl of Angus, 1554-1611 . ,, 165 
 
 Ixi. William Douglas, 8th Earl of Morton, 1582-1648 . ,, 183 
 Ixii. William Douglas, iith Earl of Angus and 1st Marquess of 
 
 Douglas, 1 589- 1 660 . . . . • 185 
 
 Ixiii. James Douglas, Lord Mordington, ob. 1656 . • 180 
 
 Ixiv. Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, son of Ixii., c. 1609-1655 197 
 
THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 xxi 
 
 VOL. PAGE 
 
 Ixv. Lord James Douglas, 3rd son of Ixii., 1617-1645 . ii. 193 
 
 Ixvi. Lord William Douglas, ist Earl of Selkirk and 3rd Duke 
 
 of Hamilton, 1634-1694 . . . • 200 
 
 Ixvii. Lord George Douglas, Earl of Dunbarton, c. 1636- 1692 . ,, 194 
 Ixviii. Archibald Douglas, 1st Earl of Forfar, 2nd son of Ixiv., 
 
 1653-1712 . . . . . . ,, 200 
 
 Ixix. John Douglas, 1st Earl of Ruglen . . • j? 204 
 
 Ixx. George Douglas, ist Earl of Orkney, 5th son of Ixvi., 
 
 ob. 1737 . . . . . . ,, 205 
 
 Ixxi. James Douglas-Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, 1658- 
 
 1743 . . . . . . . 206 
 
 Ixxii. James Douglas, 2nd Marquess of Douglas, <r. 1 646- 1 700 . ,, 217 
 
 Ixxiii. James Douglas, Earl of Angus, son of Ixxii., c. 1671-1692 ,, 227 
 Ixxiv. Archibald Douglas, 3rd Marquess of Douglas and 1st and 
 
 only Duke of Douglas, 1694-1761 . . • 230 
 
 Ixxv. Lady Jane Douglas, daughter of Ixxii., 1698-1 753 . ,, 232 
 
 Ixxvi. Archibald Steuart-Douglas, ist Lord Douglas of Douglas, 
 
 1748-1827 . . . . . . 244 
 
 Ixxvii. Sir William Douglas, 1st Lord of Drumlanrig, 1 42 1 . ,, 247 
 
 Ixxviii. Sir William Douglas, 6th Lord of Drumlanrig, ^7(5-. 1 5 1 3 . ,, 250 
 Ixxix. Sir James Douglas, 8th Lord of Drumlanrig, grandson 
 
 of Hi., ob. 1615. . . . . . 259 
 
 Ixxx. Sir William Douglas, 9th Lord of Drumlanrig, ist Earl 
 
 of Queensberry, ob. 1640 . . . • 262 
 
 Ixxxi. James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Queensberry, ob. . ,, 263 
 
 Ixxxii. William Douglas, 3rd Earl and 1st Marquess and ist 
 
 Duke of Queensberry, (7/5. 1695 ' • • 265 
 
 Ixxxiii. James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry and ist Duke 
 
 of Dover, 1662-1711 . . . . • 275 
 
 Ixxxiv. Robert Douglas, Provost of Lincluden, (?^. <r. 161 5 . ,, 255 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE BY THE 
 EDITOR 
 
 It is proposed to issue a series of histories of those famihes 
 which have more especially contributed to the development 
 of Great Britain and Ireland. It matters little for the 
 purpose in view whether the particular family assisted or 
 opposed that which is now considered the good of the 
 people — whether a family was borne to victory on the 
 crest of a popular wave, or was an obstacle which had to 
 be removed and destroyed, its history is equally important. 
 Those who write the histories of nations can deal only 
 with the acts of Kings or Peoples as landmarks of time, or 
 as the outward and visible products of changes in thought 
 or belief. Those who limit their horizon can see illustrated 
 in some great noble houses the eddies of the broad stream 
 of human history ; and these minor historians are apt to 
 be more accurate in details and less influenced by precon- 
 ceived theories than the historians of kingdoms. The 
 histories of which the first is now offered to the public, are 
 not intended to be mere genealogical chronicles, nor to 
 glorify the ancestors of the great. The object rather is to 
 record what part was played by certain prominent families 
 in the received historical drama ; to collect the family 
 versions of a national story, — and thus to assist in unveil- 
 ing the hidden motives of past actors. 
 
 The importance of this minor evidence is invaluable, 
 
 xxiii' 
 
xxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 
 
 for state papers were usually intended to conceal or pervert 
 the truth; whereas family papers were primarily intended 
 as direct confessions of motive, and were rarely written with 
 the idea that they would be published to the world. It is 
 claimed, therefore, on behalf of the series of volumes now 
 commenced, that in addition to the charm of real romance, 
 they will be of value to the scientific historian of the future. 
 That these stories will throw fresh light on many vexed 
 questions, and sometimes show from a different aspect those 
 now regarded as shining lights of religious and con- 
 stitutional strife, is probable. As the critical periods of the 
 religious schism, the Rebellion, and the Revolution are 
 reached, the events of history cannot fully be understood 
 without a comparison of the rival views of Catholic and 
 Protestant Houses. The material for such family histories, 
 collected mostly by the Historical Manuscripts Commission, 
 has only been available for, at the most, two decades. 
 Formerly the history of a family was the work of a servant 
 writing for a patron, and nothing derogatory to an ancestor 
 was allowed to appear. Fabulous origins were invented, 
 seldom less than regal, sometimes quasi-divine ; but the 
 taste for such fancies has happily left us. It remains to 
 narrate with due respect, but with honest criticism, the work 
 of dead heroes, and to show how the hereditary instinct in 
 a family has contributed to the development of the nation. 
 
 The families which first suggested themselves as typical 
 of England and Scotland, Ancient and Modern, were Percy 
 and Douglas, and for convenience the latter appears first. 
 Certainly in no one of His Majesty's kingdoms has any one 
 family been so identified with the national history than was 
 Douglas in Scotland. Emerging from an origin cradled in 
 myth stepped warrior after warrior, the principal figures in 
 each Scottish host, the heart and soul of every warlike 
 enterprise. Now that the predominant power of any one 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 
 
 XXV 
 
 family is impossible, except perhaps in places where chivalry 
 has no home, if we look back from our imperial edifice to 
 the builders of the united nations, we shall perceive no 
 name more worthy of the halo of romance than Douglas. 
 
 And strange to say, a History of Douglas has never yet 
 appeared, for neither Pedro Pineda nor Hume of Godscroft 
 (as printed) penetrated beyond the threshold — nor till the 
 Public Records had been printed and family papers unearthed, 
 was it possible to produce an accurate history of many 
 generations. In the case of Douglas, the most valuable 
 assistance has been rendered by the late Sir William Fraser, 
 K.C.B., who transcribed and printed for the Earl of Home 
 many of the charters and papers of the Earls of Angus. 
 To weld all the public and private evidence thus collected 
 into a connected story, attractive to the public, requires the 
 hand of a master of the art of narrative. 
 
 This the Publishers and Editor believe they have found 
 in that of Sir Herbert Maxwell, whose development of a 
 splendid theme is now submitted to the public. 
 
 W. A. LINDSAY. 
 
( 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 
 
 I CONFESS that, when I undertook to compile a memoir of 
 the house of Douglas, I underrated the magnitude of the 
 task. To do so thoroughly would be to write the history 
 of Scotland from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century^ 
 with biographical details outside these limits. I have been 
 compelled to be content with an endeavour to trace the 
 descent of the principal families sprung from the original 
 stock, to relate the part borne by the most prominent 
 members of these families in the affairs of their country, 
 and to indicate the origin of minor branches bearing the 
 common name. It has not been thought expedient to 
 follow the fortunes of this essentially Scottish house beyond 
 the date of the legislative union of Scotland with England, 
 except by a brief enumeration of the succession in the 
 various principal lines after that period. To do more would 
 have swelled the work beyond moderate bounds, so great 
 has been the number, the energy, and the versatile talents 
 of the descendants of William de Douglas. 
 
 It is only too certain that blunders must have crept into 
 such a long and complicated narrative. From some of 
 these I have been saved by the vigilance of the Editor of 
 this series of family histories ; from others by the kind- 
 ness of Mr. Andrew Lang, who, despite his varied and 
 incessant literary labours, has been at the pains to read 
 the proofs. 
 
 xxvii 
 
xxviii 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The Douglas Book, compiled by Sir William Eraser, 
 and privately printed for the Earl of Home, has been an 
 invaluable clue to the lines of Douglas and Angus, especi- 
 ally on account of the splendid series of charters and 
 correspondence printed therein ; but it has not always been 
 possible to view the action of individuals in precisely the 
 same favourable light as that erudite writer cast upon 
 them. 
 
 I am indebted to the Earl of Home for permission to 
 reproduce engravings of seals, signatures, etc., from that 
 work, and to the Duke of Buccleuch, the Duke of Hamilton, 
 and the Earl of Morton for leave to photograph certain 
 family portraits. To Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael I owe 
 the privilege of reproducing for the first time an original 
 drawing of the Regent Morton {Frontispiece, vol, i.). 
 Hitherto this has been regarded as a sketch from the 
 picture at Dalmahoy (vol. i, p. 253); but internal evidence 
 has convinced me that it was a study for the original 
 picture. In the upper right-hand corner there is a faint 
 sketch of Morton's head in a soft cap, in profile, and, 
 lower down, a sketch of his left hand on the sword hilt, 
 which could not be represented in its proper place on so 
 small a sheet. The colouring — red beard, and curiously pale 
 hazel eyes — has here been faithfully reproduced from the 
 original. The engraving of the Dalmahoy portrait (vol. i. 
 p. 253) unfortunately has been reversed. The figure has 
 been made to face the left instead of the right, and the 
 sword to hang by the right side. 
 
 Since these pages were printed I have noticed some 
 facts in connection with the heraldry of the Morays or 
 Murrays which seem to bear on their alleged common 
 origin with the Douglases [see vol. i. pp. 9—12]. It has 
 been pointed out in the text that it would be quite in 
 accordance with the practice and spirit of Scottish heraldry 
 
PREFACE 
 
 xxix 
 
 if the original arms of Douglas — argent^ on a chief azure^ 
 three stars of the field — were a mere variant of the original 
 arms of Moray — azui^e^ three stars argent — significant of 
 common descent. But I was not then aware, or had 
 forgotten, that several branches of the family of Moray, 
 resident within what was Douglas territory of yore, actually 
 display their stars upon a chief, after the manner of the 
 Douglases. 
 
 Thus Murray of Blackbarony, Peebles, gives — argent, a 
 fetterlock azure, on a chief of the last three stars of the first. 
 
 Murray of Philiphaugh, Selkirkshire — argent, a hunting 
 horn sable, stringed and garnished gules : on a chief azure 
 three stars of the field. 
 
 Murray of Stanhope, Peeblesshire — Quarterly, ist and 
 4th the arms of Philiphaugh : 2nd, azure, three fraises 
 argent : 3rd, argent on a chief gules three crescents or, 
 
 Murray of Clermont, Fifeshire — argent, a fetterlock 
 sable, on a chief azure three stars of the field : the whole 
 within a bordure crenelle gules} As an aditional example 
 of the significance of arms as indicating affinity or patronage, 
 those of Inglis of Manor may be cited — viz. azure, a lion 
 rampant, in chief three stars argent; upon which Nisbet 
 observes : 
 
 "John Inglis of Manor obtains a charter of confirmation of his lands of 
 Manor from his superior, Archibald Duke of Touraine, Earl of Douglas ; and 
 the three stars in chief, carried by the name of Inglis, I take to be arms of 
 patronage, and carried by that name, upon the account that they were vassals to 
 the Douglases." ^ 
 
 In regard to the general conduct of this great house — 
 
 "Whose coronet so often counterpoised the Crown" — 
 
 I have endeavoured to view their relations with the Stuart 
 dynasty as dispassionately as possible. In doing so I have 
 
 ^ See Nisbet's Heraldry and Douglas's Baronage. 
 ^Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. i. 83. 
 
XXX 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 arrived at a judgment upon such men as the ist, 4th, 8th, 
 and 9th Earls of Douglas, the 5th, 6th, and 8th Earls of 
 Angus, and the 4th Earl of Morton, less unfavourable than 
 that pronounced by more than one historian, more lenient 
 than many of my readers may feel able to endorse. I have 
 done so with a full sense of the unscrupulous means whereby 
 they sometimes pursued their policy, but also with some 
 regard to the only methods of political controversy recog- 
 nised as effective at the close of the Middle Ages. While 
 private ambition and greed of gain must be recognised as 
 not infrequent motives in more than one of these individuals, 
 I have felt unable to condemn the tenacity with which, gene- 
 ration after generation, the chiefs of Douglas clung to the 
 project of the union of Crowns, which experience has proved 
 to have been the true solution of the dispute between Eng- 
 land and Scotland ; nor can I, as a Scotsman, withhold a 
 tribute of gratitude for the opposition which they maintained 
 to the ancient alliance with France. To that alliance, it is 
 true, was due the success of the Scottish struggle for inde- 
 pendence, by reason of the degree in which the English 
 Kings were continually embroiled in French wars ; but 
 after the Scottish people had embraced the Reformation, 
 further entanglement with the house of Valois must have 
 proved disastrous. 
 
 Lastly, I have endeavoured to avoid the snare which has 
 entrapped so many writers of Scottish history, causing them 
 to range the characters in every controversy under the 
 headings of good and bad, right and wrong, after the 
 scheme of a transpontine melodrama. That is not my 
 reading of to avO pooireiov — human nature — at any period or 
 in any country. Types of good and evil — Abels and Cains, 
 Hezekiahs and Ahabs, Lucretias and Messalinas, Alfreds 
 and Borgias — manifest themselves from time to time, 
 and become severely specialised ; but in public life as 
 
PREFACE 
 
 xxxi 
 
 private, the material of character is seldom uniform through- 
 out, and cannot be analysed without constant reference to 
 circumstance, nor judged independently of the ethical 
 standard of the age — 
 
 "Virtuous and vicious every man must be, 
 Few in the extreme, but all in the degree ; 
 The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise, 
 And even the best, by fits what they despise." 
 
 Moral principle is unchanging, or it is naught ; treachery, 
 violence, and disloyalty are everlastingly evil ; but it is only 
 intellects of Pharisaic cast that are insensible how greatly 
 external impulse and restraint vary from century to century. 
 
 After all, there remains the melancholy reflection what 
 tedious reading history would afford were all rulers just and 
 wise, all subjects loyal and contented. Scarcely would the 
 house of Douglas have furnished an attractive theme had all 
 its members complied with law and order, living on their 
 estates, accumulating wealth and securing respect. I have 
 tried to explain the part they played in moulding the 
 destiny of their country and establishing their own fortunes. 
 If the means that they employed were not always above 
 reproach, their motives not invariably single or lofty, we 
 may at least console ourselves with the cynical Frenchman's 
 observation : " La vertu est une triste chose : elle ne laisse 
 point de souvenirs." 
 
 HERBERT MAXWELL. 
 
 MONREITH, November 1901. 
 
THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 I The making of Scotland, a.d. 
 1054-1263. 
 
 5 Foreign settlers, 1 100-1200. 
 
 6 First appearance of the name 
 
 Douglas, 1 1 74- 1 199. 
 
 7 Doubtful origin of the family, 
 
 9 Suggested connection with that of 
 Moray. 
 
 8 Meaning of the name of Douglas. 
 
 9 i. William de Douglas, c. 1174- 
 
 c. 1214. 
 
 12 The family of Scoti of Piacenza. 
 14 ii. Brice de Douglas, Bishop of 
 
 Moray, 1 203-1 222. 
 16 iii. Sir Archibald de Douglas, 
 
 c. \21\-c. 1240. 
 
 17 St. Bride's Church of Douglas. 
 
 18 iv. Sir William de Douglas, 
 
 " Long-leg," 1240-1274. 
 
 19 V. Hugh de Douglas, c. 1274. 
 
 20 vi. Sir William de Douglas, "le 
 
 Hardi," c. 1 274-1 302. 
 
 21 Abduction of Eleanor de Ferrers, 
 
 1288. 
 
 23 Swears fealty to Edward i., 1291. 
 25 The sack of Berwick, 1296. 
 ,, Douglas imprisoned, 1296. 
 
 27 Wallace's Rising, 1296. 
 
 ,, The submission of Irvine, 1297. 
 
 28 Second imprisonment of Douglas, 
 
 1297. 
 
 ,, His death in the Tower, c. 1302. 
 
 Perhaps it is safe to affirm that no country of similar 
 extent has afforded more stirring material for history 
 The making than Scotland. It is true that there is no 
 of Scotland, counterpart in Scottish literature to the abundant 
 early Irish chronicles, whence chiefly our knowledge of 
 events previous to the twelfth century in what was to 
 become Scotland is derived, and it was not until near 
 the close of the fourteenth century that John of Fordun, 
 a priest of the diocese of St. Andrews, undertook the 
 first comprehensive history of his country. He died 
 before his task was complete ; but in 1 44 1 Walter Bower, 
 Abbot of Inchcolm, took up the materials collected by 
 VOL. L A 
 
2 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Fordun, and brought his chronicle down to the year 
 1437. 
 
 In truth there was no kingdom of Scotland before 
 the year 1263, when Alexander ill. overthrew the Norse 
 dominion at the battle of Largs. Kenneth Macalpine, 
 indeed, King of the Scots of Dalriada, helped by the 
 Danes, had overcome the Picts, and became monarch of 
 Alban, subsequently to be known as Scotia, in 844. But 
 his realm consisted only of what is now central Scotland, 
 namely, Perthshire, Argyll, Angus and Mearns and Fife. 
 The Highlands, where he had broken the sway of the 
 Pictish kings, were in no sense part of Kenneth's dominion, 
 being partly held by Norsemen and partly by independent 
 Celtic chiefs. Galloway and half Ayrshire, though Pictish, 
 remained dependent alternately upon Norse and Saxon 
 overlords. Lothian was still nominally part of the Saxon 
 realm of Northumbria or Bernicia, while Caithness and 
 the Sudrey — that is, the western islands as far south as 
 and including Man and Anglesea — were practically under 
 the sway of the Norse jarls of Orkney. 
 
 Malcolm Canmore, by aid of his uncle Siward, Earl 
 of Northumberland, wrested Lothian and Cumbria from 
 the usurper Macbeth in 1054; three years later he drove 
 him across the Mounth and slew him at Lumphannan. Thor- 
 finn. Earl of Orkney, who had actively supported Macbeth, 
 died about this time, leaving Malcolm practically paramount 
 in northern Britain. He had need of all the diplomacy at 
 his command to weld into a homogeneous nationality his 
 Celtic, Norse, and Saxon subjects. A Celt himself, he 
 could reckon upon the attachment of the men of Celtic 
 race, and he most prudently conciliated the Norse element 
 by marrying the widow of his most formidable and 
 implacable foe, Thorfinn. She died before 1067 ; the 
 Norman conquest of England had taken place in the 
 meantime, driving the queen and family of Eadgar 
 Aetheling to seek refuge at the Scottish Court. There- 
 upon Malcolm, having put his Norse subjects in good 
 humour by his first marriage, won the favour of his 
 
THE MAKING OF SCOTLAND 3 
 
 Saxon lieges by his second, in marrying the Saxon 
 Lady Margaret, sister of Eadgar Aetheling. The 
 alliance cost both Malcolm and his country dear, for it 
 brought him into conflict with William the Conqueror, 
 who invaded Scotland, forced Malcolm to become "his 
 man," took his son Duncan as hostage and bestowed lands 
 in England upon Malcolm, for which homage was due 
 according to feudal custom. Thence arose the long and 
 still obscure controversy of the nature and extent of the 
 submission due by the Kings of Scotland to the Kings 
 of England. Malcolm, falling to war again with William 
 Rufus, was slain near Alnwick in 1093. His dominion 
 of Cumbria was rent in twain, the northern moiety, from 
 Solway to Dumbarton, remaining part of the Scottish 
 realm ; the southern portion being forfeited for ever to Eng- 
 land. Still, the kingdom of Scotland had been rendered 
 for the first time a reality under the puissant personality 
 of Malcolm, and would have retained more than a 
 semblance of unity but for the fierce contest for the 
 succession between Malcolm's brother, Donald Ban, repre- 
 senting the pure Celtic line and the custom of tanistry, 
 and Duncan, son of Malcolm's first marriage, embodying 
 the Norse element in the family and kingdom. Donald 
 prevailing, shared the throne for three years [1094- 1097] 
 with Eadmund, a younger son of Malcolm's second mar- 
 riage, until Eadgar Aetheling deposed both and placed 
 Eadgar, Malcolm's elder son, upon the Scottish throne. 
 Eadgar, dying in 1107, divided the succession between 
 his two brothers Alexander and David, bequeathing to 
 the first the kingdom of ancient Alban, or Scotia proper, 
 and to the second Lothian and the Scottish moiety of 
 ancient Cumbria, to wit, the counties of Dumfries, Lanark, 
 north Ayrshire, Renfrew, and Dumbarton. 
 
 Alexander, called " the Fierce," died in i i 24, when his 
 younger brother David united the kingdom once more 
 under a single sceptre. But David, whose sister Matilda 
 had married Henry I. of England, spent his youth at 
 the English Court, and there became saturated with feudal 
 
4 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 ideals. With his wife Matilda, widow of Simon, Earl of 
 Northampton, David received the earldoms of Northamp- 
 ton and Huntingdon, and became King Henry's liegeman 
 for these dignities, their revenues, and the almost absolute 
 power attached thereto. His accession to the throne of 
 all Scotland in 1124 marked a turning-point in the 
 history of that country, inasmuch as he brought with him 
 many young Norman knights, in addition to those whom 
 he had already settled in his realm of southern Scotland. 
 He set to work vigorously to feudalise his whole dominions, 
 superseding the ancient constitution of the Seven Earls, 
 and addressing his instruments to " bishops, abbots, earls, 
 sheriffs, barons, governors and officers, and all the good men 
 of the whole land, Norman, English and Scots." 
 
 Such a revolution could not be effected without much 
 offence and heart - burning ; ethnological differences still 
 smouldered; there were Celtic upheavals in 11 30 under 
 Malcolm and Angus, grandsons of Lulach, Mormaer of 
 Moray, and in 1141 and 11 50 under Wimund. Even 
 the dominant Norman barons, who had benefited so much 
 by David's reforming zeal, proved an element of danger, 
 by reason that the most powerful of them owed allegiance 
 to the King of England for their estates in England, 
 as well as to the King of Scots for those in Scotland. 
 Thus in 11 38, when David invaded England in support 
 of his niece Matilda against Stephen, his old friend Robert 
 de Brus renounced his allegiance to the King of Scots, 
 and, resigning his lordship of Annandale in favour of 
 his second son, a lad of fourteen, left him in command 
 of his levies, and fought in Stephen's army against the 
 Scots at the battle of the Standard. Even after that 
 disastrous day David remained the vassal of Stephen for 
 the earldom of Huntingdon. 
 
 David I. died in 11 53, and was succeeded by his 
 grandson Malcolm IV., commonly called " the Maiden," who 
 applied himself to settling the disturbed districts of Moray 
 and Galloway. In Moray a very notable element was 
 introduced into the population, which leads us directly 
 
THE FLEMISH SETTLERS 
 
 5 
 
 into the matter of the present work. Pursuing his grand- 
 father's policy of replacing turbulent and disaffected Celtic 
 chiefs with Norman landlords, Malcolm seems to have 
 gone further, and to have deported, expelled, or otherwise 
 disposed of at least part of the native population, and 
 colonised it with what Fordun describes as a " peculiar and 
 peaceable people." 
 
 Now there seems no reasonable doubt that this peculiar 
 people were Flemings, the names of the new colonists bear- 
 ing testimony to their nationality ; indeed, in a grant made 
 by King Malcolm in i i6o of the lands of Innes in Strath- 
 spey, the grantee is named Beroaldus Flandrensis — Beroald 
 the Fleming. A considerable number of this industrious 
 and enterprising people had already settled in Scotland 
 during the reign of David I., and carried on trade in the 
 ports on its eastern coast. Their numbers were greatly 
 augmented in consequence of a decree of Henry II., in 1 1 56, 
 expelling all Flemings from England.^ The energy and 
 warlike qualities of these foreigners, and especially their skill 
 as artificers, engineers, and builders, commended them to 
 the enlightened views both of David I. and his successor, 
 Malcolm IV., as the very kind of people to promote that 
 which, if it seems at this distance of time to have been 
 sheer feudalisation, was in fact the surest means of civil- 
 isation. Had castles to be built to overawe rebellious 
 districts ? — the Flemings were the best builders in the land. 
 Was it desirable to provide other means than rapine and 
 precarious agriculture for subsistence? — the Flemings were 
 the best artificers in Europe. Did young industries require 
 armed protection against roving marauders ? — the Flemings 
 were as handy with pike and bow as they were with loom 
 and plumbline. Accordingly, when King David bestowed 
 Dufifus and other lands in Moray upon the Fleming, Freskin 
 of Strabrock in Linlithgowshire (now Uphall), he was 
 taking the surest means of establishing peace in that dis- 
 tracted territory. Freskin prospered and added large tracts 
 
 ^ After this "great trek" the burgesses of St. Andrews are referred to in 
 some documents as Scots, French, Flemings, and English. 
 
6 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 to his original possession ; became, indeed, the chief land- 
 owner in Moray, in virtue of which his sons adopted or 
 received the territorial appellation of de Moravia, to pass in 
 process of time into the ordinary surname of Moray or 
 Murray. 
 
 Freskin, dying before ii/i, left three sons, Hugh, 
 William, and Andrew, whereof Hugh was ancestor of the 
 Earls of Sutherland. Of Andrew, the descendants, if any, 
 have not been traced ; but William, the second son, is 
 believed to have left three sons, also named Hugh, William, 
 and Andrew. Hugh succeeded to the lands of Duffus and 
 Strabrock ; William owned Petty, Brachlie, Boharm, and 
 Arndilly, and founded the line of the Morays of Bothwell ; 
 Andrew became a priest. During the lifetime of the sons 
 First ap- of Frcskin, between 1174 and 1199, a certain 
 theTrme William de Douglas (Will, de Dufglas) ^ appears 
 Douglas, upon the scene, witness to a charter granted by 
 1174-1199. Jocelyn, Bishop of Glasgow, in favour of the 
 monks of Kelso. 
 
 Now, in endeavouring to trace the lineage of this 
 William de Douglas it is necessary not to overrate the 
 significance of family names in the twelfth century. Sur- 
 names, as we know them, were not in use ; the baptismal 
 name was all important, but to distinguish one William from 
 another, the ancient mode was followed of adding either a 
 temporary patronymic or some qualitative indicating office, 
 calling, or personal attribute. A notable instance of the 
 fluctuating patronymic occurs in the royal house of Stuart, 
 whose founder was Alanus dapifer, Alan the Steward. His 
 son was styled Walter Fitz Alan, and Walter's son became 
 in turn Alan Fitz Walter. In the Hamilton line, also, 
 Walter Fitz Gilbert alternates with Gilbert Fitz Walter. 
 
 With Norman feudalism, however, territorial designations 
 came into vogue, and just as it has been shown that Freskin 
 and his sons bore the appellation of de Moravia or Moray 
 because of their possessions in that province, so this William 
 de Douglas acquired his territorial designation, by which 
 
 ^ Liber de Calchott, p. 346. 
 
MYTHICAL ORIGIN 
 
 7 
 
 his descendants were distinguished, until it became crystal- 
 lised into a regular surname, in virtue of their owning the 
 lands of Douglas in the upper ward of Lanarkshire. 
 
 The explanation of the name of Douglas offered in his 
 History of the Douglasses (A.D. 1643— 1644) by the enter- 
 Doubtfui taining but untrustworthy Master David Hume 
 origin of of Godscroft may be mentioned only to be dis- 
 the family. j-Qjssed. Of the Douglas he affirms that "according 
 to the constant and generall tradition of men, thus was 
 their originall," and proceeds with a fabulous account of a 
 battle in 767 between Solvathius, rightful King of Scotland, 
 and a pretender, Donald Bane. The victory was very nearly 
 Donald's, when "a certain noble man, disdaining to see so bad 
 a cause have so good successe," struck in for the King and 
 turned the fortunes of the day. When the King inquired 
 about the knight who had done such valuable service, some- 
 body exclaimed, "Sholto du glasse ! " which Hume interprets, 
 " Behold the black, grey man ! " One is only too familiar 
 with this kind of ex post facto etymology, which seems to 
 have as much attraction for minds of a certain kind as it 
 causes irritation in those of another. Godscroft had done 
 more wisely not to go beyond his guarded observation about 
 the race of Douglas : " We do not know them in the fountain, 
 but in the stream ; not in the root, but in the stem ; for we 
 know not who was the first mean man that did raise him- 
 self above the vulgar." However, in justice to Godscroft, 
 it must be admitted that he was not the inventor of the 
 mythical King Solvathius, whose name suggests some con- 
 nection with the Solway district. He was merely following 
 uncritically Hector Boece and George Buchanan, both of 
 whom had described the insurrection of Donald Ban against 
 this imaginary monarch in 767. Now there had been two 
 distinct insurgent chiefs named Donald Ban, but neither 
 belonged to such an early date. First, in 1094, Donald 
 Ban, brother of the deceased Malcolm Canmore, had con- 
 tested the succession of his nephew Duncan ; second, about 
 1 1 60 Donald Ban, son of William Fitz Duncan, and great- 
 grandson of Malcolm Canmore, had risen in arms against 
 
8 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 William the Lion. This rising was not put down till 1187, 
 when on 31st July the royal troops defeated a greatly 
 superior force under Donald Ban at Mamgarvey. 
 
 Godscroft probably was acting in perfectly good faith, 
 according to his lights, in repeating the tradition current 
 about the first Douglas, and in consulting two professional 
 historians about the date. The earlier the date assigned 
 the better would it please his patron, William, i ith Earl of 
 Angus [Ixii.], who concerned himself mightily about pre- 
 cedence founded upon antiquity.^ Tradition may have 
 been correct to this extent, that notable service was done in 
 William the Lion's cause by a chevalier who received the 
 lands of Douglas as a reward. It is to be noted that the 
 first written record of the name William de Douglas, occur- 
 ring between 1 174 and 1 199, closely synchronises with the 
 rising of the second Donald Ban. 
 
 The earliest known mention of the water and lands of 
 Douglas occurs in charters granted prior to 1 1 60, of aqua 
 Meaning of Duglas and tcrritorium de Duglas adjacent 
 
 the name. thereto, in the county of Lanark f and again they 
 are mentioned by Walter the Steward, before 1 177, as one 
 of the boundaries of the Forest of Mauchline. The name 
 represents the Gaelic dubh glas, dark water,^ and is borne to 
 this day by many streams in other parts of Scotland, being 
 the exact equivalent of the frequent Blackburns and Black- 
 waters in Saxon-speaking districts. The original sound of 
 
 ^ "About the time that Godscroft's history was written, and before it was 
 published, a rivalry arose among several historical families in Scotland to obtain 
 precedence by tracing themselves back to remote ancestors. Part of the process 
 by which they hoped to accomplish this purpose was by serving themselves heirs 
 to these ancestors. . . . William, Earl of Angus, afterwards 1st Marquis of 
 Douglas, who took so much interest in Godscroft's history, obtained nine services 
 in the same year, 1630, to William, Earl of Angus, his grandfather, to George, 
 1st Earl of Angus, his great-grandfather's grandfather's gra.ndfa.thev (proavi adam), 
 to Archibald, 8th Earl of Angus, his grandfather's grandfather's brother's great- 
 grandson {atavi patris tiepotis)" and so on. — Eraser, i. p. Ixxiv. 
 
 2 Liber de Calckoti, pp. 78, 82, 84. 
 
 ^ Gaelic is known to have survived as the vernacular in the hill districts of 
 Galloway and South Ayrshire (not far from Douglas) as late as the reign of Queen 
 Mary. 
 
MORAY AND DOUGLAS 
 
 9 
 
 the name is well preserved in the local pronunciation, which 
 invariably gives to the diphthong in Douglas the value of the 
 u in rule^ or the o in do^ not as English speakers pronounce 
 it, with the sound of u in but. 
 
 Turn we now to the evidence, slender and hypothetical 
 as it is, connecting this William de Douglas [i.] with 
 . Freskin de Moravia. If William was connected 
 
 1. William 
 
 de Douglas, with Freskin, he had a compatriot as neighbour 
 died c. 1214. Douglasdale, seeing that between the years 
 1 147 and 1 1 64 Theobaldus Flamaticus — the Fleming — 
 received a grant of land on the bank of Douglas Water 
 opposite to the lands of Douglas. Between the years 1 179 
 and 1 1 98 — that is, either just before or shortly after the 
 rising of Donald Ban, William's eldest son, Archibald, re- 
 signed the lands of Hailes, in Midlothian, which he held 
 from the monastery of Dunfermline, in favour of Thomas, 
 son of Edward of Restalrig, who paid him a price for the 
 same.^ Sir William Eraser remarks, for what it is worth, 
 that Hailes is not many miles from Strabrock (Uphall), 
 owned at that time by Hugh, eldest son of Freskin.^ 
 Shortly afterwards, Archibald and his brothers took up their 
 quarters in Moray, one of the younger brothers, Brice, 
 having been appointed bishop of that see. Ross and the 
 borders of Moray had been the scene of Donald Ban's 
 operations, which, if William de Douglas earned the lands of 
 Douglas by service against the rebels, points to his connec- 
 tion with the more northern district. Brice's appointment 
 to the see of Moray also suggests a connection between the 
 family of Douglas and the province of Moray, just as Brice's 
 previous appointment as Prior of Lesmahagow no doubt was 
 owing to the proximity of that religious house to Douglas- 
 dale. During the bishopric of Brice de Douglas, which 
 lasted from 1203 to 1222, many of his relatives appear as 
 witnesses to charters granted by him, namely, Archibald, 
 
 ^ Registrum de Duiifermelyn, p. 190. 
 
 ^ Fraser, i. 9. It is to be noted that in 1444 Strabrock was owned by the 
 Earl of Douglas, being one of his castles which was burnt by the Crichtons in 
 that year. 
 
lo THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Alexander, Hugh, Henry, and Freskin de Douglas. Was this 
 Freskin de Douglas the same as one named by the bishop 
 " Freskyn de Kerdal avunculus noster " — our uncle — a land- 
 owner in Moray and lay patron of the church of Daviot ? 
 Freskin, as Mr. Cosmo Innes has remarked,^ was a peculiar 
 and unusual name, common to the families of Moray and 
 Douglas, the former of which is known to have been founded 
 by Freskin. It probably denoted nationality, Freskinus 
 or Fresicus being the low Latin term for a Frisian. 
 Sir William Eraser suggests that the occurrence in the 
 Register of Moray of the names Archibald, Alexander, 
 Hugh, and Freskin de Moravia, side by side with those of 
 Archibald, Alexander, Hugh, and Freskin de Douglas, indi- 
 cates relationship rather than mere coincidence. Sir William 
 further points out that if Bishop Brice, in the above- 
 mentioned grant of the tithes of Daviot church, had referred 
 to the lay patron, Freskin de Kerdal, as his patruus, father's 
 brother, we could then have been certain that the said 
 Freskin was brother of William de Douglas, Bishop Brice's 
 father, " and so a descendant in common with the founders 
 of the family of Moray from the first known Freskin. But 
 as the term of relationship between Freskin of Kerdal and 
 Bishop Brice is not patruus, but the indefinite word avun- 
 culus, this does not follow ; they may have been only 
 brothers-in-law, Freskin having married a sister of William 
 of Douglas, or William's wife being a sister of Freskin, in 
 which case the question of origin is where it was at first." 
 
 Again, had the early Douglas muniments escaped 
 destruction the exact nature of the connection with the 
 house of Moray might have been plainly set forth. Such 
 muniments certainly existed as late as the year 1288, when 
 Sir William de Douglas, " le Hardi," gave a receipt to the 
 Abbot of Kelso upon receiving them back from custody 
 in the cell of Lesmahagow. If, as is probable, they were 
 stored thereafter in Douglas Castle, it is only too easy to 
 imagine their fate during the war of independence, during 
 which that stronghold was repeatedly burnt to the ground. 
 
 ^ Registrum Moravieitse, p. xlv. 
 
/ 
 
HERALDIC EVIDENCE ii 
 
 Or supposing them to have escaped destruction then, the 
 frequent forfeitures incurred by the descendants of le Hardi 
 may have been fatal to them. The few early Douglas 
 charters which remain passed into possession of the 4th 
 Earl of Angus with the Douglas estates forfeited by James, 
 9th Earl of Douglas, in 1455. 
 
 The links connecting the families of Moray and 
 Douglas in a common descent from a Flemish colonist 
 are so shadowy that it might be thought a waste of time to 
 endeavour to trace them. But before dismissing the pro- 
 blem it may be noticed that the belief in such a descent 
 seems to have been current in the early part of the fifteenth 
 century, else Wyntoun would not have repeated it — 
 
 l^oto that thnxe hzQmn))nQ iunsi, 
 ^-^n s^nbx^ mm s'^nhv^i^ 
 S can pttt that in m storg. 
 §ui in tharc arm^gis Jbath thai hzxz 
 
 sUxn^5 1 sti in Igk mmzxt ; 
 Wtl vxon-Q men it is yhit smt 
 ^pptxtinh ij)k2 that thai hai) bene 
 €)f kgn ht hzsctnsi IgneaU 
 €)r tic branches callaterfk." ^ 
 
 Wyntoun wrote in an age when heraldry was a living science. 
 He understood the significance of the suggestion that the 
 original bearings of Douglas — argent, on a chief azure, three 
 stars of the field — was just such a variant of those of 
 Murray — azure, three stars argent, two and one — as might 
 have been devised to distinguish between the two houses, 
 and, at the same time, indicate a common descent.^ But 
 this also is far from conclusive, seeing that the arms of 
 great lords, altered in arrangement or tincture, were often 
 
 ^ Stars. 2 Seeming as if. ^ Wyntoun's Croiiykil^ B. viii. c. 7. 
 
 ^ The well-known heart, which now figures in the arms of Douglas, was first 
 borne by William, Lord of Douglas [1348- 1384], in commemoration of his father's 
 expedition in charge of the heart of Bruce. The imperial crown first appears 
 upon the heart in the arms of William Douglas, Lord of Nithsdale \pb. c. 1392], 
 as given in Lindsay's Heraldry, 1542. It was first added to the arms of the 
 head of the house by the nth Earl of Angus when he was created Marquess of 
 Douglas in 1633. 
 
12 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 conferred upon their vassals without any consanguinity. 
 The families of Brodie and Innes, both in Moray, each bore 
 three stars ; so, at the other end of Scotland, the saltire and 
 chief of the Bruces, Lords of Annandale, are reflected in the 
 bearings of the ancient families of Johnstone, Jardine, Kirk- 
 patrick, etc. The heraldic evidence, therefore, like the docu- 
 mentary, cannot be pronounced more than suggestive, and, 
 when all is said and done, there remains this, that the 
 sudden appearance between i 174 and 1 199 of William de 
 Douglas, bearing the territorial name, would be quite con- 
 sistent with his being one of the native chiefs of Clydesdale, 
 who had recently received a charter of his hereditary lands. 
 The utmost that can be urged is a strong probability, sup- 
 ported by the Christian names, that the houses of Moray and 
 Douglas were derived from a common Flemish or Frisian stock. 
 
 The fortress of Vigoleno, on a spur of the Appenines 
 about fifteen miles from Salso Maggiore, Parma, belongs to 
 The family Count Scoti Douglas, descended from Marco 
 
 ofScotiof Antonio Scoto, Conte d'Agazano, who claimed 
 Piacenza. ^escent from the Douglas stem. When the nth 
 Earl of Angus [Ixii.] was collecting material for the history 
 of his family in 1620, he caused two Scottish gentlemen 
 of the name of Strachan to wait upon the Count d'Agazano 
 in Paris, requesting a copy of his family tree. Angus after- 
 wards met the count himself in Orleans, who sent him the 
 tree in May 1622, accompanied by a letter, in which occurs 
 the following interesting heraldic information : — 
 
 ' ' The ancient arms of the Scoti in Piacenza were in conformity with the 
 ancient arms of Douglas, as may be seen in the Church of Santo Lorenzo in that 
 city ; but at the time when the Guelphs and GhibelHnes contended in Italy, the 
 Scoti, as partizans of France, were elected chiefs of the Guelphs in Piacenza ; 
 and, as all things with odd numbers were considered Ghibelline, the Scoti were 
 obliged to make the number of the three stars either four or two ; but, not judging 
 it proper to increase the number, they resolved to leave out one, and in its place, 
 by way of memorial thereof, they put a white bar, which, beginning on the right, 
 ends on the left, because, had the bar begun on the left and ended on the right, 
 that would have been Ghibelline.^ The field, which used to be red, was granted, 
 
 ^ The count means, not a bar, which is a horizontal figure, but a bend, which 
 is a diagonal one ; in this instance, a bend sinister. 
 
SCOTI OF PIACENZA 
 
 13 
 
 together with the pelican crest, by the Emperor Henry iv. — the crest to such of 
 the Scoti who were then in the habit of bearing it, the field to the whole family 
 in general." ^ 
 
 There is still preserved at Bothwell Castle an elaborate 
 genealogical table, prepared in 1636 for George Douglas, 
 D.D., second son of Sir Robert Douglas of Glenbervie and 
 grandson of the 9th Earl of Angus [Ivii.], wherein is 
 shown, in addition to the lines of Douglas, Morton, and 
 Angus, and the branches of Queensberry, Cavers, Mains, 
 and others, the collateral descent of the Scoti of Piacenza 
 from one whom Sir William Eraser terms " a prehistoric 
 member of the Douglas family." Erom this, however, 
 nothing can be gathered as to the connection between 
 the Moray and the Douglas. 
 
 A narrative of these two families, however succinct, 
 covers the whole history of Scotland from the close of the 
 thirteenth century till the union of the Crowns, embracing 
 the most romantic and eventful period in the existence of 
 the independent kingdom ; indeed, it is not possible to 
 follow the fortunes of the house of Douglas alone in its 
 three principal branches, Douglas, Angus, and Morton, 
 without wide excursions into the course of home and 
 foreign politics. One remarkable feature distinguishes the 
 Douglas from most other Scottish families of equal antiquity. 
 Despite repeated forfeitures and the personal vicissitudes 
 befalling the adherents of one or other of the parties which 
 so constantly and so fiercely divided the northern realm, 
 the lands which gave this family their name still remain in 
 possession of their descendants. Two-and-twenty genera- 
 tions of Douglas have borne the lordship of that dale for 
 seven centuries, between William of Douglas, the first 
 recorded of the name, down to the present Earl of Home, 
 Lord Douglas of Douglas, who represents the house in the 
 female line. 
 
 Although the extent and limits of the possessions of 
 William de Douglas [c. 1 1 74— c. 1 2 1 4] cannot be deter- 
 mined, obviously they must have been considerable, as proof 
 
 ^ Fraser, iv. 292-294. 
 
THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 remains of his great influence at a time when a layman's 
 influence was in proportion to his landed property. He 
 attended the court of William the Lion, and his name 
 often occurs in very good company witnessing the charters 
 of that monarch. Still more convincing of the position 
 already attained by the family in those early days is the 
 elevation of William's second son Brice [ii.] to the see of 
 ii Brice de Moray. Bishops of the thirteenth century were 
 Douglas, more than merely ecclesiastical dignitaries ; they 
 Moray, wcre pcers of the realm/ taking rank before earls, 
 died in 1222. ^j^gj^ highest degree of lay nobility, and 
 
 exercising great political and often military power. 
 
 The most permanent effect of Bishop Brice's episcopate 
 was his selection of Elgin as the site of the cathedral of 
 the diocese. He had first chosen Spynie, which, with the 
 sanction of Pope Innocent III., became the cathedral church ; 
 but Brice, when attending the Lateran Council in Rome in 
 1224, strongly urged Honorius III. to consent to the epis- 
 copal seat being removed to Elgin, because Spynie was so 
 solitary a spot that it was unsafe in time of war, and his 
 clergy spent half their time in travelling to distant markets 
 for the necessaries of life. Bishop Brice did not live to see 
 the change, which was not carried out until two years after 
 his death. He occupied his see for nineteen years [1203— 
 1222], and was appointed arbiter by the pope in a dispute 
 between Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, and the monks of Melrose. 
 The trial took place at Selkirk, Bishop Brice presiding, 
 King William the Lion, his son Alexander, and other high 
 dignitaries being present as assessors. After Alexander 
 came to the throne, Brice fell into disgrace at the Papal 
 Court, the legate Gualo placing him under interdict in 
 common with the realms of England and Scotland. This 
 interdict he seems to have disregarded by performing service 
 within his diocese, for which offence he was excommunicated. 
 
 ^ The privileges of bishops as peers of the realm were not called in question 
 until Tudor times, when Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Fisher were tried by 
 ordinary juries instead of by their peers. Bishops are now accounted lords of 
 Parliament, but not peers of the realm. 
 
BISHOP BRICE DOUGLAS 15 
 
 On 5 th November 121 8, Brice having expressed due con- 
 trition, the ban was removed ; but in the following January 
 Pope Honorius III. issued a commission to the Abbots of 
 Cupar, Scone, and Dunfermline to examine certain heinous 
 charges against the bishop of neglect of duty, dissolving 
 
 Fig. I. — Seal of Brice of Douglas, Fig. 2. — Reverse side of seal. 
 
 Bishop of Moray {1208). 
 
 Fig. 3. — Opening words of charter by Brice Douglas, Bishop of Moray (1208). 
 
 marriages and condoning offences for money, corrupting 
 justice, exacting exorbitant rents, and spending them in 
 gross immorality, etc. The proceedings upon this charge 
 are not extant, but at all events they proved no hindrance 
 to this prelate receiving the supreme honours of canonisation 
 
i6 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 after his death in 1222. His day is i 3th November.^ One 
 of the very few authentic portraits of the period represents 
 Bishop Brice in profile figure, wearing canonical vestments. 
 This occurs upon a seal appended to his attestation of the 
 pope's mandate appointing him arbiter in the Dunbar v. 
 Melrose case. To the same attestation are appended the 
 names of the King of Scotland and his three sons.^ 
 
 Of the six sons of William de Douglas [i.], four others 
 besides Brice became clerics, namely, Alexander, a canon 
 of Spynie and Vicar of Elgin ; ^ Henry and Hugh, also 
 canons of Spynie ; and Freskin, parson of Douglas. Hugh 
 became Archdeacon, and Freskin, Dean, of Moray. 
 
 The first appearance of Archibald, eldest son of William 
 [i.], is as witness — Erkembaldus de Duuglas — to a confir- 
 mation by Jocelyn, Bishop of Glasgow, of a toft 
 Archibald Glasgow in favour of the monks in Melrose 
 
 de Douglas, [ 1 1 79— 1 1 99],* where his name appears between 
 c. 1240. names of Alan the Steward and Robert de 
 
 Montgomery. He acquired the lands of Livingston and 
 Herdmanston in Lothian, and must have received knight- 
 hood before 1226, as he is entitled dominus Archibald de 
 Dufglas in a charter not later in date than that year.^ He 
 is believed to have married Margaret, daughter of Sir John 
 de Crauford of Crauford. Archibald died about i 240, and, 
 in the absence of documentary proof, must be assumed to 
 have been the father of Sir William de Douglas, the third 
 recorded owner of the lands who, Hume of Godscroft says, 
 was called " Long-leg," because of his great stature. He is 
 the first of his house to become clearly defined in the his- 
 torical events of his day, but before attempting to follow his 
 
 ^ Erroneously given I2th August in Dempster's Menologium, where the 
 further error is made of recording that he lived as Prior of Lesmahagow after 
 renouncing the bishopric of Moray. 
 
 2 The original is among the Duke of Buccleuch's Melrose Charters. 
 
 ^ In the Cartulary of Moray, Alexander is designated both vicecomes^ sheriff, 
 and vicarius, vicar. Sometimes the title is ambiguously abbreviated vie. Pro- 
 bably vicecomes, which was not an ecclesiastical office, is a clerical error. 
 
 4 Liber Collegii Nostre Domine de Glascu (Maitland Club, 1846), p. 235. 
 
 ^ Liber de Melros, i. 214. 
 
ST. BRIDE'S CHURCH 
 
 17 
 
 career, a sketch may be given of a foundation which has 
 been closely associated with the house of Douglas from the 
 earliest to the latest times. 
 
 The parish of Douglas, which is co-extensive with the 
 barony, obtains earliest mention, and that incidentally, in 
 St Bride's attestation of Fretheskin persona de Dufgles 
 
 Church of (Freskin, parson of Douglas) to a charter granted 
 Douglas. i^.g brother Bishop Brice to the monks of 
 
 Kelso, undated, but of course executed during Brice's epis- 
 copate [1203— 1222]. Subsequent notices occur in deeds 
 of the thirteenth century, including the presentation in 1292, 
 by Edward I., of Master Eustace of Bikerton to the church of 
 Douglas then vacant. In 1297 an agent of King Edward, 
 writing from Berwick-on-Tweed, reported the living vacant, 
 stated that it was worth two hundred merks, and recom- 
 mended that it should be given to Hugh de Cressingham, 
 Edward's Treasurer for Scotland. The church was built on 
 rising ground within the village of Douglas, and dedicated 
 to St. Bride, who became thereafter the patron saint of the 
 Douglas and his following. 
 
 The building is supposed to have escaped destruction 
 until about the year 1781, "when it was all taken down 
 except a turret and an aisle which covered the vault, where so 
 many of the Lords of Douglas had chosen their sepulture." ^ 
 It was enriched with many canopied tombs and recumbent 
 effigies, which have suffered sad mutilation, popularly 
 attributed to Cromwell's soldiers. What could be done 
 to restore them and preserve them from further injury 
 has been reverently accomplished by the present Earl of 
 Home, who stands in the room of the ancient Lords of 
 Douglas, in virtue of his descent in the female line. Let 
 into the altar steps, and covered with glass, are two heart- 
 shaped leaden caskets, one of which is reputed to contain 
 the heart of the Black Douglas ; but there is reason to 
 believe rather that they contain the hearts of the 5 th and 
 8th Earls of Angus, the former of whom — Archibald Bell- 
 the-Cat — lies in St. Ninian's Priory Church at Whithorn. 
 
 ^ Originates Parochiales^ i. 154. 
 VOL. I. B 
 
i8 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 With Sir William de Douglas, named Long-leg {c. 1 240- 
 1276), the family emerges from the mist of an almost 
 iv. Sir unwritten antiquity, and henceforward the diffi- 
 
 wiiiiamde culty of the annalist is not so much to recover 
 " Long-leg," traces as to sift the authentic from the mythical, 
 died in 1274. reconcile discrepancies, and to interpret the 
 parts played by actors in the crowded stage of Scotland. 
 Alexander II. died in 1249, and his son by Marie de Couci 
 was crowned at Scone, being then but eight years old. On 
 Christmas Day 1 2 5 i he received knighthood at York from 
 the hand of his step-uncle, Henry ill. of England, refusing, 
 no doubt as instructed by his nobles, the homage claimed 
 for his kingdom, but accepting as his wife, Margaret, Henry's 
 eldest daughter. At this time two parties or factions were 
 striving for supremacy in Scotland, whereof that headed by 
 Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, was the more national, and 
 proved the stronger at first. Alan Durward, Justiciar of 
 Scotland, was leader of the opposition, and was suspected 
 of sinister designs upon the succession, and of having to 
 that end moved the pope to legitimate his wife, a natural 
 daughter of Alexander II. At all events, Durward's object 
 was the same as Menteith's, namely, to get possession of 
 the King of Scots during his minority. Foiled in his first 
 attempt, Durward took service under King Henry in his 
 foreign war, and presently returned as that king's envoy to 
 look after the comforts of the young Queen of Scots. In 
 effect, he seized the persons of both the King and Queen 
 of Scotland, and held them till King Henry came ; who, 
 after taking counsel with the magnates of Scotland, among 
 whom was William de Douglas, appointed a regency to act 
 until Alexander III. should come of age. The Menteith 
 party were now in opposition, and bestirred themselves to 
 such good purpose that, at the instance of the Bishop of 
 St. Andrews, the Regents were excommunicated. Behold 
 now the establishment of a national as against an English 
 party in Scotland — to remain a normal state of politics for 
 three centuries to come. 
 
 Douglas from the first adhered to the English party, 
 
HUGH DE DOUGLAS 
 
 19 
 
 and his is a typical example of the influence affecting 
 many of the Scottish nobility in the coming struggle. His 
 principal possessions may be assumed to have been in 
 Douglasdale, but he certainly also held lands in the county 
 of Northumberland, whereof the possession was so long 
 in dispute between the Kings of England and Scotland,^ 
 There is some reason to suppose that his wife (possibly a 
 second wife) Constance or Custance was one of the family 
 of Battail of Fawdon in Northumberland, from whom in 
 1264 Douglas purchased the lands of Fawdon.^ Clearly, 
 therefore, it was his interest to keep in favour with the 
 English King. 
 
 In 1257 the Menteith party strengthened their hand 
 by capturing King Alexander at Kinross, and won the 
 trick ; after which there was a coalition of factions and a 
 suspension at least of violent intrigues, enabling Long-leg's 
 eldest son Hugh to choose a wife from an ultra-nationalist 
 house, to wit, that of Abernethy. The indenture between 
 Sir Hugh de Abernethy and Sir William de Douglas for 
 this marriage is the earliest charter of the Douglases which 
 has escaped destruction. It is dated 1259.^ 
 
 Sir William died before i6th October 1274. It is 
 doubtful whether his eldest son Hugh survived him. Little 
 V. Hugh de known about him beyond the fact of his mar- 
 Dougias. riage with Marjory de Abernethy, and tradition 
 points to a recumbent figure in St. Bride's Church as 
 
 ^ William de Douglas is mentioned in the Pipe Rolls in 1241 as surety for a 
 payment by Michael Fitz Michael of Ryhulle. In 1256 he granted the lands of 
 Warentham or Warndon, in Northumberland, to his second son William. — 
 Bain, i. 394. 
 
 2 Sir William Fraser discredits Godscroft's allegation that William Douglas 
 the elder joined a Crusade about 1270, because he was then above sixty years 
 of age, and therefore reckoned disqualified for war or duelling. — Fraser, i. 63, 
 note. 
 
 ^ The seal appended to this instrument has unfortunately disappeared, but 
 Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington and Hume of Godscroft both testify to 
 having seen it ; Godscroft observing that ' ' the letters thereon are worn away 
 and not discernible save only W^^-, and the arms seem to be three stars or 
 mullets at the upper end thereof. But I cannot be bold to say absolutely they 
 were so." This is the earliest recorded instance of the original bearings of 
 Douglas. 
 
THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 marking her tomb. Tradition also is the only warrant for 
 an exploit attributed to her husband Hugh by Maitland 
 and Godscroft. Hugh is said to have got into feud with 
 one of his neighbours in Douglasdale, Patton Purdie of 
 Umdrawod, who laid an ambush for Hugh as he rode 
 alone. Hugh, perceiving the trap in time, turned and 
 galloped off, pursued by Purdie's men, till he met a party 
 of his own people, when he in turn became the pursuer 
 and inflicted severe punishment upon his assailants. Purdie 
 and two of his sons were slain, and Maitland quotes some 
 doggerel in which the affair was commemorated — 
 
 "^iittatic ^urbw brack a cham 
 
 ^nb there toa5 patton ^tirbie slainc. " ^ 
 
 Upon Hugh's younger brother, William " le Hardi," 
 the light of history falls clearly. He is first mentioned in 
 the proceedings of an assize at Newcastle-on- 
 wiiiiam de Tyne in 1256, when his father, Sir William, 
 ■^iTHardi" reported that he had granted him a carucate of 
 land at Warndon in Northumberland for his 
 homage and service.- About the year 1264 Sir William, 
 the father, purchased the house and lands of Fawdon in 
 the same county. These he held as the vassal of a 
 Scottish noble, the Earl of Angus. But this earl was none 
 other than the English knight, Gilbert de Umfraville, Lord 
 of Redesdale, who had come by that great earldom through 
 his mother, and now laid before Prince Edward (afterwards 
 Edward I.) charges of disaffection against Douglas, begging 
 a gift of his manor of Fawdon. The case was tried before 
 a jury, Douglas being acquitted and Fawdon restored to 
 him. Thereupon Umfraville, taking the law into his own 
 hands, attacked the house of Fawdon with a hundred men 
 on 19th July 1267, captured it, appropriated 31 J marks 
 in cash, besides silver spoons, cups, clothes, arms, jewels, 
 gold rings, etc., to the value of ;^ioo, carried Douglas off 
 
 ^ Maitland's MS., Hamilton Palace, quoted by Fraser. - Bain, i. 394. 
 
SIR WILLIAM ''LE HARDI" 
 
 21 
 
 and imprisoned him in Harbottle Tower. In the mellay 
 young William Douglas was wounded in the neck nearly 
 to death.^ A second trial followed in 1269, whereat Douglas 
 was adjudged owner of Fawdon, and Umfraville was fined.^ 
 
 William le Hardi was knighted before 1288. In that 
 year Duncan, Earl of Fife, one of the Six Guardians, was 
 foully done to death at Pitteloch in Fife by Sir Hugh de 
 Abernethy and other gentlemen of the opposition. Now 
 Sir Hugh was the brother of Douglas's sister Marjory, and 
 in those days kinship commonly overrode other civil 
 obligations ; but on this occasion the Douglas was all for 
 law and order ; it was to him that Sir Andrew de Moray 
 handed over Abernethy, to be imprisoned in the vaults 
 of Douglas Castle, where he died before 1293. Not 
 often did captives survive for long the intolerable rigours 
 and unwholesomeness of mediaeval dungeons. In 1291 
 Edward I., as overlord of Scotland, ordered the transfer 
 of Abernethy from Douglas to one of the royal prisons, 
 but his commands were not obeyed.^ 
 
 In 1289 Douglas sent a messenger from Glasgow to 
 the Abbot of Kelso to receive his family charters, which 
 had been stored in the cell of Lesmahagow for safety.* In 
 the receipt for these Douglas styles himself Lord of Douglas 
 — the first instance of the use of that title. He had married 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander the Steward, but she was 
 dead before 1288, nor was the widower so disconsolate as 
 to omit business considerations in the choice of a second 
 spouse. Moreover, in giving effect to that choice he proved 
 the fitness of his sobriquet — " le Hardi." 
 
 A certain wealthy widow, Eleanor, daughter of 
 Matthew, Lord of Lovaine, and relict of William de 
 Abduction of ^errers. Lord of Groby, had obtained from King 
 Eleanor de Edward a handsome dowry from her husband's 
 errers, 1288. ^gj^gjjgj^ lands, and also from his possessions in 
 five Scottish counties. Coming north to collect her 
 
 ^ Ita quod jere amputaverunt caput ejus — So as nearly to cut off his head. — 
 Placitoruvi abbreviation p. 166. 
 
 2 Bain, i. 485. ^ Praser, iv. i. Liber de Calckou, i. 168. 
 
22 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 rents in 1288, she took up her abode in the castle of 
 Tranent with Eleanor de Zouch, widow of Alan de Zouch, 
 and joint - portioner in the barony of Tranent. These 
 fair dames were greatly agitated, it may be believed, 
 when one morning they beheld their house beset by a 
 force under Sir William Douglas and John Wishart, a 
 border baron. Robbery and the worst kind of violence 
 were no uncommon incidents in country life in the thir- 
 teenth century, but in this case the marauders contented 
 themselves with carrying off Dame Eleanor de Ferrers. 
 The lady was not implacable, apparently regarding ab- 
 duction as the highest compliment that could be paid to 
 her charms, and married her rough wooer. King Edward 
 was not so easily appeased, but ordered the sheriff of 
 Northumberland to seize all Douglas's possessions in 
 Northumberland [28th January 1289], and directed him 
 to imprison the culprit if he could lay hands upon him.^ 
 
 The sheriff reported in April that he had seized all 
 the lands and tenements of Douglas and Wishart lying 
 within his jurisdiction, and applied for a special mandate 
 to seize those of John Wishart lying within the jurisdiction 
 of Thomas de Normanville.^ King Edward also addressed 
 the Guardians of Scotland [27th March], demanding the 
 immediate arrest and delivery of Sir William Douglas and 
 Eleanor ; ^ but they do not seem to have made any reply. 
 Matters touching the independence of the northern king- 
 dom may have made them sensitive to the imperious note 
 in the mandamus of the English King ; moreover, Douglas 
 had powerful friends at Court, one of the Guardians being 
 James the Steward, brother of his first wife, and another 
 Comyn, Earl of Buchan, brother-in-law of his second. 
 This notwithstanding, Douglas fell into King Edward's 
 hands, and was confined in Leeds Castle. Edward's wrath 
 seems to have evaporated quickly, for in May 1290 the 
 captive was set free, his lands and those of John Wishart 
 restored to them, on security given for their compearance 
 before the King within fifteen days from 27th January 
 
 ^ Bain, ii. 92. 2 ji,2d.^ p. 93. ^ Stevenson, i. 83. 
 
THE TREATY OF BIRGHAM 23 
 
 1291.^ Dame Eleanor was fined ;^ioo for her offence 
 in marrying without the King's leave,^ but circumstances 
 arising to interfere with the production of the fine, King 
 Edward had to help himself in 1296 by confiscating her 
 manors in Essex and Hereford. 
 
 The circumstances referred to arose out of the disputed 
 succession to the Scottish throne. Alexander III., last of 
 the " Kings of Peace," had perished on the cliffs at King- 
 horn ; the projected marriage of his granddaughter, young 
 Queen Margaret of Scotland, with Edward, Prince of Wales, 
 miscarried through her untimely death, and the realm was 
 rent by divers claimants — 
 
 %\xnt cScotlanb in lobe anb it, 
 ^toag ivts sffus off aU aiii hxcbs, 
 ®ff topiti; itnt toax, off gitmgn anb Qh; 
 ®xtrz Qoit toes chan^gb into Wbc ; 
 OTltrist, boxn into '^grggngti, 
 (Succour cScotlanb, anb xtmttiz I 
 l^hat stab %& in pcvplcxBtc." ^ 
 
 The time had come to take sides. Douglas's name 
 appears among those of Scottish barons confirming the 
 treaty of Salisbury [November i 289] ; it was appended also 
 to the letter from the four Guardians, forty-four ecclesiastics, 
 twelve earls, and forty-seven barons who sent a letter to the 
 King of England approving of the rumoured project of a 
 marriage between his heir and the Queen of Scots ; and, while- 
 as King Edward's writs were out for his arrest, he sat among 
 his peers at Birgham when the treaty defining the future 
 relations of the two kingdoms was struck [i8th July 1290]. 
 
 At Norham, on 2nd June 1291, the Guardians of 
 Scotland delivered the realm into the hands of Edward I. 
 Dougi s Lord Paramount. On the 5 th July following 
 
 swears fealty King Edward was staying at Sir Walter de 
 ^h^/uTy iz9i".' Lindsay's manor of Thurston in East Lothian, 
 and in the chapel there received Douglas's oath 
 of fealty ; * but towards the end of the same year, and for 
 
 ^ Stevenson, i. 154. 2 /^/^.^ p. 214 
 
 ^ Wyntoun, vii. x. 3619. ^ Bain, ii. 123. 
 
24 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 certain transgressions whereof the nature has not been 
 explained, his lands in Douglasdale were forfeited to King 
 Edward, who, in January 1292, exercised the right of 
 patronage thus acquired by presenting Master Eustace de 
 Bikerton to the church of Douglas.^ 
 
 John de Balliol, having been crowned King of Scot- 
 land on 17th November 1292, in accordance with King 
 Edward's award, held his first Parliament at Scone on loth 
 February following. Douglas, failing to attend thereat, 
 was proclaimed a defaulter, together with Robert de Brus, 
 Earl of Carrick [the Competitor], Angus, son of Donald of 
 the Isles, and John, Earl of Caithness. Douglas, however, 
 attended the second Parliament of John [Stirling, 3rd 
 August 1293], when he was imprisoned on a charge of 
 deforcing the royal officers when they had come to Douglas- 
 dale to give effect to a judgment in favour of his mother, 
 Constance, in an action brought against her son. Here- 
 upon became manifest the inconvenience of attempting to 
 serve two masters, for while Douglas lay in prison under 
 King John's warrant he ought to have been on his lands 
 in Essex on the service of King Edward, who fined him 
 £20 for his absence. Edward had the clemency to remit 
 this fine, though on terms somewhat derogatory to King 
 John's authority — " whereas our beloved and faithful Wil- 
 liam of Douglas was in our prison by our instructions," 
 etc.2 
 
 When at last accumulated affronts, of which this is a 
 very mild specimen, broke down the patience of the Scottish 
 King, and drove him to renounce his allegiance to Edward, 
 Sir William le Hardi ranged himself with the patriots. 
 Strengthened by an alliance with France and Norway,^ the 
 Scots threw down the gauntlet to England, and Douglas 
 was appointed governor of their most important commercial 
 The sack of P°^^' Bcrwick-on-Twecd. Edward appeared be- 
 Berwick, fore the walls on 29th March 1296, with 5000 
 cavalry and 30,000 infantry, his ships lying off 
 the river mouth. The place was taken by storm on Good 
 
 ^ RotuH ScoticEi i. 7. "-^ Stevenson, i. 403. ^ Ibid., ii. 8. 
 
THE SACK OF BERWICK 25 
 
 Friday, the 30th, and was given over to the massacre 
 that left such a dark stain on the memory of King Edward. 
 It went on for two whole days, Bower, a Scottish authority, 
 estimating the slain of both sexes at 7500 ; Hemingburgh, 
 from an English standpoint, making it over 8000. Wyn- 
 toun. Prior of St. Serf's, has left a graphic description of 
 the horrible scene ; and the command of Edward to stay 
 the slaughter being rendered in French seems a touch of 
 true portraiture — 
 
 "%hnsi that skganii toart fast 
 tht bag, ^toltill ^ at tht last 
 ^hts ^ijng (Ebtoarb sati) in that t^tz 
 ^ tocman Bhxmc, anb hj)x sglie 
 ^ b-iixut^ ht sato fall out, sprrtolanb^ 
 ^esgb that toomatt slagnr Iganb. 
 ' ^a0Sf5, lassfs I ' than crgib he ; 
 ' 'gthz oS—'gcbt x)ff ! ' that toorb snlb be." ^ 
 
 Then with a flash of honest ire he exclaims — 
 
 "%-\xz satol^s^ that he igavt' slag bnton tharr, 
 ^£ senb, xjuhare^ his satoU ncbfrmare 
 Wits like to come, that is the bigs, 
 (^nhare alkgn jog ag lestanb ^ is.''^*^ 
 
 The garrison of the castle, some two hundred in num- 
 ber, surrendered after the sack of the town, with Douglas 
 at their head. They were all released on parole except 
 their commander, who was put in ward. His lands in 
 Essex were seized, and the sheriff of that county reported 
 that he had arrested at Stebbing Douglas's son Hugh, 
 nearly two years old, till further instructions.^^ 
 
 After the defeat of the Scots at Dunbar [28th April], 
 and King Edward's triumphal progress through Scotland 
 as far as Elgin, Douglas regained his liberty, but at the 
 
 ^ Until. 2 A child. ^ Sprawling. ^ Laissez ! 
 
 ® Wyntoun, viii. 9. ^ Souls. ' Caused. ^ Where. 
 
 ^ Where every joy is everlasting. 
 
 Wyntoun, viii. 9. Buchan's raid upon Tynedale took place on 8th April, 
 when similar horrors took place, probably in reprisal. 
 
 Bain, ii. 173. 
 
26 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 price of enacting the dishonourable farce soon to become 
 customary among the Scottish nobihty, namely, renewing 
 the oath of fealty to the King of England. His seal was 
 appended to the famous Ragman Roll, and of his kinsmen 
 who also did homage on this occasion may be noted Freskin 
 de Douglas ^ and William, son of Andrew de Douglas,^ both 
 Douglas of Linlithgowshire. Two days later, on the 30th 
 signs the August, Douglas's lands in six Scottish counties 
 RourSth — Fife, Dumfries (probably including the upper 
 Aug. 1296. ward of Lanarkshire), Wigtown, Berwick, Ayr, 
 and Edinburgh — were restored to him by order of the 
 King; but by a grave error of policy his English posses- 
 sions were forfeited, thereby destroying 
 the most powerful inducement to Douglas 
 to remain faithful to his allegiance — 
 self-interest, to wit.^ Fawdon in North- 
 umberland was made over to Douglas's 
 old enemy, Gilbert, Earl of Angus.* 
 Fig. 4, —Seal of Sir Of the barons of Scotland, many 
 ^ij^^^m of Douglas English prisons, where the 
 
 fortune of war as declared at Dunbar 
 had cast them ; upon the rest, some sense of decency and 
 regard for their accumulated oaths to Edward kept a degree 
 of restraint for a time. But the national spirit was not 
 utterly quenched ; it smouldered ominously among the 
 lesser gentry and peasantry, soon to break out in formid- 
 able revolt under the capable guidance of William Wallace. 
 Warned of the general unrest, Edward summoned Douglas 
 and fifty other Scottish barons to meet him in London on 
 7th July 1297, to accompany him on his expedition to 
 Flanders. 
 
 But it was nearly a year since Douglas and his peers 
 had last sworn allegiance to Edward ; vows, even when 
 made upon the Gospels, the consecrated host, the black 
 
 1 Bain, ii. 205. 2 /^^-^^^ 208. 
 
 ^ These English lands were restored to Sir James Douglas [vii.] by Edward 
 in. in 1329, " by special favour." — Ibid.^ iii. 178. 
 
 ^ Ibid.^ ii. 265. 5 Eraser, i, 17. 
 
WALLACE'S RISING 
 
 27 
 
 cross of St. Neots, and all the rest of it, were not proof 
 against the tests of time and circumstance. Most of the 
 ^ . barons held aloof from the lead of Wallace the 
 
 Joins the 
 
 rising of landless ; but Bishop Wishart of Glasgow, Sir 
 Wallace, 1297. Alexander de Lindsay, and Andrew de Moray 
 of the house of Bothwell had joined him — good enough com- 
 pany for Douglas, who once more threw his allegiance to the 
 winds and marched a contingent to the national muster at 
 Irvine. Bruce the Competitor was dead ; his son, Robert 
 de Brus ' le viel,' was Edward's governor of Carlisle ; his 
 grandson, the young Earl of Carrick, afterwards to become 
 King of Scots, renewed his oaths to the English King, and, 
 strange preface of what was soon to come, swooped down 
 upon Douglasdale to avenge the treason of its absent lord. 
 He sacked the castle, and carried off Dame Eleanor and her 
 children to Lochmaben. But lo ! how lightly those great 
 barons stooped to perjury ; it was but the bold player's 
 finesse in the game of politics. The Earl of Carrick's next 
 public appearance was in July 1297, at the head of his men 
 of Annandale in the insurgent camp at Irvine. The Scottish 
 army was strong in numbers, but sorely enfeebled by jealousy 
 and dissension among its leaders. Over against them lay a 
 force despatched under Percy and Clifford by the Earl of 
 Surrey. Sir Richard de Lundin, disgusted with the wrangles 
 in the Scottish camp, rode over to the English, vowing that 
 T,, , . he would have no more part with men who could 
 
 The submis- ^ 
 
 sion of Irvine, not agree among themselves. The rest submitted 
 July 1297. King Edward's grace, all but Wallace, who 
 
 rode off with a handful of stalwarts into Selkirk Forest, soon 
 to be heard of again. 
 
 Douglas surrendered to his parole at Berwick on the 
 day appointed, but, failing to produce the stipulated hostages, 
 was straitly imprisoned. On 24th July the Constable of 
 Berwick wrote to King Edward : " Sir William de Douglas 
 is in your castle of Berwick in irons, and in safe-keeping, 
 God be thanked, and for a good cause, as one who has well- 
 deserved it. And I pray you, if it be your good pleasure, 
 let him not be liberated for any profit or influence, until 
 
28 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 you know what the matters amount to in regard to him 
 personally."^ Writing again a little later the Constable 
 says : " Sir William de Douglas has not kept the covenants 
 he made with Sir Henry de Percy ; he is in your castle of 
 Berwick in my keeping, and he is still very savage and 
 very abusive \uncoi'e inout sauvage e mout araillez\ but I 
 shall keep him in such wise that, if it please God, he shall 
 not escape." 
 
 After Wallace's victory over Surrey and Cressingham 
 at Stirling [i I th September 1297] the English evacuated 
 Berwick, taking with them their prisoner Douglas, who, 
 being committed to the Tower of London, died there some 
 time before January 1299, in which month King Edward 
 directed the restoration of her dower lands to Dame Eleanor.^ 
 But the lands of Douglasdale were bestowed upon Sir Robert 
 de Clifford. There were still arrears of ;^8i due by the 
 deceased, in respect of the fine for abducting Dame Eleanor ; 
 this sum the Sheriff of Northumberland was ordered to levy 
 off Douglas's former estate of Fawdon.^ 
 
 Sir William de Douglas left three sons — (i) James [vii.], 
 by his first wife Elizabeth Stuart; (2) Hugh [viii.], and (3) 
 Archibald [ix.], by his second wife, Eleanor de Ferrers. 
 
 ^ Stevenson, ii. 205. ^ Bain, ii. 269. ^ Ibid.^ 437. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 PAGE 
 
 29 vii. "The Good" Sir James of 
 
 Douglas, c. 1 290- 1 330. 
 31 Declares for Bruce, 1306. 
 31 Battle of Methven, 1 306. 
 
 33 Raid of Brodick, 1307. 
 
 34 The "Douglas Larder," 1307. 
 
 35 Second assault on Douglas Castle, 
 
 1307 [?]• 
 
 36 Affair of Raploch Moss, 1307. 
 
 37 Battle of Loudon Hill, loth May 
 
 1307- 
 
 38 Third assault on Douglas Castle, 
 
 1307 [?]. 
 
 39 Capture of Thomas Randolph, 
 
 1308. 
 
 40 Battle of Pass of Brander, August 
 
 1308. 
 
 41 Capture of Roxburgh Castle, 6th 
 
 March 13 14. 
 
 42 Battle of Bannockburn, 24th June 
 
 1314. 
 
 46 Pursuit of King Edward by 
 Douglas, 24th June 13 14. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 47 Repeated raids into England, 
 
 1314-1316. 
 
 48 Affair of Lintalee, 1316. 
 
 49 Single combat with Nevill, 13 16. 
 
 50 Siege and capture of Berwick, 
 
 1317. 
 
 5 1 The ' ' Chapter of My ton, " 1 3 1 9. 
 
 52 Secret treaty with Lancaster, 
 
 1320. 
 
 54 Edward ii. invades Scotland, 
 
 1320. 
 
 55 Battle of Biland, 14th October 
 
 1322. 
 
 56 The Emerald Charter, 1324. 
 
 57 Campaign of Weardale, 1327. 
 
 59 Douglas's Camisade, August 1327. 
 
 60 Treaty of Peace, 1328. 
 
 61 Death of Robert i., 7th June 
 
 1329. 
 
 62 Expedition with the Heart of 
 
 Brvice, 1330. 
 
 63 Death of Sir James Douglas, 25th 
 
 August 1330. 
 
 Of all the house of Douglas in its three main branches and 
 endless ramifications there is none, if it be not that later 
 
 James who died at Otterburn, round whose 
 Good" Sir memory is gathered so much romance and 
 rTougia^s^ knightly lore, none who has earned the same 
 
 degree of proud affection from his countrymen, as 
 " the Good " Sir James of Douglas [vii.], who succeeded 
 his father William in his honours, and ultimately won back 
 his estates while winning the kingdom for his liege lord. 
 
 29 
 
30 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 He was still very young when his father breathed his last 
 in the Tower — 
 
 . . . "3lit£ Htm knaf 
 %kni teas hot mxc litill ^ 
 
 Barbour is authority for the statement that, while 
 Edward I. was besieging Stirling in the spring of 1 304, 
 young James of Douglas was brought into his presence 
 by Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews.^ The prelate asked 
 that the young man might be permitted to do homage and 
 receive back his lands. 
 
 " What lands doth he claim ? " quoth the King. 
 
 " The lordship of Douglas, under your pleasure, sire ; 
 whereof his father was lord." 
 
 " Sir bishop ! " exclaimed the King angrily, " you 
 cannot by your fealty speak of this to me. His father was 
 a traitor ; let him seek land where he may ; he shall not 
 have these, for Clifford, who holds them, has ever served me 
 loyally." 
 
 We hear no more of young Douglas for nearly two 
 years, during which he probably lived with Bishop Lamber- 
 ton, who had meanwhile matured his privy compact with 
 Robert Bruce. Then befel the tragedy in the Grey Friars' 
 Church of Dumfries, when Bruce slew John Comyn under 
 trust [February 1306]. Bruce straightway rode to Glas- 
 gow, where Bishop Wishart, notwithstanding the six several 
 occasions on which he had sworn fealty to Edward,^ 
 received the assassin with effusion, gave him solemn absol- 
 ution, and cut up his own episcopal vestments to serve as 
 coronation robes. 
 
 When news of these events reached St. Andrews, says 
 Barbour, James Douglas went before Bishop Lamberton 
 and vowed he would serve with Bruce, and so recover his 
 own rightful heritage from Clifford. Lamberton entirely 
 approved of this high resolve, gave him money and his bless- 
 
 1 T/ie Br us, v. 14. 
 
 2 James Douglas's mother died before 1288, therefore he could not have been 
 less than seventeen at this time. 
 
 ^ Bain, ii. 490. 
 
BRUCE'S REVOLT 
 
 31 
 
 ing, and told him to take his [Lamberton's] own palfrey, 
 Ferand, for the journey, authorising him to use force should 
 the groom object to let the animal go. Object 
 iTougiasde- groom did, and was promptly cut down by 
 
 Clares for Douglas, who joined Bruce in time for the 
 ruce, 1306. (^Qi-Qj^ation at Scone [27th March 1306]. One 
 of the ancient ceremonies at the crowning of Scottish Kings 
 was the piling of a mound, called Omnis terra^ to which 
 every baron contributed a handful of soil from his lands. 
 Godscroft declares that Douglas added thereto some earth 
 from Douglasdale, which, if not literally true, is doubtless 
 what the young squire would have done under more 
 convenient circumstances. 
 
 From that time forward Douglas was more closely 
 associated with the fortunes of the King of Scots and the 
 independence of his realm than any other individual. One 
 follows his career with the keener sympathy, in that, alone 
 of all the chevaliers of Bruce's following, he was free from 
 the taint of broken faith. Edward had rejected his fealty 
 offered at Stirling ; Douglas had borne no part in the 
 murder of Comyn ; heart-whole and with unblemished 
 honour he threw in his lot from the first with the national 
 cause. 
 
 That cause received an ominous check at the outset. 
 On Sunday, 26th June 1306, Aymer de Valence attacked 
 the Scottish forces, inferior to his own by some 
 ofMethven, ^ 5 oo, in the woods near Methven and scattered 
 26th June them. Bruce, unhorsed by Sir Philip de Mow- 
 bray, was rescued by his brother-in-law, Sir 
 Christopher de Seton, and escaped with difficulty from the 
 field, accompanied by his brother Edward, Athol, Gilbert de 
 la Haye, Nigel Campbell, and James Douglas. 
 
 The King's nephew, young Thomas Randolph, after- 
 wards to do his uncle splendid service as Earl of Moray, 
 was taken prisoner with a number of knights. 
 
 After wandering for some weeks in the Highland hills, 
 Bruce ventured to the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, where 
 he was joined by his Queen, his daughter Marjorie, and his 
 
32 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 two sisters. Then they hied back to the wilds of the west, 
 relying chiefly, it seems, upon Douglas as their caterer — 
 
 ''§nt tD^rthg James of ^otigks 
 ^2 tnibalivtti) 1 nrib besg teas 
 Jfor to ptirchjts iht hxbj^is mti,^ 
 ^tib it 0tt mznv tois^ toalb get. 
 cjfor xjuhilc^ he bencsoun tham hvocht, 
 ^nb toitk his hanbis quhih he torocht 
 (Jlgnnis^ to tak gebbis^ anb salmrmnis, 
 ^rotttts, elis anb als mett0unis."' 
 
 Coming upon the borders of Lorn, they found themselves 
 in great peril, for not only were the Macdoualls of Lorn of 
 the same blood as those of that name in Galloway — sworn 
 foes of Bruce, but Alexander of Argyll had married an 
 aunt of the murdered Comyn. The wanderers were attacked 
 by a strong force under John of Lorn, at a place still called 
 Dairy — the King's field — and severely handled, Douglas re- 
 ceiving a serious wound.^ On the approach of winter the 
 King of Scots appointed his brother Nigel and the Earl 
 of Athol to escort the royal ladies to Kildrummie Castle, 
 and set off with 200 followers to take shipping for the 
 Western Isles. Arriving on the shore of far-stretching 
 Loch Lomond, the fugitives found themselves in a dilemma, 
 one end of the lake lying in the territory of Lorn, the other 
 being guarded by King Edward's constable of Dunbarton — 
 Sir John Menteith, the captor of Wallace. Douglas, ever 
 alert and resourceful, found a sunken boat, which he 
 managed to patch up to serve as a ferry. It would only 
 carry three passengers at once, and the whole night was 
 spent in crossing the water. King Robert beguiling the 
 time by reading aloud the romance of Ferambras and Oliver. 
 
 To the King's ragged troop the west shore of Loch 
 Lomond was friendly soil, for here Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, 
 
 ^ Travailing, industrious. ^ Meat. ^ Wise, manner. 
 
 ^ Sometimes. ^ Snares. ^ Pike. 
 
 Eels and also minnows. — Barbour's The Brus, xvii. 
 
 ^ Barbour's narrative is here confirmed by a letter from King Edward to the 
 Prince of Wales, 14th September, heartily acknowledging John of Lorn's services 
 at this time. — Bain, ii. 490. 
 
RAID UPON BRODICK 
 
 33 
 
 held sway. But it was no secure resting-place. Ships 
 were obtained in the Clyde, and for three days King 
 Robert was the guest of Angus of the Isles in the castle 
 of Dunaverty, in Cantyre. With a following increased to 
 300 he sailed again, only just in time, for Dunaverty 
 was closely invested by John of Lorn immediately after he 
 left it.^ The little band spent the dark winter months in 
 the bleak Isle of Rathlin, off the Irish coast, and by extra- 
 ordinary good fortune escaped detection by the fleet which 
 King Edward sent to hunt them out.^ 
 
 Towards springtide Douglas, ill brooking the enforced 
 idleness of life in Rathlin, persuaded Sir Robert Boyd to 
 join him in an attempt upon the castle of Brodick, in 
 Arran, which was in the custody of Sir John de Hastings. 
 
 Boyd, who knew Arran well, was nothing loth, 
 Sd^upon^^ and the two chevaliers, landing by night near the 
 Brodick, castle with a sufficient force, drew their galley 
 
 ashore, concealed the oars and tackle, and crept into 
 ambush at daybreak.^ Fortune favoured them. Hastings, 
 probably finding life as monotonous on Arran as Douglas 
 had found it on Rathlin, had a number of guests staying 
 with him. Three vessels had arrived overnight with wine, 
 victual, and arms, and the garrison turned out to bear a 
 hand in landing the cargo. Waiting till the men were 
 returning up the shore heavily laden, the Scots rushed from 
 their ambush and easily overpowered them. Those still 
 within the castle attempted no rescue, but shut the gates, 
 leaving Boyd and Douglas free to make off with a most 
 acceptable booty of arms, food, and clothing. 
 
 ^ Bain, ii. 491. 
 
 ^ Ibid., 502. It was during this winter that the famous episode of Bruce and 
 the spider was alleged to have taken place. I have elsewhere \_Robert Bruce mtd 
 the Strziggle for Scottish Independence, pp. 14-16] given reasons for relegating this 
 to the category of myth, which are certainly not weakened by the fact that the 
 laborious Godscroft, in the draft of his manuscript preserved at Hamilton, makes 
 James Douglas the hero thereof, and not the King. 
 
 Boyd was a knight, Douglas was not, therefore Boyd would naturally 
 be in command of the party ; but Barbour attributes all the credit to Douglas, 
 doubtless because of Douglas's superior subsequent fame. 
 
 VOL. I. C 
 
34 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Word of this success was sent to King Robert in 
 Rathlin. In ten days' time he arrived with thirty-three small 
 galleys, and, being taken by a woman to the mouth of 
 " ane woddy glen " where Boyd's party had bivouacked, he 
 winded a blast upon his horn. 
 
 " That is the King ! " cried Douglas, — " I know his blast 
 of old." 
 
 " No fear but that is the King," said Boyd, and hearty 
 was the meeting that followed. 
 
 Bruce was now within sight of his own earldom of 
 Carrick. How he surprised Percy in Turnberry Castle, and 
 led his band into the fastnesses of the Galloway hills, need 
 not be recounted here, nor the disaster which overtook his 
 brothers Thomas and Alexander when, probably acting in 
 concert with the King of Scots, they landed in Loch Ryan 
 with some hundreds of Irish kernes. As soon as his King 
 was safe in the shelter of Glen Trool, Douglas set off with 
 two companions to reconnoitre his paternal lands in Douglas- 
 dale. He went to Hazelside, where lived Thomas Dickson, 
 an old servant of his father, who welcomed him warmly 
 and assured him that the harshness of the English garrison 
 had paved the way for revolt. At Hazelside Douglas lay, 
 and in a few days had gathered to himself a staunch 
 company of his own people. He laid his plans for Palm 
 Sunday [19th March 1307], when the garrison of the castle 
 would parade for divine service in St. Bride's Church. On 
 that morning his followers assembled, with arms under their 
 frocks, Douglas himself disguised as a thresher, flail in hand. 
 The " Douglas The soldiers marched over from the castle and 
 Larder," 1307. were Seated in the chancel, palms in hand, 
 Douglas and his men following quietly and taking their 
 places with the ordinary congregation in the body of the 
 church. The concerted signal for action was to be given 
 by their leader, but one of his fellows lost his head and 
 prematurely cried, " A Douglas ! — A Douglas ! " Dickson, 
 nearest the chancel, started up and drew his whinger, but 
 was instantly cut down. In the fierce conflict which 
 followed the English were overpowered, and all slain or 
 
THE '^DOUGLAS LARDER" 35 
 
 taken.^ Then back to the castle, where the porter and 
 cook left in charge offered no resistance. Douglas and his 
 men sat down to the dinner prepared for the garrison ; after 
 which, horrible to say, they beheaded their prisoners, killed 
 the horses, staved the wine casks, and piling all in a heap, 
 set fire to the castle, which was burnt to the ground. Then 
 Douglas marched off with his recruits to rejoin the King in 
 Glen Trool. Such was the " Douglas Larder," whereof the 
 horror was too great for the stomach even of Douglas's 
 panegyrist Barbour — 
 
 "Jfor mclc nnb malt iinh blwtt anii toiju^ 
 ^att ali tngibbn* in a melign, 
 "(iEltat toa0 ttnsicmlj) fox to st : 
 ^karfor thz mm ot that cnnixc, 
 ^ox sic thinQxsi tkar tn^llit^ tocr, 
 dlailit it ihz ^ouglas larbmcr." ^ 
 
 Sir Robert de Clifford brought a number of workmen 
 from the south and set them to rebuilding the castle. This 
 must have taken many months, and we have no 
 fsTauit on knowledge of how Douglas spent the interval. 
 Douglas If he was not actually with the King in Glen 
 as e, 1307. 'Pj.qqJ probably wandering about the 
 
 outskirts of the southern uplands. But no sooner was the 
 work on Douglas Castle complete, and reoccupied by an 
 English garrison under a captain named Thirlwall, than its 
 indomitable young lord attacked it again. He caused a few 
 of his men to drive off some cattle grazing in the meadows 
 round the castle, keeping the main body in ambush at 
 Sandilands, not far off. Warden Thirlwall, leading a 
 detachment to drive off the marauders, fell into the snare 
 and was slain with several of his men. The rest escaped 
 into the castle, which Douglas failed to capture this time. 
 
 Barbour, the chief authority for this exploit, is somewhat 
 more than shaky in chronology, and several other events in 
 the spring and summer of 1307 must have preceded it. 
 For instance, it was immediately after the affair at Turnberry 
 
 ^ Thirty in number, says Barbour. 2 wine. 
 
 2 Mingled. ^ Barbour's T/ie Brtis, xlii. 
 
3^ 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Castle, in February or early March, that King Edward had 
 commissioned Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, to 
 march from England with a strong force and co-operate 
 with Percy, sheriff of Ayr, St. John, sheriff of Dumfries, 
 Macdouall of Galloway, and John of Lorn, who brought 
 800 light-footed Highlanders from the north,^ in surround- 
 ing Bruce in his hiding-place. Never was Bruce's cause at 
 so low an ebb. Barbour's estimate of his following at this 
 time, 150 to 300, is probably accurate, certainly more 
 nearly so than Hemingburgh's preposterous guess of 
 10,000. The good monk had never seen the Galloway 
 hills, nor knew how impossible it would be to feed such 
 a force there. Douglas, fresh from the Douglas larder, 
 rejoined the King of Scots when he was falling back before 
 Pembroke's advance by way of Dalmellington and Loch 
 Doon. They very nearly fell into the hands of the High- 
 landers, whom Lorn had led to outflank the King's party 
 on the west. The King divided his people into three 
 bands, giving them rendezvous at Craigencallie, the lonel}^ 
 residence of a widow.^ Lorn had a bloodhound which once 
 belonged to Bruce ; he slipped it, and the dog settled on 
 his old master's track. The King caused his immediate 
 followers to scatter, and in the end managed to throw 
 the hound off his scent by travelling down the bed of a 
 stream. Next day, alone and faint with hunger and 
 Affair of fatigue, he ventured to the tryst at Craigen- 
 Rapioch callie, where Douglas and Edward Bruce met 
 Moss, 1307. j^j^^ Douglas reporting that a party of English 
 were bivouacked not far off on Raploch Moss, and were 
 keeping indifferent watch. The rest of the King's men 
 
 ^ Pembroke's warrant has been preserved, providing pay to John of Lorn for 
 22 men-at-arms and 800 foot. — Bain, ii. 250. This exactly tallies with Barbour's 
 statement of numbers — 
 
 " Johne of Lorne and all his micht, 
 That had of worthy men and wicht 
 With him aucht hundreth men and ma." 
 
 The Brjis, lii. 
 
 ^ Whose memory is preserved in the name Craigencallie, i.e. a-eag na 
 cailleaich, the old woman's crag. 
 
BATTLE OF LOUDON HILL 
 
 37 
 
 having assembled, an attack was made on the sleeping 
 English before daybreak, many of whom were slain and 
 the rest scattered. A huge boulder, still called the King's 
 Stone, marks the place where Robert is said to have rested 
 after this successful affair. 
 
 Having inflicted a crushing defeat upon de Clifford or 
 de Waus, or both of them, whom Pembroke caused to enter 
 Glen Trool from the south with 1500 dismounted horse- 
 men, Bruce escaped through the cordon drawn round him, 
 and appeared suddenly at the beginning of May in north 
 Ayrshire. Pembroke sent Sir John de Mowbray ^ to recon- 
 noitre King Robert's dispositions ; King Robert detached 
 Douglas to watch Mowbray. Near Kilmarnock — 
 
 l^kc (^trtinxi it hight ptxfnr) "—" 
 
 Mowbray fell into an ambush prepared by Douglas, and his 
 party was routed with slaughter. A few days later [ i oth 
 May 1307] de Valence, with 3000 splendidly equipped 
 Battle of Lou- ^-^tackcd Bruce in a strongly entrenched 
 don Hill, loth position on Loudon Hill, and was badly beaten. 
 May 1307. Barbour says that Douglas was present at this 
 action ; perhaps it was only garrison gossip that finds place 
 in a letter written five days later by one of King Edward's 
 officers in Carlisle, to the effect that James de Douglas had 
 sent messengers to crave admission to the King of England's 
 peace, but that he had changed his mind when Pembroke 
 began to retreat.^ Well is it for the fame of Douglas 
 that he was saved from deserting his King, for Loudon 
 Hill was the turning-point in the war. The greatest and 
 best of the Plantagenets died on 7th June — a most 
 puissant knight, a faultless commander, a shrewd lawgiver 
 — leaving the conduct of affairs in the hands of favourite- 
 ridden Edward of Carnarvon. Putting himself at the 
 head of the forces mustered at Carlisle by his father, 
 
 ^ Not Sir Philip, as Barbour has it, confusing him with the governor of 
 StirUng Castle seven years later. 
 
 - T/ie Brus, Ix. 33. ^ ^^iin, ii. 526. 
 
38 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Edward invaded Scotland in the first week of August, and 
 penetrated as far as Cumnock ; but on the 25 th he began 
 his march back again and disbanded his army. 
 
 King Robert went north in the autumn, leaving his 
 brother Edward and James Douglas to maintain his cause 
 in the Lowlands. Douglas's first enterprise was against his 
 own castle — 
 
 "^ht vtbrntttrous castdl of '^ouQlnss, 
 %httt to sa pmxlons teas." 
 
 Having laid an ambuscade near the castle about the time 
 of Lanark fair, he sent fourteen of his men, with peasants' 
 ^, . , ,^ frocks over their armour, to lead horses bearine^ 
 
 Third assault ' ^ ^ 
 
 on Douglas sacks stuffed with grass in full view of the walls. 
 Castle, 1307. rj.^^ English, being short of provender, beholding, 
 as they imagined, a string of packhorses carrying corn to 
 the fair, saw the chance of acceptable plunder. Sir John 
 de Wanton, Clifford's constable of Douglas, sallied out in 
 person at the head of a party to capture the convoy ; but 
 just as he overtook it the seeming peasants pushed off the 
 sacks, sprang to saddle, and fell to, while Douglas broke 
 from his ambush and took the English in rear. De Wanton 
 and his party were slaughtered ; the garrison, left without a 
 leader, surrendered at discretion ; their lives were spared, 
 but once more the castle, newly rebuilt, was razed to the 
 ground. Clifford had appointed de Wanton, a gallant 
 young knight, at his own request ; for de Wanton's lady- 
 love had refused to have anything to say to him until he 
 had proved himself " ane gud bacheler," by holding this 
 most dangerous post for a whole year for the King of 
 England.^ 
 
 King Robert was but three-and-thirty in this year 
 [1307], but hardship and exposure had told severely upon 
 him, and he lay at death's door for several weeks in Inver- 
 urie, while Buchan and de Mowbray were preparing forces 
 to attack him. Barbour puts the troops with the King of 
 Scots at this time at no more than 700 ; nevertheless, 
 
 ^ This third assault upon Douglas Castle is the chief incident in Scott's 
 
CAPTURE OF THOMAS RANDOLPH 39 
 
 having recovered from his sickness, he gathered enough 
 men in the following spring to surprise and defeat Buchan 
 at Old Meldrum [22nd May 1308], and to lay waste 
 his enemy's lands in what was long remembered as the 
 " Hership of Buchan." ^ The Earl of Buchan left the district 
 to its fate, repairing to Galloway, where he owned great 
 estates, and of which King Edward appointed him warden. 
 Mowbray went with him to become warden of Annandale, 
 and Sir Ingelram de Umfraville warden of Carrick.^ King 
 Edward also appointed Robert de Umfraville, Earl of 
 Angus, and Sir William de Ros of Hamelake his joint 
 Lieutenants and Guardians of Scotland in place of the Earl 
 of Richmond.^ North of the Forth the command was 
 placed in the hands of Douglas's kinsman. Sir Alexander de 
 Abernethy, Sir Edmund de Hastings, and Sir John Fitz 
 Marmaduke. On paper, therefore, the English organisation 
 for the subduing of Scotland left nothing to be desired, but 
 the Hership of Buchan in the north and Douglas's activity 
 and popularity in the south had wrought a notable change 
 in the spirit of the country. In proportion as the clouds 
 were gathering round the unlucky Edward they were 
 breaking away from the horizon of Robert the Bruce. 
 
 Douglas had been busy among the men of Tweeddale, 
 where the tenants of Aymer de Valence, upon whom much 
 ^ , r of that fair vale had been bestowed, declared 
 
 Capture of ' 
 
 Thomas Ran- for the King of Scots. Arriving late one night 
 dolph, 1308. ^ house on the Water of Lyne where he 
 
 meant to lodge, he found it occupied. Creeping close to a 
 window, he learnt from what he heard that the inmates 
 were of the English party. He immediately drew his men 
 round the house, broke open the door, and surprised the 
 party within before they could get into their harness. There 
 was a short scuffle in the dark ; Adam de Gordon and most 
 of his men escaped, others were slain, but two prisoners of 
 the first importance remained with Douglas, none other than 
 
 ^ The harrying or wasting, the act of a destroying army ; from the Anglo- 
 Saxon here, an army. 
 ^ Bain, iii. 9. 
 
THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 King Robert's nephew, young Thomas Randolph [after- 
 wards Earl of Moray], and Sir Alexander of Bonkill, brother 
 of James the Steward and first cousin of Douglas. 
 
 When Douglas brought his prisoners before King 
 Robert, Randolph defied his uncle, taunting him with 
 making war after the manner of a brigand rather than of a 
 knight, so the King quietly committed him to prison, where 
 meditation wrought so well upon his political judgment that 
 before March 1309 he had incurred forfeiture of his manor 
 of Stitchel, which King Edward bestowed upon Randolph's 
 former chief, Adam de Gordon. Thenceforward he and 
 James Douglas were rivals in loyal and effective service to 
 the King of Scots. 
 
 King Robert had some old scores to pay off in Argyle- 
 shire, and marched thither by the foot of Ben Cruachan, 
 
 Battle of Pass P^^^^^^>' August I 308. John of Lom held 
 of Brander, the Pass of Brander in force ; the King detached 
 Douglas to outflank the clansmen, and then 
 delivered a frontal attack. The mellay was fierce and 
 thick ; when it was at the hottest Douglas fell upon the 
 flank and rear of the Highlanders, who broke and fled 
 in every direction. This was followed by the siege and 
 capture of Dunstafifnage, which was surrendered by 
 Alexander of Argyle in time to allow Douglas to take his 
 seat in the first Parliament of Robert, which met at St. 
 Andrews on i6th March i 308-1 309, and to plead pressing 
 engagements at home in declining Philip of France's 
 invitation to join in a new crusade. 
 
 Negotiations for a truce were now set afoot [February 
 I 309], but these soon broke down, and King Edward was 
 over the border again in September, passing to Renfrew 
 and Lanark [15th October] and Linlithgow [2 3rd-2 8th]. 
 King Robert's sound strategy was to avoid a pitched battle, 
 wasting the country so effectually that Edward had to retire 
 to Berwick for winter quarters. The interrupted peace 
 negotiations were renewed, as futile as before, and in 
 August I 3 1 1 the Scots were raiding the north of England 
 in their best manner, and again in September, when 
 
ROXBURGH CASTLE SURPRISED 
 
 Douglas looted Hartlepool. In the course of the next 
 twelve or eighteen months one after another of the English 
 garrisons surrendered to the Scots ; over the castles of 
 Buittle, Dalswinton, Caerlaverock, Perth, Dumfries, and 
 Linlithgow the tressured lion flew in place of Edward's 
 leopards. This brings us to the memorable year 13 14, 
 which opened with a daring exploit by James Douglas. 
 
 Roxburgh Castle, of which scarce a vestige now remains, 
 was then a strong place of great importance commanding 
 ^ ^ . the middle Marches, It still held for Edward 
 
 Capture of 
 
 Roxburgh under Sir William de Fiennes, a knight of 
 Castle, 1314. Qascony. On Shrove Tuesday [6th March], 
 while the garrison were making merry on the eve of Lent, 
 Douglas caused sixty picked men to shroud their armour in 
 black frocks and approach the castle on all fours in the 
 gloaming, trusting that the sentries would mistake them for 
 cattle grazing. This naive stratagem succeeded better than 
 might have been expected. One Sym of the Ledhouse had 
 fashioned rope ladders with hooks to fling over the battle- 
 ments, and was the first to scale the wall, slaying the sentry 
 on the rampart. Douglas and his men followed, and 
 surprised the garrison at their dance in the great hall. De 
 Fiennes, the constable, held out in the keep till next day, 
 but being wounded in the face, mortally as it turned out, 
 surrendered, and was allowed to march out with the honours 
 of war. 
 
 In the same season of Lent, Thomas Randolph captured 
 Edinburgh. Castle by a pretty escalade. Of all the strengths 
 of Scotland, only Berwick, Stirling, Bothwell, and perhaps 
 Lochmaben still remained to the English. Just a year 
 before, the King's chivalrous brother, Edward de Brus, had 
 laid close siege to Stirling Castle ; the governor thereof, Sir 
 Philip de Mowbray, proposed a suspension of arms on 
 condition that he would surrender town and castle if he 
 were not relieved by Midsummer Day, 13 14. What would 
 now be termed " sporting offers " of this nature were often 
 made and taken in the heyday of chivalry, and this one 
 was rashly accepted by Edward Bruce. Robert was very 
 
42 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 angry when he heard of it, because it involved that which 
 he had consistently avoided, namely, matching his indiffer- 
 ently armed levies against the fully equipped soldiers of 
 King Edward in the open field. However, Prince Edward's 
 word had been passed ; that of Bruce, pledged in a matter 
 of chivalry, was not to be so lightly broken as official oaths 
 of fealty ; it must be fulfilled even to the hazard of the 
 realm ; there was nothing for it but to put the fortunes of 
 Scotland to the touch. 
 
 Immense preparations were made in England, and 
 before the appointed day a splendid army of 50,000 horse 
 and foot ^ crossed the border and advanced northward, the 
 English fleet co-operating and carrying supplies. Against 
 this mighty array, led by the most powerful barons of 
 England,^ with all the latest improvements in armour and 
 weapons, and blazing with heraldic pageantry. King Robert's 
 utmost efforts could collect but a modest and motley force. 
 Barbour says he had 30,000 men mustered in the Torwood, 
 but as he and all other writers agree that the invaders out- 
 numbered the defenders as three to one, it is not probable 
 that the Scottish army numbered more than 20,000 at 
 most. 
 
 King Robert chose his position with great sagacity, on 
 the rising ground to the north of the Bannock, about two 
 Battle of iTiiles south of Stirling Castle. His army was in 
 Bannockburn, four divisions I Prlnce Edward Bruce commanded 
 24th June 1314. ^i^g right next the Torwood ; Randolph, 
 
 Earl of Moray, that next on the left, forming the centre of 
 
 ^ This is but half of the figure usually named, but it is all that the details 
 given in King Edward's Patent Rolls will warrant, and more than it would be 
 easy to support in a country wasted by eight years of incessant war. — See Bain, 
 iii,, Introduction, xxi. In proof of the utterly untrustworthy nature of the figure 
 cited by chroniclers the anonymous author of the Book of Pluscarden \c. 1461 
 A.D.] may be quoted. He estimates the English army at 300,000, "besides all 
 the unarmed followers and traders and husbandmen and sutlers on foot." — 
 — Phiscarden, i. 237, ii. 183. 
 
 " Piers Gaveston had suffered execution, and his removal secured to King 
 Edward the support of many who had held aloof during the lifetime of that 
 detested favourite. But the Earls of Lancaster, Warwick, Warenne, and 
 Arundel were still malcontent, and stayed at home. — Lanercosl, 224. 
 
BANNOCKBURN 
 
 43 
 
 the first line ; while James Douglas and his cousin Walter 
 the Steward had joint command of the third division, 
 whereof the left flank rested upon the village of St. Ninians. 
 These three divisions were probably formed in echelon from 
 the right, the fourth division acting as reserve under 
 command of King Robert. The front, not as much as 
 a mile from flank to flank, was protected by two bogs, 
 between which ran the old Roman causeway, and the attack 
 was practically confined to this point, because the course of 
 the Bannock, a trifling brook, here runs nearly level with 
 its banks, flowing elsewhere through ravines impassable 
 for cavalry. The Scottish flanks were further protected on 
 the right by the Torwood, whereof all the roads had been 
 blocked by abattis ; ^ and on the left by the marshy land 
 next the Forth. In addition. King Robert had pitted all 
 the sound ground on his front, to embarrass such cavalry 
 as should pass up the Roman Road. 
 
 Bruce's whole force of cavalry consisted of but 500 
 light horse under Sir Robert de Keith. Douglas and Keith 
 were sent out with a troop of these to reconnoitre the 
 approaching enemy. 
 
 On Sunday morning, 23rd June 13 14, the English 
 banners were descried on the rising ground about Plean. Sir 
 Philip de Mowbray not only managed to communicate with 
 King Edward, but rode out in person as far as his bivouack, 
 warning him of the defences constructed by the Scots, and 
 begging him to desist from attack, for the conditions of 
 relief had been effected.^ A halt was ordered, but the 
 vanguard under the Earl of Gloucester pressed forward, 
 unwilling to be baulked of an encounter.^ Sir Henry de 
 Bohun ^ rode out of the English ranks, and in the most 
 approved style of chivalry challenged a Scottish champion 
 to single combat. To the dismay of his officers, King 
 Robert accepted the challenge in person, and, mounted upon 
 " ane gay palfray litill and joly," rode out to meet Bohun, 
 who bore down upon his opponent, lance in rest, with all 
 
 ^ Scalacronica, 142. ^ Ibid.^ 141, 142. 
 
 ^ Sir Piers de Montford, according to Scalacroiiica. 
 
44 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 the momentum of his great war-horse and full armour. The 
 King of Scots made his palfrey leap aside and escaped the 
 shock ; rising in his stirrups, he dealt a backhander with his 
 battle axe upon de Bohun, who fell in his tracks — to rise 
 nevermore. 
 
 Meanwhile Gloucester had detached 300 horse under 
 Sir Robert de Clifford to establish communications with 
 Stirling by moving round the left flank of the Scots. 
 Randolph Moray had been charged by the King with the 
 duty of preventing any such movement. When the King 
 saw he had permitted it he reproached his nephew for 
 having " let fall a rose from his chaplet." Randolph, 
 smarting under the reproof, set off with a force in pursuit of 
 Clifford's party ; a vain essay, seeing that Randolph had no 
 cavalry. But it was the age of chivalry. Instead of pur- 
 suing his course and carrying out the duty he had been 
 detailed for, Clifford allowed Sir Henry de Beaumont to 
 persuade him to await the attack of the Scots. Randolph 
 came on and formed on the plain, a formidable " schiltrom," 
 or phalanx of pikes. 
 
 Douglas, between whom and Randolph had sprung up 
 the most ardent and lasting affection, perceiving his friend 
 in what seemed great peril, besought the King to let him 
 take a party to his support. The King very wisely refused 
 to derange his line of battle ; Douglas returned to his own 
 division, and, contrary to orders, moved off with a detach- 
 ment to reinforce Randolph.^ l^ut the affair was over 
 before he could reach the ground. De Clifford's horsemen 
 had recoiled from the Scottish pikes ; Sir William d'Eyn- 
 court and many troopers had been slain ; Sir Thomas Gray 
 had been captured, and the English squadron was in full flight.- 
 
 Such was, in outline, the Quatre-Bras of Bannockburn. 
 Of the great battle on the morrow there is no excuse for 
 
 ^ Barbour says that the King had at last given a grudging consent. 
 
 ^ Scalacrotiica, 142. I have followed Sir Thomas Gray's account of this affair, 
 which differs in many respects from more commonly accepted versions ; but, as 
 a soldier's report, it stands unique among the descriptions by monkish writers, 
 and he heard the story, no doubt, from his father, Sir Thomas, who was taken 
 prisoner. 
 
BANNOCKBURN 
 
 45 
 
 offering a description here, seeing that, whereas Douglas 
 commanded on the left, the stress of conflict took place 
 upon the right and centre. Two events only of that day- 
 have to be recorded as specially concerning James Douglas. 
 The first is that in the morning, in company with Walter 
 the Steward and some others, he received the accolade 
 from the hands of the King in presence of the whole army. 
 It seems strange that this honour should have been so long 
 delayed, seeing how many deeds of prowess he had accom- 
 plished during eight years of warfare. The probable ex- 
 planation is that no earlier opportunity had offered itself 
 of creating the Lord of Douglas a knight banneret, which 
 can only be done on field of battle. 
 
 The other episode in which Douglas took the first part 
 was after the fortune of the day had declared itself. 
 Gloucester had ridden to his ruin among the pitfalls ; 
 Edward Bruce, supported first on his left by Randolph and 
 then by the reserve under the King, had repulsed the 
 onslaught of English cavalry and infantry ; Keith's light 
 squadrons had swept the cloud of archers off the slopes of 
 Greystale ; the English had begun to fall back. Their 
 columns in rear were still advancing ; the pressure of horses 
 and men upon that contracted front became intolerable ; 
 sweltering in the heat, wallowing in the morass, they were 
 falling fast under the Scottish archery fire. A horrible 
 panic ensued ; the glorious host which had sparkled in the 
 morning beams with the proudest heraldry of England 
 became a hopeless rout, penned in the shambles whither the 
 rash courage of their leaders had brought them. Edward 
 Plantagenet plied his mace like a true son of his sire. His 
 horse was killed under him, but they brought him a fresh 
 one. Pembroke, riding at one rein, told him all was lost, 
 and led him out of the melee. Sir Giles de Argentine, 
 reputed the third knight in Christentie, riding at the other 
 rein, bade his liege God-speed. " For myself," he cried, 
 " I am not accustomed to fly, nor shall I do so this day ! " 
 and charged into the thick of Edward Bruce's ranks, where 
 he found a soldier's death. 
 
46 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 King Edward, with Pembroke and a bodyguard of 
 500 horse, rode to Stirling Castle, but Sir Philip de 
 Pursuit of Mowbray, meeting them at the gate, bade them 
 King- Edward hold on their way, else would they all be taken 
 by Douglas. y^YLQu the castle was surrendered according to the 
 compact. So King Edward, having parted with Pembroke, 
 turned away with his escort into the Torwood and headed 
 for Linlithgow. 
 
 Sir James Douglas obtained leave from his King to give 
 chase with a troop of Keith's horse. Shortly after setting 
 out he met his kinsman, Sir Lawrence de Abernethy, w^ho 
 was bringing eighty horsemen to join the English army. 
 Knights owned few scruples in changing sides in this war : 
 Abernethy, seeing that Edward's game was up, threw in his 
 lot with Douglas and joined in the pursuit. Hotly they 
 pressed the flying King ; so closely that Barbour, who 
 describes the hunt with mighty gusto, describes Douglas as 
 
 ^£ hi tham nocht haf sic las^r^ 
 ams toatir f^r to ma."^ 
 
 The English halted to bait at Winchburgh ; Douglas's 
 party was not of sufficient strength to attack them, but hung 
 closely on their flank all the way to Dunbar. It was always 
 unsafe to reckon the fickle March as belonging to one side 
 or the other ; on this occasion the earl was English in sym- 
 pathy, and, having admitted Edward to shelter, passed him 
 on in a small boat to Bamborough Castle. 
 
 After the battle of Bannockburn the war entered upon 
 a new phase ; the English border was left almost unde- 
 Repeated fended, and the Black Douglas, as Sir James was 
 raids in Eng- commonly Called, in company with Edward Bruce 
 land, 1314-1316. Soulis, wasted Northumberland in August, 
 
 penetrated Yorkshire as far as Teesdale, spared Durham in 
 consideration of a heavy indemnity, and returned by way of 
 Westmoreland. A peace conference held at Dumfries broke 
 down ; the Scots were over the border in force again in 
 
 ^ Leisure. 2 77^^ Brus, cix. 55. 
 
REPEATED RAIDS 
 
 47 
 
 November, but Douglas was attending the Parliament as- 
 sembled at Cambuskenneth in that month.^ He was pro- 
 bably present at the Parliament of Ayr [25th April 131 5], 
 when the succession to the throne was settled and the 
 betrothal of King Robert's only child, Marjorie, to Walter 
 the Steward was approved. 
 
 Douglas led a fresh raid in June across the border, 
 taking much booty from the bishopric of Durham and the 
 seaport of Hartlepool, but burning no towns this time.^ 
 This done, he joined his King before Carlisle towards the 
 end of July. The King's forces lying chiefly on the eastern 
 side of the city, Douglas stationed himself on its western 
 approaches. The siege lasted eleven days, but the siege 
 engines having broken down, and an escalade by Douglas 
 having failed with considerable loss, it was raised on ist 
 August. Similar ill-success attended an assault led by 
 King Robert and Douglas upon Berwick [loth January 
 I 3 1 6], Douglas narrowly escaping capture in a small boat.^ 
 But King Edward had no time to attend to the wants of 
 his garrisons in the north. It is due solely to the prowess 
 and patriotism first of Richard de Kellow, Bishop of Durham, 
 and later of William de Melton, the warlike Archbishop of 
 York, that the northern counties of England were not per- 
 manently annexed by the King of Scots. On 14th March 
 some Gascon mercenaries in garrison at Berwick, maddened 
 by hunger, mutinied, and rode upon a foray in Tweeddale. 
 Sir Adam de Gordon, the same whom Douglas had captured 
 on the Water of Lyne, was now a loyal subject of King 
 Robert, and sent Douglas word that there were raiders 
 abroad. Douglas took the field at once with Sir William 
 de Soulis and [so greatly had the times altered] Sir Henry de 
 Balliol, and fell upon the raiders at Scaith Moor in Cold- 
 stream parish. They were a party of Gascons, it seems, 
 horse and foot, who, sending forward some of their number 
 with the cattle they were driving, received the onslaught 
 of the Scots horse with great steadiness.^ Barbour describes 
 
 ^ Ac^s of Parliament of Scotland ^ i. 14. ^ Lanercost^ 230. 
 
 ^ Ibid., 232. * Bain, iii. 89, 90, 91. 
 
48 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 this as the hardest bit of fighting that ever fell to the share 
 of Douglas, and credit may be given to him, for in other 
 particulars his narrative is singularly confirmed by letters in 
 the Tower collection. 
 
 Sir James Douglas was already justiciar of Lothian and 
 warden of Jedburgh ; he was now to have more weighty 
 office laid upon him. For more than a year Edward Bruce 
 had been warring in Ireland, whither the King of Scots had 
 sent him to divert the attention of the English from affairs 
 in Scotland. Edward Bruce had been crowned King of 
 Ireland on 2nd May 1316; but the military situation was 
 so far from satisfactory that he sent the Earl of Moray to 
 beg the King of Scots to come to his assistance. King 
 Robert therefore sailed from Loch Ryan early in the 
 autumn of that year, leaving his kingdom under the joint 
 guardianship of Sir James Douglas and Walter the Steward. 
 The King of England was encouraged by the absence of 
 the King of Scots to resume the offensive. Pembroke, hav- 
 ing reaped no laurels in the Scottish wars, had been super- 
 seded in the wardenry of the Marches by Thomas, Earl of 
 Lancaster,^ who summoned an army to meet King Edward 
 at Newcastle in June. The muster was postponed, first till 
 September, and then till October, when it did take place ; but 
 the King did not appear, and the troops were dismissed to 
 their homes. But the Earl of Arundel, eager for adven- 
 ture, led his contingent upon a raid across the border at 
 Affair of Jedburgh. Douglas was amusing himself at this 
 Lintaiee, 1316, time in building a new castle at Lintalee. 
 Warned of Arundel's approach, he laid an ambush for him 
 on Jedwater, and cut his column to pieces, a Yorkshire 
 knight. Sir Thomas de Richmond, being among the slain.- 
 Returning to Lintalee, Douglas found that another party of 
 English, headed by a priest, had occupied the unfinished 
 
 ^ Grandson of Henry ill.; beheaded in 1321. 
 
 2 Hailes follows Barbour, and Eraser Hailes, in identifying the knight as of 
 the house of Brittany. He was not so, but the owner of Burton-Constable in 
 Yorkshire. He was at the siege of Caerlaverock in 1300, constable of Norham in 
 1 3 10, and Warden of Cockermouth in 13 14. 
 
THE PEACOCK OF THE NORTH 49 
 
 house and were making merry within. These also he 
 surprised, putting most of them to the sword. 
 
 The next exploit of the Black Douglas was in single 
 combat. Sir Robert de Nevill, the Peacock of the North, 
 declared that he was sick of hearing about the 
 with the valour of Douglas, and vowed that he would 
 Peacock of attack him wherever he should see his banner 
 
 the North. 
 
 displayed. Hearing of this, Douglas marched all 
 night to Berwick, where Nevill was in garrison, gave him 
 the qui vive by firing sundry villages, and at sunrise flaunted 
 his well-known gonfalon under the walls. The Peacock 
 took up the challenge briskly, and rode forth with a picked 
 party of men-at-arms. Douglas suggested single combat 
 as most chivalrous ; Nevill agreed, lances were soon in 
 rest ; the knights met but once, and Douglas rode back 
 to his men, leaving the Peacock lifeless on the sward. 
 Thereafter a bloody encounter took place between the 
 retainers of each party, wherein the English were utterly 
 routed, and Nevill's three brothers were taken prisoners 
 and held to ransom by their captor for 2000 marks each.^ 
 King Robert returned from his Irish expedition in 
 May 1 3 1 7, and, after receiving and disposing of the 
 memorable embassy from Pope John XXII., set about pre- 
 parations for the siege of Berwick. The mayor and 
 burgesses of that town had received 6000 marks from 
 the English Exchequer on condition of defending the 
 Siege and town till 15 th June 1 3 1/; but Sir Roger de 
 capture of Horslcy, govcmor of the castle, took no pains 
 Berwick, 1317. conccal his contempt for all Scots, no matter 
 what King they served, and this soon brought about ill- 
 feeling between the garrison and the townspeople.^ One 
 of the burgesses, Simon of Spalding, wrote privily to the 
 Earl of March,^ now a staunch patriot, offering to admit 
 
 ^ Bain, iii. loi. 
 
 ^ How faithful Barbour was in this statement is proved by the appointment 
 by King Edward of a commission [4th Feb. 13 14] to inquire into these disputes. 
 — Ibid.^ iii. 112. 
 
 ^ Ibid., 103, 113. Barbour says to the Marischal, Sir Robert de Keith. 
 VOL. I. D 
 
THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 an escalade on a certain night when he [Spalding] should 
 be on guard. Moray had returned from Ireland with 
 the King, and Barbour describes a little incident show- 
 ing how keen was the rivalry between him and Douglas. 
 When March laid Spalding's letter before the King — 
 " You have done well," said Robert, " for had you first told 
 my nephew, Earl Thomas, you would have displeased Lord 
 Douglas, and had you first told Douglas, Randolph had 
 never forgiven the slight. Now I shall arrange so that 
 your plan may be carried out without exciting any 
 jealousy." 
 
 The King directed March to conceal his men at 
 Duns, whither Douglas and Moray were sent to join 
 him. Thence they all marched to Berwick, set their 
 scaling ladders in concert with Spalding, and easily 
 took possession of the town. A plundering party was 
 told off, the rest of the force being kept under arms, 
 prepared to meet a sortie from the castle ; but the tempta- 
 tion of the booty was too great ; in the darkness most 
 of the men slipped away to join their comrades in the 
 merry work of looting, and daybreak found Douglas and 
 Moray with scarcely any guards. Sir Roger from his 
 keep spied his opportunity and ordered an immediate 
 sortie. A certain young knight. Sir William de Keith 
 of Galston, galloped through the streets, driving the Scots 
 back to their post, and the two leaders perhaps owed 
 their lives, certainly their safety, to his activity and 
 presence of mind. The English were repulsed, but brave 
 old de Horsley defended the castle for no less than sixteen 
 weeks, when he surrendered.^ 
 
 The King of Ireland, Edward Bruce, having died in 
 battle at Dundalk on 5 th October 131 8, and Princess 
 Marjorie having died in childbirth on 2nd March 13 16, 
 
 ^ Barbour says the siege of the castle lasted only six days, and Lord Hailes 
 ridicules Sir Thomas Gray's statement in Scalacronica of eleven weeks as " alto- 
 gether incredible." But Gray was a soldier, and understood what he was talking 
 about. The town was taken on 28th March : De Horsley did not surrender the 
 castle till about 20th July. — Bain, iii. 115. 
 
THE '^CHAPTER OF MYTON'^ 
 
 51 
 
 the hazardous question of the royal succession had to be 
 resettled. Parliament was summoned to Scone on 3rd 
 December, when the inheritance was settled on Robert, 
 only son of Walter the Steward and Princess Marjorie, 
 always saving any future male issue to the King. In 
 the event of a minority, Moray, as the King's nephew, 
 was appointed guardian of the realm, and failing him, 
 Sir James Douglas. 
 
 Edward II. and his nobles bitterly resented the capture 
 of Berwick, which they had done so little to avert, and 
 on 24th July 1 319 an army of 12,000 assembled to 
 the King's muster at Newcastle-on-Tyne.^ The Pope, 
 who had laid all Scotland under interdict, and excom- 
 municated King Robert and all his officers, authorised 
 the Archbishop of York to advance ^^2505, 14s. id. for 
 the purposes of this campaign out of the funds collected 
 for a crusade.^ Walter the Steward held Berwick for 
 the King of Scots ; the town was closely invested by 
 sea and land, and its defenders were hard pressed during 
 the siege, for the English were too strongly entrenched 
 for a relieving force to attack them ; so King Robert 
 had recourse to the device most usual in this war ; he 
 sent Douglas and Moray to create a diversion by invad- 
 ing England and, if possible, to capture the Queen of 
 England, then residing at York. The Queen they did 
 not take, but they overran all the northern counties, as 
 far even as the suburbs of York itself 
 
 Archbishop Melton put all his levies in the field, and 
 met the invaders at Myton-on-Swale on 20th September 
 The "Chapter ^3^9* hardy Scots made short work of 
 
 ofMyton," their enemy, putting them to flight at the 
 first onset and capturing great booty, including 
 the Archbishop's plate and valuables, which his servants 
 had foolishly brought with the army. Men called this 
 affair the " Chapter of Myton," because of the numerous 
 
 ^ The numbers may be checked by comparison with the pay rolls. — Bain, 
 iii. 125. 
 
 ^ Raine's Historical Letters and Papers [Master of the Rolls Series], p. 310. 
 
52 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 clerics who bore arms in the English ranks that day. 
 King Robert's strategy was justified by success, for the 
 siege of Berwick was raised on 24th September, and 
 King Edward withdrew once more from Scottish soil. 
 Douglas and Moray burned upwards of eighty towns and 
 villages in the course of this raid, whence it might 
 be supposed that there was not much left in those 
 counties worthy of their attention. Yet the Scots were 
 busy again during the first fortnight of November in 
 Westmorland, driving off large numbers of cattle and 
 horses.^ 
 
 On Christmas Day, 13 19, a truce between the 
 two nations was struck for two years. Extant charters 
 show that during this time of repose Douglas received 
 considerable additions to his already extensive posses- 
 sions, consisting of the lands, castle, and forest of Jed- 
 burgh, and the barony of Stabilgorton in Eskdale [6th 
 May 1320].^ In the following year, the lands of Sir 
 William de Soulis having been forfeited for his compli- 
 city in a plot against the King, Douglas received out 
 of them the barony of Watstirker [now Westerkirk] 
 in Eskdale.^ Other forfeitures about this time or earlier 
 brought him Ettrick Forest, the barony of Bedrule in 
 Berwickshire, and the lands of Cockburn in the same 
 county. 
 
 .Before the conclusion of the truce, during which in- 
 effective negotiations were undertaken for a durable peace, 
 , Lancaster's rebellion broke out and withdrew the 
 
 Secret treaty 
 
 with Lan- attention of the English government from Scot- 
 caster, 1320. ^.^j^ affairs. Douglas, as warden of the Marches, 
 had entered into a secret treaty with Lancaster, who is 
 styled in the instrument King Arthur, binding the King 
 of Scots, Moray, and Douglas to assist Lancaster at all 
 times in England, Wales, or Ireland, without claiming 
 any share in his conquests. Lancaster, on his part, was 
 to do all in his power, so soon as his own business should 
 be accomplished, to secure a lasting peace on the basis 
 
 ^ Lanercosl, 240. ^ Fraser, iii. 10. ^ Morton^ ii. 20. 
 
WAR RENEWED 
 
 53 
 
 of the independence of Scotland.^ This bond was never 
 completed. Lancaster wrote to Douglas, inviting him to 
 a meeting at which " we may adjust all the points of our 
 alliance, and agree to live or die together " ; but the letter 
 miscarried, not reaching Douglas till 17th February 
 instead of 7th. How much of the fate of the English 
 monarchy was involved in those ten days will never be 
 known ; but of this we may be sure, that had the treaty 
 been ratified, and had Lancaster in consequence received 
 the support of Scottish troops, and the assistance of war- 
 wise Moray and Douglas at Boroughbridge, Sir Andrew 
 de Harcla would not have scored such an overwhelming 
 victory for King Edward, and the line of the English 
 succession might have been changed. 
 
 As matters fell out, Lancaster forfeited his wayward 
 life on the scaffold at Pontefract [22nd March], his ad- 
 herents dispersed, and the English government were left 
 free to deal with the work of slaughter and rapine, which 
 the Scots, with direful diligence, had resumed on the borders 
 immediately after Christmas. " Give yourself no further 
 solicitude," wrote King Edward to the Pope, " about a truce 
 with the Scots. The exigencies of my affairs formerly 
 inclined me to listen to such proposals, but now I am 
 resolved to establish peace by force of arms." ^ Moray, 
 Douglas, and Walter the Steward — tried comrades in arms 
 — had already swept Durham and Yorkshire in January, 
 exacting heavy contributions for the Scottish exchequer. 
 To avenge this injury, King Edward summoned an army 
 to meet him at Newcastle on 25th July, but King Robert 
 was not of a temper to study the convenience of his cousin 
 of England. There were still gear to be gathered and 
 roofs to be fired in the northern counties ; crossing the 
 border on 17th June, he marched as far as Lancaster, 
 where another force under Douglas and Moray joined him, 
 
 ^ Fcedera, ii. 479. The draft of this treaty was afterwards found on the 
 person of the Earl of Hereford, when he was slain at the battle of Boroughbridge, 
 15th March 1322. 
 
 '^Ibid., ii. 481, 
 
« 
 
 54 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 and the combined army pushed on as far as Preston. The 
 injury done in this raid, especially by the destruction of 
 religious houses, seems to have exceeded all that had pre- 
 ceded it.^ On their return the Scots invested Carlisle for 
 five days, but the governor Harcla, who had been created 
 Earl of Carlisle for his victory over Lancaster, prudently re- 
 mained within his defences, and on 24th July they recrossed 
 the border. 
 
 It was King Edward's turn now. By 5th August he 
 had penetrated as far as Gosford in East Lothian, but the 
 Edward II King of Scots had resumed his ancient strategy, 
 invades Scot- He retired beyond the Forth, driving off every 
 land, 1320. head of cattle, carrying away every sack of corn, 
 so that, when an adverse wind kept the English fleet out 
 of the Firth, Edward's troops were like to perish of starva- 
 tion and disease. The invaders were compelled to retreat, 
 whereupon Douglas immediately resumed the offensive, 
 cutting to pieces a party of 300 light horse at 
 Melrose, though he was not in strength to interrupt the 
 march of the enemy. The ill-starred Edward left Scot- 
 land for the last time before 8th September, after causing 
 his troops to wreak a barren vengeance for the destruction 
 of English churches by sacking Holyrood and Melrose, and 
 burning the beautiful monastery of Dryburgh to the ground. 
 
 Looking back upon those dark pages of our country's 
 history, it is not the wasted lives nor squandered wealth 
 which moves our pity most. The blood and tears which 
 flowed so plentiful have drained away neither the life nor 
 the mirth of the borderers ; patient toil has restored affluence 
 and comfort to homes once laid so desolate ; but time 
 is powerless to restore, skill of man to replace, the priceless 
 monuments which the torch of war effaced. Our people 
 are still in their old fields and streets, kindly and ready 
 as of yore ; our store has increased more than the sages 
 say is for our profit ; but we have lost for ever the shrines 
 and cloistered houses which pious hands had reared in the 
 time of the Kings of Peace. 
 
 ^ Lanercost, 246. 
 
BATTLE OF BILAND 
 
 55 
 
 It is wearisome to follow the march and countermarch 
 of the opposing armies. King Edward remained that 
 Battle of autumn at Biland Abbey in Yorkshire, where 
 Biiand, 1322. King Robert proceeded to beat up his quarters. 
 Crossing the western marches on 30th September, 
 he found the Earl of Richmond on 14th October 
 holding in force a ridge between Biland and Rielvaux. 
 This ridge commanded an important pass, which was 
 defended by Sir Ralph de Cobham, reputed the first 
 knight in England for prowess. With Cobham was Sir 
 Thomas Uchtred, and Douglas craved from his King 
 the honour of dislodging them. This was granted, and 
 while advancing to the attack Douglas was joined by 
 Moray as a volunteer, for he grudged his friend mono- 
 poly of such a fair deed of arms. The ground was 
 very steep ; the English rolled boulders down the sides of 
 the defile and plied their assailants with archery, inflicting 
 such losses that King Robert trembled for his two most 
 puissant commanders. He ordered up the Highlanders 
 and Islesmen to take the defenders upon either flank ; these 
 scaled the cliffs nimbly, but found at the top Richmond's 
 main body drawn up. Forming like quicksilver, the 
 Highlanders dashed forward upon the mailed ranks with 
 such resistless spirit that the English broke and fled, as 
 one of their own knights described it, like hares before 
 greyhounds.^ 
 
 Douglas and Moray forced the pass in time to join in 
 the pursuit, in which the doughty de Cobham also bore a 
 part, but it was that of the hare rather than of the grey- 
 hound, leaving his comrade Sir Thomas stark in the field. 
 The Earl of Richmond was taken ; so were Henri de 
 Sully, Grand Butler of France, and several French chevaliers. 
 Walter the Steward pursued King Edward as far as the 
 gates of York, and waited there till nightfall to see if any 
 would accept the challenge which he offered. But none would 
 venture out, so grievously had the spirit of the English 
 chivalry been broken in the course of this deplorable reign. 
 
 ^ Com du leuer deuant leuereres. — Scalacronica, 150. 
 
56 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Of the battle of Biland a romantic memorial remains 
 among the Douglas charters. The presence of French 
 The Emerald ki^ights in the King of England's army, at a time 
 Charter, 1324. vvhcn Scotland and France were under treaty of 
 alliance, might have given just offence to a less chivalrous 
 prince than Robert the Bruce. But the foreigners were 
 graciously dealt with. Robert assured them that he 
 perfectly understood the position of gentlemen who, being 
 in England at a time of war, had felt obliged by the rules of 
 chivalry to bear arms for their entertainers, even against 
 a friendly nation ; and he set them free, intending, as he 
 said, to send them in a present to his royal brother of 
 France. Now, three of these knights had surrendered with 
 their squires to Sir James Douglas, who was therefore en- 
 titled to their ransom, estimated at 4400 marks. In lieu 
 of this the King afterwards [8th November 1324] granted 
 to Douglas a charter conveying to him the criminal juris- 
 diction of all the Douglas possessions, and freeing him from 
 all the usual feudal services except the universal obligation 
 for the defence of the realm. After setting forth that the 
 grant was made in partial redemption of the King's debt 
 to the knight for the liberation of the French prisoners, 
 it runs — " And in order that this charter may have per- 
 petual effect, we in our own person and with our own 
 hand have placed on the hand of the said James of 
 Douglas a ring, with a certain stone called an emeraude, 
 in token of sasine and perpetual endurance to the said 
 James and his heirs for ever." ^ How willingly now would 
 one exchange the parchment, which remains intact, for 
 the ring from the Bruce's finger, which has disappeared 
 for ever. 
 
 In addition to the powers conveyed in the Emerald 
 Charter, Douglas received at this time a grant of BalHol's 
 
 Et ut presens carta nostra robur jirmitatis optineat in pejpetimm, ma7iu??i. 
 ehcsde?n Jacobi annulo cum quoda77i lapide qui dicitur emeraude eidem Jacobo et 
 heredibus suisy nomine sasine^ in mernoriale permansuro in futurum ex manii 
 nostra personaliier inuesti^mts. — Fraser, iii. Ii, where the charter is printed 
 in full. 
 
CAMPAIGN OF WEARDALE 
 
 57 
 
 lands of Buittle in Galloway, subject to the yearly tribute 
 of a pair of gilt spurs.^ 
 
 The King of Scots was now in such ascendency as 
 enabled him to prescribe the terms in which he should be 
 addressed by King Edward, who was forced to negotiate 
 for peace. On 30th May 1323 a truce for thirteen years 
 was struck between the two nations, Edward for the first 
 time acknowledging Robert as King of Scots. Less than 
 four years later Edward II. met his atrocious doom, and 
 young Edward III. began his reign by negotiation for 
 converting the truce into a durable peace. But there had 
 been too much friction between Scots and English by sea 
 and land. There followed no formal declaration of war ; 
 the historians of each nation accuse the people of the other 
 of having broken the truce. In effect. King Robert 
 certainly massed troops upon the border in such a 
 menacing way that the English barons were ordered to 
 muster their levies at Newcastle in the spring. Moray, 
 , with Doue^las in second command, crossed the 
 
 Campaign of ^ ' 
 
 Weardale, West Marches on 15th March 1323, at the 
 head of a large force. During five years of truce 
 the dalesmen had replenished their store and restocked 
 their farms ; the Scots found something worth lifting, 
 and, under their veteran leaders, resumed operations in the 
 time-honoured fashion, burning, spoiling, and slaying through 
 Northumberland and Westmorland. It has been com- 
 monly reported that the King of Scots remained in the 
 north during this invasion, suffering from advancing years 
 and broken health, but in fact he was by no means inactive 
 in this campaign. Evidence has lately come to light 
 proving that in the summer of 1327 he led an expedition 
 against the English in the north of Ireland, thereby creating 
 a diversion in favour of Moray's operations.^ 
 
 King Edward marched to intercept the invaders with a 
 very powerful force, but the Scots were too nimble for him. 
 
 ^ Fraser, iii. 12. Modern writers often confuse Buittle with Bootle in Lanca- 
 shire. 
 
 - Bain, iii. 34, 167 
 
58 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 The English lay at Haydon Bridge on Tyne till 26th July, 
 while their enemy, after raiding Coquetdale, entrenched 
 themselves in Weardale. It was a time of dreadful rains, 
 and the rivers were all in flood. King Edward offered knight- 
 hood and a landed estate to any man who should bring 
 him within sight of the enemy en lien dur et secke. Thomas 
 de Rokeby won the reward. He was taken prisoner 
 when scouting ; brought before the Scottish leaders, he 
 frankly told his errand, and was sent back to his master 
 with a message that Moray and Douglas had been waiting 
 eight days for him, anxious for battle. Moray sent Douglas 
 out to reconnoitre the English as they approached from the 
 north. He brought intelligence that they were in great 
 strength, moving in seven columns. The Scots lay on the 
 south bank of the Wear,^ and the English sent out heralds 
 offering to let them cross the water unmolested so as to fight 
 it out on a fair field ; or, if Moray preferred it, that the 
 English should be allowed to cross for the same purpose. 
 It is said that Moray was eager to accept one or other of 
 these alternatives, but that he was overruled by Douglas, 
 who argued that there was nothing dishonourable in using 
 stratagem against superior force. On the other hand, the 
 English, eager to deliver an attack, could not settle some 
 points in knightly precedence ; so for two or three days 
 the two armies lay facing each other, affording a fine oppor- 
 tunity for individual deeds of daring. 
 
 One morning a thousand English archers, supported by 
 cavalry, moved out to molest the Scottish flank. Douglas 
 placed a squadron of light horse in ambush under his brother 
 Archibald and the young Earl of Mar, and rode to and fro 
 himself, with a cloak concealing his armour, in full view of 
 the archers, hoping to lure them to destruction. An Eng- 
 lish squire, Robert de Ogle, recognising Douglas, galloped 
 down to warn his countrymen of their danger. 
 
 " For God's sake, have a care ! " cried he. " Yon rider 
 
 ^ Barbour says the north bank ; but Edward's correspondence [Bain, iii. 168] 
 shows that he was at Stanhope on the north bank, his object being to prevent the 
 return of the invaders to Scotland. 
 
DOUGLAS'S CAMISADE 
 
 59 
 
 is the Black Douglas, and he will have you in some trap 
 presently." 
 
 It was too late ; Douglas winded his horn, the concealed 
 squadron galloped forth, the English were scattered, many 
 of them being slain or taken prisoner. Sir William Erskine, 
 who had been knighted only that morning, used his new 
 gilt spurs too freely, followed too far in the pursuit, and 
 was taken prisoner. 
 
 But the most famous exploit of that campaign took 
 place after the Scots had moved secretly by night [3rd 
 August] to a fresh and better camping ground about two 
 ^ , , miles distant. Doue^las rode out after dark with 
 
 Douglas s ^ 
 
 Camisade, 200 picked horsemen and, crossing the river, 
 3rd August, approached the English lines. Coming to one of 
 the outposts, he was mistaken for an officer going his rounds ; 
 crying " Ha ! St. George ! — no watch here ! " he and his 
 men dashed into the camp itself, cutting the tent-ropes and 
 creating a mighty confusion. He pressed right on to the 
 royal pavilion, and came near taking the King himself, who 
 was saved by the devotion of his chaplain and servants lay- 
 ing down their lives in his defence. By this time trumpets 
 were sounding the alarm in all quarters ; Douglas collected 
 his party and cleared off, returning to the Scottish camp 
 with the loss of few men.^ 
 
 Moray asked Douglas where he had been and how he 
 had fared, who answered laconically — " Sir, we have drawn 
 blood." 
 
 " I wish we had all been with you," exclaimed Moray ; 
 " then we should have discomfited them utterly." 
 
 " May be so," replied the cooler Douglas, " but I fancy 
 my small party was quite enough to risk in such an 
 adventure." 
 
 Then Moray began again to press Douglas to consent to 
 a general engagement. Douglas, says Barbour, replied in a 
 fable — " A certain fisherman," said he, " returning to his 
 cottage one night, found a fox eating a fine salmon which 
 he had left there. The fisherman put himself in the only 
 
 ^ Froissart [c. xviii.] says 300 English were slain. 
 
6o 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 exit — the doorway, and stood, sword in hand, waiting for 
 the fox. But the fox was no simpleton : he was quite 
 equal to the dilemma. The fisherman's cloak lay on the 
 bed ; this the fox seized and drew it across the fire. The 
 owner, seeing his cloak burning, started forward to save it, 
 and the fox immediately bolted through the unguarded 
 door. Now we Scots are the fox, and the King of England 
 the fisherman. He stands in the door and bars our return 
 to our own land. He shall fare no better than the fisher- 
 man, whose salmon was eaten, whose cloak was burnt, and 
 from whom the fox escaped. I have planned a way of 
 escape, somewhat wet, to be sure, but we shall not lose a 
 single page in taking it." 
 
 This prudent counsel prevailed. In rear of the Scottish 
 position lay a great morass, over which Douglas had caused 
 a roadway of branches to be laid. All day (probably 4th 
 August) the Scots made a great show of preparation in their 
 camp. A soldier was caused to allow himself to be taken 
 prisoner, and told the English that Moray had issued orders 
 for all troops to be under arms an hour after sunset. This 
 put the English on the alert for a night attack ; but as 
 soon as it was dark the Scottish army decamped, leaving 
 but a couple of trumpeters behind to blow deceptive calls 
 during the night, and marched without molestation back to 
 their own country. 
 
 But they were in England again within less than a 
 month. The King of Scots in person laid siege to Norham 
 Castle in September, while Moray and Douglas invested 
 Alnwick. The county of Northumberland was at their 
 mercy, but these two famous fortresses made good their 
 defence, until Edward's Parliament at Lincoln appointed 
 commissioners to treat for peace, and the war was brought 
 Treaty of — finally, as men fondly hoped ; for a 
 
 Peace, 1328. marriage was arranged between Prince David of 
 Scotland and the sister of the English King. 
 
 During the next two years Douglas was almost con- 
 stantly in attendance upon King Robert at Cardross on 
 the Clyde. The King's health had broken, and although 
 
KING ROBERT'S DEATH 
 
 6i 
 
 Douglas rode with him as far as Glenluce in Galloway in 
 March 1329, it was apparent, on their return to Cardross, 
 that, in Froissart's words, " there was no way for him but 
 death." He was fully conscious of his condition for some 
 weeks, and disposed all his affairs deliberately in view of 
 the end at hand. 
 
 There is a discrepancy in the accounts of the way the 
 dying King's last commands were laid upon Douglas. Bar- 
 bour says that he sent for his chief barons, and 
 KhTgVobert, bade them choose one of their number to fulfil 
 
 7th June his mission, and that with one consent they named 
 1329. 
 
 "the douchty Lord Douglas." On the other hand, 
 Froissart describes the King himself as naming " the gentle 
 knight Sir James of Douglas " as the one to carry out his 
 will, which was that, inasmuch as he had not been able to 
 fulfil his solemn vow to make an expedition against the 
 Saracens in Palestine as soon as his own realm should be 
 established in peace, he desired that after death his heart 
 should be carried into battle with the enemies of Christ.^ 
 King Robert died on 7th June 1329; his heart was taken 
 from his body, embalmed, and placed in a silver casket, 
 which was entrusted to Douglas. This act was in defiance 
 of the Bull of Pope Boniface VIII., Detestando feritatis 
 abusum [1299], forbidding such mutilation of the dead, and 
 decreeing excommunication as the penalty. But Douglas 
 and his master had braved so long with impunity the utmost 
 rigours of the Court of Rome that he went forward on his 
 mission with a bold disregard of consequences.^ In sending 
 
 ^ Thus men in all ages, confusing physical effect with cause, have regarded 
 now one, now another, of the internal organs as the special warden of the emotions 
 and affections. Love, courage, hope, fear, mercy, and the rest of them, share with 
 the intelligence and will the brain as their source and seat, and disturb the nerves, 
 and, through them, the circulation and other functions. Mediaeval psychologists 
 resolved that the heart, the centre of circulation, was the seat of the finer feelings, 
 just as the later Greeks fixed upon the airMyKva, rendered in our Authorised Version 
 by a term so homely that the Revisers have substituted the insipid gloss "tender 
 mercies." 
 
 ^ Two years later, moved by the Earl of Moray, Pope John xxii. granted 
 absolution to all who had part " in the inhuman and cruel treatment " of King 
 Robert's body. 
 
62 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Douglas upon such a perilous and laborious errand it may 
 seem that the King was unduly exacting upon a willing and 
 valuable servant ; but it is just possible that he had in view 
 the advantage to the realm of separating for a while two 
 such generous but fiery rivals as Moray and Douglas, after 
 his own tactful guidance had been removed. We get a 
 glimpse of possible want of harmony in the scene that 
 preceded the capture of Berwick [p. 50 ante]. King Robert 
 had always managed to keep both these powerful chiefs in 
 excellent humour, but then he had always had plenty of 
 lands to bestow upon each. It is not every firmament that 
 suffices for the orbits of two stars of such magnitude. Moray 
 was to succeed under Act of Parliament to the Regency ; it 
 might be politic to employ the most powerful subject abroad 
 for a while. 
 
 At all events Douglas set out on his journey with great 
 magnificence, after commending himself to the prayers of the 
 Church and the protection of St. Bride, in whose honour he 
 bestowed certain lands upon the Abbey of Newbattle. It is 
 not recorded that he thought it worth while to secure the 
 intercession of his great uncle, St. Bricius [ii.]. He set sail 
 in the spring of 1330 from Berwick ^ or Montrose,^ having 
 received letters of protection from Edward III. 
 with the for seven years,^ and accompanied by a knight 
 Bruce°i33o banneret, seven ordinary knights, twenty-six 
 esquires, and a retinue in proportion. The ships 
 lay twelve days at Sluys, in order to give other knights- 
 errant the chance of joining such a journey, which promised 
 so much adventure ; but Douglas never went ashore, remain- 
 ing on board to entertain a great number of distinguished 
 visitors. 
 
 There is some doubt as to the exact tenour of Bruce's 
 charge to Douglas, whether it was to carry his heart to the 
 Holy Sepulchre, or generally in war against infidels.^ True, 
 it was at Jerusalem where these could most constantly be 
 
 ^ Barbour. " Froissart. " Bain, iii. 179. 
 
 ^ " To travale upon Goddis fais (foes) " — T/ie Brus^ cxlvi. 33. " Deposit your 
 charge at the Holy Sepulchre." — Froissart. 
 
THE HEART OF BRUCE 
 
 63 
 
 found, but, as it happened, Alfonso XL, King of Castile, 
 was at that very time at war with Osmyn, the Moorish 
 Prince of Granada, and Edward III. furnished Douglas with 
 a special letter of commendation to that King.^ Therefore 
 to Seville was the flotilla steered, whence the Scottish 
 knights rode to Alfonso's camp on the frontier. The fame 
 of Douglas had spread throughout Christendom, and he was 
 well received among the knights of all nations, whom the 
 chance of glory had drawn to the seat of war. Among 
 them was one of great renown, whose features had been 
 disfigured by many wounds.^ Seeing no scars on Douglas's 
 face, this knight expressed great surprise. " Praised be 
 God ! " laughed Douglas, " I always had hands to protect 
 my head." 
 
 On 25th August 1330 the Spanish army lay in view 
 Death of Moors, who were drawn up within their 
 
 Sir James frontier of Granada. Alfonso's trumpets sounded 
 
 Douglas, T->. 1 . T r 1 n ^ 
 
 2sth Aug. to advance. Douglas, ridmg on one of the flanks, 
 '33°- understood that a general attack was intended, 
 
 and went off at score at the head of his Scottish squadron, 
 carrying the silver casket slung to his neck.^ Whether by 
 misadventure he was not rightly supported,^ or, as is not 
 unlikely, chivalrous emulation overbore his habitual pru- 
 dence,^ certain it is that the Scots charged alone, and were 
 speedily surrounded by the Moors. Seeing Sir William de 
 St. Clair hard pressed, Douglas attempted to rescue him, 
 but was struck down and died on the spot.^ 
 
 ^ Bain, iii. 179. 
 
 ^ " Sa fast till hewin was his fas 
 
 That it all our ner wemmit was." — T/ze Brtis, cxlviii. 69. 
 Barbour alleges that Alphonso had given Douglas command of the foremost 
 of the three columns or divisions in which his army was disposed. 
 ^ Thus Froissart. ^ Thus Barbour. 
 
 ^ Charles Stuart, Comte d'Albanie, when serving with the Carlists, was shown 
 a rock where tradition says Douglas perished. The tale that Douglas, before 
 charging, flung the silver casket into the ranks of the Moors, exclaiming : " Now, 
 pass thou forth before, as thou wert ever wont to be in the field, and I shall 
 follow thee or die," — is not more extravagant than the historical truth ; but there 
 is no mention of it by any earlier authority than Holland, an allegorical writer of 
 the fifteenth century. This sufficed for Godscroft. 
 
64 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 The King's heart was recovered and brought home by- 
 Sir William de Keith and Sir Simon Lockhart, who buried 
 it in Melrose Abbey.^ Home, too, was brought the body 
 of the Black Douglas, and was laid in St. Bride's Church 
 at Douglas, under a canopied tomb in the flamboyant style. 
 Barbour, who wrote something less than fifty years after Sir 
 James's death, has sketched for us his portrait from hear- 
 say — 
 
 "§ot he toils nochi sa fitr^ thitt to£ 
 (^ttlb Sipdi Qvttl^ of his heatttc. 
 In bisage teas ht sumbdc rjrag, 
 ^nb hab hlak har, as i herb sa^ ; 
 ^oi of Itmmis he iims luclc mab,^ 
 Wiith hanis Qxct anb schxxlbris brab ; * 
 ^ts bobj) hias toele mab anb lenghe,^ 
 ^s tha that sato him saib me. 
 ^tthcn h£ iuas blith he teas lustg, 
 ^nb mzk anb suet in cnmpang. 
 ^0t, xjnha in hattak intcht him sc, 
 
 othix- ccntcnans hab he, 
 ^nb in s^jck ulis^jit he snmbeU,'' 
 ^ot that sat him richt toonbir toik."' 
 
 At Douglas Castle lies a sword blade, said to have been 
 given to the Good Sir James by his King. Possibly it is 
 genuine, but the verses as given below, bitten into it by 
 acid, are certainly of later date, as shown by the Roman 
 characters, by the mention of many good men of one 
 surna^ne, and by the reference to the commission about 
 the heart. In King Robert's days surnames were just 
 
 ^ Popular tradition connects Sir Simon Lockhart of Lee with this duty, but 
 there is no foundation for the fanciful etymology of the name Lockhart, quasi 
 lock-heart. There were Locards in Scotland long before 1330, — witness the 
 charter by Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, granted at Lochmaben in 
 1307, during his brief lordship of Annandale, to Sir Bartholomew Denefaud, con- 
 veying the lands of Hotone and Lokardebi [Hutton and Lockerby]. Analogy 
 to the misleading suggestion contained in the spelling Lockhart may be detected 
 in that of "sweet-heart," which should be written "sweetard," a derivative of 
 "sweet" just as "sluggard," "coward," "drunkard" are derivatives of "slug," 
 old French coe, a tail, and "drunk." 
 
 ^ Fair. " Well made. ^ Shoulders broad. 
 
 Lean. ^ Lisped a little. ' The Brits, v. 107. 
 
THE SWORD OF DOUGLAS 
 
 65 
 
 becoming fixed, and but few had borne the territorial 
 name of Douglas — 
 
 so MONY GVID AS OF THE DOVGLAS BEINE, 
 
 OF ANE SURNAME WAS NEVER IN SCOTLAND SEINE. 
 
 I WIL YE CHARGE, EFTER THAT I DEPART, 
 
 TO HOLY GRAVFE, AND THAIR BVRY MY HART; 
 
 LET IT REMAIN EVER, BOTH TYME AND HOVR, 
 TO THE LAST DAY I SIE MY SAVIOVR. 
 
 SO I PROTEST IN TYME OF AL MY RINGE,^ 
 YE LYK SUBJECTIS HAD NEVER ONY KEING. 
 
 ^ Reign. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 E 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 PAG 
 
 66 viii. William, Lord of Douglas, 
 died 1333. 
 
 69 ix. Hugh, "the Dull," Lord of 
 Douglas, c. 1 294- 1 342. 
 
 71 X. Sir Archibald Douglas, " the 
 Tineman," Regent of Scot- 
 land, c. 1296-1333. 
 
 71 The disinherited Lords, 1332. 
 
 72 Reappearance of Edward Baliol, 
 
 1332. 
 
 72 Camisade of Annan, December 1332. 
 
 73 Sir Archibald appointed Regent, 
 
 1333- 
 
 74 Battle of Halidon Hill, 19th July 
 
 1333. 
 
 76 xi Sir William, ist Earl of 
 
 Douglas and Earl of Mar, 
 c. 1327-1384. 
 
 77 Slaughter of the Knight of Liddes- 
 
 dale, August 1353. 
 
 79 War renewed with England, 1355. 
 
 80 The Burnt Candlemas, 1356. 
 
 80 Battle of Poitiers, 19th September 
 1356. 
 
 PACE 
 
 81 Liberation of King David, 3rd 
 October 1357. 
 
 81 Douglas created Earl, 26th January 
 
 1358. 
 
 82 Marries Margaret of Mar, 1357 [?]. 
 
 82 Douglas takes arms against the 
 
 King, 1363. 
 
 83 Negotiations with Edward iii,, 
 
 1363. 
 
 86 Renewed disaffection of Douglas, 
 
 1 363- 1 369. 
 
 87 Douglas resigns lands of Dalkeith, 
 
 6th April 1370. 
 87 Disputes the Succession, 1371. 
 89 Becomes Earl of Mar, c. 1374. 
 
 89 Disturbance on the Border, 1378- 
 
 1380. 
 
 90 Capture of Sir Thomas Musgrave, 
 
 1377. 
 
 91 Douglas invades England, 1380. 
 
 92 Capture of Lochmaben, 4th Feb- 
 
 ruary 1384. 
 
 93 Death of the Earl of Douglas and 
 
 Mar, 1384. 
 
 Already the Douglas pedigree is becoming an intricate 
 affair. 
 
 There is no record extant of the marriage of the Good 
 Sir James. Hume of Godscroft merely states that he left 
 two natural sons, William and Archibald, and 
 liam^Tordof ^^^^ William was the renowned Knight of Liddes- 
 Dougias, dale, known as " the Flower of Chivalry " [xxviii.]. 
 
 1333. pointing out this error Sir William Fraser 
 
 argues that William must have been born in wedlock, 
 
 66 
 
WILLIAM, LORD OF DOUGLAS 
 
 67 
 
 because he succeeded his father as Lord of Douglas [1330— 
 1333].^ His argument is not conclusive as to William's 
 legitimacy, but the fact that William succeeded his father, 
 Sir James, rests on sufficient evidence — First, the mention 
 in the Exchequer account of Chamberlain Reginald More, 
 between 14th March and 14th December 1331, of certain 
 transactions with Willelmus dominus de Duglasr Second, a 
 complaint, addressed by the monks of Coldingham to David II., 
 against William, Lord of Douglas, and Archibald, his uncle, 
 for wrongful retention of the manor of Swinton in Berwick- 
 shire, " which was granted to the honourable man, Sir James, 
 lately Lord of Douglas, for his counsel and to have his aid 
 in time of war, by a simple monk who had no power to grant 
 the said town in that manner against the interests of the house 
 of Coldingham." ^ Lastly, Sir Thomas Gray mentions in his 
 Scalacronica that " the Lord of Douglas, son of James of 
 Douglas, who was slain by the Saracens on the frontier of 
 Granada,"* was among the slain at Halidon Hill [19th July 
 1333]. Knyghton in his chronicle mentions Willelmus 
 Douglas filius lacobi ejus\dent\ — William Douglas, son of 
 James of that ilk — as taken prisoner in this battle, to which 
 the cautious Hailes notes : " rather Archibald the natural 
 son of the renowned Sir James Douglas." Another Archi- 
 bald, indeed, did fall on that day of Scotland's dule, but 
 that was the youngest brother of the Good Sir James, who 
 had earned the title of " Tineman " [the Loser] because of his 
 persistent ill-fortune in war.^ More about him presently. 
 Meanwhile as to William, Lord of Douglas [viii.], the fact 
 that he perished at Halidon Hill is enough to distinguish 
 
 1 Fraser, i. 185. 
 
 ^ Exchequer Rolls, i. 396, where the editor, Mr. Burnett, notes that the 
 name WilHam is probably a mistake for Hugh, although in fact there is no 
 mistake. 
 
 ^ The references given by Sir W. Fraser for this letter, the original of which is 
 in Norman-French, are B.M. Faustina, A. vi. fol. 51, and Surtees Society, 
 Priory of Coldingham, p. 21. 
 
 ^ Scalacronica, p. 163. 
 
 ^ This nickname has also been applied to Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas, 
 but the earlier Sir Archibald is the right ' ' Tineman. " ' ' Archibaldus de Douglas, 
 qui Tyneman dictus est." — Bower, xiii. 27. 
 
68 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 him from his namesake and kinsman, who became famous 
 as the " Knight of Liddesdale," and who was prisoner in 
 Carlisle at the time of the battle of Halidon Hill and for 
 two years after. Besides, it is known that this Knight of 
 Liddesdale was the lawful son of Sir James Douglas of 
 Lothian, descended from Andrew, brother of Sir William 
 Douglas [iv.], the ancestor of the Earls of Morton. 
 
 William, Lord of Douglas, died, then, in 1333, unmarried 
 and a minor, and, seeing how very little is known of him 
 — so little that his very existence had been overlooked till 
 Sir William Eraser identified him — it is curious that one re- 
 markable relic of him should have been preserved. Impres- 
 sions of seals of the fourteenth century are common enough. 
 
 but matrices — the seals themselves — exceedingly rare. The 
 Douglases of old had a burial vault in the church of North 
 Berwick, in the ruins whereof was discovered in 1788 a brass 
 seal stamp of elegant fourteenth century design, bearing the 
 legend — 
 
 SIGILLVM • WILLELMI * DNI ' DE ' DOVGLAS 
 
 surrounding a shield bearing a fess between the .stars in 
 chief and the heart in base.^ 
 
 ^ This is the earliest instance of the display of the heart in the Douglas shield, 
 showing that it was assumed immediately after the death of Sir James. The fess 
 is not so easy to explain. The bearings of Douglas of Mains stand in the Lyon 
 Register argent, a fess chequy gules, between three stars azure in chief and a 
 man's heart proper in base. 
 
 Fig. 5.— Seal of William, 
 Lord of Douglas, c. 1332. 
 
 Fig. 6. — Matrix of same 
 
 Seal. 
 
Enrico Scotti- Douglas, Conte (VAgazano, 
 1900. 
 
 Malcolm Douglas of Mains, 1584. 
 
 J^^ J^^ 
 
 Sir William Douglas of Glenbervie, 
 afterwards gth Earl of Angus, 1587. 
 
THE ''DULL DOUGLAS" 69 
 
 William was succeeded in the lands and lordship of 
 ix. Hugh, Douglas by his uncle, Hugh [ix.], dubbed the " Dull 
 1^ the Dull," Douglas," not, perhaps, so much on account of 
 Douglas, mental or bodily infirmity, as Godscroft unkindly 
 c. 1294-1342. suggests, but merely because his clerical education 
 and profession inclined him to a retired life. 
 
 When Sir William le Hardi's [vi.] English possessions 
 were forfeited in 1296, Hugh, a child not two years of age, 
 was taken into custody with the manor of Stebbing.^ 
 Nothing further is heard or known of him till 1 6th May 
 1325, when he appeared by proxy as a Canon of Glasgow at 
 a meeting of the chapter of that diocese.^ At that time he 
 seems to have been parish priest of Old Roxburgh, and, 
 for aught we know, so he remained until the death of his 
 nephew opened for him the succession to the broad lands 
 of the lordship. Yet was he at first but a titular owner, 
 for by this time nearly the whole of southern Scotland 
 was under the sway of Edward III., or of his nominee, 
 King Edward [Baliol] of Scotland. On 12th June 1334, 
 the Scottish King surrendered to Edward III. the forests 
 of Jedburgh, Selkirk, and Ettrick, with the counties of Rox- 
 burgh, Peebles, Dumfries, Linlithgow, Edinburgh, and Had- 
 dington, to remain for ever as possessions of the English 
 Crown.^ Douglasdale was restored to Lord de Clifford, 
 grandson of that Sir Robert who had received it from the 
 first Edward, but it was stoutly held by the men of Douglas 
 and watched over by the Knight of Liddesdale, so that 
 Clifford never enjoyed his fief. 
 
 In 1336 Edward III. held his court at Bothwell, to 
 receive the west of Scotland to his peace. No appearance 
 was made on behalf of Douglasdale, which accordingly was 
 laid waste by Lord de Stafford, vir multtim militaris.^ 
 Even Hugh Douglas's prebend of Old Roxburgh did not 
 escape, for Edward III. appointed thereto Andrew de 
 Ormiston in 1337.^ 
 
 During these years David II. was an exile in France, — 
 
 ^ Stevenson, ii. 43. 2 Registrum Glasguense, i. 234. 
 
 ^ Fadera, \\. 6i/\. ^ Lanercosi, 2^^. Rotttli Scotia, i. ^16. 
 
70 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 " none but children in their games dared to call David 
 Bruce their King," — yet were there faithful hearts in Scot- 
 land who suffered not the cause of the King over the water 
 to be quenched. Most puissant among royalist champions re- 
 mained William Douglas of Lothian and Liddesdale [xxviii.]. 
 
 Matters took a turn in 1341 when David 11., at the 
 foolish age of eighteen, returned to his proper realm. At 
 this time Hugh the Dull, having no stomach for the military 
 service due for his lands, made over many of his possessions 
 to his kinsman, William of Lothian,^ and returned humbly 
 to his parochial duties in Old Roxburgh, whence, if still 
 alive, he was to be dislodged once more after the battle of 
 Durham in 1346, when Edward III. bestowed the prebend 
 upon William de Emeldon.^ 
 
 The seal of Hugh the Dull, which 
 is attached to the charter conveying 
 Westerkirk to the Knight of Liddesdale, 
 is erroneously described in Laing's cata- 
 logue as bearing a knight on horseback 
 with a shield. The real device is an 
 "^'^r T^~^f^^°^ ^^"^^^ unicorn supporting^ a shield, of which the 
 
 01 Douglas, a canon r r & ' 
 
 {c. i2g4-c. 1342). upper part is obliterated, but the lower 
 still shows the heart. The compartment 
 is seme of stars, and surrounded by the legend [also 
 erroneously deciphered by Laing] — 
 
 [SIGILL : IIVGONljS : DE : DOWGLAS : CANONIC. 
 
 This " Dull Douglas " dedicated a chapel to St. John the 
 Baptist at Crookboat of Douglas, where the Douglas Water 
 joins the Clyde, and endowed it, among other emoluments, 
 with the right to the best cheese in every house on Douglas 
 Moor. 
 
 Turn we now to Hugh's uncle, Archibald [x.], youngest 
 brother of the Good Sir James [vii.], who, although he never 
 became Lord of Douglas, bore far too important a part in 
 public affairs to be omitted from the roll. He is first 
 heard of after 1320, when he received from Robert I. a 
 
 ^ Morion, ii. 89-92. ' Rotuli Scotia, i. 749. 
 
THE DISINHERITED LORDS 
 
 71 
 
 charter of Morebattle ^ in Roxburghshire, and Kirkandrews 
 in Dumfriesshire. In 1324 he received a further grant of 
 ^. ^ ^. the lands of Crimond ^ and others in Buchan, 
 bald Doug-las, being already in possession of Cavers in Rox- 
 the Tine- burs^hshirc, Drumlanrief and TerreHes in Dum- 
 
 man, Regent & J fc) fc> 
 
 of Scotland, friesshire, and West Calder in Midlothian. He 
 died 1333. j^^jg ij^^lg during the life of Robert I., 
 
 though glimpses are had of him serving under Sir James 
 [vii.] in the campaign of Weardale [1327], when his 
 foragers " auoint curry apoi tot levesche de Doresme " ^ — 
 overran nearly all the bishopric of Durham — and gathered 
 much booty. But with the death of the Bruce and the 
 reappearance of a Baliol on the stage, Archibald takes a 
 foremost place in the ensuing struggle. 
 
 King Robert I., dying in 1329, left his realm to his son 
 David, who, though barely six years old, was already married 
 
 ^. . to Joanna, sister of Edward III., a few months 
 
 The disin- ' ' 
 
 herited Lords, oldcr than himself. Randolph, Earl of Moray, 
 acted as Regent until his sudden death at Mussel- 
 burgh in 1332, when the young King's first cousin, Donald, 
 Earl of Mar, was elected Regent by the Estates. King 
 Robert had left a heritage of ill-blood to his successor by 
 neglecting to fulfil the stipulation in the treaty of Northamp- 
 ton [4th May 1328] binding him to restore the lands 
 forfeited from certain lords in the war of independence 
 — Wake, Lord of Liddesdale, Beaumont, Earl of Buchan, 
 and others of less note. These disinherited lords, /es 
 querelleurs as they were called, attached themselves to the 
 English Court, whither came also in 1330 Edward Baliol, 
 seeking, if not his father's crown, at least his father's forfeited 
 Scottish lands. 
 
 On 30th December 1330 Edward III. demanded the 
 restoration of their lands to Wake and Beaumont. Regent 
 
 ^ There is no reference in this name to a conflict. It is an Anglo-Saxon 
 compound — mor bofl, the dwelling on the moor or by the marsh, exactly equiva- 
 lent to the more familiar Morton. 
 
 ^ Wrongly printed Ormond in Douglas's Peerage, which estate came to the 
 Douglas family long after through Joanna Moray, heiress of Bothwell. 
 
 3 Scalacronica, 154. Barbour, cxli. 124. 
 
72 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Moray temporised : to dislodge the existing proprietors 
 would have been to raise up a fresh body of malcontents 
 
 nearer home, and negotiations dragged on for 
 ancelf^^ eighteen months. King Edward, despairing of the 
 BaHoTi 2 fulfilment of the treaty so justly demanded by him, 
 
 now adopted the claim of Edward Baliol to the 
 crown of Scotland, and did not interfere when the disin- 
 herited lords, having fitted out an independent expedition in 
 the summer of 1332, landed with Edward Baliol in Fife. 
 Mar, the new Regent, met the invaders on the Earn, near 
 Dupplin, on 12th August, but although his force greatly 
 outnumbered the invaders, the Scots were utterly defeated. 
 Mar himself, with Menteith and the young Earl of Moray, 
 being among the slain. Sir Archibald Douglas held com- 
 mand under the Earl of March, who lay near Perth with 
 another large force. Baliol and the English had thrown 
 themselves into that town after their victory at Dupplin, and 
 were promptly blockaded there by March. 
 
 Promptly, but not effectively. Tidings came of a rising 
 in Galloway, always tender to the Baliol cause, under Sir 
 Eustace Maxwell of Carlaverock, ever a shifty patriot ; and 
 March made speed thither to chastise the rebels. Scone 
 witnessed the coronation of Baliol as Edward, King of Scots 
 [27th September], and the new monarch set out on a 
 progress through the west and south. But for his incorrig- 
 ible luck the Tineman should have captured the usurper 
 near Jedburgh ; but an ambush laid for Baliol by Douglas 
 was detected and put to flight, Baliol taking his ease that 
 night in Kelso. 
 
 Archibald came nearer success in his next exploit. 
 Baliol, after performing his allegiance to the King of 
 Camisadeof England at Roxburgh [23rd November], rode to 
 Annan, De- Aunau intending to keep Christmas there. But 
 cemberi332. ^^nandalc, notwithstanding its proximity to 
 Carlaverock, was no safe harbour for one of his race. 
 Archibald Douglas, having with him the 3rd Earl of 
 Moray, was still upon his tracks. Riding from Moffat 
 during the night of I5th-i6th December with a strong 
 
CAMISADE OF ANNAN 
 
 73 
 
 company, he gave the usurper a sharp camisade before 
 daylight. Sir Walter Comyn and Sir John Mowbray were 
 slain, Baliol himself escaping in his shirt-tails — " on a barme 
 horse, with legys bare " ; ^ or, as Bower puts it, " on a sorry 
 jade, with neither bridle nor saddle ; one shank booted, the 
 other bare." ^ Taken he must have been without fail, but for 
 the prowess of his brother, Sir Henry de Baliol, who, with 
 other naked men, made a gallant resistance before he fell 
 dead in the dark. Thus it came to pass that the Tineman 
 was balked of the fairest chance that ever befel him ; even 
 what he accomplished is smirched by the English chroniclers 
 Hemingburgh and Walsingham, who allege that in this ex- 
 ploit he broke a truce which March and Douglas, solicitous 
 for the safety of their own lands, had made with Baliol till 
 2nd February following ; but of this treachery there is no 
 sure evidence forthcoming. 
 
 On 9th March Baliol re-entered Scotland by the eastern 
 border to avenge the ignominy of his exit by the western. 
 On the 2 1st the Tineman raided Gilsland in counter-stroke, 
 and collected a deal of booty. But this was the last gleam 
 of success on his arms. After Mar's death Sir Andrew 
 Moray, perhaps the son of Wallace's colleague, had been 
 appointed Regent, but soon afterwards was captured by 
 
 the English at Roxburgh,^ and the Tineman was 
 po^nfed R^e^" choscn to succeed him. His administration was 
 fand°^^^°^' ^^^^^ harmony with his earlier fortune. 
 
 Baliol had ceded Berwick to Edward III. under 
 the treaty of Roxburgh, but it was still held for King David, 
 Sir Alexander de Seton commanding in the town, the Earl 
 of March in the castle. The two Edwards appeared before 
 the walls in May 1333. Seton undertook to surrender 
 unless relieved by a given day, handing over his son, among 
 others, as hostages. The Tineman marched to his relief, 
 and appeared in plenty of time with plenty of force. He 
 
 ^ Wyntoun, viii. c. 26. ^ Bower, xiii. 25. 
 
 ^ Most historians assign Moray's capture to November 1332, but Wyntoun 
 and Bower both state that the camisade of Annan was in accordance with Moray's 
 commands. — Wyntoun, i. viii. c. 26, 1. 385. Bower, xiii. 25. 
 
74 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 threw supplies and reinforcements into the town, thereby, as 
 he claimed, having technically relieved the place ; after which 
 he must needs go off raiding and looting across the border. 
 The Edwards sat still until the Scots were well across the 
 Tweed, and then summoned the garrison. Seton protested 
 that the stipulated relief had been effected ; the English King 
 rejoined by hanging Seton's son before the father's eyes, 
 intimating that he was prepared with other arguments of a 
 like nature. A fresh compact was struck. Berwick would 
 be given up if not relieved within fourteen days, and 
 messengers were sent after the Tineman. King Edward 
 wished no better fortune than to wait his return upon 
 ground of his own choosing, for the zone of fire from 
 Battle of English archers was ill to cross by an attacking 
 Haiidon forcc. He took up a position on Halidon Hill, 
 Hill, 1333. ^j^g rising land to the north-west of the town ; 
 the Regent crossed the Tweed and encamped not far off in 
 Duns park. He surely must have heard from his brother 
 the lesson so often read to the Scottish knights by Robert 
 the Bruce, never to risk a pitched battle or to face the fire 
 of English archers where it was possible to adopt the 
 safer strategy of falling back and making a desert of the 
 country before an invading army. Never would such a 
 policy have been more effective than at this time, for there 
 was much discontent among the English, desertions were 
 frequent, and the levies of the northern shires had not turned 
 out readily to muster. But the Tineman was " fey " ; it was 
 written that he was never to succeed, as surely as his brother 
 had never failed, and he decided to attack the enemy's 
 position. 
 
 Between the two camps lay a marsh, as was generally 
 the case in Scottish battle grounds : a valuable feature as it 
 proved at Bannockburn, where the right use was made of it ; 
 a frightful danger to a headstrong commander, as was to 
 be proved this day, and hereafter at Flodden. The Scots 
 crossed the marsh in four columns, under a destructive 
 archery fire ; soaked with water and mire, the thinned ranks 
 formed at the foot of a steep brae whereon the English line 
 
HALIDON HILL 
 
 75 
 
 of battle was drawn. It was no even contest. The leading 
 division under the Earl of Ross climbed the steep and 
 attacked Baliol's line with splendid courage, but their devo- 
 tion served but to make their losses the heavier. One after 
 another the other Scottish schiltroms, under Moray, the 
 Steward, and the Regent himself, breasted the hill and 
 encountered the same fate. All were heavily, disastrously 
 repulsed, sacrificed to their leader's blunder. How bravely 
 both leaders and followers bore themselves let the 
 Archibald death-roll tell. Six Scottish earls, at least, died 
 Douglas, 19th their harness — Lennox, Ross, Sutherland, 
 
 July 1333. ' ' 
 
 Carrick, Menteith, and Athol ; three brothers 
 Fraser ; William, Lord of Douglas [vii.], and of other good 
 knights too many to recount. The Tineman himself made 
 the last of his losses, his own life — irreparable to himself, 
 and the most coveted town and seaport in Scotland — 
 irreparable to his country, for Berwick has remained an 
 English borough ever since, except for twenty-one years 
 after Henry VI. restored it [i 461-1482]. 
 
 The Tineman married Beatrice, daughter of Sir Alex- 
 ander de Lindsay of Crawford. They had two sons and a 
 daughter — (i) John, who died in France before 1342 in 
 the retinue of David II.; (2) William [xi.], who became 
 Lord of Douglas; and (3) Eleanor, who married (ist) 
 Alexander, Earl of Carrick, natural son of Edward Bruce, 
 King of Ireland. He was killed at Halidon Hill, when she 
 married (2nd) Sir James de Sandilands, ancestor of the 
 present Lord Torphichen, who still owns the lands of West 
 Calder, bestowed upon Dame Eleanor by her brother Wil- 
 liam [xi.].^ Sir James died before 1358, when his widow 
 is believed to have married (3rd) Sir William Tours of 
 Dairy. Before 1368 she was the wife (4th) of Sir Duncan 
 Wallace of Sundrum ; and lastly, in 1 376, a dispensation 
 was obtained for her marriage with Sir Patrick Hepburn of 
 Hailes. Chivalrous warfare was fatal to the longevity of 
 husbands, but well-dowered widows needed never to remain 
 disconsolate for long. 
 
 ^ Fraser, iii. 15. 
 
76 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 At the time of the Tineman's death his second son, a 
 minor and ward of the Knight of Liddesdale,^ was being 
 educated in France. He returned to Scotland 
 Ham^LoMof about 1 348, probably about the time he came 
 e°"wd"^ of age. The state of affairs in that realm was 
 las and Earl of deplorable. The yoke of Baliol, indeed, had been 
 ^84' ^* thrown off ; by arms, or by corruption of the par- 
 tisans of Baliol, nearly all the strongholds of 
 Scotland had come into the hands of David's officers, and 
 Robert the Steward [afterwards King Robert II.] was Regent. 
 King David, a lad of eighteen, had returned to his kingdom 
 with his English Queen, Joanna [2nd June 1341]; but 
 almost his first public act had been to give mortal offence 
 to the Knight of Liddesdale, who was thenceforward to be 
 
 Jedburgh, whence he carried on guerrilla war upon the 
 English. He was one of those appointed in 1 3 5 1 to 
 treat with the English Commissioners for the liberation 
 of King David.2 Edward Baliol was living on his 
 lands of Buittle at this time, awaiting another turn of the 
 wheel in his favour ; but these lands were of the rightful 
 heritage of Douglas,^ who therefore in the summer 
 
 ^ Mo7-ton, ii. 46. 
 
 ^ Sir William Fraser has cleared William, Lord of Douglas's, fame from the 
 imputation of underhand dealing with the English at this time. Lord Hailes, in 
 casting it, confused him with the other William, the Knight of Liddesdale. — 
 Fraser, i. 218-220. 
 
 ^ See p. 57, aiilc. 
 
 reckoned among the least loyal 
 of his subjects ; albeit he shared 
 the fate of King David himself 
 in being taken prisoner at the 
 disastrous battle of Neville's Cross 
 [17th October 1346]. 
 
 Fig. 8. — Seal of William, Lord 
 of Douglas (1342- 1 384). 
 
 Young William returned to 
 restore the fair fame of his house. 
 He went straight to Douglasdale, 
 summoned his retainers to his 
 standard, and took up his quarters 
 in the forests of Ettrick and 
 
SLAUGHTER OF LIDDESDALE 
 
 77 
 
 of 1353 made a descent upon them and exacted sub- 
 mission to King David from the BalioHte chiefs of Galloway. 
 In this he was probably acting as Warden of the Marches in 
 concert with Stuart, Earl of Carrick [afterwards Robert III.], 
 who was subduing Annandale, and with Sir Roger Kirk- 
 patrick, who took Dalswinton and Carlaverock in Nithsdale 
 about this time. 
 
 Now, in July 1352, the Knight of Liddesdale, god- 
 father and former guardian of William, Lord of Douglas, 
 being then in prison in the Tower of London, where also 
 lay King David, did agree to most treasonable conditions 
 SI ht f ^^^^^ King of England, whereby he obtained 
 the Knight of his liberty and a grant of the lands of Liddes- 
 Liddesdaie, ^^^^ ^^iQ Towcr of Hermitas^e.-^ Shame upon 
 
 August 1353. c> 
 
 the " Flower of Chivalry " ! the first to bring 
 dishonour upon the scutcheon of his race. Returning to 
 Scotland, he was speedily called to account for other and 
 private crimes. To explain their precise nature would 
 require long and tedious examination of a very complicated 
 business, already undertaken by the practised hand of Sir 
 William Eraser, Mention has already been made of the 
 grant by Hugh the Dull [ix.] to Sir William Douglas of 
 Lothian of the lands of Liddesdale, from which he after- 
 wards derived his distinctive title of " Knight of Liddesdale." 
 Very shortly after the execution of this grant, in February 
 1342, Robert the Steward, in Parliament at Aberdeen, 
 demanded sasine of these same lands, in virtue of a crown 
 grant made to him on being knighted. The claim was 
 opposed by the Knight of Liddesdale, on the ground that he 
 held the lands in virtue of his guardianship of William 
 [xi.], son and heir of Sir Archibald [x.], in support of 
 which he showed a charter of infeftment in favour of Sir 
 Archibald.^ True, the objection was overruled on the 
 ground that Archibald, being at the time of the said grant 
 guardian of the realm, could not bestow lands upon him- 
 self,^ and the grant was made to the Steward ; nevertheless, 
 two days later a fresh grant of Liddesdale was made out 
 
 ^ Foedera, v. 738. - Morton, ii. 46, 47. ^ Ibid. 
 
78 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 in favour of Sir William Douglas, who compensated the 
 Steward by making over to him the lands of Athol.^ 
 The young lord of Douglas therefore, returning home, 
 was deeply displeased to find part of what he considered 
 his rightful heritage in the possession of his godfather 
 and overrun by English partisans. The allegation 
 that he was jealous of the Knight of Liddesdale's atten- 
 tions to his " countess " rests upon the slippery foundation 
 of a ballad, and can scarcely be maintained ; because, 
 while it is doubtful whether young Douglas was married at 
 all as early as 1353, it is certain that his wife could not 
 have been a countess till he himself was made an earl in 
 1358. There was plenty of other matter for dispute be- 
 tween godfather and godson. Besides Liddesdale, there 
 were the other broad lands which Hugh the Dull had been 
 cajoled or coerced into making over to the Flower of 
 Chivalry, and the young lord may have spoken his mind 
 plainly about the foul murders by his godfather of Sir 
 Alexander de Ramsay and Sir David de Barclay.^ The 
 immediate cause of the last fatal dispute between these two 
 Douglases seems simple enough, although of the circum- 
 stances little is known. In August 1353 the Lord of 
 Douglas, probably returning from the subjugation of Gallo- 
 way, found the Knight of Liddesdale hunting in Ettrick 
 Forest, where the young lord claimed exclusive rights. 
 High words would pass ; swords leap lightly from their 
 scabbards. Young Douglas presumably had the stronger 
 following, and the Knight of Liddesdale was slain. The 
 place was know as Galsewood, but is now called William- 
 hope, in commemoration, it is supposed, of the slaughter 
 of one William Douglas by the other. Godscroft [Hamilton 
 Palace MS.] states that in his day it was called William's Cross. 
 
 Shortly after this deed, namely, in February 1354, King 
 David bestowed a fresh charter upon William, Lord of 
 Douglas, of all the lands possessed by his uncle the Good 
 
 ^ Afo7'toit, ii. 48. 
 
 - See p. 22^, post. Fordun alleges this as one of the reasons for the quarrel. — 
 Fordun, ii. 360. 
 
CAPTURE OF SIR THOMAS GRAY 79 
 
 Sir' James [vii.], and his father Sir Archibald [x.], including 
 Liddesdale.i remarkable that no notice is made 
 
 therein either of the decree of nullity of Sir Archibald's 
 title to Liddesdale in 1342, nor of possession thereof by 
 the Knight of Liddesdale.^ 
 
 Negotiations for the liberation of King David had been 
 proceeding for some time under the existing truce ; twenty 
 War renewed Scots gentlemen had been enumerated as hos- 
 with England, tages, and Douglas, with three other barons, had 
 been accepted as security for payment of the 
 ransom, which David's brother-in-law of England had fixed 
 at the substantial figure of 90,000 marks. But there were 
 conditions in this treaty unfavourable to France, and at 
 Easter King John II. sent over to Scotland Sir Eugene de 
 Garencieres with other knights, conveying a subsidy of 
 40,000 moutons (Tor. Hostilities opened with an English 
 raid upon the lands of the Earl of March, who retaliated 
 by a movement upon Norham Castle. Here stout old Sir 
 Thomas Gray was constable, and Douglas sent out some 
 foragers under Sir William de Ramsay to tempt him forth. 
 The lure was successful : Gray rode out with a squadron of 
 fifty to eighty spears ; Ramsay fell back before him towards 
 Nisbet, where Douglas had ensconced himself with a superior 
 force. The retreat of the English was cut off ; in a charge 
 upon Douglas's party they were worsted. Young Thomas 
 Gray, whom his father had just knighted, was among the 
 prisoners taken, and employed his subsequent captivity in 
 Edinburgh Castle to good purpose in composing his delight- 
 ful Scalacronica? 
 
 ^ Fraser, i. 226. This important charter is not mentioned in Robertson's 
 Index, but is known by two transumpts, one in the Douglas charter chest, the 
 other at Cavers. 
 
 - Mr. Cosmo Innes put on record that the regnal years of David 11. after his 
 return from France are stated one short of the actual date. Hence, although 
 this charter to William, Lord of Douglas, bears to have been granted on 12th 
 February in the twenty-fourth year of the reign, which was 1353, David was not 
 in Scotland during that year, and the true date must have been 1354. — Ibid., 
 i. 227, note. 
 
 ^ Sir Thomas Gray of Heton in Northumberland was ancestor of the pre- 
 sent Earl Grey and Sir Edward Grey, Bart., M.P. 
 
80 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 On 25th January 1356 Edward III. obtained from 
 Edward Baliol the gold crown of Scotland and a sod of 
 Scottish earth, in token of his total renunciation of all 
 claims to the throne of Scotland, and proceeded to reduce 
 that kingdom to his will. He appeared at Roxburgh at 
 the head of a very magnificent army, and there Douglas 
 arrived as an exponent in the craft of diplomacy. Of all 
 the weapons in the diplomat's armoury none is more 
 effective than procrastination, and well did Douglas wield 
 it on this occasion. Having none but fictitious proposals 
 to make, he wasted ten days in making them, which the 
 Steward spent to such good profit that when, at last. King 
 Edward advanced he found the country a desert. A storm 
 destroyed his fleet, and to avoid starvation he was forced to 
 The Burnt ^^^^ ^ retreat, venting his ill-humour in destroy- 
 Candiemas, ing churchcs and houses to an extent remark- 
 '^^* able even in those days, so that the season was 
 
 known ever after as the Burnt Candlemas. Douglas, like 
 his uncle Sir James, was an expert in ambuscade, and came 
 very near taking King Edward himself on the outskirts of 
 Melrose.^ 
 
 The King of England was no sooner back in London 
 than he made up his mind to swallow a bitter draught by 
 appointing ten Commissioners to treat for peace with the 
 Scots [25th March 1356]; but he still held the master card 
 in the person of King David. Douglas, one of the wardens 
 of the Marches, arranged at Roxburgh with the English 
 warden, the Earl of Northampton, a truce to endure 
 till Michaelmas,^ and in June obtained a safe-conduct 
 Battle of June-I5th August] from King Edward 
 
 Poitiers, to enable him to visit King David and to 
 further the preliminaries of his release. But, 
 as a precaution against that rust which good chevaliers 
 did so greatly dread should gather upon their arms 
 in times of truce, he sought service under the King of 
 France against the Black Prince, in time to share with 
 the French chivalry the awful disaster of Poitiers [19th 
 
 1 Fordun, i. 374. ^ Fcedera, v. 849, 857. 
 
THE EARLDOM 
 
 81 
 
 September 1 3 5 6]} Douglas seems to have tempered his 
 valour that day with some discretion, for Froissart 
 says he " fought very valiantly for a while ; but when 
 he perceived that the French were hopelessly defeated he 
 made off as fast as he could ; for so much did he dread 
 being taken by the English that he had preferred to be 
 slain." 2 Before the battle he had received knighthood at 
 the hand of King John of France. He was back again 
 in Scotland during the autumn and seized the castle of 
 Hermitage, at that time an English possession, because of 
 a raid upon Eskdale done from that place by Sir Robert 
 Twyllyoll. This Douglas did, not in violation of the truce, 
 but in theexerciseof his jurisdiction as Warden of theMarches. 
 
 King David's eleven years of captivity came to an end 
 on 3rd October 1357; the price exacted from the Scots 
 Liberation of privilege of receiving back their King being 
 
 King David, 100,000 marks in 
 
 3rd Oct. 1357. , 1 
 
 ten yearly pay- 
 ments, a crushing burden upon 
 a people so greatly im- 
 poverished already in their 
 struggle for independence that 
 their coinage had been con- 
 siderably debased. 
 
 On 26th January 1358 
 Douglas was created an earl, 
 the precise date beins^ denoted 
 
 if.,. . ^ , fig. 9.~beal of the Earl of Doudas. 
 
 by his havmg witnessed one 
 
 of the King's charters on the 25th as "William, 
 freafedan Lord of Douglas, knight,"^ and another on the 
 Jan'i3s8 ^^^^ ^^^^ Douglas.^ By this time he 
 
 was married ; probably in the preceding year, 
 when his wife, Margaret, is first mentioned in a charter from 
 
 ^ Douglas had probably started on a pilgrimage in expiation of his slaughter 
 of the Knight of Liddesdale, which he abandoned on meeting the chance of an 
 exploit against the English. — See Scalcuronica^ 175. 
 
 ^ Froissart, clxi. 
 
 ^ The Stirlings of Kcir^ by William Eraser, p. 199. 
 Acts of Pari, Scot., i. 522. 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
82 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 the King. This Margaret was sister and heiress of Thomas, 
 Marries ^^^^ MdiYy and with her Douglas received the 
 Margaret of barony of Drumlanrig. During the next few 
 Mar, I3S7 [?]• y^^^^ Douglas frequently travelled to England, 
 probably in connection with his duties as surety for the 
 instalments of ransom. Matters had not been running 
 smoothly in Scotland since the return of the King. Queen 
 Joanna died childless in August 1362; David, whose 
 enforced residence at the English Court had not been with- 
 out compensating amenities, was already suspected, if not 
 known, to entertain unhallowed views about altering the 
 Scottish succession in favour of the line of Plantagenet, to 
 the prejudice of the rightful heir of the Bruce — his nephew, 
 Robert the Steward, whom he hated. Already, in 1358, 
 David had bestowed the earldom of Moray upon Henry, 
 Duke of Lancaster, with remainder to his heirs male, whom 
 failing, to his two daughters for their lives.^ But the im- 
 mediate cause of offence arose out of the way King David 
 had of fingering the moneys exacted from his subjects for 
 his ransom, and applying them to his private expenditure. 
 
 Herein Douglas's honour and (which touched him 
 take?uparms perhaps as closely) his interest were directly in- 
 iSng^Ves^ volved, for was he not one of the sureties for 
 
 punctual payment of the yearly instalments of 
 ransom to the English Exchequer ? Accordingly he entered 
 into a bond with the Steward and the Earl of March to 
 right affairs by force of arms, and led off by seizing the 
 King's castle of Dirleton. Then these three lords presented 
 a petition to the King, setting forth their complaints in 
 regard to the misapplied funds. Fordun denies that there 
 were any grounds for this complaint ; ^ but David's Ex- 
 chequer Rolls tell a different story. His mistress, Margaret 
 Drummond of Logie, who became his Queen about this 
 
 ^ Bain, iv. 3. The Earl of Douglas was witness to this grant, as was Robert 
 the Steward also. The significance of such a grant to an alien cannot be under- 
 stood without remembering that in those days, and for long after, the title of earl 
 was inseparable from possession of the comitatt4s, i.e. the lands comprised in the 
 earldom. 
 
 - Fordun, i, 381, ii. 370. 
 
TREASONABLE NEGOTIATIONS 
 
 33 
 
 time, had numerous needy relations, to whom the King was 
 liberal in gifts and remission of customs, etc.^ 
 
 Douglas's rising was not a very formidable affair : at 
 least, it collapsed as suddenly as it had broken out. From 
 Dirleton he looted Inverkeithing by night ; ^ by night also 
 the King in turn surprised him at Lanark, the earl escaping 
 with much difficulty. Afterwards [14th May 1363] the 
 malcontent barons made their submission to the King in 
 terms set forth at length by Bower.^ 
 
 Douglas's movements during the next few months are 
 
 of moment as throwing light upon the part he took in a 
 
 very remarkable transaction. On 6th October 
 
 ^eaty^^th^ I 3^3 King David went to Westminster and there 
 
 England, drafted with Kinsr Edward and his Council an 
 1363. ^ 
 
 international treaty to be submitted by King 
 
 David to his Parliament.* This draft treaty provided that 
 
 in the event of David's demise without [male] issue the 
 
 King of England should succeed to the throne of Scotland ; 
 
 Berwick, Roxburgh, Jedburgh, Lochmaben, and all lands 
 
 and castles in Scotland held by the King of England were 
 
 to be delivered up at once to the Scots, and the ransom due 
 
 for the King of Scots was to be remitted and all hostages 
 
 for its payment released. There were a number of articles 
 
 safeguarding the integrity of the kingdom of Scotland, the 
 
 rights of its subjects, the freedom of its trade, and providing 
 
 against any union or incorporation with England ; but of 
 
 the eight-and-twenty articles contained in this draft treaty, 
 
 the seventeenth is the one which most profoundly affects the 
 
 reputation of the Earl of Douglas. It provided that " the 
 
 Earl of Douglas should be restored to the estates in England 
 
 to which his father and uncle had right, or to receive an 
 
 equivalent in a suitable place." Was this the price for 
 
 which Douglas gave his consent and active support to a 
 
 policy so startling, which, if carried into effect, would have 
 
 disinherited his former ally, Robert the Steward, and plunged 
 
 Exchequer Rolls, ii. pp. Ivii., 136, 167, 174. 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 1., 154. 2 Bower, xiv. 27. 
 
 * Printed in Lord Hailes' Annals, ii. 307. 
 
84 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 his country into a new war of succession ? — a policy which, 
 when King David submitted the treaty to his Parliament 
 at Scone on 4th March 1364, that Parliament emphatically 
 rejected — " We will never have an Englishman to reign 
 over us." 
 
 Sir William Eraser says : " No ; there is no proof that 
 Douglas was privy to this treaty, because there is no evi- 
 dence that he was in Westminster at the time it was 
 drafted." ^ Sir William must be acquitted of an unsuc- 
 cessful attempt at special pleading, not having before him 
 the very convincing evidence furnished in King Edward's 
 Issue Roll for that year. The draft treaty was completed 
 27th November 1363. On 6th December King Edward 
 made gifts " to divers lords and others who came to Eng- 
 land in the retinue of the King of Scotland about a treaty 
 of peace between the Kings." The first on the list of these 
 lords is the Earl of Douglas, who received a gilt cup, money 
 weight 1 00s. 9d., value £\0, 1 8s. Two days later the 
 goldsmith was paid £6^ 17s. 3d. extra for the two cups 
 given to the Earl of Douglas and Sir Robert Erskine." ^ 
 Undoubtedly Douglas was not only present in Westminster 
 when the treaty was arranged and cognisant of its terms, 
 but he had travelled to London for the express purpose of 
 negotiating it. 
 
 When King David submitted this treaty to his Parlia- 
 ment at Scone on 4th March 1364, he was not left long 
 The second doubt as to the hopclcssness of inducing his 
 secret treaty, subjects to agree to it. From this Parliament 
 '^^'^* Douglas had the good taste to absent himself. 
 
 The treaty was rejected, but negotiations with England 
 were not broken off. Sir Robert Erskine and other dele- 
 gates were sent to confer with English representatives, and 
 reported to the Parliament held in January 1365. A 
 second draft treaty has lately come to light.^ It is 
 undated, and purports to consist of proposals at a confer- 
 ence between the Privy Councils of the Kings of England 
 and Scotland. It provides for the restoration by King 
 
 1 Fraser, i. 243. ^ Bain, iv. 22. ^ Ibid.^ 21. 
 
THE SECOND DRAFT TREATY 85 
 
 Edward of all castles held by him in Scotland ; peace is to 
 be established for a thousand years between England and 
 Scotland ; the King of Scots and his lords are to support 
 the King of England in his war in Flanders for fifteen years, 
 if need be ; the disinherited lords, and all Englishmen who 
 have lost their lands in Scotland since the death of Robert 
 the Bruce, are to be reinstated, and should King David 
 die without legitimate issue the succession to the throne of 
 Scotland shall devolve upon a son of the King of England, 
 other than the heir-apparent. There is no mention of the 
 proposed restitution to the Earl of Douglas of his English 
 possessions. 
 
 Now, in the absence of any date to this document it is 
 not possible to identify it as the outcome of Sir Robert 
 Erskine's embassy after the rejection of the first draft 
 treaty. It may have been only an alternative draft con- 
 sidered between the Kings at their conference in November 
 1363. But the probability is that it was the product of the 
 second conference, and as such was submitted to the Scot- 
 tish Parliament at Perth in January 1365. From this 
 Parliament Douglas was again absent, but in Edinburgh, 
 not long after, he affixed his seal in token of consent to 
 the Act which was the outcome of the deliberations upon 
 the proposed treaty, and swore to use his whole power 
 against any persons who should resist or contravene it. 
 Under this Act the succession to the throne of Scotland 
 was not interfered with, but the Isle of Man and certain 
 of the old Baliol lands in Galloway were settled upon a 
 younger son of the King of England. The disinherited 
 lords were to be restored and King David's ransom 
 remitted.^ 
 
 This was very far short of the length to which King 
 David and the Earl of Douglas had been ready to go. 
 To oust Robert the Steward from the succession in 
 favour of an English prince was indeed a strange end 
 for the joint labours of a son of the Bruce and a 
 nephew of the Black Douglas : lamentable outcome, it 
 
 1 Acts of Pari. Scot., i. 137, 138. 
 
86 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 might be deemed, of the fiery years spent in securing 
 Scottish independence. Nevertheless, in the circumstances 
 of the kingdom may be found some extenuation. The 
 succession was clouded by the doubtful legitimacy of the 
 Steward's numerous family. Threatened civil strife might 
 be averted by union of the crowns, then a dream of far- 
 sighted statesmen, and to remain so for centuries to come. 
 Scotland had plunged low in the trough of poverty ; the 
 splendid tenacity of her sons had drained her veins to the 
 fainting point ; ways and means were near an impasse^ the 
 King having proved incapable of that frugality which alone 
 could enable the burden of ransom to be discharged. The 
 only remedy lay in a durable peace, which so many heads 
 had ached in devising, so many hearts sickened in hoping 
 for. All these were considerations which might be enter- 
 tained without dishonour ; the sole blot upon Douglas's 
 integrity remains in the damning provision in the first 
 treaty whereby, throwing over the Steward, his colleague 
 in the late rebellion, he was to be a private gainer by a 
 public covenant. 
 
 After the miscarriage of these negotiations Douglas 
 became lukewarm in loyalty to David. Doubtless the 
 Renewed dis- -^i^s'^ conduct was indiscreet and very trying 
 affection of to his licges. The hungry tribe of Drummonds, 
 Douglas. relations of the Queen, had to be satisfied, which 
 could not be managed without disturbing vested interests. 
 Deep umbrage was taken at David's grant, in 1367, of the 
 lands of Annandale to his stepson, John of Logic. These 
 lands were claimed by George, Earl of March, in right 
 of his mother,^ daughter of Randolph, Earl of Moray, who 
 had received them from Robert I. 
 
 True, these lands were at the time in possession of 
 the King of England, and March, as well as Douglas and 
 the Steward, gave written consent to the charter to 
 Logie, but from that time forward these three nobles, 
 often absenting themselves " contumaciously " from Par- 
 
 ^ Not *' Black Agnes," but her younger sister, Geleis Randolph. — Bain, iv. 
 p. xxii. 
 
OPPOSITION TO ROBERT II. 
 
 87 
 
 liament, represented a faction in opposition to the King, 
 and especially to his Queen. Happily for Scotland, when 
 disorder was at its darkest relief came from the old 
 quarter — France, where Edward III. had his hands more 
 than full, and on 20th July 1369 a treaty of peace for 
 fourteen years with England was signed in Edinburgh. 
 
 In 1370 the Earl of Douglas executed a renunciation 
 of the barony of Dalkeith.^ It is not clear what rights 
 
 he possessed in these lands, seeing that they had 
 fflands^of " belonged to the Knight of Liddesdale, and had 
 Apdit^^o^*^ passed on his death in 1353 to his only child 
 
 Mary, who died in 1367; when Sir James 
 Douglas, eldest son of the Knight's elder brother John, was 
 served heir to certain lands in Dumfriesshire, in terms of the 
 entail executed by the Knight.^ Sir James must have been 
 in possession of Dalkeith in 1369, for in that year he re- 
 signed the lands into the King's hands in order to receive 
 a fresh grant of them,^ and licence to rebuild the castle.* 
 Nevertheless, the Earl of Douglas seems to have resided 
 at Dalkeith some time between the years 1361 and 1366, 
 because the historian Froissart, travelling through Scotland 
 about that time, with a portmanteau strapped to his saddle 
 and followed by a greyhound, was his guest at Dalkeith 
 {chateau dAlquetk) for " full fifteen days." ^ 
 
 David II. died 22nd February i 371, and was succeeded 
 by Robert the Steward, in terms of the settlement of 13 18. 
 
 Now Douglas had once been a warm friend of 
 J^utefthe^'^" the Steward, and had supported him, even to 
 succession, taking up arms against the King, in controlling 
 
 David's extravagance. Wyntoun is the chief 
 authority for the statement that Douglas opposed the 
 accession of Robert by force. The earl, he says, had 
 assembled his followers at Linlithgow, but the Earl of 
 March advanced to attack him with a superior force, and 
 persuaded him to give up his opposition, or, as Bower inter- 
 prets it, his pretensions to the throne, on condition that his 
 
 1 Morton, ii. 72. ^ Ibid., 53, 64. ^ Ibid., 75. 
 
 ^ Ibid., 69. ' Froissart, iii. c. 126. 
 
88 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 son James should receive one of the new King's daughters 
 in marriage — 
 
 "^viii the pins to this mamgc 
 (!5ato£ ^iilbtr anb lanb in htxiUQC. 
 %hvis fft^rt it xo]o^ lutrsk b^ggnnpng 
 ^a^jpgngt a aofft anb Qvib m'bmQ." ^ 
 
 Douglas was promptly restored to favour, being 
 appointed Justiciar of Scotland south of the Forth,- and 
 
 Fig. 10. — Seal of the Earl of Douglas and Mar. 
 
 was present in Parliament at Scone in April 1373, when 
 the royal succession was settled upon the five surviving sons 
 of Robert II. and their heirs respectively. Of these sons 
 
 ^ Wyntoun, ix. i. Godscroft's story about Douglas claiming the throne by 
 succession through his mother Dornagilla, daughter of John Comyn, is wholly 
 apocryphal. His mother was Beatrice de Lindsay. 
 
 - Exchequer Rolls, ii. 394, 462. 
 
THE EARLDOM OF MAR 
 
 89 
 
 the three elder owed their dubious legitimacy to the Papal 
 dispensation of 1349 for the marriage of their father with 
 Elizabeth Mure. 
 
 The first five years of the reign of Robert II. were 
 marked by great scarcity in Scotland, and Douglas seems 
 to have been busy as Warden of the Marches in keeping 
 away the borderers. About 1373— 1374 his pos- 
 
 Succeeds to . , - . . , , 
 
 the earldom scssious, already immense, were increased by 
 
 of Mar, c. ^^iQ addition of the lands of his brother-in- 
 1373-1374. 
 
 law, Thomas, 1 3th Earl of Mar, who, though 
 twice married, died without issue.^ Douglas came into pos- 
 session of the earldom and estates at once in right of his 
 wife, and was henceforward by far the most powerful 
 subject under that monarchy which his uncle had been 
 the chief agent in restoring.^ Powerful as he was, how- 
 ever, the task of maintaining peace on the Border proved 
 beyond his power, even if we could be sure that he had 
 the will. The truce was timed to expire in 1383, but 
 the Earl of March could not endure to see his rightful 
 heritage of Annandale still in English hands. He made 
 war on his own account in 1377, wasting Annandale and 
 burning Roxburgh town. 
 
 The Earl of Northumberland appealed to Douglas as 
 warden,^ but Douglas was unwilling to interfere. He could 
 Hostilities on ^"^^ have dispersed March's troops by force, and 
 the Border, may be pardoned if he preferred international to 
 1377-1380. ^j^ji warfare, albeit at the expense of the truce. 
 Northumberland, crossing the Border in strength, ravaged 
 Tweeddale for three days in reprisal for the mischief done 
 at Roxburgh. Douglas, according to Froissart, lay at a 
 place called Hondebray,* where he received word that Sir 
 
 ^ The last mention of him occurs in a safe -conduct passing him to England, 
 22nd October 1373 \_RottUi Scotia^ i. 960]. Douglas is styled Earl of Douglas 
 and Mar in several charters, etc., of Robert 11. \_Liber de Melros, ii. 446, 451, 455, 
 456, 4.62, 478]. 
 
 2 See Appendix A, p. 95, The Earldom of Mar. 
 Bain, iv. 53. 
 
 ^ Froissart, ii. c. 9. Lord Berners identifies Hondebray with Haddington, 
 but the place more probably was Ilumbie, formerly written Hundeby. Had- 
 
90 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Thomas Musgrave was holding Melrose with a detachment 
 He determined to give Northumberland the slip and make 
 Capture of ^ dash for Musgrave. He timed his march so as 
 Sir Thomas to rcach Mclrose at midnight. It was the month 
 27th August of August, but they were overtaken by such a 
 ^377- tempest of wind and rain that the pages dropped 
 
 their masters' spears for very cold, and the party had to 
 take shelter in the woods. " They were full seven hundred 
 lances, and two thousand others, whom I call lusty varlets, 
 armed with hunting spears, dirks and pointed staves." ^ In 
 the morning they sent out foragers, who encountered an 
 English foraging party, whereby Musgrave received warning 
 of the presence of the enemy. He turned out his force at 
 once, and rode forth to give battle. When the two forces 
 were in view of each other the Earl of Douglas, says 
 Froissart, bestowed knighthood upon his son,^ and Sir 
 Thomas Musgrave upon his. Thus ceremoniously were 
 combats undertaken before chivalry had begun to wane. 
 Then they set to with a will. " Sir Archibald Douglas 
 [xiii.]," says the sympathetic Froissart, " was a good 
 knight, and much feared by his enemies ; when near 
 to the English he dismounted, and wielded before him an 
 immense sword whose blade was two ells long, which 
 another could not have lifted from the ground ; but he 
 found no difficulty in handling it, and gave such terrible 
 strokes that all on whom they fell were struck to the 
 ground." ^ The English were routed, Musgrave and many 
 of his following being taken prisoners. 
 
 dington cannot be described as among the mountains. Froissart says that 
 Douglas heard here of the re-capture of Berwick by Northumberland, and the 
 slaughter of the Scots there; but that did not take place till 1378, whereas we 
 know from Northumberland's account in the Exchequer that Musgrave's capture 
 preceded the taking of Berwick by more than a year [Bain, iv. 56]. This 
 accords with the dates given by Wyntoun and Bower, who, however, give March 
 the credit of taking Musgrave. 
 ^ Froissart, ii. c. 9. 
 
 '•^ James, afterwards 2nd earl. If Froissart be accurate it must have been the 
 dignity of knight-banneret which was conferred, as upon his great-uncle at 
 Bannockburn, for James was a knight as early as 1372. — Rohdi Scotice, i. 952. 
 
 - Froissart, ii. c. 10. 
 
DOUGLAS RAIDS ENGLAND 
 
 Next year [25th November 1378] a band of fifty 
 Scots adventurers captured Berwick, and held it for eight 
 or nine days in defiance of a large force under the 
 Earl of Northumberland. Douglas and his cousin Sir 
 Archibald marched to relieve the place, but finding the 
 English too strong, drew off into the Lothians. The 
 English earl stormed Berwick and put all the Scots 
 therein to the sword, except their commander, Alexander 
 de Ramsay. 
 
 Such local conflicts as these were accounted as no more 
 than chivalrous bickerings between free-lances of the two 
 nations, scarcely inconsistent with the official truce. March 
 meetings were frequent between the Earls of Northumber- 
 land and Douglas, the English and Scottish Wardens, 
 where matters were discussed, protests examined, and futile 
 agreements made for the better observance of the truce. 
 These meetings were generally held during this reign at 
 a place called " Lyliat Cross," which Mr. Bain identifies 
 with the modern Lilliard's Edge, between Melrose and 
 Jedburgh.^ 
 
 In the spring of 1380 the Earl of Douglas began 
 operations on a far larger scale than heretofore. Mustering 
 his vassals and their men to the number stated, 
 vades Eng- probably with exaggeration, as 20,000, he 
 land, 1380. carried a destructive raid into Cumberland and 
 Westmorland, and drove off a very large number of 
 cattle. The plague was raging at this time in the north 
 of England, and Walsingham attributes its importation 
 into Scotland to a counter-raid which crossed the Solway 
 after the retreat of the Scots. This force, put by Wal- 
 singham at 15,000, and therefore probably not exceed- 
 ing 3000 or 4000, was attacked and dispersed, but 
 not before they had communicated the deadly infection, 
 which proved very destructive in Scotland in this year. 
 Immediately after these events John of Gaunt, Duke 
 of Lancaster, was sent by King Richard II. with sufficient 
 troops to wreak vengeance upon the Scots ; but the ghost 
 
 ^ Bain, iv. pp. xx. 54, 57. 
 
92 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 of the violated truce was raised ; truce upon truce was 
 arranged, first till November 1381, then till Candlemas 
 1384. The balance of success in these affairs remained 
 with the Scots. The Earls of Douglas and March and Sir 
 Archibald Douglas had redeemed most of the counties of 
 Roxburgh and Berwick from the English sway, as appears 
 from a memorandum drawn up for the information of 
 " Monseigneur Despaigne " [John of Gaunt], and other 
 Commissioners, about to hold a March meeting on ist 
 October 1380. Therein are defined the lands taken from 
 Richard II. since " la grant triewe." The term of this long 
 truce cannot have expired when the Earls of Douglas and 
 March and Sir Archibald invested the Bruce's ancient 
 Capture of castle of Lochmaben, a place of great natural 
 Lochmaben and artificial strength, but weakly e^arrisoned 
 
 Castle, 4th , .,, . . , \ , -r- , , 
 
 February and ill provisioucd. Its keeper, T ethcrstouhaugh, 
 1384- agreed to surrender if not relieved within eight 
 
 days, during which the besiegers lay — 
 
 ill togkk^b iDBbbgi". toinb ttrib ranc, 
 
 No relief came, so the castle was given up on the ninth 
 day, 8th February, just two days after the expiry of the 
 truce, and utterly dismantled ; luckless Fetherstonhaugh 
 being put under arrest when he arrived at Carlisle, and 
 sent prisoner to Windsor.^ 
 
 This affront brought the Duke of Lancaster into Scot- 
 land again as an invader. He advanced as far as Edin- 
 burgh, but by 23rd April he had withdrawn to Durham" 
 without having inflicted much injury ; and Douglas, having 
 recovered Annandale from the English with the help of the 
 Earl of March, now resolved to expel the English from the 
 possession they still kept of Teviotdale. He received a 
 special commission from the King to that end, in which he 
 was completely successful, and once more the Scotland of 
 Bruce, with the exception of Berwick, was entirely under 
 the dominion of her own monarch. 
 
 ^ Wyntoun, ix. 5. ^ gain, iv. 73, 77. ^ Rotuli Scotia, ii. 62. 
 
DEATH OF THE FIRST EARL 
 
 93 
 
 This was the last service done by the ist Earl of 
 Douglas. In returning from Teviotdale to 
 Death^ofthe j^Q^gi^g Castle, at the end of April or begin- 
 Dougias, ning of May 1384, he was suddenly seized 
 by fever and died at Douglas. He was buried, 
 not in St. Bride's beside his illustrious uncle, but at 
 Melrose. 
 
 His career must be pronounced a brilliant and honour- 
 able one. Notice has been made above of certain trans- 
 actions in which he does not seem to have been perfectly 
 disinterested, and certainly at one time he inclined to — 
 nay, promoted — a scheme which would have brought his 
 country under English dominion. But he accepted the 
 decision of his countrymen upon that matter, and thence- 
 forward was a good chevalier and loyal Scot to his life's 
 end. He raised his banner in rebellion when he perceived 
 the King's actions and policy to be dangerous to the com- 
 monwealth, nevertheless from first to last he was a pillar of 
 strength to the monarchy. 
 
 Godscroft goes utterly astray, and has led subsequent 
 writers astray also, in assigning three wives to the ist Earl 
 Family of the of Douglas. He states that the first wife was 
 ist Earl. Margaret of Dunbar, which is a confusion with 
 Agnes of Dunbar, who married Sir James Douglas of 
 Dalkeith in 1372. As the third wife, Godscroft mentions 
 Margaret, daughter of Thomas Stuart, Earl of Angus ; ^ 
 but this is impossible, as the earl's only wife, Margaret of 
 Mar, survived him, and in 1388 married Sir John de 
 Swinton,^ whom her son, 2nd Earl of Douglas and Mar, 
 refers to in a charter of that year as his " very dear father." ^ 
 She bore two children to Douglas, James [xii.], who suc- 
 ceeded him, and Isabel, who, upon her brother's death in 
 1388, inherited the estates of Mar and his unentailed lands 
 
 ^ She was his mistress, however, and by him the mother of George Douglas, 
 Earl of Angus. 
 
 2 Swinton, after his stepson's death, was known by the ordinary baronial 
 title of Lord of Mar. 
 
 ^ Liber de Melros, ii. 465. 
 
94 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 of Cavers, Jedburgh Forest, Liddesdale, the town of Sel- 
 
 «kirk, the superiority of Buittle and 
 Drumlanrig, etc. The original 
 Douglas territory went under entail 
 to Sir Archibald " the Grim " [xiii.].^ 
 Dame Isabel married Sir Malcolm 
 Drummond, brother-in-law of Robert 
 III., styled Lord of Mar and Garioch, 
 in virtue of the lands which he pos- 
 widow married Alexander Stuart, and 
 granted the earldom to him and their 
 Fig. II. -Seal of Isabella j^eirs [i2th August atid Qth Decem- 
 
 Douglas, Countess of Mar, , t„ , - , , 
 
 j^oQ ber 1404],^ whom failmg to her 
 
 heirs. 
 
 She died in 1408, but her husband remained Earl of 
 Mar till his death in 1435, when he died without issue, and 
 the well-known Mar dispute began.* 
 
 Earl William also left at least two illegitimate children, 
 namely, first, George Douglas, afterwards Earl 
 of Angus [xxxviii.], whose mother was Earl 
 William's sister-in-law, the widow of Thomas, 
 1 3th Earl of Mar, and Countess of Angus 
 in her own right ; and second, Margaret, Fig. 12.— Signet 
 who, marrying Thomas Johnson in 1404, ^he Earl 
 
 received from "her dear sister" Isabella, and Mar ^^^^ 
 Countess of Mar, a grant of the Mains of 
 Bonjedward.^ She was therefore probably the ancestress 
 of the family of Douglas of Bonjedward. 
 
 1 Fraser, i. 288. 
 
 ^ Origines Parochiales , i. 527, quoting Traquair charters. 
 Reg. Magni Sigilli, ii. 251. 
 
 ■* Charter dated 9th December 1404, confirmed by the King. A previous 
 charter, dated 12th August 1403, conveyed the earldom absolutely, but was set 
 aside and not confirmed. 
 
 ^ Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banff, iv. 731. 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 95 
 
 Appendix A 
 
 The Earldom of Mar 
 
 The nature of the succession to and tenure of the ancient 
 earldom of Mar by William, ist Earl of Douglas [xi.], has 
 been the subject of much litigation, resulting in the existence 
 at the present day of two Earls of Mar under different 
 creations, namely — 
 
 (1) John Francis Erskine Goodeve-Erskine, Earl of Mar, 
 holding as heir - general the precedence of the original 
 earldom which, upon the death of Thomas, Earl of Mar, 
 in 1377, passed to his sister, Margaret, Countess of Douglas, 
 as heir-general, and so to her daughter Countess Isabel. 
 
 (2) Walter John Francis Erskine, Earl of Mar and 
 Kellie, Lord Erskine, etc., heir - male of John, 6th Lord 
 Erskine [afterwards Regent], who received from Queen 
 Mary a charter dated 23rd June 1565, restoring to him 
 the earldom as heir of Isabel, sister of the 2nd Earl of 
 Douglas [xii.]. This Earl of Douglas having died at 
 Otterburn in 1388 without lawful issue, his sister Isabel 
 succeeded to the earldom on the death of her mother. 
 Countess Margaret, in 1390. 
 
 It is no concern of the present work to follow the 
 intricate arguments which resulted in the judgment pro- 
 nounced by the House of Lords upon the Mar Peerage 
 Case in 1885 ; but seeing that Sir William Eraser has 
 committed himself in the Douglas Book to an explanation 
 of the transmission of the earldom which is wholly at 
 variance with that judgment,^ it seems desirable to re- 
 capitulate briefly the circumstances which have brought 
 about the anomaly of two Earls of Mar. 
 
 Sir William held that the ancient earldom of Mar, 
 being limited to heirs-male, came to an end with the 
 
 ^ It is not suggested that Sir William Eraser ignored the judgment of the 
 House of Lords in 1885. His book was printed before judgment was pronounced. 
 
96 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 death of Thomas, 13th Earl of Mar, in 1373-74. Mar, 
 he argued, was the premier earldom of Scotland ; Douglas 
 in 1374 was the youngest [creation 1358], yet after 1374 
 Douglas was always styled Earl of Douglas and Mar, 
 and after his death his widow continued to be Countess 
 of Douglas and Mar, the inference being that Douglas 
 never became 14th Earl of Mar, but was the first under 
 a new creation. Sir William also held that the 2nd Earl 
 of Douglas [xii.] was recognised as Earl of Mar during 
 his mother's life, but of this there is no conclusive evidence, 
 and no instance of his having used the arms of Mar 
 quartered with those of Douglas, as his father did. 
 
 Isabel Douglas, Countess of Mar in her own right, 
 married — first, Sir Malcolm Drummond, brother of Queen 
 Annabella, spouse of Robert III. ; second, Alexander Stuart, 
 natural son of Alexander, Earl of Buchan, brother of 
 Robert III., to whom she conveyed the earldom of Mar in 
 liferent by charter dated 9th December 1404, duly con- 
 firmed by Robert III., although it was in contravention of 
 an engagement made in 1395 with Sir Thomas Erskine, 
 heir of Elyne, daughter and heir-presumptive of Graitney, 
 7th Earl of Mar [died c. 1305]. When Countess Isabel 
 died without issue in 1409, her husband, Alexander, con- 
 tinued life-renter of the earldom, and in 1426 obtained 
 from James i. a charter thereof in favour of himself and 
 his natural son, Sir Thomas Stuart, with remainder to the 
 crown. Sir Thomas died, without issue, before his father, 
 on whose death in 1435 James l. took possession of the 
 lands of the earldom. But Robert Erskine, son of the 
 above-named Elyne, having been made a Lord of Parlia- 
 ment with the title of Lord Erskine before 1429, was 
 retoured heir of Countess Isabel, and used the title of 
 Earl of Mar. James ll. succeeded in getting this service 
 reduced by an assize of error in 1457, on the ground of 
 Thomas's bastardy, and the earldom was pronounced to 
 have reverted to the Crown on the death of Alexander, 
 husband of Countess Isabel. It was afterwards bestowed 
 by James II. and James ill. upon four of their several 
 
THE EARLDOM OF MAR 
 
 97 
 
 sons, legitimate and natural, in succession ; but John, 6th 
 Lord Erskine, obtained a revision of his rights, with the 
 result that Queen Mary granted him the earldom of Mar 
 by a charter dated 23rd June 1565, declaring that he 
 had been unjustly dispossessed of his rights as heir of 
 Isabel of Mar. He was thereafter recognised as Earl of 
 Mar, and became Regent of Scotland in 1571. 
 
 The great-great-great-grandson of this earl having 
 been attainted and forfeited for his part in the Jacobite 
 rising of 171 5, his lands of Alloa were purchased by his 
 brother, Lord Grange [a Lord of Session], who entailed 
 them upon Thomas, Lord Erskine, only son of the attainted 
 earl, whom failing, upon the said Thomas's half - sister. 
 Lady Frances Erskine, and her male issue.^ Lady Frances 
 married in 1740 her cousin, James Erskine, second son 
 of her uncle, Lord Grange, who, after the death of Grange's 
 elder son, Charles, in 1774, and the death of Thomas, 
 Lord Erskine, in 1776, became heir-male of the Erskines. 
 In 1824 John Francis Erskine, son of James and Lady 
 Frances, was restored to the earldom by George IV., and 
 may be designated 7th Earl of Mar under the [assumed] 
 new creation by Queen Mary in 1565. His grandson, 
 9th Earl of Mar under the same creation, claimed the 
 earldom of Kellie as collateral heir-male of Methven 
 Erskine, loth Earl of Kellie, and judgment was pronounced 
 in his favour in 1834. He was succeeded as 12th Earl 
 of Kellie and 15 th Lord Erskine by his cousin, Walter 
 Coningsby Erskine, 1 3th Earl of Kellie, who claimed the 
 earldom of Mar under the creation of 1565, but died in 
 1872 before judgment on his claim could be pronounced 
 by the House of Lords. This claim was renewed by his 
 son who, in virtue of judgment pronounced in 1875, 
 became iith Earl of Mar. He was father of the present 
 Earl of Mar and Kellie. 
 
 So much for one of the existing Earls of Mar. How 
 comes it that there is another? When the Committee 
 
 ^ The territorial earldom was lost, and is now principally contained in the 
 estates of the Duke of Fife. 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
98 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 of Privileges decided that Queen Mary's charter of 1565 
 conveyed to Lord Erskine the lands of the ancient earldom 
 \comitatus\ it held at the same time that it did not 
 restore to him the dignity of an earl, and that this must 
 have been done by a separate act of Queen Mary, which, 
 not being extant now, may be presumed to have contained 
 a limitation to heirs-male, the original earldom having been 
 to heirs-general. The grandson of the 8th Earl of Mar 
 under the creation of 1565 had assumed the ancient 
 earldom. He was the son of Frances Jemima, daughter 
 of the 8th earl, by her husband William James Goodeve, 
 and asserted that when his first cousin, 9th Earl of Mar 
 and iith Earl of Kellie, was succeeded in 1866 by his 
 first cousin, Walter Coningsby Erskine, as 12th Earl of 
 Kellie, the earldom of Mar reverted to him as heir-general. 
 A Committee of the House of Lords was appointed to 
 consider a bill restoring the ancient earldom of Mar to 
 John Francis Erskine Goodeve-Erskine. After a hearing 
 which lasted five days, the committee passed the preamble 
 of the bill. Lord Redesdale alone dissenting. The bill 
 passed through Parliament and restored the Earl of Mar 
 as successor to Isabel, Countess of Mar ; whereby Queen 
 Victoria did, as it was supposed until 1875 Queen Mary 
 had done, namely, restored the heir of the house of Mar 
 to one of the oldest dignities in Europe. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 99 xii. James, 2nd Earl of Douglas 
 and Mar, c. 13 58- 1388. 
 
 100 Arrival of French knights in Edin- 
 burgh, April [?] 1384. 
 
 100 French expedition to Scotland, May 
 1385. 
 
 102 Richard II. invades Scotland, 1385. 
 104 Douglas leads the French into 
 Cumberland, 1385. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 105 Raids Cockermouth, 1386. 
 105 Fresh invasion of England, August 
 1388. 
 
 107 Douglas captures Percy's pennon, 
 
 August 1388. 
 
 108 Battle of Otterburn, 12th [?] 
 
 August 1388. 
 no Death of the Earl of Douglas, 
 August 1388. 
 
 It has been told in the last chapter how James, son of the 
 1st Earl of Douglas, married Princess Isabel, daughter of 
 xii. James, Robert 11.^ Born about 1358, he would be about 
 2nd Earl of six-and-twenty when he succeeded his father in 
 Mar, c. 1358- 1384. About the year 1380 his father made 
 1388. Qygj. |-Q i^jj^ lordship of Liddesdale, and he 
 
 became known as Sir James Douglas of Liddesdale. One 
 must run the risk of being tiresome in these details in 
 order to maintain distinction between the several individuals 
 in this family. 
 
 Any attempt to determine the exact sequence of the 
 events of 1384 is well-nigh hopeless; but for the purpose 
 of the present narrative it is enough to state that about the 
 time of the Duke of Lancaster's retreat from Edinburgh 
 in April and Earl William's death in May, duly ac- 
 credited French envoys arrived in Edinburgh from London 
 to invite the Scottish King and Council to join in a truce 
 
 ^ The Papal dispensation for this marriage applies to Princess Margaret, 
 evidently a curious clerical error, for Princess Margaret had been married to the 
 Lord of the Isles since about 1350. This suggests a nice question as to the 
 legitimacy of offspring of a marriage contracted under a dispensation specifying 
 the wrong person. In this instance there was only one child of the marriage, 
 who died an infant. 
 
100 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 for eight months between France and England, which had 
 been arranged so long before as 26th January. Nearly 
 Arrival of simultaneously another party of thirty French 
 French knights, undcr Sir Geoffrey de Charny, landed at 
 Edinbu^rgh, Montrose on a far different mission. They came 
 April [?] 1384. frankly in search of chivalrous adventure, and, 
 having ridden to Perth, sent two of their number to sound 
 the chevaliers of King Robert's Court, to whom they offered 
 their services against the English. The Earl of Douglas 
 and Lord Lindsay received them in a corresponding spirit, 
 and forthwith mustered their forces. Followed a raid into 
 England, with burning and spoiling on the lands of the 
 Earls of Northumberland and Nottingham and Lord Mou- 
 bray, of a kind which greatly edified the gentlemen of 
 France. While this sport was going forward the official 
 French envoys were solemnly sitting in Edinburgh negoti- 
 ating the terms of truce. King Robert, both from policy 
 and personal inclination, heartily desiring peace, disapproved 
 of the action of his young bloods, though he was not strong 
 enough to interfere with their proceedings ; but he sent 
 Lyon Herald to London to explain the circumstances. His 
 representations were accepted, and on 7th July the Scottish 
 commissioners in Edinburgh agreed to the triple truce, 
 which was to endure till ist October following, and was 
 afterwards extended until May 1385. 
 
 The French knights-errant returned to France, charged 
 by Douglas and Moray to let it be known there what a 
 fine field of adventure lay open in Scotland to chevaliers of 
 enterprise. De Charny assured his hosts that they would 
 return as soon as possible with a thousand lances, " for it 
 was not a thing to be forgotten." ^ Accordingly, no sooner 
 
 had the truce expired next year than Sir John 
 fjpeditionto Vienne, Admiral of France, landed in Leith 
 Scotland, Y^ith 2000 men, 1000 complete suits of armour,^ 
 
 and 50,000 gold francs, all in accord with the 
 treaty of 1383. Of the hard cash, one-fifth was paid to 
 
 ^ Froissart, ii. c. 50* 
 
 - The number actually delivered is stated variously between 1400 and 200. 
 
THE FRENCH KNIGHTS loi 
 
 King Robert and the rest was divided among the Scottish 
 earls and barons.^ Douglas and Moray exerted themselves 
 for the entertainment of the foreigners, finding lodging in 
 Dunbar, Dalkeith, and Kelso for those who could not be 
 accommodated in Edinburgh, where there were not in the 
 whole town 4000 houses.^ But, alas ! the same east 
 wind which had made their voyage so prosperous gave 
 a very unfavourable aspect to Edinburgh and its environs, 
 as it is wont to do in spring, even in this our day. The 
 French knights cursed de Charny for deluding them into 
 such a god-forsaken country. " In Scotland you shall never 
 find a man of worth : they are like savages, who wish not 
 to be acquainted with anybody, and are too envious of the 
 good fortune of others, and suspicious of losing anything 
 themselves, for the country is miserably poor. However," 
 adds the French chronicler, " the Earls of Douglas and 
 Moray paid the gentlemen of France more attention than 
 all the rest of Scotland." ^ The fact is, that, except these 
 two earls and a few hot young spirits, nobody in Scotland 
 wanted an English war at this time. King Robert was 
 absent in the Highlands, purposely keeping out of the 
 way ; the barons and gentry wanted to attend to their 
 private affairs, and held coldly aloof from the excitable 
 foreigners, — " What devil has brought them here ? — they will 
 very soon eat up all we have in the country." The farmers 
 and peasants were more vigorously unfriendly, not only 
 resisting by force the depredations of the French foragers, 
 but selling them bad horses at fancy prices. 
 
 At last King Robert, " with bleared eyes as red as 
 sendal," returned to his capital, and, perceiving that Douglas, 
 Moray, and Fife had made up their minds for business, and 
 were too deeply committed to their French friends to con- 
 sent to disappoint them, gave a reluctant assent to the 
 assembly of an army of invasion, which marched for the 
 south shortly after Midsummer. Parliament decreed [ist 
 July 1385] that every man in that army, whether French 
 
 ^ Fcedera^ vii. 484. 
 
 ^ Froissart, ii. 160. Some texts give only 400. ^ Ibid, 
 
I02 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 or Scottish, should wear the cross of St. Andrew in white 
 both on back and breast. The King's presence did not 
 much mend matters in the view of the French adventurers. 
 Scotland had been steadily feudalised since the reign of 
 David I., but Scottish feudalism had ever been of a milder 
 type than its counterpart on the continent and even in 
 England. The rights of the commonalty may have been — 
 often were — rudely trampled upon by individual barons, but 
 the constitution recognised and respected them as they were 
 recognised and respected in no other country.^ Conse- 
 quently Sir John de Vienne and his knights waxed very 
 indignant when they were called upon to submit to regula- 
 tions imposed by the Estates for the conduct of the army 
 and its foreign contingent.^ Pay for all they — the flower of 
 French chivalry — chose to requisition from mere burghers 
 and boors ! Was there ever such preposterous red tape ? 
 
 Matters neared a climax when the expedition ap- 
 proached Roxburgh Castle. Here was a fair nut for the 
 French knights to crack, and de Vienne began boasting how 
 he intended it as a gift for the King of France.^ Upon 
 hearing this, Douglas put down his foot, explaining to his 
 allies that they were serving in the army of the King of 
 Scots, and not as freebooters.* So Roxburgh was left alone, 
 and successful assaults were made instead upon Ford, 
 Cornhill, and Wark, the brunt of the fighting being accorded 
 to the French. Meanwhile Richard II. was approaching 
 with an army suitable for an opponent of the dignity of the 
 Rfchardii Admiral of France, far superior in strength to 
 invades Scot- the Scottish Icvies, and in equipment also, not- 
 land, 1385. withstanding the thousand suits of mail sent 
 from France, with which " those who had them were much 
 delighted." King Richard was but a youth of nineteen, 
 but he had as lieutenant his redoubtable uncle, John of 
 
 ^ Compare, previous to the sixteenth century, the mildness of the Scottish 
 criminal code, especially the forest laws, with the ferocity of certain English and 
 French statutes. 
 
 ^ Acts of Pari. Scot.y i. 190. ^ Fordun, ii. 401. 
 
 * Sir R. Maitland's MS., quoted by Fraser, i. 300, 
 
THE FRENCH KNIGHTS 
 
 103 
 
 Gaunt. In accordance with the traditional Scottish strategy, 
 orders were issued for retreat, the land to be wasted before 
 the English. Unhappily, the Scots barons were not all 
 true to their colours. To follow the political vagaries of 
 the Earls of March during these wars is to enter a bewil- 
 dering labyrinth with a broken clue. On this occasion 
 George of March had gone over to the English interest — a 
 most important defection, seeing that he held the passes of 
 Cockburnspath on the direct road to the Scottish capital. 
 He had received supplies from the King of England, who, on 
 I ith June I 385, gave a safe-conduct to one John Crystalle, 
 a Scots mariner, to take his ship to English ports, there to 
 buy provisions " for the King's dear and beloved George, 
 son of his dear cousin the Earl of Dunbar and his garrison 
 of Colbranspathe." ^ 
 
 The Fabian strategy of the Scottish leaders was 
 neither understood nor relished by the French chevaliers. 
 They protested that they had come to fight, not to run 
 away. 
 
 " By God ! " swore Sir John de Vienne, " I will have a 
 battle ! " 
 
 " So you shall," said Douglas, " if you are of the same 
 mind after you have reconnoitred the enemy." 
 
 Douglas then took de Vienne and his staff to the top 
 of a hill overlooking a defile through which the English 
 were marching.^ The admiral was at last convinced that 
 it would be insane to attack such a powerful force with the 
 
 ^ Bain, iv. 76. 
 
 It is vain to arrive at the true scale of armaments at this time through 
 the statements of monkish chroniclers, to whom a cipher more or less was a 
 matter of small account. Walsingham puts King Richard's army at 7000 men- 
 at-arms, 6O5OOO archers, and 100,000 horse ! Perhaps these figures may be 
 divided by five, or even ten. It is on record [Bain, iv. 77] that the contingent 
 furnished to King Richard's army on this occasion by the Percys, Sir John 
 Nevill, Sir Thomas Swinburne, and Sir Richard Tempest consisted of 520 men- 
 at-arms and 1260 archers. The condition prescribed was that two-thirds of this 
 force were to be strangers to the Marches, showing tliat the Borderers, being 
 sensible fellows, had become convinced by this time of the uselessness of 
 destroying each other's property, and were anxious to attend to their proper 
 industry. 
 
104 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 troops at their disposal ; but he demanded to be led into 
 England upon a counter-invasion. 
 
 This was mightily to Douglas's taste. King Robert, 
 rather a wet blanket on the operations, retired once more 
 Douglas to Highlands, leaving the Earl of Douglas, 
 leads the Archibald the Grim, and the Frenchmen to make 
 
 French into , . . , , -i* /r i 
 
 Cumberland, a destructive raid over the West Marches upon 
 '3^5' Cumberland. Here at last the foreigners enjoyed 
 
 great sport, finishing up before Carlisle, under the walls of 
 which " many handsome feats of arms were performed." ^ 
 For a time they were in high good-humour, vowing that 
 they had burnt more in the bishoprics of Carlisle and Dur- 
 ham than the whole of Scotland was worth.^ But when 
 they got back to Edinburgh they had great reason to be 
 dissatisfied. The King of England had been there, and 
 his operations had greatly tightened the markets ; the 
 obligation to pay for everything they wanted seemed more 
 than ever unreasonable to the chevaliers. The Scots were 
 unmannerly enough to declare that their French allies 
 wrought more mischief in the land than the English, 
 because the French rode through their standing crops in 
 preference to the high roads. It is easy to imagine that 
 the going was better, but the damage had to be paid 
 for. Unseemly wrangles ensued ; Douglas and Moray 
 found themselves unpleasantly situated between farmers 
 clamouring for compensation and de Vienne's knights in- 
 dignantly refusing it as a thing unheard of. Finally the 
 admiral had to give way, for he depended on Scottish 
 mariners for transport to his own country; the claimants 
 were paid, or were promised payment in full, and the 
 French knights sailed away cursing the beggarly Scots and 
 the hour that ever they set foot in their miserable country.^ 
 
 ^ Froissart, ii. c. 172. ^ Bain, iv. 78. 
 
 ^ Probably Froissart is a little biassed in his account of these transactions. 
 The chief objection to allowing the French knights to depart was that the pay- 
 ment under treaty had not been made. This was done on i6th November 1385, 
 as shown by the receipt. Douglas received the lion's share of the 50,000 gold 
 francs, namely, 7500 ; Moray getting only 1000 {Fcedera, vii. 484), but perhaps 
 Douglas put more men in the field than anybody else. Archibald the Grim [xiii. ] 
 received 5000. 
 
FIFE INVADES ENGLAND 105 
 
 In 1386 the happy thought occurred to the Earl of 
 Douglas that the fine lands round Cockermouth had 
 Douglas raids "^"^^^ been raided since the days of his grand- 
 Cocker- uncle, the good Sir James. The opportunity 
 mouth, 1386. tempting, for Nevill had just been de- 
 
 prived of the wardenship of the East March in favour of 
 Percy, and the warden of the West March was engaged 
 in trying to keep the peace between these rival lords. 
 Therefore Douglas, accompanied by the King's second 
 son, the Earl of Fife, and a sufficient force, rode across 
 the Esk and so to Cockermouth, where " there was not 
 one among the Scots so feeble but that, unless he were 
 unwilling, he was able to fill his hands with good booty." 
 
 For nearly two years after this exploit there was 
 comparative peace on the Borders, and the Earl of 
 Douglas occupied himself in the management of his 
 estates, as appears from sundry charters given under his 
 hand.^ But King Richard, though starved out of Scot- 
 land in his expedition of 1385, had left some grievous 
 sores behind him, having burnt once more the abbeys of 
 Melrose, Dryburgh, and Newbattle. Ill-blood still boiled 
 between the Nevills and the Percys ; King Richard's hands 
 were full of his domestic quarrels : clearly it was a grand 
 opportunity for a stroke. Blear-eyed King Robert was 
 
 hopelessly pacific ; the chief earls and barons met 
 siono^f Eng-" ^t Aberdeen and, without consulting him, arranged 
 lass'^"^"^^ a great muster at Jedburgh in the beginning of 
 
 August 1388. Hither came the Earl of Fife, 
 for although his father. King Robert, " would rather remain 
 at home than march to the field, he had nine sons who 
 loved arms." The Earls of March and Moray also 
 brought their vassals and levies, Archibald the Grim too. 
 Sir John de Montgomery, " with his son Sir John and his 
 two sons," Sir John Maxwell of Carlaverock, with Lindsays, 
 Drummonds, Swintons, and a great part of the chivalry 
 of Scotland. The army, according to Froissart, whose 
 arithmetic, however, is not always unimpeachable, numbered 
 
 ^ Fraser, i. 305, 306, iii. 71-73. ^ Froissart, ii. c. 169. 
 
io6 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 1 200 spears and 40,000 of other arms. Spies, as usual, 
 carried information of the gathering to Warden Percy, but 
 a young English gentleman who undertook that business 
 came near to a violent end. Tying his horse to a tree, he 
 entered the church of Yetholm where a council of war was 
 being held, and, having heard enough for his purpose, 
 slipped quietly back to get his horse. Of course the horse 
 was not there, " for a Scotsman (they are all thieves) had 
 stolen him." ^ He set off on foot booted and spurred, but 
 his appearance was against him ; he was stopped at the 
 outposts and brought before the Earl of Douglas. Under 
 examination he acknowledged that Percy knew all about 
 the impending invasion, and was prepared to make a 
 counter-raid in such direction as the movement of the Scots 
 should leave open to him. Hearing this, the Scottish 
 leaders decided to divide their forces. A flying column 
 was detached under the Earl of Douglas to harry North- 
 umberland, while the main body should march to Carlisle 
 under the Earl of Fife. 
 
 " it fdi abflut the l^ammastib^, 
 
 SBhm tht muix mm toin thtir hag, 
 %ht honQhi-q '^oxtQlns homx' him dbe 
 intff ^nglaitb to iivibe a pr^g. 
 
 chose ihz (^Bothons anb the i^x^mzs, 
 With them the ^itib3ag0 liflht anb ^ag, 
 §ut the Jarbittes ijjoxtih not toith him x'xht, 
 ginh thfg xxte it to this bag."- 
 
 It was like old times, for at the head of the flying 
 column, which consisted of 300 or 400 spears and 2000 
 bowmen and others, rode together as of yore the Douglas 
 and the Moray. They passed through the Reedswire, 
 under Ottercop and Rothley Crags, and pushed as far as 
 Brancepeth, close to the Yorkshire border. Thence they 
 
 * Froissart, iii. 124. 
 
 ' The allusion in the last couplet is obscure, and is probably a late interpola- 
 tion made after the Jardines had risen into greater note than was theirs in the 
 fourteenth century, wlien they were but respectable vassals of Annandale. 
 
A CHALLENGE TO HOTSPUR 107 
 
 swept round to display their colours on the rising 
 ground close to the walls of Newcastle. Here was a 
 strong force under " Hotspur " Percy and his brother Sir 
 Ralph, the old Earl of Northumberland lying in wait in 
 Alnwick to flank the Scots on their homeward march. In 
 accord with the quixotic spirit of chivalrous war, an attempt 
 was made at escalade, which was easily repulsed ; and the 
 garrison might have defied the utmost efforts of such a weak 
 column by simply remaining within their defences. But 
 where had been the glory of knighthood that 
 tiref Parley's shrank from adventure in arms ? During two or 
 pennon, three days there were incessant skirmishes between 
 
 August 1388. 
 
 detachments and single combats d outrance 
 between chevaliers. Douglas challenged Hotspur and 
 fought him hand to hand ; loudly cheered the Scots when 
 the famous English knight went down. Douglas snatched 
 his pennon, which he bore out of the lists. 
 
 " I will carry it to Scotland," he cried, " and hoist it on 
 my tower,^ where it may be seen afar." 
 
 " By God ! " retorted Hotspur, " you shall never leave 
 Northumberland alive with that." 
 
 " Then you must come and take it this night," answered 
 Douglas. " Your pennon shall stand before my tent, for 
 him to take who dares." 
 
 This challenge was not accepted : the night passed 
 quietly ; the Scots broke up on the morrow and marched to 
 the tower of Portland, about five miles from Newcastle, 
 which they took and burned. On the third day they in- 
 vested the tower of Otterburn in Redesdale, about thirty miles 
 from Newcastle, Douglas being in no hurry to go home so 
 long as there was a chance of a mellay with Hotspur Percy. 
 He knew his man too well to believe that he could resist 
 the temptation to recover the lost pennon. 
 
 Douglas chose his camp, with an eye to attack from 
 archery, in a wood, preferring it to a far stronger position 
 
 ^ Froissart says ''the tower of my castle at Dalkeith," thinking that it still 
 belonged to the Earl of Douglas ; but, as we know, Dalkeith was the heritage of 
 the Lothian branch of Douglas (see p. 87, anie). 
 
io8 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 near at hand, the old Roman station of Bremenium, where 
 the ground was bare. Hotspur was too good a soldier 
 to risk his men unnecessarily. Aware of the 
 otterburn, presence in England of the other and stronger 
 i2th[?] Scottish column under the Earl of Fife, he did 
 
 August 1388. , . ' 
 
 not start in pursuit of Douglas until he received 
 reports from reconnoitring parties. Having ascertained 
 that the country towards Carlisle was clear of the enemy, 
 he marched from Newcastle with 600 spears and 8000 foot, 
 and drove in Douglas's picquets late in the evening.^ 
 
 The Scots were surprised supping, being fatigued after 
 a long day's work against the tower of Otterburn. Luckily 
 the camp was entrenched, and the English first attacked 
 the servants' quarters, which lay outside the main enclosure 
 and on lower ground, thus giving the Scots time to stand 
 to arms. While Percy was busy overpowering resistance 
 in what seemed to him in the dusk to be Douglas's camp, 
 a body of Scots moved unperceived through the wood and 
 fell upon the enemy's flank. A fierce conflict followed ; the 
 banners of Douglas and Percy met, not for the first time, 
 nor yet the last; the men under each were of the breed 
 that fought as long as shaft and blade held good ; and were 
 accustomed, as victors, " to ransom their prisoners instantly, 
 
 ^ There is much uncertainty about dates. Douglas is said to have lain four 
 days at Otterburn waiting for the enemy. Froissart gives 15th August as the date 
 of the battle ; most English and Scottish writers give St. Oswald's Day, the 5th. 
 White, in his History of the Battle of Otterburn., lays stress on the statement of 
 Froissart and others that it was a moonlit night ; new moon fell on the 6th in 
 that month. Tradition has it that the battle was fought on a Wednesday, so Mr. 
 White considers Wednesday, 19th, as the true date. But this, Sir William Fraser 
 points out, does not accord with a certain transaction in the Scottish Council 
 at Linlithgow on Tuesday, i8th, whereby the people of North Berwick were 
 directed to obey the Earl of Fife, and the Constable of Tantallon Castle was 
 ordered to render up that fortress to him in lieu of the late James, Earl of Douglas,* 
 who had held it in tenandry of the Earl of Fife. If the date of the Council is 
 correctly given, Fraser considered Wednesday, 12th August, as the true date of 
 the battle, which agrees with the state of moon indicated by Froissart, bright in 
 the earlier, dark in the later part of the short night. P'roissart seems the best 
 authority on the details of this battle, for he got all particulars from two French 
 knights who fought on the English side. 
 
 Acts of Pari. Scot., i. 191. 
 
OTTERBURN 
 
 109 
 
 and in such courteous manner to the vanquished that these 
 return them thanks before taking their departure." ^ The 
 English were as three to one, and Percy came near wiping 
 out the affront put on his arms by taking the banner of 
 Douglas, which was only saved by the devoted gallantry of 
 Sir Patrick Hepburn and his son. 
 
 The Scots were giving way under pressure of numbers 
 when Douglas thrust forward where the conflict was fiercest, 
 and hewed his way into the midst of the English ranks. 
 But his armour had been hastily put on, it was not rightly 
 braced ; in the dim light he could deliver, but not parry 
 blows ; suddenly he went down with three spears in shoulder, 
 belly, and thigh, and as he fell a battle-axe gashed his 
 skull. 
 
 Still the combat went on in the light of the summer 
 moon ; " Percy ! Percy ! " echoed across the dusky moor, 
 and " Douglas ! Douglas ! " rang through the woods, with 
 clash of steel and hard breathing of men. Sir Ralph Percy, 
 emulating the prowess of Douglas, pressed too far forward, 
 was surrounded, and fell grievously wounded before Sir 
 John Maxwell of Pollok, who fought in Moray's wing. 
 Maxwell gave him over to Moray, who exclaimed : " Well 
 hast thou won thy spurs this night. Maxwell ! " To follow 
 the fortunes of the various chevaliers through this fight 
 one must turn to the glowing page of Froissart, where are 
 full details of what the chronicler declared to be the best 
 fought and most severe of all the many battles it had been 
 his delight to describe. It ended in a complete victory for the 
 Scots ; the strength of the English failed them, being over- 
 taxed with a forced march, and they were driven far beyond 
 the place where Douglas had fallen. Both the Percys were 
 prisoners ; ^ Sir Matthew Redman, Governor of Berwick, was 
 
 ^ Froissart, iii. c. 126. 
 
 2 Hotspur was taken by John, Lord Montgomery, according to some author- 
 ities ; by Sir Hew Montgomery, according to others, and was held to ransom for 
 ;!^3000, towards which the King and Council of England contributed ^1000 
 {^Issue Rolls, Easter 1389, and Michaelmas 1390). Walsingham assigns the cap- 
 ture of Hotspur to the Earl of March, who, he says, came up during the combat, 
 but he probably confounded him with the Earl of Moray. 
 
no THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 run down in a long chase and taken by Sir James Lindsay. 
 The Bishop of Durham, hurrying up with reinforcements 
 from Newcastle, met the stream of fugitives, and among them 
 was lucky enough to secure the person of Lindsay himself. 
 Froissart puts the English loss at nearly 3000 killed, 
 wounded, and prisoners, while the Scots counted only some 
 300 casualties of all kinds. 
 
 The business of this narrative lies only with what 
 concerns Douglas : copious and touching are the versions 
 of his last hour. Out upon the sceptic hand that should 
 wipe them from the record ! — Woe to the inquisitive eye 
 that shall pry too closely ! Yet does Wyntoun declare 
 that the fate of Douglas was unknown in the Scottish army 
 till his body was found among the slain next morning. 
 Death of the P^^^ably he died at once, so terrible were the 
 Earl of wounds he had received ; but the veil of night 
 Douglas. concealed from both sides the loss that had be- 
 fallen the Scots, which, had it been bruited, might well 
 have turned the fortune of the fray. It is true that 
 Froissart reports long speeches made by the expiring hero ; 
 it is true that among all our Scottish ballads there is none 
 more tender than that in which these dying words are 
 embalmed ; but poets (and Froissart was poet as well as 
 chronicler) will never suffer heroes to die mute like foxes. 
 Nor can we ever afford to part with these beautiful lines, 
 albeit they may enshrine nothing more solid than a myth. 
 Where would the human story rank without its myths ? — 
 
 " * My nephew good,' the Douglas said, 
 ' What recks the death of ane ? — 
 Last night I dreamed a dreary dream, 
 And I ken the day's thine ain. 
 
 Last night I dreamed a dreary dream, 
 
 Beyond the Isle of Sky 
 I saw a dead man win a field, 
 
 And I wot that man was L 
 
 My wound is deep, I fain would sleep ; 
 
 Take thou the vanguard of the three, 
 And bury me by the bracken bush 
 
 That grows on yonder lily lea. 
 
DEATH OF DOUGLAS 
 
 III 
 
 Oh, bury me by the bracken bush 
 
 Beside the blooming brier, 
 And never let living mortal ken 
 
 That e'er a kindly Scot lies here.' 
 
 He lifted up that noble lord 
 
 Wi' the saut tear in his ee ; 
 He hid him in the bracken bush, 
 
 That his merrie men might not see. 
 
 The moon was clear, the day drew near, 
 
 The spears in flinders flew, 
 But mony a gallant Englishman 
 
 Ere day the Scotsmen slew." 
 
 Some may trace in these lines the touch of a vanished 
 hand — of a hand later in time than the original bard, 
 and in truth they are associated with the last scenes in a 
 life as deeply endeared to his countrymen as any Douglas 
 of them all. When, broken in fortune and shattered in 
 health, Sir Walter Scott travelled with Lockhart to visit 
 Douglas Castle, the scene of his last romance, Castle 
 Dangerous^ we are told that he stood silent, viewing the 
 green vale and rolling moors, gleamless under a thunderous 
 summer sky, peopled for him with thick-coming memories. 
 Silent for a space, while the tears gathered under his aged 
 lids ; then, striking his stick in the sod, he repeated in 
 broken accents the verses quoted above. Coldly critical 
 must he be who blushes to believe what Scott held so dear. 
 It will be a dismal day for Britain when her boys shall be 
 reared without implicit faith in the ballad of Otterburn^ 
 and its English counterpart. Chevy Chase. 
 
 Earl James's widow, Princess Isabel, richly dowered with 
 one terce of her lord's wide lands in the sheriffdom of 
 Selkirk,^ besides revenue from his other possessions, soon 
 found another mate in the person of Sir John de Edmon- 
 stone.2 She died about 1410.^ The only son she had by 
 Douglas died in infancy ; but Douglas left two illegitimate 
 sons, William, progenitor of the family of Douglas of 
 
 ^ Liber de Cakhott, ii. 408. ^ Ancestor of the Edmonstones of Duntreath. 
 
 ^ Exchequer Rolls, iv. 1 20. 
 
112 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Drumlanrig, Duke of Queensberry ; and Archibald, ances- 
 tor of Douglas of Cavers. Earl James also left an ille- 
 gitimate daughter, Eleanor, who married Sir William Eraser 
 of Philorth, ancestor of the present Lord Saltoun. Isabel, 
 Countess of Mar, behaved handsomely to her husband's 
 bastards, for upon Archibald she bestowed the lands 
 of Cavers. Robert III. gave them in 1405 to Sir David 
 Fleming of Biggar, by reason that Countess Isabel had 
 alienated them without his consent ; ^ but in 141 2 James I., 
 a prisoner in England, confirmed Isabel's charter to 
 Archibald, whose descendants own the lands to this day.^ 
 Upon Eleanor, Countess Isabel bestowed Tibbertie and 
 Utlaw in Banffshire. 
 
 Earl James cannot have been more than thirty when he 
 fell. He was buried in Melrose, but his tomb and the 
 banner in defence of which he died, which the mourners 
 hung over the tomb, have both disappeared.^ 
 
 It is not possible to dismiss the record of this most 
 gallant earl without a sigh for the life so full of promise, 
 cut short in the flower of age and in so bootless a quarrel ; 
 but in truth it was not by earls and knights that the full 
 misery of this picturesque warfare was endured. The fray 
 of Otterburn was bloody and fierce enough, God wot ! 
 but not more bloody and fierce than a hundred others 
 waged between men of common speech and kin, whereof 
 the memories have clean passed away. What was there to 
 
 ^ Original charter at Cavers, reported by Sir William Fraser, i. 320. 
 
 ^ Copy charter at Cavers, reported by Sir William Fraser, i. 320. 
 
 2 The following memorandum by the Bishop of Dromore is preserved among the 
 Duke of Northumberland's MSS. at Syon House : " The family of Douglas of 
 Cavers, hereditary sheriffs of Teviotdale, have long had in their possession an old 
 standard, which they believe to be the very pennon won from Hotspur by the 
 Earl of Douglas, to whom their ancestor was standard-bearer in the expedition. 
 On September 7, 1774, I was at Cavers and was shown the old standard." But 
 Bishop Percy considered this relic to be no more than a Douglas standard, as it 
 bore the arms of Douglas and their motto, Jamais aj'riere. A white lion, which 
 it was suggested was the arms of Percy, was more probably that of the lordship 
 of Galloway, pointing to a later date than 1388, or to a different Douglas. The 
 lion of the Percys has always been azure. Another reputed relic of Otterburn 
 preserved at Cavers is an embroidered glove with the initials ^.p., said to be 
 spoil from the Percy. 
 
Archibald Douglas , of Cavers, 1412. 
 
 William Douglas of IV hitting hame, 
 1567- 
 
CRUELTY OF CHIVALROUS WAR 113 
 
 raise Otterburn to immortality ? what but the fate of the 
 two leaders — the death of Douglas and capture of Percy ? 
 Of which fact, unless one grasp the significance, he shall 
 never discern through the glamour of romance — splendour 
 of heraldry, dauntless feats of arms, chivalrous daring, and 
 all the rest of it — the real cruelty of the business. Before 
 gunpowder had affected the whole system of tactics, the 
 farmers and peasants who followed their lords to the field 
 counted as no more than material of war. The object was 
 to kill as many of them as possible, prisoners being both 
 costly and troublesome to keep. 
 
 Far different the barons, knights, and esquires : they 
 rode into action with charmed lives ; it was only in ex- 
 ceptional disasters, like Bannockburn on the one side and 
 Flodden on the other, that any large number were slain. 
 Every precaution was observed to take these gentlemen of 
 coat-armour alive for the sake of their ransom. A baron's 
 farms might be burned and the live stock driven off ; his 
 ruined tenants might afford him no rent ; let him but have 
 the luck to capture some well-to-do opponent and the 
 balance would be handsomely in his favour. So the 
 warfare of feudal lords was the finest of gambling, with 
 all the excitement of high play plus military glory. 
 Gunpowder, which that experienced chevalier, Gautier 
 de Cariel, considered such a devilish invention that he 
 counselled his comrades, " as often as it should be thrown, 
 to prostrate themselves on their elbows and knees, and 
 beseech the Lord Jesus to deliver them from that evil, from 
 which He alone could protect them," — gunpowder, I say, 
 which at first promised to intensify the horrors of war, was 
 really a merciful invention ; it not only rendered battles 
 less bloody, but it cured barons of their passion for them, 
 inasmuch as a bullet is as likely to find its billet in the 
 carcase of a noble as in that of a churl. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 H 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 PAGE 
 
 114 xiii. Sir Archibald "the Grim," 
 
 3rd Earl of Douglas, Earl of 
 Wigtown and Lord of Gallo- 
 way, c. 1325-1400. 
 
 115 Taken prisoner at Poitiers, 1356. 
 
 116 Appointed Constable of Edinburgh 
 
 Castle, c. 1 36 1. 
 
 116 Sent as envoy to France, 1369. 
 
 117 Receives the lordship of Galloway, 
 
 1369. 
 
 118 Purchases the earldom of Wig- 
 
 town, 1372. 
 
 118 Marries Joanna Moray, heiress of 
 
 Both well, 1 37 1. 
 
 119 Builds the Castle of the Thrieve, 
 
 c. 1372-1379- 
 
 120 Amends the codes of Galloway and 
 
 the Marches, 1385. 
 
 121 Succeeds as 3rd Earl of Douglas, 
 
 1388. 
 
 121 Invades England with the Earl of 
 
 Fife, 1389. 
 
 122 Stands umpire in a duel, c, 
 
 1395- 
 
 122 Refuses a dukedom, 1398. 
 
 122 Anarchy in Scotland, 1398, 
 
 123 The Duke of Rothesay's marriage, 
 
 1400. 
 
 124 Death of Archibald "the Grim," 
 
 1400. 
 
 126 xiv. Sir William Douglas, Lord 
 
 of Nithsdale, ob. c. 1392. 
 
 127 Marries Egidia, daughter of Ro- 
 
 bert II., 1387. 
 
 127 Expedition to Ireland, 1388. 
 
 128 Killed at Dantzig, c. 1392. 
 
 128 XV. Sir William Douglas, 2nd 
 Lord of Nithsdale, c. 1388- 
 c. 1408. 
 
 On the death of the 2nd Earl of Douglas the estates 
 reverted under entail to Sir Archibald " the Grim," ^ Lord of 
 xiii. Sir Galloway, of whom mention has been made al- 
 Archibaid ^ ready in these pages. He was the natural son 
 3rd Earl of of the Good Sir James [viii.] by an unknown 
 ^f^'^gtown mother. Godscroft, reversing the process where- 
 Lord ofGaiio- by Barbour, for greater symmetry of narrative, 
 Both^eii,° rolled three separate Robert Bruces, Lords of 
 1325-1400. Annandale, into one Robert de Brus, has divided 
 this Archibald into three separate individuals. But that 
 
 1 "He was callit Archibald Grym be the Englismen, becaus of his terrible 
 countenance in weirfair." — Sir Richard Maitland's MS., quoted by Eraser, i. 
 321. 
 
 114 
 
THE GRIM DOUGLAS 
 
 115 
 
 he was the son of Sir James is proved by a charter which 
 he executed conveying lands to the monastery of Holy- 
 wood for the good of his father's soul.^ 
 
 It is contrary to modern practice that a bastard — a 
 " love-bairn," as the Scots charit- 
 ably term it — not only should 
 succeed to the possessions of his 
 kinsman, to the prejudice of heirs 
 of the legitimate line, but also 
 to the earldom. Yet this is pre- 
 cisely what Archibald did, his name 
 having been inserted in the entail 
 upon the resignation of the " Dull 
 
 Douglas" [ix.] in 1342. His Fig. iS.-Seal of Sir Archibald 
 succession was disputed by Sir of Douglas (The Grim) 1373. 
 
 Malcolm Drummond, husband of 
 
 Sir James's sister Isabel, but Drummond's claim was set 
 aside by Parliament in Holyrood [April 1389]. Archibald 
 was duly infeft in the entailed lands, and shortly afterwards 
 appears as Earl of Douglas. 
 
 Archibald must have been a mere child when his father 
 died in 1330. "He was dark and ugly," says Bower; 
 " more like a coco [cook-boy] than a noble." His first 
 appearance in history seemed to bode another " Tineman," 
 Taken taken prisoner on the fatal field of 
 
 prisoner at Poitiers [ 1 3 5 6]. Known then as " Blac Archi- 
 Poitiers, 1356. g^j^j^ little regarded by his comrades be- 
 
 cause of his bastardy ,2 he nevertheless wore a very fine 
 suit of armour, and his captors imagined they had got a 
 valuable prize. Sir William Ramsay of Colluthie, also 
 a prisoner, ingeniously devised Archibald's escape. He 
 pretended to be furious with him, and in presence of the 
 guard cried — 
 
 " You treacherous hound, how dared you to steal my 
 cousin's armour. Cursed be the hour of your birth ! for he 
 sought you all day, and for want of his armour was slain 
 
 1 Fraser, i. 321 ; Registrum Magni Sigilli, i. 106. 
 ^ Pliiscarden, i. 300. 
 
ii6 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 by an arrow in camp, as I myself saw. Come ! — pull off 
 my boots." 
 
 Archibald played his part; he knelt trembling and 
 pulled off one boot, with which Sir William beat him 
 cruelly about the mouth. The guard interfered between the 
 prisoners, and told Ramsay that the lad was the son of a 
 great noble, and one to be respected. 
 
 " Not he ! " exclaimed Ramsay, — " I tell you he is a 
 scullion and a rogue." Then turning to Archibald, said : 
 " Go, you rascal, and seek your master's body among the 
 slain, so that we may at least give it honourable burial." 
 
 Then he paid forty shillings in ransom for the worth- 
 less cook-boy, and, cuffing him again, bade him begone. 
 
 Archibald got safe back to Scotland, cheating the 
 Black Prince's men of what would have been, had they 
 known him, a very heavy ransom,^ for he had just been 
 knighted.2 He was possibly some five-and-thirty years of 
 Appointed age when, about 1361, he was appointed Con- 
 Constabieof stable of Edinburgh Castle, at a salary of 200 
 Castle, marks,^ an office which he held, with that of Sheriff 
 c. 1361. Edinburgh, till about 1364.* In the autumn 
 
 of that year he appears as Warden of the West Marches, 
 Annandale at that time being in the hands of the English. 
 During the disaffection of his chief, William, Earl of 
 Douglas [xL], Sir Archibald was exemplary in regular 
 attendance in Parliament, and took part in various important 
 public transactions previous to the year 1369, when he was 
 employed on an embassy to France, connected, it would 
 appear, with the appeal which Queen Margaret \nee Drum- 
 mond of Logic], whom David II. had just divorced, had 
 lodged with Pope Urban V. at Avignon.^ In March 1371, 
 two days after the coronation of Robert II., Sir Archibald 
 
 1 Fordun, ii. 358 ; Pluscarden, i. 300. 
 
 2 Atleast, he is described [i 6th Nov. 1357] as " Archibald Douglas, chivaler." 
 — Roiuli Scotia i i. 817. 
 
 -Ibid., i. 957. 
 
 ^ Charters of St. Giles, pp. 11, 15, 19; Cartulary of Inchaffray, p. xlvi. ; 
 Excheqtier Rolls, ii. 92, 166, 176. 
 ^ Exchequer Rolls, ii. 356. 
 
GALLOWAY 
 
 117 
 
 was despatched on a special embassy to Paris, empowered 
 " to swear on the King's soul the renewal of the ancient 
 alliance between Scotland and France." ^ Previous to 
 that, on I 8th September 1369, King David had appointed 
 him to rule the turbulent and still disaffected region of 
 Receives the Galloway,^ and gave him a charter of all the 
 lordship of lands between the Nith and the Cree,^ " becaus," 
 i8th Sept.' observes Sir Richard Maitland, " he tuke grit 
 '3^^- trawell to purge the cuntrey of Englis blude." ^ 
 
 Now Galloway, though nominally part of the kingdom of 
 Scotland since the reign of Alexander III., had never sub- 
 mitted kindly to the rule of 
 the Bruce, but still cherished 
 the memory of John Baliol 
 with all the romantic devotion 
 due to a " king over the 
 water " ; for was not his 
 mother, Devorguille, daughter 
 of Alan, last of the native 
 lords of Galloway ? Still, and 
 for long afterwards, the people 
 of Galloway spoke their Pictish 
 
 ^1. , Fig. 14. — Seal of the Earl of Douglas 
 
 or Gaelic vernacular, still en- Lord of Galloway (1389-1400). 
 joyed their ancient code of 
 
 laws and obeyed their peculiar customs, still looked 
 upon the people of Strathclyde as their natural ene- 
 mies.^ Their chiefs, too, had given willing service to 
 
 ^ Ads of the Pari, of Scot., i. 195. Exchequer Rolls, ii. 363. 
 
 2 Galloway comprises the Shire of Wigtown and the Stewartry of Kirkcud- 
 bright, the latter term originating in the steward appointed by Sir Archibald to 
 collect his revenues and administer justice, while Wigtownshire remained under 
 the King's sheriff. Local usage continues unaltered to this day in the application 
 of these terms. 
 
 ^ Reg. Magni Sigilli, i. 69. 
 
 ^ Maitland MS., quoted by Fraser, i. 328, 
 
 ° A trial which took place about 1259 in Dumfries Castle illustrates the rela- 
 tions between the people of Galloway and their neighbours. One Sunday 
 morning Richard, the son of Elsa [Elizabeth], had slain Adam Molendinarius 
 [the miller] at the door of St, Michael's church. Richard did not deny the 
 deed, but pled that Adam had offered intolerable provocation by calling him 
 
ii8 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Edward Baliol, but, as shown above, the ist Earl of 
 Douglas [xi.] had restored the authority of King David 
 in 1353. Archibald the Grim now came to confirm 
 his kinsman's work in eastern Galloway. Three years 
 later, in 1372 to wit, by a remarkable transaction, Gallo- 
 Purchases became united under one lord, as it had not 
 
 the earldom been since the death of Alan in 1234. Thomas 
 
 of Wigftown, 
 
 8th February Fleming, Earl of Wigtown, had got into hope- 
 ^372- less trouble with the Celtic landowners within 
 
 his jurisdiction, and sold to Sir Archibald not only his 
 lands and superiority of Wigtownshire, but the earldom 
 also — p7'o una certd et notabili summd pecunice — the sale 
 being confirmed by Robert II., 7th October 1372, in a 
 charter referring to Fleming as " formerly Earl of 
 Wigtown." 1 
 
 In acknowledgment of these temporal blessings Archi- 
 bald built a hospital at Devorguille's Abbey of Holywood, 
 near Dumfries, and endowed it with the lands of Cross- 
 michael and Troqueer in the Stewartry,^ for the weal of the 
 souls of King Robert the Bruce, Edward Bruce his brother, 
 David II., and the Good Sir James of Douglas. 
 
 Before following the public acts of the Lord of Galloway, 
 mention must be made of a circumstance which had vastly 
 increased the power of this scion of the Douglas. The 
 death of Sir Thomas Moray, Lord of Bothwell, is variously 
 Marries placed in I 361 and 1366. At all events he died 
 Joanna jn England, when a hostage for David II., leaving 
 heiress of aS his sole heiress Joanna, whom Archibald 
 Bothwell. married, it is said, after offering to meet five 
 English knights in single combat for her hand. He also 
 obtained [31st March 1371] a renunciation by the King of 
 
 " Galuvet" [a man of Galloway], which everybody understood as a synonym for 
 thief. Verdict for the defendant, the barons and burgess jurors being unanimous 
 that " Richard is faithful, but Adam was a thief and a defamer." — Bain, i. 427. 
 ^ Reg. Magni Sigilli, i. 114. 
 
 ^ The last ruins of the Abbey of Holywood \abhacia Sancti Nemoris\ dis- 
 appeared in 1779, when the choir, which had served as parish church since the 
 Reformation, was pulled down and supplied material for a new and hideous 
 edifice. Two of the old bells are still in use. 
 
BUILDING OF THE THRIEVE 
 
 119 
 
 :5, — Seal of the Earl of Douglas and 
 Lord of Galloway (1389-1400). 
 
 all claim to Joanna's heritable estates in the event of her 
 dying without issue. If, therefore, there be any foundation 
 for the surmise that the 
 Douglas and the Moray 
 descended from a com- 
 mon ancestor, here were 
 the two lines united 
 again, and the " Moray's 
 silver star " shining on 
 the same shield with 
 the stars of Douglas. 
 The lords of Bothwell 
 were hereditary pani- 
 tarii or cup-bearers to 
 the Scottish Kings. 
 That Douglas acquired 
 this office with his wife 
 is suggested by the 
 arrangement of cups, stars, and a heart carved on his 
 daughter-in-law's tomb at Lincluden. 
 
 In territorial possessions,^ and in consequent military 
 and political influence, the " dark and ugly little coco " of 
 Poitiers had become scarcely, if at all, inferior to the Earl 
 of Douglas himself. A massive memorial of his rule over 
 Builds the Galloway remains in the Castle of the Thrieve, 
 Castle of the whcrcof the huge square keep, built on an island 
 Thneve. Dee, looms dark and grim, like its founder, 
 
 far seen across that pleasant vale. While Thrieve was being 
 built he seems to have held his chief residence, not at 
 Buittle, the seat of the Baliols, lords of Galloway, but at the 
 seat of Fergus and the lords of the old Celtic line, namely, 
 at Loch Fergus, close to Kirkcudbright.^ 
 
 ^ Besides the whole of Galloway and the lordship of Bothwell, Archibald had 
 also obtained extensive properties and superiorities in Aberdeenshire, Kincardine, 
 Forfar, and East Lothian. 
 
 ^ " Brent Isle" \i.e. Burnt Isle], whence Douglas, as Warden of the Marches, 
 wrote to Edward III. in 1372 [Eraser, iv. 56], may be identified with an island 
 stronghold on the Loch Fergus, said to have been the residence of Fergus, Lord 
 of Galloway. It is sometimes called Insula arsa in early charters. 
 
THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Archibald the Grim took little part in the frequent raids 
 upon England by his brother, the i st Earl of Douglas [xi.], 
 
 and the other lords, though mention has been 
 fodeofGai- Hiade already of the stout part he bore in 
 lowayandof Musgrave's affair at Melrose in 1378,^ and in 
 
 the expulsion of the English from Annandale in 
 1384.2 Ready enough to " trawell to purge the cuntrey 
 of Englis blude," he saw too much need for reform within 
 his own jurisdiction to care for wasting time and lives in 
 harrying the property of others. His duties as Lord of 
 Galloway, Warden of the West Marches, and King's 
 Justiciar in Dumfries kept him more usefully employed at 
 home. The peculiar laws which had been observed in 
 Galloway since Pictish times had received some modifica- 
 tion under William the Lion ; ^ yet both he and his 
 successors had remained under the obligation of appointing 
 special judges to hold assisam nostram de Galweia. Gallo- 
 way litigants still enjoyed the option of trial by combat 
 or trial by jury, a system which, it may be imagined, put 
 commercial folk at some disadvantage in dealing with 
 sinewy customers. Consequently, in 1385 Archibald 
 obtained from Parliament the suspension of some of these 
 ancient statutes, claiming at the same time the mainten- 
 ance of others.* 
 
 As Warden he applied himself to reducing to in- 
 telligible order the tangled web of Border law as it affected 
 the custom of war, musters, warning by beacons, etc. 
 Fifty years later his grandson, 8th Earl of Douglas, took 
 sworn evidence from the oldest freeholders on the Border as 
 to the rules established by " Blak Archibald of Douglas," 
 and codified them for future observance.^ 
 
 In 1385, when Robert II. reluctantly summoned the 
 national forces to his standard, Sir Archibald ^ took part in 
 
 ^ See p. 90, ante. 2 See p. 92, ante. 
 
 3 Acts of Pari. Scot.j i. 56, 122. 
 
 ^ The general law of Scotland was not applied to Galloway till 1426. 
 ^ Acts of Pari. Scot., ii. 63, 64. 
 
 * Although Earl of Wigtown, Sir Archibald was generally known by his 
 knightly title. 
 
FIFE'S FRIENDSHIP FOR DOUGLAS 121 
 
 the invasion of England; and in 1388, while Earl James 
 [xii.] marched to meet a soldier's death at Otterburn, he 
 held a command in the Earl of Fife's column, which took 
 the western route. While in the neighbourhood of Carlisle, 
 his illegitimate son. Sir William of Nithsdale [xiv.], joined 
 him with a small contingent which had made an unsuccess- 
 ful attempt upon Ireland.^ There was great merry-making 
 in camp over the meeting, all to be hushed on the morrow 
 by the news from Otterburn. 
 
 Archibald the Grim now became 3rd Earl of Douglas, 
 and the most powerful subject in the realm. Robert II. 
 
 was over seventy years of age, and so infirm that 
 Uie^earfdom ^e Surrendered his rule into the hands of the 
 of Douglas, Estates. The heir-apparent, John, Earl of Carrick 
 
 [afterwards Robert ill.], being disabled by the 
 kick of a horse, his younger brother, Robert, Earl of Fife, 
 was appointed Guardian of Scotland. Fife was a devoted 
 friend of Archibald the Grim — " he luifit this Erie sa weill 
 that thai never syuerit [severed] cumpanye fra other during 
 
 the tyme of his government." ^ They marched 
 laJd^tifthe" together into England in 1389 at the head of a 
 ^89^°^^^^^' ^^^'S^ force, to beat up the quarters of King 
 
 Richard's new Warden, the Earl Marshal, who 
 was reported to have spoken contemptuously of the per- 
 formance of the Percys at Otterburn. Fife and Douglas 
 challenged the Marshal to meet either of them in single 
 combat, but this he declined,^ as he did also their challenge 
 to a general engagement, on the score that he was too 
 weak in numbers ; * whereupon the Scots turned merrily to 
 pillage and returned home with what booty they could 
 gather. 
 
 After this affair a truce was agreed on for three years, 
 subsequently confirmed into a peace which endured till 
 
 ^ Wyntoun, ix. c. 8 ; Fordun, ii. 404. 
 
 2 Maitland MS., quoted by Fraser, i. 342. Fife was also Douglas's stepfather- 
 in-law, having married the Countess of Menteith, who, as wife of John Moray of 
 Bothwell, had borne Joanna, whom Archibald married. 
 
 ^ /i>zd, * Walsingham. 
 
122 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 I 399 J ^^^y ill the absence of other information, it may be 
 assumed that Earl Archibald applied himself again to the 
 duties of his office and the governance of his vast estates. 
 Douglas official appearance of his is worthy of pass- 
 
 stands urn- ing note, as illustrating the fashion of the times, 
 pireataduei. jj^Qj^^g Struthei's, an EngHshman, having chal- 
 lenged William Inglis, a Scot, to combat d outrance^ they 
 met at Rulehaugh, in the barony of Bedrule, in the 
 presence of the two Wardens, the Earls of Douglas and 
 Northumberland, and fought till the Englishman was 
 killed.i 
 
 In 1398 the first Scottish dukes were created. Hitherto 
 the title of earl had been the highest secular dignity under 
 the monarch : but now Robert ill. thought well 
 
 Refuses a ' ^ 
 
 dukedom, to make his son David Duke of Rothesay, and 
 his brother Robert Duke of Albany. The story 
 is told, for what it may be worth, that the King proposed 
 to confer a dukedom upon the Earl of Douglas also, but 
 that he declined the honour, and when the herald addressed 
 him as " Sir Duke," he retorted derisively, " Sir Drake 1 — Sir 
 Drake ! " 2 
 
 Kingly rule in those days was almost as much a matter 
 of muscle and sinew as of brain and common sense ; Robert 
 the Bruce owed his throne as much to the personal prowess 
 and active habits of himself and his lieutenants as to his 
 legislative sagacity. Like Wellington at Waterloo, the 
 monarch had to be present wherever the stress was sternest 
 and the danger most imminent ; even the journeys on 
 horseback from point to point of the realm in the ordinary 
 business of government called for the endurance of an 
 athlete ; and for such work Robert III. was always unfit, 
 though not much over fifty when he succeeded. If not 
 permanently crippled by his accident, he was at all 
 events a confirmed invalid. The Kine^'s brother, 
 
 Lawlessness ° ' 
 
 in Scotland, Robert, Earl of Fife [now Duke of Albany], had 
 acted as Governor or Guardian of the realm 
 during part of his father's and most of his brother's reigns, 
 
 ^ Pluscarden, ii. 254 ; Fordun, ii. 420. - Pluscarden, ii. 254. 
 
ROTHESAY'S BROKEN TROTH 
 
 123 
 
 and certainly had shown no want of energy. But it fares 
 ill with all business save under the master's eye. 
 
 " In those days [1398] there was no law in Scotland, but the strong oppressed 
 the weak, and the whole kingdom was one den of thieves. Murders, rob- 
 beries, fire-raisings, and other crimes went unpunished, and justice seemed to 
 have passed into exile from the land." ^ 
 
 Therefore in 1399 the heir-apparent, ill-starred Duke of 
 Rothesay, being then just of age, was appointed Lieutenant 
 or Regent of the realm, with his uncle, the Duke of Albany, 
 better known hitherto as Earl of Fife, as his adviser. 
 
 Shortly afterwards Archibald the Grim played 
 Rothes"ayV^ hls part in a transaction reflecting sinister 
 marriage, light upon the inner nature of chivalry. Early 
 
 in I 399 the Duke of Rothesay became betrothed 
 to Elizabeth, daughter of Dunbar, Earl of March, for which 
 honour March paid down a handsome sum in cash to the 
 King.2 Hearing of this, Douglas lodged a protest that the 
 betrothal had not received the consent of the Estates, and, 
 supported by the council, offered his own daughter Marjorie 
 as a bride for Rothesay, together with a larger sum than 
 March had already paid. The weary old King, pining for 
 peace at any price, consented ; the Duke of Rothesay 
 lightly threw off his plighted troth to Elizabeth of Dunbar, 
 and in February 1400 married Marjorie of Douglas in the 
 collegiate church erected by her pious sire at Bothwell. A 
 discreditable business on the face of it — fit prelude to the 
 darkest hours of Scottish history. March, justly indignant, 
 appeared before the King and claimed the fulfilment of his 
 pledge or the return of the money. Unhappy King Robert ! 
 to do the first he stood too much in awe of Douglas, his 
 most powerful subject ; to do the second was beyond his 
 power, for had not the money all been spent? He did 
 what any invalid might have done in such a dilemma, he 
 returned an evasive answer. Their allegiance ever lay 
 lightly on the Earls of March ; this one, George, promptly 
 went to the English King's Court, prepared for vengeance 
 
 ^ J^eo-. Episc. Moraviensis, 382. ^ Pluscarden, ii. 255. 
 
124 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 upon his false countrymen. His castle of Dunbar was 
 handed over to the keeping of Archibald [xvi.], son of the 
 Grim Douglas. 
 
 The author of all this mischief lived not to witness the 
 evils which it brought upon his country. Douglas was still 
 
 alive, indeed, when Henry IV. invaded Scotland 
 Archibald August 1400, for he witnessed a charter at 
 
 "the Grim," Renfrew on 5th October of that year;^ but he 
 
 must have died before 9th February following, 
 when his widow Joanna made a grant to her son Archibald, 
 4th Earl of Douglas [xvi.]."^ This consists with the state- 
 ment in Gray's manuscript ^ to the effect that he died on 
 Christmas Eve, 1400, at Thrieve Castle, and was buried at 
 Bothwell. 
 
 By his wife, Joanna Moray of Bothwell, he had — 
 
 (1) Archibald [xvi.], who succeeded as 4th Earl. 
 
 (2) James " the Gross " [xix.], who succeeded as 7th 
 
 Earl. 
 
 (3) Marjorie, who married, first, David, Duke of 
 
 Rothesay ; second. Sir Walter Haliburton, of 
 the house of Dirleton, afterwards Treasurer of 
 Scotland. 
 
 Archibald the Grim left an honourable record ; one 
 that — 
 
 " Deserves with characters of brass 
 A forted residence against the tooth of time 
 And razure of oblivion." 
 
 It was clouded only by his conduct in compelling the King 
 to break his pledge to March. Even in that act there may 
 have been circumstances, not apparent at this day, to palliate 
 or even to justify his conduct. March's integrity may not 
 have been proof against the attempts which, as early as i 393, 
 King Richard had made upon it ; * and Douglas may have 
 
 ^ Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banff^ i. 290, iii. 363. 
 ^ The Swintons of that Ilk^ Appendix X. and XI. 
 ^ Quoted by Sir W. Fraser, i. 347. 
 
 * And upon Douglas's also. Richard sent in that year to treat with both earls 
 as to service to be done by them, but the result of the negotiations is not known. 
 — Feeder a, vii. 754. 
 
BENEFACTIONS TO THE CHURCH 125 
 
 been guided by true patriotic policy in stopping the alliance 
 of the royal house with a family of dubious loyalty. The 
 whole tenour of Archibald the Grim's conduct was so lofty 
 and statesmanlike that one would fain acquit him in this 
 affair from the spirit of faction and self-interest which 
 tarnished the shields of so many of his successors. 
 
 For the rest, " Blak Archibald " had nobly lived down 
 the disability of his illicit birth. He had proved himself a 
 knight puissant in combat before he became a successful 
 commander in the field and a steadfast adviser in council. 
 His enormous wealth enabled him to become a great bene- 
 factor to the Church, but a discreet one, inasmuch that 
 while he bestowed with a free hand upon the collegiate 
 church of Bothwell,^ founded by himself, and upon the 
 existing foundations of Sweetheart and Lincluden in 
 Galloway, he insisted upon drastic reforms in both the 
 convents last named. Of Sweetheart he is mentioned as 
 fundator et reformator in a confirmation by Pope Benedict 
 XIII. [14 1 3—1424] of Archibald's charter of patronage in 
 favour of the abbey.^ Now he was not the original 
 fundator ; the real foundress was Devorguille, mother of 
 John Baliol. The inference is that when Douglas took over 
 the lordship of Galloway in 1369, Sweetheart Abbey was 
 in a low state, the building dilapidated and the convent 
 bankrupt, and that it owed its restoration to his munificent 
 piety. 
 
 This earl's benefactions to the monastery of Holywood 
 have been mentioned above ; but close to that house, on the 
 Galloway bank of the Nith, he set his hand to a task of 
 some delicacy. There was a nunnery at the priory of Lin- 
 cluden, whereof scandal had been busy with the fame. It is 
 disputed whether the sisters have been justly accused of 
 irregularity ; at all events, Douglas suppressed the nunnery, 
 built a beautiful collegiate church, rich to this day with 
 heraldic ornament, and endowed it for a provost and twelve 
 canons. 
 
 ^ The choir continued in use as the parish church till 1828. — Fraser, i. 350. 
 Book of Carlaverock, ii. 426. 
 
126 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Archibald the Grim was deservedly esteemed by the 
 clergy, and it is specially mentioned to his credit by one of 
 them that, although he always travelled with a great suite, 
 whenever he lay at a monastery he paid liberally for all 
 that he received. The prior of St. Serfs, at all events, 
 neither entertained misgivings about the character of Black 
 Archibald in this world, nor hesitated about the meed which 
 awaited him in the world to come — 
 
 tots a ioxh ofi Qut ho\x)nU, 
 ®ff sUlHsitntss mxb cUtc latott; ^ 
 ^£ tof5 oU Qxtb lit\ioiiount; 
 ODt^ pxstict he hnvc Qut xtnoton. 
 gut^ hovtt hz tribxt Qxnclonsl^, 
 ^xib ipbis in jog perpetolg." ^ 
 
 Besides his legitimate offspring, Archibald the Grim had 
 a natural son, William, upon whom the slur of bastardy 
 xiv Sir lightly as it did upon his father, and he 
 
 William rose to much distinction. Of his mother, and 
 LonfofNiths- when she bore him, nothing is known, but in 
 dale, died I 387 he had already won his spurs by gallantry 
 c. 1392. ^j^^ field. He had greatly distinguished him- 
 
 self in 1385 when the Scoto-French expeditionary force 
 lay before Carlisle, performing prodigies of valour and 
 slaying many English with his own hands — 
 
 "# shotong pig httchthxc 
 ^rtjsgii Qxdlv toc0 off to ere, 
 (Jfor he toes tuyjx trabclnnb 
 (ijtohilk he St anb xjtohille be ianb 
 '^o shitthe his faiis rgcht htsg 
 (Stoa that thai iireb him flrettmnlg." ^ 
 
 Now Robert ll., despite his bleared eyes, had begotten 
 a large family of singular beauty, whereof the flower was a 
 maiden known on state occasions as Egidia, but more 
 familiarly and affectionately as Gelis or Gylis. The King 
 of France, Charles le Bien-aime, hearing report of her ex- 
 ceeding beauty, " sent a certain most subtle painter to do 
 her portrait and portray her charms, intending to take her 
 
 ^ Loyalty. ^ wjti^out^ 3 Wyntoun, ix. c. 21. Ih'd.j c. 7. 
 
DOUGLAS OF NITHSDALE 127 
 
 to wife," ^ always provided, it may be surmised, that the 
 portrait confirmed the common report. But le Bien-aime 
 was too late in the field ; the lovely Gelis had already lost 
 her heart to the dauntless Douglas, and with it went her 
 Marries hand and the broad lands of Nithsdale. They 
 Egidia, were married in 1387, and in the followinc^ year 
 
 daughter of , , n t • r i i T 
 
 Robert II., [otli November 1388] his father bestowed upon 
 Sir William the lands of Herbertshire, in the 
 county of Stirling.^ In addition to the lordship of Niths- 
 dale, Sir William received from the Royal Exchequer an 
 annuity of ^300. 
 
 Sir William had not been a year married before he 
 undertook to chastise some Irish marauders who had been 
 Expedition to filibustering on the coast of Galloway. Landing 
 Ireland, 1388. Carlingford with a party of 500 men he 
 summoned the town. The mayor offered a sum in pay- 
 ment for an armistice, and sent to Dundalk for help. Eight 
 hundred spears promptly responded and surprised the Scots 
 by night, while a sortie was made simultaneously from the 
 town. Nevertheless the Scots beat them off, captured and 
 burnt the town, and seized the castle and fifteen ships in 
 the harbour. Douglas was back in Loch Ryan in time to 
 take part in the campaign of Otterburn, 
 
 Having married the most beautiful bride in Scotland, 
 Sir William, it might be supposed, would have been fain to 
 settle quietly at home and find outlet for his energy with 
 hawk and hound. But, like others of his race, he deemed 
 that the proper quarry of mankind was man ; wherefore, 
 when the prospects of that sport were overcast on the Border 
 by an inconvenient truce with England about 1389, he 
 must needs go farther afield, and offered his services to the 
 Teutonic knights then at war with the Turks. He seems 
 to have had a quarrel with the English Lord Clifford, 
 descendant of him upon whom Edward I. bestowed Douglas- 
 dale. It is alleged that Clifford challenged Douglas to 
 single combat, and that Douglas went to France to get a 
 suit of armour proper for the purpose. Clifford thought, or 
 
 ^ Pluscarden^ ii. 248. ^ Charter at Crookston, quoted by Fraser, i. 355. 
 
128 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 pretended to think, that the Scottish knight was afraid to 
 meet him ; but when Douglas kept the appointed tryst, 
 Clifford, thinking ill of his chances against the new armour, 
 kept out of the way, and to conceal his own dishonour hired 
 Killed at assassins to dispatch his adversary. This is one 
 Dantzig, of the Scottish versions of the affair, and there- 
 c. 1392. ^^^^^ perhaps, of scant impartiality ; but another 
 Scots chronicler makes no mention of Clifford, but merely 
 states that Douglas, when walking on the bridge at Dantzig, 
 was set upon and killed by the English.^ This can 
 scarcely have happened before 1392, for in that year he is 
 referred to as having drawn most of his rents in the burgh 
 of Dumfries.^ 
 
 Sir William Douglas, Lord of Nithsdale, left two 
 children by his wife Egidia or Gelis : — (i) William, who 
 succeeded him, obtained knighthood ^ and disappeared about 
 1408 in some manner unknown;* (2) Egidia, 
 William who about 1407 married Henry St. Clair, Earl of 
 Lo"/of Niths- Orkney, carrying with her as dowry the barony 
 dale, died of Herbertshire. She became the mother of 
 c. 1408. William, Earl of Orkney, Chancellor of Scotland 
 and founder of the collegiate church of Rosslyn. 
 
 ^ Phiscaram^ ii. 248. ^ Exchequer Rolls, iii. 332. 
 
 ^ Apparently when very young, for he is described as chevalier in a safe- 
 conduct dated 30th January 1406, when he could not have been more than 
 nineteen. — Fraser, i. 358. 
 
 ^ His name appears in sundry charters down to 1407. — Morton, ii. 204. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 129 xvi. Archibald Douglas, ist Duke 
 
 of Touraine, 4th Earl of 
 Douglas, etc., c. 1372-1424. 
 
 130 Marries Margaret, daughter of 
 
 Robert ill., 1390. 
 1 30 Defeats March and Hotspur Percy, 
 1400. 
 
 132 Henry iv. invades Scotland, August 
 1400. 
 
 132 Siege of Edinburgh Castle, August 
 1400. 
 
 132 Archibald Douglas succeeds as 
 4th Earl of Douglas, 24th 
 December 1400. 
 
 135 Death of the Duke of Rothesay, 
 
 27th March 1402. 
 
 136 Battle of Homildon Hill, 14th 
 
 September 1402. 
 
 137 Capture of Douglas, 14th Septem- 
 
 ber 1402. 
 
 138 Battle of Shrewsbury, 25th July 
 
 1403. 
 
 139 Recapture of Douglas, 25th July 
 
 1403. 
 
 139 His captivity in England, 1402- 
 
 1413- 
 
 140 Becomes Lord of Annandale, 2nd 
 
 October 1409. 
 
 141 Travels to France, 1412. 
 
 142 The Foul Raid, 1416. 
 
 1 43 Douglas takes service under the King 
 
 of England, 30th May 1421. 
 
 1 44 And under the King of France, 1423. 
 
 144 Created Duke of Touraine and 
 
 Lieutenant-General of France, 
 19th April 1424. 
 
 145 Battle of Verneuil, 17th August 
 
 1424. 
 
 146 Death of the Earl of Douglas, 17th 
 
 August 1424. 
 
 Archibald the Grim was succeeded in the earldom of 
 xvi. Archi- Douglas by his eldest legitimate son, also named 
 bald Douglas, Archibald, known during his father's life by the 
 
 ist Duke of ' ° 
 
 Touraine, 4th title of Master of Douglas.^ He was born about 
 DougiL, 1372, and about 1390 married Margaret, eldest 
 Lord of Gaiio- daughter of the Earl of Carrick, who succeeded 
 
 way, Annan- , , , -i-^ 1 t t • 
 
 dale, etc., to the throne that year as Robert IH. His 
 c. 1372-1424- father bestowed upon him the lordship of Douglas 
 and the regalities of Ettrick Forest, Lauderdale, and 
 
 ^ A style usually given at this day to the eldest sons of barons in the Scottish 
 peerage. 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
130 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Defeats 
 
 March and 
 
 Hotspur 
 
 Percy, 
 
 Candlemas, 
 
 1400. 
 
 relation .2 
 
 Romanno. On 4th June 1400 the King appointed him 
 Marries keeper of Edinburgh Castle for life, on a salary 
 Margaret, of 200 merks a year, to be paid out of the 
 Robert III., customs of the capital city,^ and in the same 
 c. 1390. summer he stood a siege there under command 
 of the Duke of Rothesay. 
 
 But before that event the Master of Douglas, whom 
 Bower describes as homo ad cor altum — a high-spirited 
 man — had a merry brush with the English. 
 The Earl of March, deeply aggrieved by 
 Rothesay's conduct in jilting Elizabeth Dunbar 
 for Marjorie Douglas, had appealed to Henry iv., 
 not only on the grounds of equity but as a poor 
 The grandmothers of the English King and the 
 Scottish earl had been sisters, so, wrote March, " I am of 
 
 third kin to you, the 
 which in old time was 
 called near."^ Henry 
 did not disown obliga- 
 tions to his Scottish 
 cousin ; he accepted 
 March's proffered 
 fealty, bestowed lands 
 and a castle upon him, 
 but, inasmuch as the 
 affairs of his own king- 
 dom were in a very 
 unsettled state, he 
 could not at the mo- 
 ment respond to 
 March's invitation to 
 invade Scotland. Indeed, it is pretty certain that King 
 Henry was anxious for peace ; he made friendly overtures 
 
 ^ Exchequer Rolls ^ iii. 515. 
 
 ^ " As ane of yhour poer kyn, gif it likis yhow." 
 
 ^ ' ' And, excellent prince, syn that I clayme to be of kyn tyll yhow, and it 
 peraventour nocht knawen on yhour parte, I schew it to yhour lordschip be this 
 my lettre, that gif Dame Alice the Bewmont was yhour graunde dame, Dame 
 Mariory Comyn, hyrre full syster, wes my graunde dame on the tother syde, sa 
 
 Fig. 16. — Seal of Archibald, 4th Earl of 
 Douglas (1400). 
 
MARCH AND PERCY DEFEATED 131 
 
 to the Scottish Government, which met with but a cold 
 response. Accordingly, when the Douglases made raids 
 upon Dunbar and Annandale, holding their lord to be a 
 recreant and traitor, March wrote to protest that he was 
 still one of King Robert's lieges, that he was only in Eng- 
 land upon private business, and claimed that his officers 
 should be protected in possession of Dunbar Castle. This 
 request having been refused, March openly joined the 
 English, and having allied himself with Hotspur Percy, 
 marched at Candlemas, 1400, as far as Popple in East 
 Lothian, wasting all the country as he went. The villages 
 of Hailes, Traprain, and Markles were burnt and two un- 
 successful assaults delivered on the castle of Hailes before 
 the Master of Douglas arrived on the scene with an armed 
 force from Edinburgh. At sunset he surprised the enemy 
 in their camp between Linton and Preston. 
 They broke up in confusion ; their camp and 
 all the booty they had gathered fell into 
 Douglas's hands, and the Scots pursued them 
 as far as Berwick, killing and capturing many 
 in the woods of Cockburnspath, and bringing 
 away as trophies the lance and banner of Sir Fig. 17.— Signet 
 Thomas Talbot.^ of Archibald, 
 
 As summer drew on, circumstances arose l!^ f^^^ 
 
 , . Douglas. 
 
 to embitter Henry IV. against his Scottish neigh- 
 bours. No doubt Richard II. was as dead as William the 
 Conqueror, but the nerves of usurpers are sensitive, and those 
 of King Henry were vexed by a troublesome revenant of 
 Richard in the person of " the Mammet," who had turned 
 up in Islay, and claimed, or was alleged, to be Richard him- 
 self Albany craftily countenanced the myth ; belief in the 
 
 that I am bot of the feirde degre of kyn tyll yhow, the quhilk in aide tyme was 
 callit neire." The usual official language at this time still being French, March, 
 as a Scotsman, engages our sympathy thus — "Noble prince, mervaile yhe nocht 
 that I write my lettres in Englis, fore that ys mare clere to myne vnderstandyng 
 than Latyne ore Fraunch." Perhaps there is a touch of diplomacy here, in- 
 tended to dissociate this Scottish earl from the French alliance, so objectionable 
 in the eyes of English statesmen. 
 ^ Pluscarden, ii. 256. 
 
132 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Mammet became very general, and caused much disquiet 
 at the English Court. To lay this ghost, and at the 
 same time to detach March finally from his Scottish 
 allegiance, King Henry assembled an army at New- 
 castle, and marched to Leith, whence he sent 
 ^de7sc^t-"' ^ summons to the King of Scots to make his 
 land, August allegiance. It is recorded that, out of gratitude 
 ^*°°* for the ancient friendship between the house of 
 
 Lancaster and the Scottish Court, King Henry would not 
 permit the usual ravaging to be done by his troops. 
 
 King Robert having paid no attention to the summons, 
 Henry laid siege to Edinburgh Castle, where the Duke of 
 Rothesay held command as lieutenant of the kingdom, with 
 Douglas as second in command. Rothesay, " for the 
 sparing of Christian blood," chivalrously proposed to settle 
 the campaign by a combat between one, two, or three 
 hundred knights of each nation. Henry refused to see any 
 difference between noble blood and Christian blood ; blood 
 v/as to flow, and that was enough ; ^ so the siege went on. 
 
 Albany lay in force at Calder Moor, but prudently 
 Castie^b? held his hand, waiting till the usual scarcity 
 sieged, should force the English to raise the sieg-e. 
 
 August 1400. 
 
 Moreover, Owen Glendower and the Welsh were 
 up in arms, which decided Henry to break up and march 
 home empty-handed, the last English King to appear in 
 person as an invader of Scotland. 
 
 When Archibald the Grim died on Christmas Eve, 
 1400, the Master of Douglas entered upon an heritage far 
 Succeeds his exceeding anything that had ever been held by 
 ^^he'^^a^4th a vassal of the Crown. In addition to the 
 las, Christ- paternal estates in Douglasdale and Galloway, 
 mas, 1400. Stirlingshire and Moray, Selkirk Forest and 
 Clydesdale, he possessed the forfeited lands of March in 
 Annandale and Lothian, resided chiefly at Dunbar Castle, 
 and disposed of the Earl of March's possessions as absolute 
 owner,2 styling himself Lord of Galloway and of Dun- 
 
 ^ Foedera^ viii. 158. 
 
 ^ In October 1401 he bestowed the lands of Cranshaws in Berwickshire, part 
 
THE ROTHESAY TRAGEDY 
 
 133 
 
 bar.i He had been for some time previously Warden of the 
 East Marches, and in that capacity wrote in February 1401 
 an exceedingly long letter to Henry IV., complaining that the 
 Earl of Northumberland had violated a year's truce fixed at 
 Yetholm on 14th October preceding. Unlike the Earl of 
 March, Douglas expressed himself in excellent French. 
 Henry replied on 27th to "Honoured Sir " [Honwe Sire] 
 in a still longer letter, very courteous, but throwing all the 
 blame of broken truce upon Douglas, whom he accused of 
 having ridden in warlike array, with banner displayed, to 
 Bamborough, burning that town and other places near it. 
 However, King Henry, being desirous of peace, offered to 
 send commissioners to Kelso to arrange the terms thereof; 
 but this embassy ended in failure, and war was renewed in 
 1402. 
 
 So far Douglas had suffered nothing to earn the title of 
 " Tineman," or Loser, which Sir William Eraser follows 
 Godscroft in assigning to this earl rather than to Sir 
 Archibald Douglas [x.], who fell at Halidon Hill. Out 
 of the next transaction in which he bore a part he emerged 
 with more dubious credit. 
 
 The heir-apparent, David, Duke of Rothesay, had been 
 appointed lieutenant of the kingdom for a term of three 
 years, which should end in 1402. The prior of St. Serfs 
 gives the young prince an angelic character — 
 
 " ^nvz \ox^ ihz kinfits tlht^t som, 
 
 ^nb his n£ra0t lartchfttl agr^, 
 
 '^oncst, habUl anb abfitaitb ^ 
 
 dDure lax'bt, onxc prgncc, in all \thsttnt), 
 
 Cttnttanb^ in to liitmttm-c, 
 
 ^ sx-^mi^ pxxsonx in statttrr, 
 
 cSthir ^atrs '§ukt ot ^lotlusag."^ 
 
 of the earldom of March, upon Sir John Swinton of that Ilk. — T^e Swintons 
 of that ilk, pp. 32, XV. 
 
 ^ Letter of the Earl of Douglas to Henry IV. — Fraser, iv. 62. 
 
 ^ Avenant — courteous, elegant. 
 
 ^ Knowing, skilful. 
 
 ^ Wyntoun, ix. c. 23. 
 
134 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 But the testimony of the house of Scriblerus is compounded 
 for the patron's palate, and Wyntoun could not afford to 
 speak evil of dignities. 
 
 The abbot of Inchcolm [Bower] wrote with a bolder 
 pen, still more so the anonymous author of the Pluscarden 
 chronicle ; both of these writers describe the young prince 
 as intolerably dissolute, and a danger to the commonwealth. 
 It has appeared to some historians that Rothesay's uncle 
 [the motives of uncles are ever suspect] saw in the 
 heir-apparent a bar to his own ambition. Rothesay had 
 proved himself a knight gallant in deeds of arms ; it was 
 not a censorious age, and no ordinary youthful irregularities 
 seem to furnish sufficient reason for putting him under 
 restraint. It is less easy to overlook certain other conduct 
 even less creditable to the heir-apparent. Straitened for 
 pocket-money to defray his menus plaisirs^ Rothesay helped 
 himself from the public purse, intercepting the customs due 
 to the Exchequer, and imprisoning collectors who offered 
 any resistance to his peculations.^ 
 
 True, there is a story current that Rothesay's evil 
 counsellors. Sir William Lindsay of Rossie and Sir John de 
 Ramorny, had persuaded him to make an attempt upon 
 Albany's life, and Bower gives details of their alleged con- 
 spiracy for seizing the castle of St. Andrews after the death 
 of Bishop Traill, and holding it against Albany and the 
 King. Another story is that Lindsay and Ramorny 
 brought false accusations against the young prince, betray- 
 ing him to the Duke of Albany out of private revenge.^ 
 The whole business is exceedingly obscure ; the only clear 
 part of it is that when good Bishop Traill, Rothesay's 
 mother, and Archibald the Grim all died within a few 
 months of each other, Rothesay lost the advisers who had 
 kept him straight in his duties as Governor, and with their 
 deaths, sighs Bower, departed the glory and honour and 
 virtue of Scotland.^ 
 
 ^ Exchequer Rolls ^ iii. 549, 552, 599. 
 - Pluscarden^ ii. 258. 
 Abiit decus, recessit honor ^ et honestas obiit Scotice. 
 
THE ROTHESAY TRAGEDY 135 
 
 Certain also it is that Rothesay was arrested by 
 his uncle, Albany, and his brother-in-law, Douglas, acting 
 under a warrant from the decrepid King, and 
 Rothesly, imprisoned, first in the Bishop's Castle at St. 
 27th March Andrews, and then in Falkland Castle, where 
 he died — of natural causes, say some — of 
 starvation, affirm others.^ 
 
 If there was foul play, Albany and Douglas must 
 have been authors thereof. That they were popularly 
 suspected may be inferred ^ from the proceedings in Parlia- 
 ment on 1 6th May following, when an Act was passed 
 declaring that the Prince had " departed this life through 
 Divine Providence, and not otherwise," acquitting Albany 
 and Douglas of high treason or any other crime, and strictly 
 forbidding any of the King's subjects to make the slightest 
 imputation upon their fame. 
 
 If, on the other hand, these two nobles were guiltless, 
 then kindly Sir Walter Scott has wrought them cruel and 
 lasting injury by earning for them execration from the 
 myriad readers of the Fair Maid of Perth. 
 
 Assuming, as so many persons did at the time and 
 have done since, that there was foul play, and that Albany 
 and Douglas were the only men in a position to perpetrate 
 it, one naturally seeks for a probable motive. The death of 
 Rothesay restored to Albany the office of Governor and 
 placed him one degree nearer succession to the throne ; 
 still there remained his other nephew James to be disposed 
 of. But Douglas's interest lay clear the other way. Rothe- 
 say was his brother-in-law; his succession would have made 
 
 ^ The Pluscarden chronicler gives most details, alleging that after Rothesay 
 was lodged in St. Andrew's Castle, Albany and Douglas held a council at Cul- 
 ross, where they decreed his death, and that the Prince was thereafter taken to 
 Falkland, "upon a small pack horse and clad in a grey jerkin, after the manner 
 of a valet, that he might not be noticed on the way." The date of his death is 
 given as 7th K^xW.— Pluscarden, ii. 258. 
 
 ^ But not more. Lord Hailes observes that the remission of Albany and 
 Douglas was "in terms as ample as if they had actually murdered the heir- 
 apparent." But Parliament could not ignore a circumstance so grave as the 
 Prince's death in the hands of two subjects. Having inquired into the case, they 
 merely pronounced Rothesay's custodians to be free from blame. 
 
136 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Marjorie Douglas Queen of Scots. It is all a matter of 
 surmise, and nothing more can ever be made of it than this, 
 that Rothesay died in the custody of Albany and Douglas ; 
 and that a Parliamentary inquiry, probably packed but 
 assuredly indispensable, pronounced them blameless. 
 
 Innocent or guilty, it may be observed that the Scottish 
 Parliament could not have afforded but to acquit Albany 
 and Douglas, seeing that hostilities with England were in 
 full swing again, and these were the only commanders fit 
 to meet on even terms with the Earl of March. Young 
 Patrick Hepburn and the flower of Lothian chivalry were cut 
 to pieces on Nesbit Moor by March's son, George Dunbar, 
 and Douglas took the field to avenge them, having with him 
 Albany's son Murdoch and the Earls of Angus [xxxviii.] 
 and Moray. He marched with 10,000 men, wasting all 
 before him as far as Newcastle. 
 
 King Henry was occupied in putting down rebellion in 
 Wales, but he had his spies in Scotland, as English Kings 
 Battle of were used to do, and had warned his officers on 
 Homiidon the Border betimes.^ Hotspur's fire was tempered 
 
 Hill, 14th rr^, , , , , 
 
 September by March s wile. The renegade earl persuaded 
 '4°^' the elder Percy, Earl of Northumberland, to lie 
 
 at Wooler till the Scots were on their homeward march. 
 They waited till Douglas's column had bivouacked on low 
 ground called Millfield, and then moved swiftly to attack 
 them. But Douglas was not off his guard. On the 
 approach of the English he withdrew his force to the bare 
 upland of Homiidon, and awaited attack in the customary 
 " schiltroms " or squares. It was the same blunder as 
 Blucher committed at Ligny : the position was dangerously 
 exposed to the enemy's fire. Hotspur was for charging the 
 Scots without more ado, but canny March seized his rein 
 and bade him behold what a fine target the crowded 
 columns offered for archery. Then began the slaughter, 
 the cloth-yard shafts pouring a ceaseless rain upon the 
 motionless ranks. 
 
 Sir John Swinton, seeing his men falling fast without a 
 
 ^ 23rd May 1402. — F(£dera, viii. 257. 
 
HOMILDON HILL 
 
 137 
 
 blow struck, cried out for volunteers — " Better die in open 
 mellay than be shot down like deer." ^ Near him stood one 
 with whom he had ever been at mortal feud, Adam Gordon, 
 who fell on his knees before him, craved pardon, claimed 
 and received knighthood on the spot, and rode at his side 
 down the hill. Only a hundred or so followed them ; it 
 was magnificent, but it was not war; the whole party 
 perished under the eyes of their comrades. 
 
 Douglas ought surely to have supported Swinton. 
 Unless the chronicles have done him wrong, he waited 
 till it w^as too late ; when he ordered a general advance 
 it failed miserably — Lindsays, Livingstones, Ramsays, 
 St. Clairs weltered on the ground ; Douglas himself, 
 Murdoch, Moray, Angus, and nearly all the surviving 
 knights were captured. Quid plura f exclaims Bower 
 in closing this dreary chapter, captus est et redeniptus quasi 
 flos militicE totius regni ScoticE^ — " Why say more ? the 
 flower of all Scotland's chivalry, as it were, was taken 
 and held to ransom." ^ 
 
 Thus was the shield of Percy purged of the reproach of 
 Otterburn. The English slain could be numbered on the 
 fingers of one hand.^ Douglas's armour, reported to have 
 taken three years in making, availed not to protect him 
 from five several wounds, including the loss of an eye. The 
 Percys and March had secured a valuable haul, for, poor as 
 Scotland had become, so many noble and knightly prisoners 
 represented an immense aggregate of ransom to their 
 captors. What, therefore, must have been the chagrin of 
 the English knights when letters arrived from their King, 
 congratulating them on their victory indeed, but strictly 
 charging them upon no account to release their prisoners 
 until he should make known his will.* King Henry only 
 added insult to injury a few months later when he bestowed 
 upon Percy the earldom of Douglas and all the lands owned 
 by Douglas in Scotland. 
 
 Hotspur and March set about indemnifying themselves 
 
 Bower, xiv. c. 14. 
 Bain, iv. 129. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 Fccdera, viii. 278. 
 
138 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 each according to his nature. To the house of Percy, more 
 than to any other, did King Henry owe his crown. Hot- 
 spur now joined hands with Glendower in rebellion ; set free 
 his Scottish prisoners, who gladly placed their swords at 
 his service. March, ever careful to side with Providence 
 and the big battalions, feigned to do the same, but 
 revealed the whole plan of campaign to King Henry. 
 Hotspur, at the head of the Scottish knights and Percy 
 vassals, made a feint upon the Border near Carlisle, then, 
 swiftly veering south, marched to encounter King Henry at 
 Shrewsbury. 
 
 " Thrice hath this Hotspur Mars in swathing-clothes, 
 This infant warrior in his enterprises, 
 Discomfited great Douglas : ta'en him once, 
 Enlarged him, and made a friend of him. 
 To fill the mouth of deep defiance up, 
 And shake the peace and safety of our throne." ^ 
 
 The encounter between the King of England and his 
 rebel lords gave Shakespeare one of his grandest themes. 
 Battle of issue, it is said, remained long doubtful, 
 
 Shrewsbury, uutil Hotspur, raising his vizor for a breath 
 25th July 1403. ^j^^ received an arrow through the brain. 
 Then Douglas tasted of defeat as crushing as that which 
 had befallen his arms at Homildon. The insurgent 
 forces were scattered with terrible carnage. English and 
 Scots historians unite in testimony to Douglas's valour on 
 this fatal field ; it was reported that, besides slaying the 
 Earl of Stafford with his own hand, he sought out and slew 
 three others — mock kings — soldiers wearing diadems to 
 make belief that each was Henry himself. 
 
 Douglas — ' ' Another king ! they grow like hydra's heads. 
 I am the Douglas, fatal to all those 
 That wear those colours on them. What art thou 
 That counterfeit'st the person of a king ? 
 King He7iry — The king himself who, Douglas, grieves at heart 
 So many of his shadows thou hast met, 
 And not the very king.'' ^ 
 
 ^ King Henry IV., Part I. Act iii. sc. 2. - Ibid., sc. 4. 
 
CAPTIVITY OF DOUGLAS 
 
 139 
 
 At last, after receiving a peculiarly painful wound,^ 
 Douglas yielded himself once more a prisoner. He 
 remained in captivity till 1409, but was allowed to pass 
 to Scotland from time to time on finding hostages of high 
 rank for his parole. He and the other Homildon prisoners 
 were held to ransom, but on conditions too onerous for the 
 exhausted condition of the Scottish land and exchequer, 
 and matters grew still more hopeless when, three years 
 later, Prince James of Scotland [afterwards James i.] was 
 taken at sea by English ships. The release of Douglas was 
 discussed in King Henry's Parliament, where it was proposed 
 that certain Scottish castles should be handed over as the 
 price of his freedom.^ This condition was practically pro- 
 hibitive ; Albany certainly would not have consented there- 
 to, and any attempt to enforce it would have re-opened the 
 war which King Henry from the first had been 
 captfvfty^in anxious to avoid. Other onerous conditions 
 England, were attached to the absence on parole which 
 
 1402-1409. 1 X-v 1 
 
 was granted to Douglas upon several occasions, 
 namely, that he should do all in his power to induce his 
 countrymen to unite in observing the truce agreed to between 
 himself and the English Council, and should undertake that 
 he, Douglas, should oppose with all his force, any power, 
 whether in Scotland or France, who should infringe the said 
 truce or wage war upon England.^ 
 
 Douglas also bound himself as the King of England's 
 " man " against all men except King James of Scotland, 
 which obligation was not to lapse with his imprisonment 
 but to endure to his life's end. Upon sealing this bond 
 and swearing on the gospels to return into captivity on the 
 day appointed,* the earl obtained the privilege, renewed 
 from time to time, of visiting Scotland upon his private 
 affairs. But at Easter 1409 Douglas failed to surrender to 
 his parole. King Henry IV. wrote to Albany complaining 
 of this breach of knightly obligation,^ and, later, warned 
 
 ^ £>e uno testiculo castratus. — Bower, xv. c. 17. 
 
 ^ Rolls of English Parliament, iii. 580. ^ Fraser, iii. 46. 
 
 ^ Fcedera, viii. 478. ^ Red Book of Menieith, i. 212. 
 
140 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 him that unless the earl returned his hostages would be 
 dealt with at pleasure. Douglas never returned to 
 captivity, but the ransom for the unlucky hostages was 
 still being paid in 141 3, when King Henry V. granted a 
 discharge for 700 merks, part payment of 1000 merks 
 due as ransom for William Douglas, grandson of James 
 Douglas of Dalkeith, one of the hostages for Archibald, 
 Earl of Douglas, " lately the prisoner and captive of our 
 illustrious father." 
 
 From Douglas's captivity resulted one of those frequent 
 transfers of allegiance and political support which render 
 Douglas be- Scottish history in general, and the annals of the 
 comes Lord housc of March in particular, such a puzzling 
 
 of Annandale, , , . - « i -i • -r^ i* i 
 
 2nd October kalcidoscope. Apparently, while in English 
 1409. durance, Douglas had become reconciled to 
 
 March, and March to Albany, through the mediation of 
 Sir Walter Haliburton, so that in 1409 the Governor of 
 Scotland restored to March his forfeited earldom and the 
 lands thereof, all of which had been in possession of 
 Douglas since 1400. But attached to the pardon granted 
 to March was this important condition, namely, that he 
 should resign the lordship and lands of Annandale, part of 
 the March possessions, in favour of the Earl of Douglas, 
 who thereby became Lord of Annandale as well as of 
 Galloway.^ 
 
 The personal bond of friendship which had endured so 
 long between the Duke of Albany and Archibald the Grim 
 had been shared by the son of the Grim, and, on the escape 
 of Douglas from captivity, was confirmed by a bond of 
 mutual assistance and support [20th June 1409], coupled 
 with provision for the lapse of the said bond in the event 
 of Albany succeeding to the throne of Scotland. This 
 was followed by a contract of marriage between Douglas's 
 daughter Elizabeth and John, Earl of Buchan, Albany's 
 eldest son [July 14 10]. 
 
 ^ Reg. Magni Sigilli, i. 241. Douglas appointed as his steward in 
 Annandale Sir Herbert Maxwell of Carlaverock, at an annual fee of £20, and 
 all fines levied in his courts of i8s. and under.— Magni Sigilli, ii. 242. 
 
DOUGLAS RESUMES WARDENSHIP 141 
 
 In 141 2 Douglas went to France, by way of 
 Flanders, with a large company of knights and squires. 
 Travels to Bower describes how the flotilla was thrice driven 
 France, 1412. back by an east wind; which, indeed, as it hap- 
 pened to be the month of March, was nothing extraordinary, 
 but the moral of the incident became apparent after the 
 third failure, when, in deference to the Earl of Orkney's 
 advice, Douglas ordered sails to be trimmed for Inchcolm, 
 where offerings were made at the shrine of St. Columba. 
 Straightway the wind veered round to the west and 
 they all had a speedy and prosperous voyage. On 1 1 th 
 April Douglas entered at Paris into a bond of alliance 
 with Jean-sans-peur, Duke of Burgundy, whereby each was 
 bound to assist the other in the respective countries with 
 armed force. 
 
 Douglas had resumed his office as Warden of the 
 Marches, and, like his father before him, presided officially 
 and in person at a duel fought at Battlehaugh, near 
 Annan, wherein Thomas Smith, the aggressor, was slain 
 by John Hardy.^ Albany gave him a free hand in 
 defending the Border and keeping the peace thereon, but 
 little or no money to do so withal. The Regent disliked 
 the idea of imposing new taxes, either because he was 
 anxious for popularity or because he really thought the 
 lieges could bear no more. Douglas therefore indemnified 
 himself for his great expenses by helping himself to the 
 customs, with which he certainly intromitted in an irregular 
 manner, although he gave regular receipts for the sums he 
 intercepted.^ 
 
 Meanwhile the King of Scots was still in captivity ; 
 so was Albany's son Murdoch. Albany, though actively 
 anxious for Murdoch's release, has been generally accused 
 of indifference, or worse, as to the durance of James I. 
 But here again, as in the death of Rothesay, the evidence 
 against Albany is defective. There are few characters in 
 history about whom so much is known in action, and so 
 little is clear in motive. No doubt Albany pressed for his 
 
 ^ Bower, ii. 447. - Exchequer Rolls ^ iv. 175, 177, et passhn. 
 
142 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 son's release more diligently and successfully than he did 
 for that of his nephew the King, seeing that Murdoch was 
 liberated early in 141 6 in exchange for Henry Percy, son 
 of Hotspur; but that may have been because the ransom 
 demanded for Murdoch, great as it was — 50,000 marks — 
 was feasible, whereas the King's ransom was beyond the 
 means of the impoverished Scottish nation. James cer- 
 tainly suspected his uncle, and reproached him for not so 
 much as answering his letters — " therefore us ferylis nouch 
 little." ^ He also wrote to Douglas urging him to spur 
 Albany to more diligence in working for his release, for the 
 delay " stands only in them that should pursue for us." ^ 
 Douglas certainly was busy ostensibly in working for the 
 King's release. Twice in 1 4 1 6 he travelled to Westminster 
 on this matter, but between these visits occurred some- 
 thing which cannot have tended to facilitate negotiations. 
 Henry V. being in France conducting the campaign of 
 Agincourt, the English Lollards explained to the Scots 
 Government what a splendid opportunity this was to 
 assume the offensive. Albany, nothing loth to create a 
 diversion in favour of Scotland's ancient ally, marched to 
 The Foul besiege Berwick, and despatched Douglas to 
 Raid, 1416. capture Roxburgh Castle, which remained an 
 English thorn in the Scottish flank. But rumour spread 
 that the Duke of Bedford was approaching in great force, 
 and the campaign earned the name of the Foul Raid, from 
 the discreditable haste with which both wings of the 
 Scottish army beat a sudden retreat. The English in 
 revenge wasted Teviotdale and Liddesdale, burning Hawick, 
 Selkirk, and Jedburgh, and probably taking among other 
 prisoners James, younger son of the Earl of Douglas.^ 
 
 The Regent Albany, dying in 1420, was succeeded in 
 his office by his son Murdoch, 2nd Duke of Albany, with 
 whom Douglas was not on nearly such cordial terms as 
 
 ^ Whereat we marvel not a little. 
 2 Red Book of Menteith, i. 283. 
 
 ^ He was at all events a prisoner in 1418-1419, when provision was made 
 for his ransom. — KotttH Scotue, ii. 223. 
 
William Douglas, Earl of Wigtown, 
 1437. 
 
 The Regent Morton, ob. 1581. 
 
BECOMES KING HENRY'S ''MAN" 143 
 
 with his father, and therefore exerted himself in earnest 
 to procure the release of the King. But James was 
 now in France with King Henry, who was playing him off 
 Douglas against the Scottish contingent in the army of 
 enters Henry Charles VI., which Contingent was under com- 
 
 V.*s service 
 
 30th May mand of the Earl of Buchan and of Douglas's 
 eldest son Archibald, Earl of Wigtown [xvii.]. 
 Sir William Douglas of Drumlanrig [Ixxvii.] was sent in 
 the autumn of 1420, under English safe-conduct, to confer 
 with King Henry's commissioners,^ and in April 142 1 the 
 Earl of Douglas travelled to London and obtained an 
 agreement whereby James should be permitted to spend 
 three months on parole in Scotland, twenty-one hostages 
 being required in security, of whom one was James Douglas, 
 second son of the earl. 
 
 But the Earl of Douglas had to pay for this boon a 
 price so heavy that he would surely have declined it but 
 for King James's urgent commands and his own strong 
 desire to get the King back to Scotland, where confusion 
 was deepening under Murdoch's rule. The price was 
 nothing less than that Douglas, pillar of the Scottish 
 realm, should become King Henry's man so long as either 
 of them should live, and attend him on active service 
 wherever and whenever commanded, with 200 knights and 
 squires and 200 archers. These excruciating provisions 
 were embodied in an indenture sealed in London on 30th 
 May 1421;^ and had they come into force the Earl of 
 Douglas might have found himself opposed in France to 
 his own countrymen under his son Wigtown and his son-in- 
 law Buchan, who had just defeated the English at Bauge. 
 Luckily he was spared this ordeal, the obligation being 
 dissolved by the death of Henry V. in the following 
 year. 
 
 Charles vi. of France died a few weeks after Henry v., 
 and in 1423 his son, Charles VII., sent the Earls of Buchan 
 and Wigtown [xvii.] to urge Douglas to come to his assist- 
 ance. Douglas, nothing loth, seeing that his ancient ally 
 
 ^ Fcedera, x. i8, - Ibid.^ x. 123. 
 
144 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 John of Burgundy was dead, consented willingly, and, 
 Douglas ^^^^^ making sundry gifts, in case of accidents, 
 takes service to the church, and committing the monks of 
 viL of ^ Melrose to the special care of the Earl of Wig- 
 France, 1423. town, whom he left behind to promote the 
 King's release, he sailed early in 1424 and landed at La 
 Rochelle, the whole expenses of the voyage being defrayed 
 by the King of France. 
 
 Among the knights in his suite was a very dear friend, 
 Sir Alexander Home of Dunglas. Home had intended 
 that his brother David of Wedderburn should go with the 
 expedition, and had gone down to witness the embarkation 
 and wish them all good speed. When it came to leave- 
 taking, Douglas turned to Dunglas ^ and said, " Well, 
 Alexander, I little thought that anything would ever befal 
 to part us twain." " Nor shall anything part us now ! " 
 exclaimed Home, and having made his brother David give 
 up to him his armour and outfit, he went on board with the 
 earl, never more to return to fair Tweedside. 
 
 On 19th April 1424 Douglas took the oath of fealty 
 to Charles VII. at Bourges, who made him lieutenant- 
 is created general of his forces, and bestowed upon him the 
 Duke of rank which Archibald the Grim had so proudly 
 lieutenant- declined, creating him Duke of Touraine — the 
 fhrpoices fairest province in all France. To the wide 
 19th April ' territory conveyed with his dukedom King Charles 
 added the town and castle of Chinon, in com- 
 pensation for certain ecclesiastic rights reserved to the 
 Crown in the Duchy of Tours.^ The French Lords of 
 Exchequer demurred to this alienation of Crown lands, but 
 King Charles would listen to no objections, and the grant 
 was duly ratified and recorded on 25 th April. 
 
 On 7th May the Duke of Touraine, or, as it is more 
 convenient to continue to style him, the Earl of Douglas, 
 rode from Loches and made ceremonial entry to Tours, the 
 capital of his duchy, amid the acclamation of the people. 
 
 ^ The stress lies on the first syllable in Donglas, on the second in Dunglas, 
 " Fraser, i. 390. 
 
THE BATTLE OF VERNEUIL 145 
 
 The archbishop and chapter received him at the west 
 entrance of the cathedral ; Douglas, having been presented 
 with a surplice, amice, and breviary, was installed as a 
 canon,^ and the townspeople made him an offering of two 
 pipes of wine and a hogshead of oats. All was mirth and 
 sunshine in the ancient city ; but King Charles had sent 
 for Douglas on more serious business than mere merry- 
 making. The Duke of Bedford was besieging the castle of 
 Ivry, whereof the governor had agreed to surrender unless 
 relief came before a given day. Douglas therefore, having 
 appointed his cousin, Adam Douglas, governor of Tours 
 town and castle, marched with all speed to succour the 
 garrison of Ivry. He was too late : Ivry had fallen ; " John 
 with the leaden sword," as Douglas nicknamed Bedford, 
 was too strongly posted to invite attack ; so the Scots fell 
 back towards Verneuil. Now Verneuil being garrisoned by 
 the English, Douglas had recourse to a ruse for its capture. 
 He caused a number of his men to fall out of the ranks 
 and to be bound as counterfeit prisoners, smeared with 
 blood and led at the tails of horses. These were taken 
 under the walls of Verneuil, the garrison of which were 
 informed that they had been captured from the Duke of 
 Bedford, whose army had been completely routed. The 
 garrison surrendered at once and submitted to Charles Vli. 
 
 Douglas and Buchan had been reinforced by French 
 troops under the Due d'Alengon, the Marechal de Lafayette, 
 and the Viscomte de Narbonne, to whose jealousy and in- 
 subordination has been attributed the fate of this expedition. 
 Bedford advanced promptly against the allies in position 
 Battle of Verneuil, sending a special message by a 
 
 Verneuil, 17th herald to Douglas to say that he wished to drink 
 August 14*4. ^j^j^ him. Douglas replied to John-of-the 
 Leaden-Sword that he had come all the way from Scot- 
 land for no other purpose. Lines of battle were formed 
 forthwith; knighthood was conferred as usual upon the eve 
 of a great engagement, among others, upon Douglas's 
 
 ^ Clovis, under whom Tours became part of the Frankish dominion, received 
 for himself and his successors the title of Canon of Saint Martin. 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
146 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 younger son James ; and immediately after the troubles of 
 the commander-in-chief began. Douglas, being in a strong 
 position, prudently prepared to await Bedford's attack. 
 Narbonne mutinously declared he would not obey such 
 
 cowardly orders, and 
 vowed he would lead 
 the attack himself, even 
 if he got no support. 
 Rather than allow this 
 hot-headed young 
 knight and his troops 
 to be cut to pieces, 
 Douglas ordered a 
 general advance. Nar- 
 bonne's men soon had 
 enough, and left the 
 Scots hand to hand with 
 the English columns. 
 " No quarter ! " was the 
 order of the day, as 
 previously agreed between the English and Scottish com- 
 manders, and the day went against the Scots. Hardly a 
 handful of them escaped from the field. Douglas, Duke of 
 Death of the Touraine, was slain, so was his son James and 
 Earl of his son-in-law Buchan, with many other nobles 
 Douglas. knights of Scotland, meet vengeance by Bed- 
 
 ford for the slaughter of Clarence at Bauge. Douglas 
 was buried in the church of Saint Gratian at Tours. 
 
 By his duchess, Margaret, daughter of Robert III., the 
 Duke of Touraine had three children : — 
 
 Fig. 18.— Seal of Archibald, 4th Earl of 
 Douglas, Lord of Galloway (1400). 
 
 (!) 
 
 (2) 
 (3) 
 
 Archibald [xvii.]. Earl of Wigtown and Comte de 
 Longueville, who succeeded his father in the 
 Scottish estates and honours. 
 
 James, who fell beside his father at Verneuil. 
 
 Elizabeth, who married, first, John Stuart, Earl of 
 Buchan, Albany's eldest son, slain at Verneuil ; 
 second, Sir Thomas Stuart of Mar ; and third, 
 William Saint Clair or Sinclair, 3rd Earl of 
 
DUCHESS MARGARET OF TOURAINE 147 
 
 Orkney. She is credited with having built the 
 lower chapel, under the beautiful church of 
 Rosslyn, erected by her third husband. 
 The widowed duchess received from her brother, James I., 
 permission to hold the lordship of Galloway during her life, 
 probably in accordance with the will of her husband. She 
 
 Fig. 19. — Seal of Princess Margaret, Duchess of Touraine. 
 
 made her home at the Thrieve, whence she administered the 
 affairs of her province with much discretion and firmness. 
 After the death of her son, the 5th earl, in 1439, and the 
 judicial murder of his two sons in 1440, Duchess Margaret 
 claimed from the King of France her terce of the lands 
 and revenues of Touraine. But King Charles had already 
 
THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 bestowed the duchy, to which the 5 th Earl of Douglas [xvii.] 
 was legitimate heir, upon Louis, King of Sicily, and no 
 income ever accrued from Touraine to the Douglases after 
 the death of Archibald at Verneuil, although the 5 th and 
 6th Earls of Douglas continued to use the title. King 
 Charles excused himself by explaining that it had been 
 reported to him that the 5 th earl had died in Scotland in 
 1425, never having done homage for the duchy, which 
 accordingly reverted to the Crown. 
 
 The date of Duchess Margaret's death was after 1450, 
 when she resigned the lordship of Galloway, and before 
 1456, when she is referred to as deceased.^ Her tomb 
 in the chancel of Lincluden, a beautiful example of flam- 
 boyant gothic, rich in heraldic ornament, bears the legend, 
 " A I'aide de Dieu," and the following inscription : — 
 
 "^ic jacst Mn m&vQtLXtiix : 
 xtQxs : scocit : film : xtuoba 
 comitissn he honQlns : 
 "bm : QnlMhu : si : iiaiUs 
 aitttiJttbu." 2 
 
 ^ Exchequer Rolls ^ vi. 196. 
 
 2 Here lies the Lady Margaret, daughter of the King of Scotland, sometime 
 Countess of Douglas and Lady of Galloway and Annandale. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 149 xvii. Archibald, 5th Earl of 
 
 Douglas, Earl of Wigtown and 
 Longueville, Lord of Galloway 
 and Annandaie, c. 1390- 
 1439. 
 
 150 Battle of Bauge, 21st March 142 1. 
 150 Rout of Fresnay-le-Comte, 1421. 
 
 150 Battle of Crevant, July 1422. 
 
 1 5 1 Return of James i. to Scotland, 1424. 
 
 152 Execution of Murdoch, Duke of 
 
 Albany, 1425. 
 
 152 Douglas appointed Lieutenant - 
 
 General of Scotland, March 
 1437- 
 
 1 53 His death, 26th June 1439. 
 
 154 xviii. William, 6th Earl of 
 
 Douglas, Earl of Wigtown, 
 
 Lord of Galloway, etc., 1439- 
 1440. 
 
 155 Murder of Douglas and his brother, 
 
 24th November 1440. 
 
 156 Division of the Douglas estates, 
 
 1440. 
 
 157 xix. James "the Gross," 7th 
 
 Earl of Douglas, ist Earl of 
 Avondale, and Lord Balvany. 
 
 159 Slaughter of Sir David Fleming, 
 
 14th February 1406. 
 
 160 James the Gross created Earl of 
 
 Avondale and Justice-General, 
 1437. 
 
 160 Succeeds as 7th Earl of Douglas, 
 
 November 1440. 
 160 His death, 24th March 1443. 
 
 When Archibald, Earl of Wigtown, succeeded his father as 
 5 th Earl of Douglas the sun of chivalry was already far on 
 xvii. Archi- its decHne. Henceforward goose-quills and parch- 
 of DouSa^^*^^ ment were to prove more potent in the manufac- 
 Eari of ture of history than sword and lance ; such renown 
 Lo'ngueviu^e"'^ as this Douglas won as a warrior was achieved 
 Lord of before he became chief of his line. Born about 
 Annandaie, 1390) he passcd Several years of his youth, be- 
 1390-1439. tween 1405 and 141 3, as principal hostage for 
 his father, and it was stipulated that should the Earl of 
 Douglas die during absence on parole, the Master of Douglas, 
 as he was then styled, should become King Henry's prisoner 
 in his place.^ 
 
 In 1 4 1 3 that obligation ceased on the discharge of his 
 
 ^ Fraser, iii. 47. 
 149 
 
150 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 father's ransom. Then came the French Dauphin's appeal 
 to Scotland for aid in his struggle against Henry V. of 
 England, which Parliament answered by the despatch of 
 7000 men under the command of the Earl of Buchan and 
 the Master of Douglas, thereafter styled Earl of Wigtown.^ 
 Landing at La Rochelle, the force went into quarters at 
 Chatillon in Touraine, where at first, it must be confessed, 
 they earned as little favour from the people they had come 
 to assist as the French knights had done in Scotland in 
 1385. They were only remarkable for the amount of wine 
 Battle of mutton they could stow beneath their belts. 
 
 Baug^, 21st Howbeit, they redeemed their character by the 
 March 1421. ^Qj^f^j(,|. ^j^g Bridge of Bauge [21st March 
 1 421], where King Henry's brother, the Duke of Clarence, 
 fell, and his army was routed with terrible slaughter. For 
 his part in this great victory Wigtown received from the 
 Dauphin the title of Comte de Longueville in Normandy, 
 with the lands of Dun-le-roy in Berri,^ barren honours 
 probably, for Longueville, at least, was then in the hands of 
 Gaston de Foix, who was of the English party. 
 
 The fortune of war turned against the Scots later in the 
 season when, with their French allies, the Scots were badly 
 RoutofFres- English at Fresnay-le-Comte ; Sir 
 
 nay-ie- William Douglas of Drumlanrig lost his banner 
 Comte, 1421. ^YiQ flight,^ and, cruellest of all, i 2,000 crowns 
 received for the hard-earned pay of the Scots fell into posses- 
 sion of the victors. Next year [July 1422] a still heavier 
 Battle of disaster befel the Scottish arms at Crevant, where 
 Crevant, they wcrc defeated with the 'loss of 3000 men. 
 July 1422. Then the Dauphin [by this time Charles Vll.] 
 bethought him of sending for the great head of the house 
 of Douglas, and it has been shown how the Earls of 
 Buchan and Wigtown went on that mission, and how 
 
 ^ Among other knights serving in this force were Sir John Stuart of Darnley, 
 Constable of Scotland, Sir Robert Stuart of Ralston, Sir William Swinton, Sir 
 Hugh Kennedy, Alexander Lindsay, brother of the Earl of Crawford, etc. 
 
 ^ Now Dun-sur-Auron, principal town of the canton of Cher. 
 
 ^ Probably his life also, for in his son's retour to the barony of Hawick in 1427 
 he is referred to as having been dead for six years. — Fraser, i. 406, note. 
 
RETURN OF JAMES I. 151 
 
 Wigtown, luckily for himself, remained in Scotland to look 
 after the interests of his family. 
 
 James I. of Scotland was released from his long captivity 
 in March 1424. The Earls of Wigtown, March, and Craw- 
 ford, Sir Herbert Maxwell, Eraser of Lovat, 
 f^mesL Campbell of Argyll, and many others of his 
 to Scotland, subjects high in rank, met him at Durham and 
 escorted him back to his kingdom. " Will ye no 
 come back again ? " had been for long years the refrain 
 of loyal Scottish prayers, but James came back in such 
 mood as made many people wish he had stayed away. 
 The kingdom was in a state of anarchy, and it boded much 
 disturbance of vested interests and acquired habits when the 
 King exclaimed : " If God give me but a dog's life I'll make 
 the key keep the castle and the bracken bush the cow 
 throughout my realm of Scotland." He crossed the Border 
 on 9th April 1424; on 13th May, Walter, eldest son of 
 Murdoch, Duke of Albany, was arrested in his name, with 
 Eleming of Cumbernauld and Boyd of Kilmarnock. On 
 2 1st May James was crowned at Scone, and conferred knight- 
 hood on Alexander, Albany's second son, on the Earl of 
 Wigtown, and five-and-twenty others. Next year, 1 3th 
 March 1425, King James summoned his second Parliament 
 to Perth. On the ninth day of the session the storm broke. 
 Murdoch, Duke of Albany, was seized by the King's com- 
 mand, together with his son Alexander, whom he had 
 knighted not ten months before. Lord Montgomery, and 
 Alexander of Otterburn, Albany's secretary.^ These, with 
 
 ^ In his Douglas Book, so praiseworthy for fulness and clearness of record, 
 Sir W. Fraser has followed Tytler and Burton into a trap laid for them by 
 Goodall, editor of the Scotichronicon. Sir James Ramsay of Bamff explained 
 the blunder by a letter to the Scots7nan, I2th July 1883. The passage 
 {^Scotichronicon^ xvi. c. 10] runs as follows [translated] : — On the ninth day of the 
 Parliament the King arrested Murdoch, Duke of Albany, and his younger son 
 Alexander, whom he had knighted on the day of his coronation with twenty-six 
 others." Goodall interpolated a comma after "coronation," which gave the 
 sense that twenty-six others were arrested ; whereas what Bower meant is that 
 Alexander, who was arrested, had been knighted with twenty-six others. The 
 Earl of Wigtown, by this time 5th Earl of Douglas, and several others of the six- 
 and-twenty, were members of the jury of twenty-one lords which condemned to 
 
152 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Walter, Albany's eldest son, were tried before an assize of 
 twenty-one peers, among whom was the Earl of Douglas, 
 condemned to death, and suffered forthwith upon the 
 Heading Hill of Stirling. 
 
 Only one son of Albany escaped, James Stuart to wit, 
 five of whose men were savagely destroyed, being torn 
 asunder by horses. Thus did King James think to strike 
 terror into the hearts of his nobles, who had carried things 
 with so lawless a hand — roboria — during his absence. It 
 might have improved the effect if, instead of appropriating 
 the taxes raised for his ransom, he had applied them to 
 redeeming his hostages of the best blood in Scotland, who 
 were left to languish in England, where some of them died. 
 
 The municipality of Tours voted ;£"iooo to the Earl of 
 Douglas for his happy accession as 2nd Duke of Touraine, 
 but Douglas was not present, nor did he ever put in any 
 claim to the succession nor derive any revenues from the 
 duchy. Clerks gave him the title, indeed, in drafting 
 charters, etc., and he continued to bear the arms, but he 
 was known officially in Scotland as Earl of Douglas. 
 
 During the rest of King James's reign little is recorded 
 of Douglas. He attended King James in his expedition 
 against the rebel Lord of the Isles in 1429; but in 143 i, 
 for some unknown cause, he and Sir John Kennedy were 
 arrested, Douglas being committed to ward for a short time 
 in Lochleven Castle. 
 
 On 20th February 1437 King James I. paid the penalty 
 of an over-zealous reformer, being assassinated in Perth by 
 Sir Robert Graham, the alleged agent of James's 
 appointed unclc, the aged Earl of Athol. James II., only 
 GeTerr^of " years old, was crowned at Holyrood in March, 
 Scotland, when the Earl of Douglas was appointed Lieu- 
 March 1437. - General of the kingdom, — practically 
 Regent, and the Scottish tragedy entered upon its darkest 
 
 death Murdoch, his two sons, and his father-in-law the Earl of Lennox ; whence 
 it has been argued that they had been suborned during their supposed imprison- 
 ment. That King James did put some constraint upon Douglas and his col- 
 leagues is only too probable, but not by means of imprisonment. 
 
DEATH OF THE 5™ EARL 
 
 153 
 
 phase. The boy King was left to the custody of the Queen- 
 mother, and two knights of families not in the first rank com- 
 peted for the chief authority in the royal household, namely, 
 Sir William Crichton, governor of Edinburgh Castle, and Sir 
 Alexander Livingstone, governor of Stirling Castle, and the 
 Queen conveyed the King to Stirling. So far as the perplexing 
 and contradictory chronicles of the time can be understood 
 and reconciled, Douglas seems to have ruled on the principle 
 
 Figs. 20, 21. — Seals of Archibald, 2nd Duke of Touraine, 5th Earl of 
 Douglas, etc. (1424-1439). 
 
 of laissez faire. Nevertheless, it was so highly undesirable 
 that the King's person should be the subject of contention 
 Death of the between Livingstone and Crichton that he went 
 Dougks Bute to prepare Rothesay Castle for the recep- 
 
 26th June tion of the young monarch. But this project was 
 thwarted by the sudden death of Douglas at 
 Restalrig on 26th June, and the guidance of affairs passed 
 into less trusty keeping. 
 
 The body of the 5 th Earl of Douglas was taken to St. 
 Bride's Church of Douglas, and there interred under a hand- 
 some stone canopy.^ 
 
 He married about 1424— 1425, under Papal dispensation, 
 
 ^ The Latin inscription on the tomb gives the year of his death as 1438 instead 
 of 1439. 
 
154 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Euphemia, daughter of Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine, 
 and the Countess Palatine of Strathern, and had three 
 children [besides two who are supposed to have died 
 young] — 
 
 (1) William [xviii.], who succeeded him. 
 
 (2) David. 
 
 (3) Margaret, the Fair Maid of Galloway, successively 
 
 countess of the 8th and 9th Earls of Douglas. 
 Euphemia, Countess of Douglas, survived her husband, 
 and in the year following his death married, under Papal 
 dispensation, James Hamilton of Cadzow, afterwards Lord 
 Hamilton, although she continued to style herself Countess 
 of Douglas. 
 
 William succeeded as 6th Earl of Douglas in 1439, 
 being then only fourteen years of age, but already a knight 
 xviii. wii- of ten years standing, having been so dubbed by 
 of^DouSa^r'^^ ^^'^^ grand-uncle, James I., at the christening of 
 Earl of Wig- the twin princes Alexander and James. Boece's 
 Galloway accouut of the young earl's extravagance and 
 and Annan- ambitiou is to be read with more reserve than 
 
 dale, 1425- 
 
 1440. even the general narrative of that most untrust- 
 
 worthy scribe, for was not Boece bound to gratify his 
 patron, James V., by blackening the memory of the 
 discredited house of Douglas? Extravagant the young 
 lord may have shown himself, for he had entered upon a 
 heritage so magnificent that it might well have turned an 
 older head, but of ambition he could only have cherished 
 boyish dreams. 
 
 The Queen-mother had privately married Sir James 
 Stuart, the Black Knight of Lorn, as a protection against 
 the rival schemes of Crichton and Livingstone. Vain hope, 
 as it proved, for Livingstone threw her husband into prison 
 and took possession of her son, the boy King. This act was 
 ratified by the Council which sat at Stirling in September 
 1439, the young Earl of Douglas being present. The 
 magnificence of his retinue and his haughty bearing upon 
 this occasion probably roused the apprehensions of Crichton, 
 now Chancellor of Scotland, and of Livingstone, whom the 
 
MURDER OF THE 6™ EARL 
 
 155 
 
 Murder of 
 the Earl of 
 Douglas and 
 his brother, 
 24th Novem- 
 ber 1440. 
 
 Council had recognised as the King's guardian. Crichton 
 and Livingstone had been at open war with each other, but 
 were now reconciled. Perhaps young Douglas had spoken 
 slightingly of these upstarts and of his intention, as near 
 kinsman of the King and chief of the house that had always 
 been first in the royal council, to claim the guardianship. 
 The preface to the coming tragedy is hopelessly obscure. 
 Godscroft follows the fabulous narrative of Boece, and is 
 utterly unworthy of belief. What is probable is that 
 Chancellor Crichton had imbibed, approved, and 
 adopted the 
 first James's 
 policy of 
 br eak i n g 
 the power of the great 
 nobles, and perceived 
 a danger to the State, 
 and especially to his 
 own position therein, 
 in the vast power to 
 which the heir of 
 Douglas succeeded. 
 What is certain is 
 that the earl and his 
 brother David received 
 " pleasant writings " 
 from Crichton bidding them to the King's court, and that they 
 accepted the invitation. They rode together to Edinburgh 
 with Sir Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, and were pre- 
 sented to the King, then a boy of ten years. Dinner was 
 served in the castle ; it is said that while the company sat 
 at table on that grey November afternoon a black bull's 
 head ^ was suddenly placed upon the board. This ominous 
 dish was the signal for one of the most horrible deeds in 
 Scottish history. The gay young earl, his brother, and 
 Malcolm Fleming were seized ; the Douglases were arraigned 
 on the spot before a mock tribunal in presence of the King, 
 
 ^ Sir Walter Scott is responsible for the colour. 
 
 Fig. 22. — Seal of William, 3rd Duke of 
 Touraine, 6th Earl of Douglas, etc. (1439). 
 
156 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 condemned on some unknown charge, taken out into the 
 castleyard, and then and there beheaded. Fleming suffered 
 a like fate a few days later. Probably he was too intelligent 
 a witness of the crime to be suffered to live. 
 
 (goii Qxnni than sink fox sin ! 
 ^Ttb that £'tn fox the Jblack btnit^r 
 ®arl ^otiglas gat ihexzin." 
 
 Whatever may have been the whole scheme and aim in 
 this most ghastly deed, Crichton's immediate purpose was 
 thereby attained, namely, the division of the Douglas 
 estates, and the weakening of the chief of that too 
 powerful house. 
 
 The estates of Douglasdale and other lands passed 
 under the entail of 1342 to James, Earl of Avondale [xix.], 
 Division of while the lordships of Galloway and Bothwell, 
 the Douglas with all the lands inherited from Joanna Moray 
 estates, 1440. Bothwcll, devolved upon the Lady Margaret, 
 only sister of the murdered brothers. Nor was that all. 
 The lordship of Annandale had been granted to Archibald, 
 4th Earl of Douglas, and the heirs of his body, whom 
 failing, to the Earl of March. But George, 1 1 th Earl of 
 March, had been imprisoned by James I. in pursuance of his 
 policy of crippling the feudal lords, and his lands forfeited 
 to the Crown. Now, therefore, on the failure of the Douglas 
 line, Annandale followed the rest of the possessions of March, 
 and became part of the privatum patrimonium of James II. 
 
 Thus was the great dominion of the Earls of Douglas 
 shorn to shreds. To suggest that Chancellor Crichton 
 was acting conscientiously according to his lights in the 
 supposed interests of the kingdom may seem to strain the 
 sentiment of charity beyond what is reasonable. Never- 
 theless, assuming that Crichton perceived a standing menace 
 to the monarchy in the extraordinary ascendency of a single 
 subject, in destroying that subject he was but taking a leaf 
 from the book of his master, James I., and following the 
 example of that master in resorting to the recognised instru- 
 
JAMES "THE GROSS" 
 
 157 
 
 ments of statecraft — the axe and the block. Their youth 
 and inexperience impart a deeper gloom to the fate of these 
 gallant victims than that which broods over the doom of 
 Murdoch and Albany and his sons, or of those Highlanders 
 whose faith in kingly honour had cost them their lives. 
 Crichton was a clumsier disciple of the school than the 
 royal reformer under whom he had been taught, and his 
 stupid cruelty has brought upon him bitter execration for 
 all time to come. 
 
 The murdered earl was but fifteen years of age ; never- 
 theless he left a widow, having married Janet Lindsay, 
 a daughter of the 2nd Earl of Crawford. As late as 1482 
 she received from James III. lands in the lordship of Brechin, 
 in lieu of terce due to her from the lands of Douglas,^ 
 which by that time had been forfeited to the Crown. 
 
 The earldom of Douglas now reverted to James Douglas 
 of Balvany [or Balvenie] in Banffshire, second son of Archi- 
 bald the Grim [xiii.]. James I. had already 
 " the Gross," created him Earl of Avondale and Lord Balvany 
 7th Earl of 1437, and it has been sue^p^ested that he 
 
 Douglas, ist tj/) fc>fc. 
 
 Earl of received the earldom of Douglas by a fresh 
 and"Lord grant from the Crown, the inference being that he 
 Balvany, had condoncd, if not connived in, the fate of his 
 c. 13 1443. yQuj-jg kinsmen and chief ; but there is not the 
 slightest evidence for this suspicion. He succeeded as 
 heir of line under the entail which secured the inheritance 
 to Archibald the Grim and the heirs of his body. He was 
 already an old man, upwards of sixty, when he entered upon 
 the diminished inheritance ; his corpulence had earned for 
 him the sobriquet of " the Gross," and it may well be that it 
 was want of physical and mental energy, and not goodwill 
 towards Crichton, which prevented him, during his short 
 term of possession, from undertaking those measures of 
 vengeance which cost his son, the 8th earl, his life. 
 
 Like other Scottish barons, including those of his own 
 
 ^Exchequer Rolls, vii., Ixiii.-lxviii., 325, 41 1, 466, 554, 632. Much con- 
 fusion has been caused by some of these grants having been made to the 
 countess under the name of Margaret. 
 
158 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 kin, he had acquired the habit in youth of helping himself 
 out of the public funds ; frequent occasions are on record on 
 which he scrupled not to extort from the King's collectors 
 money to which he was not entitled, or compelled them to 
 pass his wool free of duty.^ During his brother's captivity 
 in England, James discharged the office of Warden of the 
 Marches. When Percy, Earl of Northumberland, sought re- 
 fuge in Berwick after the battle of Shrewsbury, James Dou- 
 glas entered into most amicable relations with him ; but no 
 sooner had Percy quitted that city than James's soldiers 
 burnt most of it to the ground. Thereupon King Henry 
 not unreasonably accused Douglas of breach of truce and 
 violation of his oath as Warden. Douglas replied with 
 spirit, bringing counter-charges against the English, and 
 justifying himself at great length in the following character- 
 istic strain : — 
 
 "And quhar yhe say that Berwike that standis in Scotlande, the qwhilk toun 
 yhe call yhouris in yhour sayde lettres, and certayne landis of yhouris wythin 
 Inglande was brende be my men, my will and myn assent, brekand the trewis, 
 and nocht in yhouris, and in the contrar of myn athe, tharto I answer in this 
 maner, that qwhat tyme it like to our lege Lorde the Kynge, and to yhour hee 
 Excellent, to ordane redress to be made be his commissaris and yhouris of all 
 attemptatis done of aythir syde, I sail, with the help of Code, make it well 
 kennyt that I haff trewly kepit myn athe and the trewis, as afiferys to me of 
 resoun. And qwhaever enfourmit yhour Excellence that I hade brokyn myn athe, 
 it had bene fayrar for him to haffe sende me that querelle into wryt vndir his selle 
 [seal], and til haff tane answere greable as afferit to him vnder my seelle agayne, 
 than sua vntrewly in myn absence till enfourme yhour Excellence, for I trayst he 
 has saide mar in myn absence than he dar awow in my presens, for — nocht dis- 
 plece yhour honour — learys [liars] sulde be lytill alowit wyth ony sic worschipfull 
 kynge as yhe are. . . . Hee, almychty prynce, the Haly Gast yow haff in his 
 yhemsall [in himself] euermar. — Wrytyn at Eddynburghe, vnder my selle, the xxvi. 
 day of Julii. 
 
 James of Douglas, Wardane of the Marche.^ 
 
 ' * To ane excellent and a mychty 
 
 prynce, Kynge of Inglande.'^'' 
 
 One of the best known Scottish knights at this time 
 was Sir David Fleming of Biggar and Cumbernauld, son of 
 
 1 Exchequer Rolls ^ iii. 567, iv. 113, 115, 193, 216, 244, 270, 296, 301, 365. 
 ^ Eraser, iv. 67. 
 
SLAUGHTER OF SIR DAVID FLEMING 159 
 
 that Malcolm Fleming who, in 1372, had sold the earldom 
 of Wigtown to Archibald the Grim. He had acted as 
 Slaughter of bailie or steward on part of the Douglas lands, 
 Sir David and the relations between the two families seem 
 
 Fleming:, 14th , , rr 
 
 February to have been quite cordial, until offence arose out 
 1406. q|- ^j^g following circumstance. Isabella, Countess 
 
 of Douglas and Mar, bestowed upon Archibald Douglas, 
 the illegitimate son of her brother [xii.], the barony and 
 lands of Cavers. But because this had been done without 
 the King's consent, Robert III., shortly before his death, 
 cancelled the gift and conferred the barony and its con- 
 comitant office of Hereditary Sheriff of Roxburgh upon 
 Sir David Fleming [August 1405].^ The Earl of Douglas 
 [xvi.] was in captivity in England at that time, so his 
 kinsman, James the Gross, undertook to wipe out the 
 affront in blood. He chose his opportunity in February 
 1406, when Fleming was returning from North Berwick, 
 where he had been seeing the Scottish Crown Prince off on 
 the voyage which ended in his capture by the English. 
 Douglas lay in wait for the knight and attacked him as he 
 rode with his following across Lang Herdmanston Moor. 
 Sir David Fleming was slain, and his company dispersed 
 and captured ; yet this feud must have been more quickly 
 healed than most of its kind, seeing that Sir David's son, 
 Malcolm, was the only friend with the 6th Earl of Douglas 
 and his brother when they were entrapped by Crichton. 
 
 The possessions of James the Gross were very exten- 
 sive, including Balvany, Bocharm, etc., in Banff ; Avoch, 
 Edderdar, Stratherne, and Brachly in Inverness-shire ; Aber- 
 dour and Rattray in Aberdeenshire ; Kilmalaman and 
 one-third of Duffus in Elgin, and Abercorn in Linlithgow- 
 shire, all which he probably received from his brother. 
 Besides these, in 1425 King James confirmed him in 
 possession of Strathavon or Avondale, and Pettinain in 
 Lanarkshire, and Stewarton in Ayrshire.- 
 
 In 1437 James Douglas was created Earl of Avondale, 
 and appointed Justice-General of Scotland. In this favour 
 
 ^ Fiaser, i. 434, quoting charter at Cavers. Ibid,^ i. 437-438. 
 
i6o 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 may be traced the hand of his nephew, the 5 th Earl of 
 Douglas [xvii.], who, it will be remembered, became Regent 
 Created Earl Scotland in that year. As a judge his pro- 
 of Avondaie gress on circuit was not without inconvenience, 
 G^etSoT ^ven to some of his own kin, seeing that 
 ScoUand, Egidia Douglas, Countess of Orkney, complained 
 bitterly to the Council [May 1438] of the 
 spoliation of her lands of Nithsdale by persons in the 
 
 justiciar's following. The Coun- 
 cil promised her redress in the 
 next Parliament, and assured 
 her that her rights should be 
 respected in the meanwhile. 
 To this she replied bluntly that 
 if any attempt were made to 
 hold another court upon her 
 lands she would stop the pro- 
 ceedings.i 
 
 There is only one public 
 appearance recorded of James 
 the Gross after he became chief 
 of the house of Douglas, namely, 
 at a General Council in Edin- 
 burgh in April 144 1.^ He had 
 grown so unwieldy that he probably lived very much 
 ^ ^ retired.^ He died at Abercorn, 24th March 
 James the I443j and was buried in St. Bride's of Douglas, 
 Gross, 24th vvhere his tomb remains, with his recumbent 
 
 March 1443. ' 
 
 effigy thereon, and those of his six sons and 
 four daughters. 
 
 James, 7th Earl of Douglas, married, first, a daughter 
 of Robert, ist Duke of Albany, whose name, by caprice of 
 the chroniclers, has not been recorded. She died about 
 
 Fig. 23. — Justiciary Seal of James 
 7th Earl of Douglas (1440- 1443). 
 
 ^ Fraser, i. 440, quoting original protest at Crookston. 
 2 Acts of Pari. Scot., ii. 56. 
 
 ^ Of this earl's huge bulk some idea may be had from the statement in the 
 Auchinleck Chronick : "To the takin [token] thai said he had in him four stane 
 of talch [tallow] and mair." 
 
imh ;xmtrTa^ef7ijjT)q2tnC3e\t^ comedo ciOT 
 
CHILDREN OF JAMES THE GROSS i6i 
 
 1424 without issue, and before March 1426^ the earl 
 married Beatrix St. Clair, daughter of Henry, Earl of 
 Orkney, by whom he had ten children — 
 
 (i) William [xx.], who succeeded as 8th Earl of 
 Douglas. 
 
 i [(2) James [xxiv.], who succeeded as 9th Earl of Douglas. 
 h1 (3) Archibald [xxi.], who became Earl of Moray. 
 
 (4) Hugh [xxii.], created Earl of Ormond in 1445. 
 
 (5) John [xxiii.], lord of Balvany. 
 
 (6) Henry, Bishop of Dunkeld.^ 
 
 (7) Margaret, married Henry Douglas of Borgue, in 
 
 Galloway,^ and had three sons, Hugh, James, and 
 John. 
 
 (8) Beatrix, married Sir William Hay, Constable of 
 
 Scotland and 1st Earl of Errol. 
 
 (9) Janet, married Robert, 1st Lord Fleming of Cum- 
 
 bernauld, son of Sir David Fleming, whom her 
 father slew on Lang Herdmanston Moor. 
 (10) Elizabeth, said to have married Sir John Wallace of 
 Craigie.* 
 
 The Countess of Douglas never married again, but 
 lived to be forfeited for her share in the rising of her sons 
 against James II. 
 
 ^ On 7th March 1426 James i. granted lands to James Douglas of Balvany 
 and Beatrix, his spouse, in conjunct-fee. — Registrum Magni Sigilli^ ii. No. 39. 
 
 2 Godscroft says that when the 8th Earl went to Rome in 1450 he picked up 
 in Paris his youngest brother George, who was at school there, intending to take 
 him to Rome, but that he died on the journey. This George, however, is not 
 mentioned on the inscription upon his father's tomb. 
 
 ^ Godscroft says she married Douglas, Lord of Dalkeith, and this corresponds 
 with the inscription on the tomb in St. Bride's — dR^rgr^ta ijxor "hwx b« 
 ^aitlmgit ; but Sir W. Fraser observes that Henry Douglas may have acquired 
 some right over Dalkeith during his brother's insanity [Doziglas Book, i. 445], 
 and in 1474 Henry's eldest son Hugh renounced all right over the barony of 
 Dalkeith, in favour of the Earl of Morton, by a deed attested by his brothers 
 James and John {Morton, ii. 222]. Margaret drew her terce from the lands of 
 Borgue and others in Annandale after her husband's death, albeit Borgue was 
 forfeited in 1455. 
 
 * Sir William Fraser says that no confirmation has been obtained of the 
 marriages of Janet and Elizabeth. On the sepulchral inscription in St. Bride's, 
 Janet is mentioned as Joneta bxor Iva i>« biggar zX comttaillb, whereas 
 Elizabeth is only styled rfliarta filia. 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 163 XX. William, 8th Earl of Douglas, 
 2nd Earl of Avondale, Lord 
 of Galloway, etc., 1424-1452. 
 
 163 Is appointed Lieutenant-General, 
 
 April 1443. 
 
 164 Raises war against Chancellor 
 
 Crichton, 20th August 1443. 
 
 164 Marries the Fair Maid of Gallo- 
 
 way, 1444. 
 
 165 Feud between the Black Douglas 
 
 and the Red, 1443. 
 
 166 Douglas claims the Duchy of Tour- 
 
 aine, 1448. 
 
 167 Renewal of Border warfare, 1449. 
 
 168 Fall of the Livingstones, 1449. 
 
 169 Douglas travels to Rome, Novem- 
 
 ber 1450. 
 
 170 His reconciliation with the King, 
 
 1451- 
 
 171 Forms a league with the Earl of 
 
 Crawford, 145 1. 
 
 172 Murder of the Earl of Douglas, 
 
 February 1452. 
 174 xxi. Archibald Douglas, Earl of 
 
 Moray, c. 1427- 145 5. 
 176 Raids Strathbogie, May 1452. 
 176 Defeats Fluntlyat Dunkinty, 1452. 
 
 176 Is forfeited, 1452. 
 
 177 And reinstated, August 1452. 
 177 His death at Arkinholm, 1455. 
 
 177 xxii. Hugh Douglas, Earl of 
 
 Ormond, c. 1429-1455. 
 
 178 Battle of the Sark, 23rd Oct. 1449. 
 
 PACK 
 
 180 Execution of Ormond, 1455. 
 180 xxiii. John Douglas, Lord of Bal- 
 vany, c. 1430- 1463. 
 
 180 Escapes from the battle of Arkin- 
 
 holm, 1455. 
 
 181 Acts in the service of Edward iv., 
 
 1461. 
 
 181 His capture and execution, 1463. 
 181 xxiv. James, 9th Earl of Douglas, 
 
 3rd Earl of Avondale, etc., 
 
 c. 1 425- 1 488. 
 
 183 Defies King James, 1 7thMarch 1 452. 
 
 184 Makes submission to King James, 
 
 28th August 1452. 
 
 185 Marries his brother's widow, 1453. 
 
 186 Release of Malise, Earl of Strath- 
 
 ern, 1453. 
 188 The King makes war on Douglas, 
 1455- 
 
 191 Douglas seeks refuge in England, 
 1453. 
 
 191 Battle of Arkinholm, 1455. 
 
 192 Forfeiture of the Douglases, loth, 
 
 I2th June 1455. 
 
 193 Taking of the Thiieve, 1455. 
 
 196 Douglas's embassy to the Lord of 
 the Isles, June 1461. 
 
 200 The affair of Kirtlebank, 24th 
 July 1484. 
 
 200 Capture of the Earl of Douglas, 
 
 24th July J 484. 
 
 201 His death, 1488. 
 
 201 The Fair Maid of Galloway. 
 
 William, eldest son of James the Gross, had been knighted 
 at the tender age of five years, on the occasion of the 
 
 162 
 
THE EARL 
 
 baptism of the twin sons of James l. In his person the 
 house of Douglas was destined to recover all and more 
 
 than its pristine power and splendour, the result 
 sthEldS-"^' much of William's personal influence over 
 Douglas, 2nd King James II. as of his prudent marriage with 
 dale, Lord of his secoud cousin the Fair Maid of Galloway, 
 etfT^zlnsz namely, Margaret, daughter of the 5 th Earl of 
 
 Douglas [xvii.]. By this marriage the earldom 
 of Wigtown and the lordships of Galloway and Bothwell 
 became reunited with the entailed possessions of the chief 
 of Douglas, whereby the effect of Crichton's murder of 
 the two sons of the senior line was annulled. 
 
 Immediately after his succession to the earldom Wil- 
 liam Douglas, being then eighteen years of age, presented 
 himself at Stirling to do fealty to his King, aged thirteen 
 [April 1443]. If Boece, by a rare accident, has described 
 the truth, the gallant young earl made such a favourable 
 impression upon his liege lord that he was appointed at 
 
 once Lieutenant-General of the realm. History, 
 Lieutenant- silent or exasperatingly contradictory upon a 
 General, thousaud points One would like to have cleared 
 
 April 1443. _ ^ 
 
 Up at this period, presents no reflection of Chan- 
 cellor Crichton's grimace as he viewed the rise of this 
 new star, and foresaw in its projected union with the Fair 
 Maid of Galloway a new dawn of all that effulgence which 
 by his own violent act he had quenched. But Livingstone, 
 still the King's guardian, was fairly a match for his some- 
 time confederate Crichton. He perceived endless advantage 
 to his own faction in the powerful combination to be brought 
 about by the coming alliance, for the Maid of Galloway's 
 mother had married his grandson. Sir James Hamilton. 
 Meanwhile, being stricken in years, he handed over the 
 King and Stirling Castle to the keeping of his son. Sir 
 James Livingstone. , 
 
 Douglas wasted no time in preliminaries. It sounds 
 a thing incredible in modern ears that the whole of the 
 royal forces should have been entrusted to the command 
 of a lad of eighteen ; yet so it was, and on 20th August 
 
i64 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 1443 Douglas laid siege to Crichton's castle of Barn- 
 Dougias where Andrew Crichton held command, 
 wages war Douglas beleaguered the place four days and 
 Crichton, 20th four nights ; on the fifth day he unfurled the 
 August 1443- royal standard, when the garrison capitulated 
 and the castle was razed.^ 
 
 At the Parliament of 4th November following, Crichton, 
 having been summoned to answer a charge of treason, was 
 conspicuous by absence. He, if any one, knew what justice 
 meant in the case of members of the Opposition, and he 
 occupied himself instead by raiding the property of Douglas 
 in Abercorn and Strabrock. In November the General 
 Council at Stirling decreed that all the family and adherents 
 of Crichton should be put to the horn,2 
 
 Douglas and the Maid of Galloway were married in 
 
 1444 amid great rejoicings.^ The bridegroom's brothers, 
 ^ . Archibald and Hugh, were created respectively 
 Fair Maid of Earl of Moray and of Ormond, and John re- 
 Gaiioway, ccivcd the lordship of Balvany. Nor were the 
 
 Livingstones overlooked — Sir James Hamilton 
 being made a lord of Parliament, whereby Douglas's 
 
 political power was considerably 
 increased. 
 
 Meanwhile another branch of 
 the Douglas tree had to be 
 reckoned with. James Douglas, 
 3rd Earl of Angus [xli.], grand- 
 son of George, i st Earl of Angus, 
 who was a son of William, ist 
 Earl of Douglas [xi.], wielded 
 feudal authority only inferior to 
 "^^^ wn^'l °^^^i^7X that of the chief of the senior 
 
 Karl of Douglas (1443-1452}. tt , i i , • i 
 
 Ime. He held his headquarters 
 in Tantallon Castle, that mighty pile which Murdoch, 
 
 1 Auchinkck Chronicle, p. 36. " I.e. proclaimed outlaws. 
 
 ^ Boece, of course, does not miss this opportunity for misstatement, but states 
 that the marriage took place in the lifetime of James the Gross. The Papal 
 dispensation for it is dated 24th July 1444. 
 
THE BLACK DOUGLAS AND THE RED 165 
 
 Duke of Albany, had built on the brink of the North 
 Sea, and thither he withdrew from King James's Court 
 in 1443 and joined Crichton in resisting the royal 
 forces. The origin of the feud thus set afoot between the 
 Black Douglas of Douglasdale and the Red Douglas of 
 Ans^us is very obscure, but perhaps it is not 
 
 Feud between ^ ^ . . ' , r i • i i 
 
 the Black wrong to trace it to jealousy of the rapid ad- 
 thrieT 1^43 vancement of young Earl William. At all events 
 the quarrel began with spirit; Angus is said to 
 have supported Crichton in his raid upon Strabrock and 
 Abercorn, which Fleming of Biggar avenged on behalf of 
 his brother-in-law. Earl William, by a destructive incursion 
 upon the lands of Angus about North Berwick. Fleming, 
 however, was captured by the angry proprietor and put in 
 durance at Tantallon. 
 
 Next, Bishop Kennedy of St. Andrews, a warm Crich- 
 tonian, came on the scene and " cursit solempnitlie with 
 myter and staf and buke and candill contynually a yer," ^ 
 the subjects of this excommunication being the 3rd Earl of 
 Crawford, Livingstone the King's guardian, the whole race 
 of Ogilvys, Hamilton of Cadzow, and others of the party of 
 Douglas, because they had plundered the church lands of 
 St. Andrews. Prelates were generally adept at cursing, 
 but it was seldom that their execrations were so dramatic- 
 ally effective as in this instance. Crawford's son, after- 
 wards the " Tiger Earl," was justiciary of the monastery 
 of Arbroath. Him the monks deposed, exasperated out 
 of measure by his oppression, and appointed Ogilvy of 
 Innerquharity, which brought the Lindsay clan about their 
 walls with fire and sword. Crawford interposed, anxious 
 to keep the peace, but received a mortal wound in the 
 attempt. The Lindsays carried the day and expelled the 
 new justiciar, who sought refuge with his cousin, the 
 widowed Countess of Crawford, in the castle of Finhaven. 
 The bereaved dame sought — and no doubt found — some 
 solace by causing the fugitive to be smothered to death. 
 
 This took place in January 1446, but Angus had already 
 
 ^ Auchinleck Chronicle^ p. 39. 
 
i66 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 been summoned before Parliament [June 1445], which had 
 adjourned from Perth to Edinburgh, where Douglas was 
 besieging Crichton in the castle. Angus, far too wary 
 to run his head into that noose, sulked at Tantallon, 
 while decree of forfeiture was pronounced against him for 
 rebellion.^ When Crichton heard that his principal 
 champion had been thus disarmed he capitulated to 
 Douglas, made submission to the King, and was restored 
 to the Chancellorship. Angus probably came in upon 
 easy terms at the same time, and all parties made show of 
 reconciliation. 
 
 For the next three years the Earl of Douglas does not 
 
 appear in any public 
 event, but seems to have 
 divided his time be- 
 tween his castles of 
 Newark, Thrieve, and 
 Douglas, settling dis- 
 putes between his vassals 
 and attending to the 
 ordinary duties of a 
 feudal lord.^ It was 
 probably in mid-winter 
 1448 that he assembled 
 the oldest freeholders 
 and dwellers on the 
 Border at Lincluden 
 and collected from them 
 their version of the Border laws instituted by Archibald 
 the Grim [xiii.], which laws he set in proper form 
 for future observance.^ It is but another instance of the 
 Douglas perplexing relations between parties at this 
 claims the time that Crichton, being: sent on an embassy 
 
 Duchy of _ , t 
 
 Touraine, to T rance to renew the ancient alliance and to 
 1448. arrange the marriage of King James with Marie 
 
 of Gueldres, was employed by Douglas to press his claim. 
 
 Fig. 25.— Seal of William, 8th Earl of 
 Douglas (1 443- 1 45 2). 
 
 Acts of Pari, Scot.^ ii. 59. 
 
 ^ Acts of Pari. Scot., ii. 64. 
 
 2 Fraser, i. 460, 461. 
 
RAID AND COUNTER-RAID 
 
 and that of his aunt, the widow of Archibald, 4th Earl of 
 Douglas [xvi,], upon the revenues of the Duchy of Tour- 
 aine. Charles Vll. repudiated all liability, reminding the 
 claimants that the grant of the duchy had been made to the 
 heirs male of Archibald Douglas, Duke of Touraine [xvi.], 
 and that the Earl of Wigtown [xvii.], son of the said 
 Archibald, had never done homage for the duchy, which had 
 been bestowed upon another. He expressed great affection 
 for the house of Douglas, deplored the calamity which had 
 befallen it at the battle of Verneuil, but the fortune of war 
 must be borne as God should choose to send it. He did 
 not undervalue the services of the Scots nobles, he said, but 
 the depredations of their followers upon his subjects ought 
 not to be left out of account ! 
 
 About this time Dundas of that ilk appears as a rebel, 
 holding his castle against the King. When it surrendered 
 the contents were divided between the King, Douglas, 
 Crichton, and their friends. The building was demolished, 
 and Douglas was rewarded by a cantle of the forfeited 
 lands, to wit, half of Echlin, Dalmeny, and Dundas. 
 
 It was probably in the spring of 1449 [a twelvemonth's 
 margin one way or the other has to be allowed to many 
 Renewal of ^ates of this period] that affairs on the Border 
 Border war- passed into an acute phase. It was a time of 
 are, 1449. truce, to be sure,^ but the perennial feud between 
 the houses of Douglas and Percy was of too old standing 
 to be greatly affected by mere international circumstances. 
 Were not Douglas and Percy near neighbours ? — what should 
 be expected of them but that they should each raid the lands 
 of the other when occasion served ? for so neighbours who 
 knew their business did always use. So young Percy and 
 Sir Robert Ogle burned Dunbar in May ; the Earl of Salis- 
 bury did the like to Dumfries in Tune. Next, Douglas, 
 with his brother Ormond, made a dash for Alnwick, left it 
 in ashes, returned a few weeks later and reduced Wark- 
 worth to the same condition. Oh, it was glorious ! — life 
 stretched out in grand vistas before these two earls, who 
 
 ^ Ten years of truce had been proclaimed on i8th May 1444. 
 
THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 between them could reckon some five-and-forty summers at 
 most. For their poorer vassals and tenants, perhaps, the 
 prospect was not quite so enchanting. 
 
 Douglas was back in Stirling in time for the King's 
 marriage, which was celebrated on 3rd July 1449. Great 
 rejoicings took place around the war-worn fortalice on the 
 Forth. At a great tournament which was held in the 
 King's Park, the French chronicler De Coussy asserts that 
 the Earl of Douglas was present with 4000 to 6000 men ; 
 but as he was Lieutenant-General of Scotland, these may 
 have been royal troops. 
 
 And now the mystery deepens ; there befel what 
 the Auchinleck chronicler can only describe as " a gret 
 Fall of the ferlie [marvel]." Douglas and Livingstone had 
 Livingstones, been closely allied against Crichton, who had 
 regained office and royal favour, chiefly, it may 
 be assumed, through the influence of Bishop Kennedy. 
 Suddenly King " James with the firye face," aged nineteen, 
 and scarcely two months married, turned savagely upon 
 the Livingstone faction, clapped in prison his guardian 
 Sir James, with his father and his two sons — three genera- 
 tions of them. Parliament, meeting in January 1450, 
 forfeited all the Livingstone lands and sent the two sons of 
 Sir James to the scaffold. Sir James himself managed to 
 escape from Blackness Castle, and found refuge with his 
 son-in-law the Earl of Ross, Lord of the Isles. 
 
 Douglas deemed it no shame to profit by the fall of his 
 sometime colleague and confederate, receiving the lands of 
 Culter and Ogilface in Lanark forfeited by Livingstone, 
 besides a further slice of Dundas territory in the shape of 
 Blairmakkas in the same county.^ 
 
 In all this dark work historians have traced the hand of 
 Bishop Kennedy of St. Andrews, who had acquired great 
 ascendency over the King, and to whose influence the 
 restoration of Crichton must have been mainly due. 
 Having destroyed the Livingstones, he turned his hand to 
 curbing the power of Douglas [Crichton, one may assume, 
 
 1 J^eo-. Magni Sigilli, ii. 316, 31 7, 357- 
 
DOUGLAS GOES TO ROME 
 
 being nothing loth], and probably was at the bottom of the 
 earl's journey to Rome, on a safe-conduct extending over 
 three years, in order to attend the Papal Jubilee. Up to 
 this time, November 1450, Douglas continued in full 
 favour with the King, and was by far the most 
 tJavffto powerful subject of the Crown. He remained 
 Rome, No- constantly at court, and appears as witness to 
 
 vember 1450. • 1 1 t» ^ 
 
 nearly every royal charter of the period/ But 
 no sooner was his back turned than sinister agencies began 
 to work against him. He sailed in a ship commanded by 
 one Hugh Brok,^ having in his suite his brother James, 
 Master of Douglas, the Lords Hamilton, Graham, Saltoun, 
 Seton, Oliphant, besides six knights, fourteen esquires, and 
 eighty men-at-arms.^ 
 
 Douglas left one of his brothers to administer his estates 
 during his absence ; but he had not been long in Rome ere 
 disquieting home-news hastened his return to Scotland. 
 William Turnbull, Bishop of Glasgow, had joined the 
 Kennedy-Crichton league against him,* and, either through 
 this agency or because of maladministration by Douglas's 
 representative, great disorder had arisen among the earl's 
 vassals. The King collected troops and proceeded to 
 restore peace by making war upon the Douglas lands, 
 levelling Crag Douglas, a stronghold on Yarrow, to the 
 ground. Pitscottie and Boece, holding briefs against the 
 Douglas, account for all this by charging the earl with 
 cruelty and oppression. The earl was no more than five- 
 and-twenty, and it was only in accord with the many ex- 
 amples of feudal sway that his rule over those vast estates 
 should have been marked by some tyranny and injustice. 
 But there are two sides to every question ; the Auchinleck 
 chronicler represents the other side of this one when, after 
 telling of Douglas's return from Rome and his restoration 
 to the King's favour, he adds that " all gud Scottis men 
 war rycht blyth of that accordance." Upon his reconcilia- 
 tion with the King, Douglas surrendered all his possessions 
 
 ^ Fraser, i. 465. 2 Exchequer Rolls, v. 439. 
 
 ^ Reg. Magni Sigilli, 301, 340. Law's MS., quoted by Fraser, i, 467. 
 
I70 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 and received a fresh grant of them, confirming them to 
 .,. himself, his four brothers and their heirs male. 
 
 Reconciliation ' 
 
 with the King, The details of lands thus dealt with, as set 
 forth in the charters, convey some idea of the 
 great extent of this young noble's possessions.^ It is to 
 be noted that these are quite independent of the estates of 
 his brothers, the Earls of Moray and Ormond and the lord 
 of Balvany. There is a curious absolving clause to the effect 
 that Douglas is to enjoy his lands as fully and freely as did 
 his predecessors, notwithstanding all crimes committed by 
 him or his uncle the deceased Earl Archibald. It is not 
 to be supposed that the King read everything that he 
 signed, albeit he certainly possessed more schoolcraft than 
 many exalted personages of his time. May one discern 
 the finger of Bishop Kennedy, or Bishop Turnbull, or 
 Chancellor Crichton in the suggestion conveyed by this 
 uncomplimentary paragraph ? 
 
 Deeper and darker grows the gloom after this gleam of 
 radiance. Boece and Pitscottie vie with each other in piling 
 up evidence against Douglas to account for and justify his 
 approaching doom. Boece laboured at what he wished to 
 be taken as history seventy years after the days of this 
 Earl of Douglas ; Pitscottie about five-and-twenty years 
 later than Boece : yet Pitscottie managed to collect some 
 stories to Douglas's discredit which find no place with 
 Boece. Upon such evidence who would hang a mouse? 
 
 1 Reg. Magni SigilH, ii. Nos. 463, 464, 466-477, 474-482, 503, 504. 
 County of Lanark. — The earldom and castle of Douglas, with the ferm of 
 
 Ruglen ; the lordship and castle of Bothwell, with Cormannock ; the 
 
 sheriffdom of Lanark ; Culter and Craufordjohn. 
 County of Ayr. — Trabreath, Stewarton, Dunlop. 
 
 Counties of Selkirk and Peebles. — The Forests of Ettrick and Selkirk, Glen- 
 whim ; Lauderdale, with Romanno and Kingsmeadow. 
 
 Galloway. — The whole lordship of Galloway, east and west ; the earldom of 
 Wigtown ; the castles of Thrieve, Preston, and Buittle. 
 
 Roxburghshire. — Brondon, Sprouston, Bedrule, Smailholm ; Eskdale, with 
 Stablegorton. 
 
 County of Linlithgow. — The barony and castle of Abercorn. 
 County of Haddington. — Bolton. 
 
 County of Aberdeen. — Aberdour, and the castle and rock of Uundarg. 
 
DOUGLAS'S LEAGUE WITH CRAWFORD 171 
 
 yet rests on no better foundation the widely credited 
 legend of the fate of Maclellan of Bombie. It runs that 
 Maclellan, having incurred the displeasure of the Black 
 Douglas, was confined in Douglas Castle.^ Sir Patrick 
 Gray, Maclellan's uncle, arriving with the King's order for 
 Maclellan's release, was hospitably entertained at dinner by 
 the earl. While they sat over their wine, Maclellan, in 
 accordance with Douglas's commands, was beheaded in the 
 castleyard. Upon similar evidence — that is, none whatever 
 — rests the story of the hanging of Sir Herbert Herries of 
 Terregles for raiding in Annandale. Heaven knows, there 
 is enough of well-authenticated horror in the story of these 
 times, and nothing improbable in the nature of these alleged 
 outrages ; but who would care to found upon charges which 
 have no more real weight than tavern gossip ? If, as 
 alleged, the Earl of Douglas was present with the King 
 at Edinburgh on 26th December 145 i and 13th January 
 1452, that would seem inconsistent with his being under 
 the King's displeasure because of the butchery of 
 Maclellan. 
 
 It is tolerably clear, however, albeit there is no written 
 proof thereof, that Douglas had entered into a close league 
 ^ .^^ of friendship with the " Tiger " Earl of Crawford, 
 the Earl of for purposes defensive and, should need arise, 
 ^45^^^°*^^^' offensive, and that Crichton and the bishops per- 
 suaded the King that such a formidable alliance 
 was a menace to the dynasty. In what followed it is safest 
 to accept the account of the nearest contemporary chronicle, 
 written apparently with no bias either way.^ Early in 
 February Sir William Lauder of Hatton, a friend of 
 Douglas, though himself under sentence of forfeiture, 
 brought a summons to the earl to attend the King at 
 Stirling. There was abundant precedent for suspicion in 
 a mandate of this nature, but, as if to allay it, Lauder 
 brought a safe-conduct for Douglas given under the King's 
 hand in council. Accordingly, the earl rode to Stirling, 
 
 ^ So Pitscottie ; other and later writers lay the scene in the Thrieve. 
 ^ Atichinleck Chronicle. 
 
172 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 was graciously received by the King, and bidden to dine 
 and sup on the morrow. He heard men talking of his 
 league with the Earls of Crawford and Ross, and probably 
 divined what was in the air ; nevertheless, he boldly pre- 
 sented himself at King James's table. 
 
 Dinner passed quietly, and was followed by supper, 
 all present, it may be supposed, having taken quite as 
 much wine as was good for anybody. After supper, at 
 seven o'clock, James of the Fiery Face beckoned Douglas 
 into an inner chamber desiring to confer with him. The 
 interview was a short one ; the subject, it is supposed, 
 being the league with Crawford — the King demanding 
 Murder of ^^^^ Douglas should dissolve it. Douglas 
 Douglas, Feb- declared either that he could not or would not 
 ruaryi4S2. upon which the King rushed on him, 
 
 exclaiming : " Then if you will not, this shall ! " and struck 
 him with his dagger in the collar and down the body. Sir 
 Patrick Gray finishing the bloody work with a stroke from 
 a pole-axe. Darnley, Boyd, Glendinning, Cranstoun, and 
 Stewart were at hand also, each making officious display 
 of loyalty by stabbing the corpse. 
 
 About the motives for this crime have been many specu- 
 lations. The most probable explanation seems to be that 
 Crawford, if not already in rebellion, was on the brink 
 thereof. The very existence of the monarchy appeared to 
 James to depend on breaking up the formidable combination 
 between the two earls ; perhaps, in fact, it did so depend. 
 Should Douglas refuse to throw over his ally he was 
 doomed ; innocent or guilty, he had enough enemies about 
 the King to ensure the Crown a verdict if he were tried for 
 high-treason. The King, heated by wine, was carried away 
 by a gust of passion, anticipating the slower process of 
 justice. All this is not hard to decipher. Remains — the 
 safe-conduct. Whether Douglas should be struck down in 
 hot blood or arrested for formal trial equally involved a 
 breach of the kingly honour ; but was there in effect a safe- 
 conduct? Undoubtedly one had been granted. Crawford's 
 rebellion was not put down till i 8th May, which afforded 
 
MURDER OF DOUGLAS 
 
 173 
 
 excuse for Parliament not to examine the case against the 
 King till 1 2th June. Then they went into it, and, with 
 uneven logic, pronounced James guiltless, because on the day 
 before his death Douglas had publicly and contemptuously 
 renounced the protection ; because he had been guilty of 
 oppressions, and had entered into conspiracies ; and because 
 he had brought about his own death by resisting the King's 
 request for aid against rebels. Douglas had scorned to 
 avail himself of the safe-conduct, leaving it at home, where 
 
 Fig. 26. — Seal of James, 9th Earl of Douglas (1452-1488). 
 
 his brothers found it afterwards, and boasted that the King 
 dared not do him injury. 
 
 The only shadow of excuse for King James is one to 
 which recourse must often be had to screen the crimes of 
 Scottish statesmen, namely, that the condition of the realm 
 was so desperate that it required some deus aut diabolus 
 ex machina to redeem it. The anarchy was so complete 
 that James saw no way to maintain rule save by putting 
 down such of his subjects as approached him in power, 
 striking, in short, according to the old Caesarean maxim, 
 at the tallest heads. At the same time, he thought it 
 
174 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 expedient to send a special messenger to King Charles vil. 
 of France with his own account of what had taken 
 place — 
 
 "To explain clearly to your most Christian Majesty recent events in our 
 realm, and notably concerning the death of the late William, Earl of Douglas, 
 and other matters concerning arms and munitions, we have sent our distinguished 
 and confidential esquire, John Addal." ^ 
 
 The remains of the Earl of Douglas were interred at 
 Stirling. He left no children by his wife, the Fair Maid of 
 Galloway, who afterwards married under dispensation her 
 brother-in-law, James, the 9th and last Earl. 
 
 We must now retrace our steps to 1445, when Archi- 
 bald and Hugh, brothers of the 8th Earl of Douglas, were 
 ennobled, and John became Lord Balvany. 
 
 James and Archibald, the second and third sons of 
 James the Gross [xix.], were twins, of which their mother 
 xxL Archi- declared that James was the elder.^ During the 
 bald Douglas, lifetime of his brother, the 8th Earl, James was 
 Moray, 1445- known by the ancient style of Master of Douglas. 
 1455. Archibald, having married Elizabeth, daughter 
 
 and co-heiress with her elder sister of James Dunbar, Earl 
 of Moray, received, on 26th April 1452, sasine of the lands 
 of Kintore. The sisters Dunbar resigned these lands, and 
 by a peculiar entail, in which Sir William Eraser discerns 
 the deliberate intention of the Douglas family to annex the 
 earldom of Moray ,^ the elder sister, Janet Dunbar, was set 
 aside, and the succession resettled on the heirs of Archibald, 
 whom failing on Archibald's brothers and their heirs, whom 
 failing upon the heirs of Archibald's wife Elizabeth. 
 
 During his eldest brother's lifetime Moray took no 
 active part in public affairs, being of a peaceable disposition, 
 without ambition or taste for war. Nevertheless, he attended 
 pretty regularly in successive Parliaments from 1445 to 
 1450. The next two years he spent chiefly, if not entirely, 
 in the north, adding to and beautifying his castle of Darna- 
 
 ^ Letters and Papers^ i. 315. 
 2 Reg. Magni Sigilli, ii. No. 301. ^ Fraser, i, 447. 
 
"THE BUKE OF THE HOWLAT" 
 
 175 
 
 way, where he built the great hall, which was long believed 
 to be the work of a more famous Earl of Moray, Thomas 
 Randolph, nephew of Robert the Bruce. It was at Darna- 
 way that the priest Richard Holland composed his uncouth 
 poem. The Buke of the Howlat^ in which Pinkerton fancied 
 he could detect an elaborate allegory, uncomplimentary to 
 King James II., but which Sir Walter Scott pronounced to 
 be no more than " a poetical apologue, upon a plan used 
 not only by Chaucer but by many of the French minstrels, 
 without any view whatever to local or national politics." 
 
 The poem was written, the bard tells us, to please the 
 Countess of Moray — 
 
 "^hus for -mz boiu ^ x,f ^ttnbar br^to i this itgtf,^ 
 ^jjtoit^ toitlt ant ^otoglits, anb baith toni* that botois." ^ 
 
 But indeed her ladyship's critical faculty cannot have been 
 fastidious if she derived much pleasure from the piece. It 
 describes, in excruciatingly alliterative lines, the successful 
 attempt of the owl, by the help of other birds, to move the 
 peacock, as pope among feathered fowl, to relieve him of 
 his ignominious form. The verses, perhaps, are no worse 
 than those of other Scottish " makaris " of the period, but 
 their chief interest consists in the introduction of an elaborate 
 panegyric on the house of Douglas. Few people might be 
 able ofihand to give the original reference for the well- 
 known phrase, " Douglas, Douglas, tender and true ! " It 
 comes from the following stanza : — 
 
 "dDff thi i)0tichtj) ^rrtoslas to b^te'^ i nu lirts; 
 ^har arm£0 of anctstrs honorable ag, 
 (^nhilk oft hipthit the ^rtise in hi;3 iiistrrs, 
 ^harfor he hlissit that hinb hatb in assa^.' 
 Peib the torit of thar tuerk to yiViX, toitnes, 
 Jfnrth on matir to mnse, i muse as 5 mag. 
 %\it saiii p^ersctoantis ^ 52i)e iuas grathit*^ i ges, 
 ^rnsit tDtth ane grene tre, gnbts ant) ^jag, 
 
 ^ Printed for the Bannatyne Club, 1823. The poem was composed, or at 
 least finished, in 1453, after the murder of the Earl of Douglas. 
 2 Dove. ^ Ditty. ^ Mated. ^ Doves. 
 
 ^ Indite. ' Bold in action. ^ Pursuivant's. '-^ Harnessed, girthed. 
 
176 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 %htct botz htmthis on hxztb blgtht^t ot hz)aiz ; 
 
 (?Dn ilk hmQh til embrace 
 
 Writtttt tit a: bill teas, 
 
 (D ^0h35la0, (S) ^£rb30la5, tenbit anb tretoe." ^ 
 
 The tranquil life at Darnaway was rudely disturbed by 
 the tragedy at Stirling, and Moray behoved to unfurl his 
 banner, muster his vassals, and exact venp^eance, 
 
 Moray raids , . . 
 
 strathbogie, even from the King himself, for the mortal injury 
 May 1452. ^Qj^g Yiis house. Huntly, as the King's " luf- 
 tennend," ^ was out against the rebel Crawford ; Moray 
 took what lay nearest his hand, and harried Huntly's lands 
 of Strathbogie. Huntly encountered Crawford at Brechin 
 on 1 8th May, and defeated him in the " battle of the 
 Billmen," then hurried north to chastise Moray. Coming 
 to the town of Elgin, he found the burgesses and towns- 
 people about evenly divided, one-half being for the King 
 and himself, the other half for Moray, parties being separ- 
 ated only by the breadth of a street. He burnt Moray's 
 part of the town, " and hereupon," says Godscroft, " arose 
 the proverb — ' Half done, as Elgin was burnt.' " Moray 
 watched the fire from a strong position on the Drum of 
 Pluscarden, two or three miles distant, whence at first he 
 wisely refused to move, although Huntly was wasting his 
 farmlands before his eyes. But, watching his 
 Huntly at Opportunity, he fell upon a body of four or 
 Dunkinty, five hundred horse which had dispersed in the 
 ay 1452. business of plunder, and drove them into the 
 Bog of Dunkinty, near Pittendreigh, whence very few 
 escaped alive — 
 
 "SEhm left thou thg men, thou (^oxtoxt so ^as? 
 In the boQ oi ^nnkintg, moioing the hag." 
 
 For this escapade Moray was forfeited, and his earldom 
 was conferred upon his brother-in-law, the Chancellor's 
 Forfeiture of eldest son, Sir James Crichton of Frendraught, 
 Moray, 14S2. who was the husband of Janet Dunbar, the dis- 
 inherited co-heiress of March. But Crichton drew no 
 
 ^ Buke of the Howlat, stanza xxxi. ^ Auchinleck, p. 48. 
 
THE EARL OF ORMOND 
 
 177 
 
 substantial profit from the earldom, for in August of the 
 same year came the temporary reconciliation of the 
 Douglases with the King, after which there is evidence to 
 His rein- show that Moray was in full enjoyment of his 
 statement, possessious.^ The subscqueut acts of the Earl 
 August 1453. Moray, until his death on ist May 1455, will 
 be more conveniently told under the memoir of the 9th 
 Earl of Douglas. Elizabeth, Countess of Moray, must have 
 had a keen eye for business ; nineteen days only after 
 her husband had fallen at the battle of Arkinholm she 
 made a contract of marriage with the Earl of Huntly's 
 eldest son, whom she married, 
 thinking to convey her first 
 husband's earldom to his 
 ancient foe. But the project 
 miscarried ; the earldom was 
 forfeited to the Crown ; the 
 heartless Gordon divorced 
 Elizabeth on a plea of con- 
 sanguinity, and in 1459 
 married Annabella, sister of 
 James 11.^ Elizabeth sought 
 consolation in a third mar- 
 riage with Sir John Colquhoun 
 of that ilk and of Luss, 
 which took place about 1462. By her marriage with 
 Douglas, Earl of Moray, she had two children, James and 
 Janet, of whom nothing is known.^ 
 
 When Hugh Douglas, fourth son of James the Gross, 
 and twin brother of Archibald, Earl of Moray 
 ETougilsfEari [^^i-]) was Created Earl of Ormond in 1445, he 
 ofOrmond, cannot have been more than sixteen years old. 
 
 He derived his title from part of the barony of Ard- 
 mannoch, bestowed upon him by his eldest brother, William, 
 
 Fig. 27. 
 
 -Seal of Archibald Douglas, 
 Earl of Moray. 
 
 ^ The Chiefs of Grants by William Fraser, iii. 22. 
 
 " From whom also he was divorced in 1471. He married a third time, in 
 [476, Elizabeth, widow of Andrew, ist Lord Gray. 
 ^ Fraser, i. 450. 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
178 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Earl of Douglas, together with the lands of Avoch, Brachly, 
 and Petty in Moray ; Rattray, Aberdour, and Crimond in 
 Aberdeenshire, and Dunsyre in Lanarkshire.^ His name 
 appears as sitting in Parliament in 1445 and 1449, be- 
 tween which dates, or probably in the latter year, he sought 
 distinction in the manner traditional with young chevaliers 
 [and old ones too, for that matter] of his race, by perform- 
 ing an exploit upon the English. 
 
 With a light heart, therefore, Ormond joined his 
 brother's expedition against the Percys in the summer of 
 1449,^ and in the autumn of that year won a 
 
 Battle of , , r 1 1 1 1 . -r^ 
 
 the Sark, or well-fought battle on his own account. Percy, 
 Lochmaben- qI^^q^^ gon of the Earl of Northumberland, 
 
 stane, z^rd ' 
 
 October marched after harvest with 6000 men to avenge 
 1449 [?]• ^j^g injury done upon his lands, and encamped 
 on the banks of the Sark, near Gretna. Ormond's scouts 
 brought word as to their whereabouts, and the young earl 
 immediately prepared to attack them. Percy, who had a 
 contingent of Welshmen with him, recalled all his foragers 
 in good time and stood upon his defence. Ormond 
 advanced in three columns. The centre he kept in his own 
 command ; his right was under Wallace of Craigie, " ane 
 nobill knycht of sowerane manheid " ; while in command of 
 the left were Herbert, Lord Maxwell, and the Laird of 
 Johnston, two chiefs whose clans were soon to be at mortal 
 and memorable feud. 
 
 Boece and Pitscottie would have blushed to record a 
 general action without a verbatim report of the com- 
 mander-in-chiefs speech. Accordingly, they put one of 
 more than common bombast to Ormond's credit, and then 
 proceed to describe the combat. The English archery fire 
 staggered the Scots attack ; fortunately, Wallace was ready 
 with a long and eloquent speech [reported as usual by our 
 faithful chroniclers], whereby " his men was sa inrageit and 
 ruschit sa furieouslie wpoun the Inglisch wangaird with 
 exis [axes] speiris and halbertis " that Magnus Redbeard's 
 
 ^ Exchequer Rolls, vi. 162, 212, 265. 
 
 ^ The Auchinleck Chronicle puts it in October 1448. 
 
BATTLE OF THE SARK 
 
 men broke and fled. Magnus ^ himself, a redoubtable 
 leader, was slain ; the panic spread and great slaughter 
 followed, many of the English perishing in the estuary of 
 the Sark, in which the tide was at flood. The English lost, 
 it is said, about two thousand men ; Percy was taken 
 prisoner with many others, which brought to the captors 
 " sic aboundance of riches, silluer, and gold gottin in the 
 feild that never was the lyke sene in na mans tyme befoir. 
 The spoillzie was partit [divided] amangis the Scottismen 
 efter the rait of airmes." ^ The Scots counted their loss in 
 slain at 600 ; Wallace of Craigie dying afterwards of his 
 wounds, for " the battel was fouchin witht great cruelltie." 
 
 Young Ormond won great renown by this exploit, 
 being " tretit and bankitit [banqueted] witht the kingis 
 maiestie witht great magnifiecence," and Pitscottie reports 
 a long after - dinner " barring " [harangue] in which 
 the King besought the brothers Douglas to observe 
 " quhat honour comes throw wyse and seage counsall be 
 the hie feliecitie and renoune that chances to all subiectis 
 quhene they ar rewllit gladlie and wnder the obedience of 
 ane king," and exhorted them to good behaviour in future.^ 
 
 Sir William Eraser thinks that Godscroft is right in 
 stating that, when William, Earl of Douglas [xx.], and 
 his brother James, went to Rome in 1450, Ormond was left 
 in charge of the estates, and not John of Balvany, as Boece 
 and Pitscottie make out. John was very young at the 
 time, probably not twenty ; his elder brother, Moray, was 
 busy building and encouraging literature in the north ; 
 Ormond, the next in age, had distinguished himself at the 
 battle of the Sark, and it was he, most likely, who ruled in 
 the earl's absence, and must bear whatever is true in the 
 censure bestowed by the last-named historians upon the 
 administrator of Douglas. 
 
 ^ Not Redman, as Pinkerton opined. Magnus ritbente jiibd egues auratus 
 is Boece's description, which maybe interpreted, " Magnus of the red ' mane,' or 
 beard." Sheriff Mackay quotes a French MS. [Brit. Mus., Vesp. c. xvi. p. 41] 
 as styling this unidentified knight Barhcrouse le gratjd [Pitscottie, ii. 347]. 
 
 2 Pitscottie, i. 76. 
 
 ' See Appendix B, p. 203, The Battle of the Sark, or Lochmabenstane. 
 
i8o THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 In 1454, during the brief favour that gleamed upon 
 the Douglases before the final catastrophe, Ormond was 
 Execution Sheriff of Lanark ; ^ in the following year he 
 of Ormond, suffered on the scaffold, and his possessions 
 were forfeited to the Crown.^ He was married, 
 though his wife's name is not known, and left a son, Hugh, 
 who became Dean of Brechin, and executed indentures 
 with the 5th Earl of Angus, in 1493 and 1496, whereby 
 he bound himself to resign to Angus any lands not actually 
 in the King's hands to which he might be heir, reserving 
 to himself a liferent.^ 
 
 John, fifth son of James the Gross, though not more than 
 fifteen at most in 1445,* was made a lord of Parliament 
 xxiii. John ^^at year, under the title of Lord of Balvany. 
 Douglas, His possessions were the lands of Balvany, 
 
 Lord of ^ , , , ^ 
 
 Balvany, Boharm, and Botriphny, all in Banffshire. Boece 
 c. 1430-1463- mentions him as taking part with his brothers 
 James and Hugh in their demonstration at Stirling against 
 the King in 1452, and the following year he is named with 
 his brothers in a safe-conduct to England.^ After that 
 nothing is known about him till the battle of Arkinholm, 
 I 8th May 1455, where we have it on the authority of King 
 James II., in his letter to Charles VII. of France, that John 
 of Balvany was present and escaped into England. In the 
 wholesale forfeiture of the Douglas lands which followed 
 this defeat, John is specifically charged with having helped 
 his mother Beatrix, Countess of Douglas, in fortifying 
 Abercorn Castle against the King. He was included in the 
 proclamation issued in July 1455 against his brother, the 
 Earl of Douglas, prohibiting any assistance to be given to 
 them or to their mother because of their treasonable dealings 
 with the English.^ Nothing more is heard of John during 
 the rest of James ll.'s life ; but after the death of that King 
 
 ^ Excheqner Rolls, vi. i6o, i6i. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 212, 265, 377, 465, 480, 524. 
 
 3 Fraser, iii. 159, 160, 
 
 ^ In the Biike of the Howlat Holland speaks of him as quite a youth in 1453. 
 ^ Kotuli Scoiue, ii. 362. ^ Acts of Pari. Scot., ii. 43, 77. 
 
THE LAST EARL OF DOUGLAS i8i 
 
 in 1460, Edward IV. being King of England, he joined his 
 brother the earl on a mission from the Enp;lish 
 
 JohnofBal- . . ^ 
 
 vany and the Council to stir up the Lord of the Isles to 
 Sstelf ^ebellion.i For this service King Edward 
 with Edward granted him an annuity of £100 from the 
 " customs of Southampton,^ and for two or 
 
 three years thereafter he co-operated with his brother the 
 earl in his schemes against the young King of Scotland. 
 The Scottish Council set a price of 1200 merks upon his 
 head, which brought about his capture in the summer of 
 Capture and ^4^3* John Scott and eight others apprehended 
 execution of him in Eskdale, and conveyed him to Edinburgh, 
 Baivany, 1463. ^^j-^^j.^ twelve days in prison and was 
 
 then beheaded. So far as is known, John of Baivany died 
 unmarried. 
 
 In 1 447 James Douglas of Heriotmure [xxiv.], second son 
 of James the Gross [xix.], entered into an agreement with 
 . , his twin brother, Archibald [xiv.! to abide by 
 
 XXIV. James, ' l j' j 
 
 9th Earl of their mother's decision as to which should be 
 Earfof Avon- accounted the elder born. She declared under 
 dale, Lord of oath in favour of Tames, whereupon formal 
 
 Galloway, . j ^ 1. 
 
 Bothwell, etc., declaration was made of the same, and James 
 c. 1425-1488. known thenceforward as Master of Douglas.^ 
 
 James at this time cannot have been more than just of age, 
 and two years later he accompanied his brother in the raid 
 upon Alnwick. At the festivities to celebrate the marriage 
 of James ii., in July 1449, three Scottish champions, to wit, 
 the Master of Douglas, John Ross of Halkhead, and James 
 Douglas, brother of the Laird of Lochleven, encountered in 
 the lists three cavaliers of Burgundy, namely, Jacques de 
 Lalain, Sir Simon de Lalain, his uncle, and Herve Meriadec, 
 Lord of Longueville and squire to the Duke of Burgundy. 
 Meriadec was antagonist to the Master of Douglas, and 
 felled him with two blows of his axe. He recovered, how- 
 ever, and attacked Meriadec again, which displeased the 
 King, who threw his baton into the lists to stop the combat. 
 
 ^ Foedera, xi. 474. ^ Bain, iv. 269. 
 
 ^ Reg. Magni Sigilli^ ii. Nos. 301, 355, 401. 
 
i82 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Douglas's men, enraged at the fall of their master, broke 
 into the enclosure ; the King ordered them to be seized, 
 upon which they took to their heels.^ 
 
 After returning from Rome with his brother, the earl, 
 in 145 I, the Master of Douglas passed into England under 
 King Henry Vl.'s safe-conduct, and spent some months in 
 London upon business of which the nature is not known. 
 Certain it is that he was in high favour at the English 
 court. Garter King receiving orders to bring him to the 
 
 not only to convey the Master of Douglas to the Border, 
 but also to convey letters from Henry vi. to James II., 
 suggests that Douglas held a commission from King 
 James in these transactions, which would, of course, make 
 any treasonable action on his part doubly disgraceful. 
 There is no proof whatever of any such treason, only sinister 
 suspicion ; and this suspicion, combined with the elder 
 brother's league with Crawford, doubtless contributed to 
 the fear which drove King James to the fatal deed of 20th 
 February 1452. 
 
 The Master of Douglas was back in Scotland before 
 30th January 1452, as attested by his presence at a 
 Justiciary Court held at Dunbar on that day ; but neither he 
 nor any of his other brothers, as alleged by Boece, attended 
 
 ^ Chroniques de Matthieu de Coussy, cited by Fraser, i. 479. ^ Fraser, i. 480. 
 
 Fig. 28. — Seal of James, Master of 
 Douglas, ante 1452. 
 
 King's presence, wherever 
 that might be ; and this has 
 been held to imply treason- 
 able dealings on the part of 
 Douglas. There is certainly 
 nothing, either in the charac- 
 ter of Douglas so far as it 
 is known, or in the course 
 of events then immediately 
 impending, to render such 
 dealings improbable ; but, as 
 Sir William Fraser has 
 pointed out,^ the fact that 
 Garter was commissioned 
 
DOUGLAS DEFIES KING JAMES 183 
 
 the earl upon his visit to the King in the following month, 
 nor is there any authentic record of their movements until 
 17th March. Shortly before that the King was in the 
 The Earl of south, at Lochmaben and Jedburgh,^ and he 
 Dougiasde- certainly was not in Stirling on the 1 7th, when 
 17th March ' James, now 9th Earl of Douglas, rode into 
 that town accompanied by his brother Ormond 
 and Lord Hamilton of Cadzow with 600 men. With 
 blast of trumpet " they gaif the King wncomlie wordis," 
 renouncing their allegiance, displaying the King's safe- 
 conduct granted to their murdered chief, which they tied to 
 the tail of a horse and dragged through the streets.^ The 
 castle was too strong for them, but they vented their wrath 
 by burning as much as possible of the town. If, as Boece 
 states, Douglas was summoned before the Parliament which 
 in June absolved the King from blood-guilt, he treated the 
 summons with disdain, having already offered his allegiance 
 to the King of England, who, on 3rd June and 17th July, 
 directed the Bishop of Carlisle to receive it in terms of 
 certain articles signed by Douglas and carried to King 
 Henry by Garter King.^ As if to emphasise the blood 
 feud, Douglas sent emissaries to Rome to obtain the Pope's 
 dispensation for his marriage with his brother's widow, the 
 Fair Maid of Galloway. Instead of attending Parliament 
 themselves, Douglas and Ormond attached their seals to an 
 insulting document, in which they renounced their allegiance 
 to King James as " ane blodie murtherar of his awin bloode 
 . . . ane fallis [false] wngodlie thrister of innocent bloode 
 . . . witht money wther contumulus sayingis wnworthie to 
 rehearse." * This cartel was affixed by night upon the door 
 of St. Giles cathedral, or upon that of the Parliament House. 
 The Bishop of Carlisle had no opportunity of fulfilling King 
 Henry's commands. While King James forfeited the Earl of 
 
 1 /^eg. Magni Sigilli, ii. Nos. 529-531. 
 
 ^ Thus destroying the most damning proof of the King's treachery. The 
 act reminds one of that of the Irish rebels in 1798, who, it is said, thinking 
 to do irreparable injury to the Bank of Ireland, burnt all its notes that they 
 could lay hands on ! 
 
 2 Rotuli ScoticE, ii. 358. ^ Pitscottie, i. 100. 
 
i84 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Crawford, he displayed surprising clemency towards Douglas, 
 probably recognising the great provocation he had given 
 the young earl in the slaughter of his brother, and fully 
 conscious of the obligation upon the earl, under all 
 chivalrous custom, to avenge the same. He marched to 
 Selkirk and Dumfries, indeed, to overawe the Douglas 
 vassals, and, according to the Auchinleck chronicler, did as 
 much damage to his loyal subjects as to others ; 
 makes sub- but he accepted a submission, executed at Douglas 
 missionto Castlc on 28th August 1452, whereby the Earl 
 
 King James, ^ -tJ J j 
 
 28th August of Douglas, his brothers, and Lord Hamilton 
 were received to the King's peace ; the earl him- 
 self and Lord Hamilton swearing on the gospels to 
 forego for evermore all malice and feud against any of 
 the lieges for any cause, and specially against those who 
 had taken part in the slaughter of his brother, William, 
 Earl of Douglas.^ On i6th January following, the earl, 
 being then at Lanark, renewed his submission, and, in con- 
 sideration of the King's good offices with the Pope in the 
 matter of the dispensation for his marriage, gave a bond of 
 manrent to the King, with renunciation of all leagues or 
 covenants inconsistent with his whole service to the King. 
 About the same time the Earl of Crawford made his sub- 
 mission, and King James, who, however liable to gusts of 
 passion, was of a kindly and forgiving disposition, being 
 " movit be the sade and drerie continance " of the said earl, 
 received him to grace. 
 
 In the matter of the Papal dispensation for Douglas's 
 marriage with his brother's widow, King James faithfully 
 fulfilled his undertaking,^ showing that on his part, at all 
 
 ^ Copy by Godscroft, Hamilton Palace MS., quoted by Fraser, i. 483. 
 
 2 Boece and Godscroft deny that this dispensation was ever granted, and 
 denounce Douglas for having contracted an incestuous alliance. They also 
 declare that the King opposed the application, but here, as elsewhere, they are 
 completely at fault. The dispensation is printed in Andrew Stuart's Gene- 
 alogy of the Stewarts (p. 444), and one of the reasons assigned for it is that 
 Margaret's marriage with the 8th Earl had never been consummated. Further, 
 in a safe-conduct granted by James 11. to Douglas, on 22nd May 1453, he is 
 styled Earl of Douglas, Wigtown, and Avondale. Earl of Wigtown he could 
 not have been, unless he had already married his sister-in-law, heiress of the 
 
RECONCILIATION WITH THE KING 185 
 
 events, the reconciliation was genuine. Not the less strange 
 is it that Crichton, and especially Bishop Kennedy, 
 ^ouXT^th should have failed to dissuade the King from 
 his brother's assisting in restoring to James Douglas that 
 wi ow, 1453. clangei-ous degree of power which had been the 
 cause of the elder Douglas's destruction, by furthering a 
 marriage which reunited Galloway and Bothwell to the 
 other Douglas estates. The Papal writ of dispensation is 
 dated 26th February 1453, only a few days after the first 
 anniversary of Earl William's slaughter. It assigns as the 
 chief reason for permitting the marriage, that the feuds and 
 rivalries between the barons of Scotland should be settled. 
 
 In April 1453 the Earl of Douglas, with other 
 noblemen, proceeded to Westminster to negotiate a new 
 truce with England, which was done on 23rd May, Douglas 
 undertaking to proclaim the same in the Debatable Lands.^ 
 Thus all matters between Douglas and his King appeared 
 to be amicably settled ; bygones were to be bygones, for 
 which there was much need on both sides : and the earl, 
 still young, might look forward to many years of useful 
 co-operation in the work of settling the kingdom and 
 establishing those reforms for which King James had 
 shown so much disposition and aptitude. 
 
 It was not to be. The book of the past held many 
 chapters, and one of the last public acts recorded of this 
 Earl of Douglas was the re-opening of one which could 
 never be agreeable reading to a Stuart King. Malise 
 Graham, Earl of Strathern, uncle of the Countess of Douglas, 
 had been deprived of his earldom in 1427 by his cousin 
 James I., on the pretence that it was a male fee. By 
 way of compensation. King James had bestowed upon Malise 
 
 earldom. Doubt is thrown upon the validity of the marriage by reference to 
 Margaret in 1456 [after the forfeiture] as the alleged wife [asser^e spouse\ of 
 Sir James, formerly Earl of Douglas [Exchequer Rolls, vi. 205] ; but on 24th 
 March 1454 the earl granted a charter of lands to his kinsman and secretary, 
 Mark Haliburton, coupled with an obligation to indemnify him should his 
 Countess Margaret disturb him in possession of these lands. [Charter at 
 Culzean, quoted by Fraser, i. 486.] 
 ^ Rohtii ScoticE, ii. 362-368. 
 
i86 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 part of the ancient earldom of Menteith, but coupled it 
 with the onerous condition of going to England 
 Mauie^Elri hostages for the payment of his 
 
 ofstrathern, [James's] ransom. This payment, as we know, 
 was never redeemed, and the luckless Malise 
 had spent five -and -twenty of the best years of his 
 life in durance at Pontefract. Now, just as Douglas had 
 married the niece of Malise, so Lord Hamilton of Cadzow 
 had married the mother of that niece, namely, Malise's sister, 
 Euphemia, widow of the 5 th Earl of Douglas. Douglas 
 and Hamilton, then, thinking shame that their kinsman 
 should languish longer in an English prison, jointly peti- 
 tioned Henry VI. for his release. This was effected in 
 1453, on condition that Malise's eldest son, Alexander, 
 should take his father's place in captivity. Surely nothing 
 was more natural or desirable than that these two Scottish 
 barons should exert themselves in regaining for their fellow- 
 countryman his freedom — a pious act on the part of near 
 kinsmen. Just so ; but the affair had another aspect. 
 James II. entertained no consuming desire for the restora- 
 tion of Malise Graham to liberty. There had always 
 been persistent doubts and rumours about the reality or 
 validity of Robert ll.'s marriage with his first wife, Elizabeth 
 Mure, from whom the Stuart Kings descended ; there were 
 none whatever about the legitimacy of the issue of his 
 second marriage, from whom Malise Graham descended. 
 In the opinion of many, Graham's was the legitimate royal 
 line.^ Even if Douglas should be deemed of undoubted 
 loyalty, the return of Malise Graham to Scotland boded no 
 good to the house of Stuart. 
 
 This was not the only act of Douglas upon which it may 
 be surmised the King and Chancellor Crichton looked with 
 displeasure. About this time, whether in 1452 or 1453 is 
 not at all clear,^ Douglas seems to have renewed his inter- 
 
 ^ A later descendant and representative of Malise Graham was the cause of 
 some trouble to Charles i., disputing that King's succession on the ground of 
 the superior legitimacy of Robert il.'s children by his second wife. 
 
 '■^ Sir William Fraser is of opinion that it was in 1452, because the Auch- 
 
ANOTHER COUP D'^:TAT 187 
 
 course with the Earl of Ross, Lord of the Isles, visiting him 
 at Knapdale. This young lord was the son of that Alex- 
 ander who had twice been in rebellion against James I., and 
 he had been included in the pact between " the Tiger " Earl of 
 Crawford and the 8th Earl of Douglas, which had cost that 
 earl his life. Accordingly, when Ross's kinsman, Donald 
 Balloch, likewise formerly a rebel, appeared in the Clyde 
 with a flotilla of galleys, burnt Inverkip in Renfrewshire, 
 and razed Brodick Castle in Arran, it is probable that the 
 Government discerned herein the agency of Douglas. 
 
 However, the earl continued to act as Sheriff of Lanark 
 as late as June 1453, when he was £420 in arrear of pay- 
 ments due by him.^ He was also Sheriff of Wigtown. The 
 last business document which he is known to have signed 
 is a charter of certain lands in Carrick to his kinsman and 
 secretary, Mark Haliburton, dated from Douglas Castle, 
 28th March 1454.^ 
 
 In the total absence of all evidence as to Douglas's 
 movements and actions during the rest of that year, one is 
 left entirely to conjecture under the light of what happened 
 early in the following year. That conjecture points to 
 Crichton having been able to convince the King that 
 Douglas's recent submission was no more than a feint to 
 screen his treasonable negotiations with England and with 
 the western Highlanders, and that his power and possessions 
 were greater than could be left in the hands of a subject 
 without danger to the dynasty. The presence in Scotland 
 of Malise Graham may have quickened James's apprehensions ; 
 at all events, he decided that, for the third time within his 
 reign, the Douglas must be struck down. 
 
 Having made up his mind for another coup detat, James 
 of the Fiery Face acted with his customary promptness. It 
 was early in March 1455 when, without summons issued or 
 
 inleck Chronicle gives May as the month of Douglas's meeting with the Earl 
 of Ross and Donald Balloch's raid, which is inconsistent with Douglas's un- 
 doubted presence in Westminster in that month in 1453. — Fraser, 1. 486. 
 
 ^ Exchequer Rolls, vi. loi, 103, 159, 160. He was succeeded in this office 
 by his brother, the Earl of Ormond. — Ibic^., 160, 161. 
 
 ^ Original at Culzean Castle, quoted by Fraser, i. 486. 
 
s 
 
 i88 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 warning given, the royal standard was displayed before 
 Douglas's Castle of Inveravon, near Linlithgow, 
 makes war ^lie garrison probably made a weak defence, if 
 on Douglas, any ; the place was dismantled,^ and the King 
 arc 1455. j^arched on to Glasgow, where he collected more 
 troops. Douglas, on his part, summoned his vassals, and, 
 it is said, sent Lord Hamilton to ask assistance from Henry 
 of England in what promised to be a great civil conflict. 
 He failed to receive it, for which Godscroft alleges as the 
 reason that King Henry demanded Douglas's allegiance as 
 the price of such aid as he might give him, and naively puts 
 into the mouth of the earl some lofty expressions of 
 patriotism, declaring in the choicest terms how impossible 
 it was for him " to leave such a blot upon his house." A far 
 more intelligible cause may be divined from the fact that in 
 the spring of 1455 English parties were on the very brink 
 of the Wars of the Roses, and King Henry had quite enough 
 on his hands without breaking the truce with Scotland. 
 
 The King's troops had an encounter with those of Douglas 
 near Lanark towards the end of March, and at the same 
 time, or immediately after, other detachments wasted the 
 earl's lands in Douglasdale, Annandale, and Ettrick Forest. 
 Siege having been laid to Abercorn in the beginning of April, 
 Douglas hastened to relieve his garrison therein. Here 
 may be compared the narrative of the royalist Pitscottie 
 with that of Godscroft, the panegyrist of the Douglas. 
 
 Pitscottie. Godscroft. 
 
 " Threttie thowsand men heireftir " So left thus to himself, by the In- 
 
 awfullie with displeyit baner came stigation of his Partners, and mainly 
 
 fordvard aganis the Erie of Douglas of James Hamilton of Cadzow, he 
 
 quha wes lyand in camp of battell one [Douglas] gathered together his Friends 
 
 the south sydd of the water of caron a and Followers, to raise the Siege of 
 
 litill be eist the brig with the number Abercorn^ which the King had beset, 
 
 of fourtie thowsand men, makand for and who lay before it in Person. And 
 
 to reskew the castell of Abircorne, and when he was come within five Miles, 
 
 thinkand na les into his mynd nor he or, as others say, within Sight of the 
 
 sould be pairtie to the King and gif Besiegers, they looked assuredly that 
 
 him battell, or ellis to caus him to leave he would, and that lie had resolved to 
 
 Exchequer Rolls, vi. I2, i6i. 
 
THE SIEGE OF ABERCORN 
 
 the realme. Bot on ihe vthir syde 
 Bisschope James Kennedie vsit ane 
 craftie mein to brek the Erie of Douglas 
 armye and send ane secreit servand of 
 his awin to James Hamilton of Keid- 
 zow, quha was principall captaine to the 
 Erie of Douglas." [Then follows an 
 account of how Bishop Kennedy la- 
 boured to detach Hamilton from 
 Douglas's army.] " In the meintyme 
 thair come ane herauld fra the Kingis 
 armye, chairgand the Erie of Douglas 
 and his complices to skaill [disperse] 
 thair armye vnder the paine of tres- 
 soun. At thir nowellis [at these tid- 
 ings] and chairge the Erie of Douglas 
 mockit and stormit the herauld, and 
 incontinent gart blaw his trumpantis 
 and put his men in ordour and merchit 
 fordwart to haue met the King and 
 fochin with him. Bot fra tyme he saw 
 the Kingis armye in sicht and abyding 
 him stoutlie with so great ane number, 
 his curage was sum thing abaced, and 
 so was all the lordis and barronis that 
 was with him. . . . Thairfoir he re- 
 teird his armye hame againe to thair 
 campis, trastand to instruct thame and 
 to gif thame bettir curage and hardi- 
 ment nor thay had befoir, that thay 
 micht pas fordwart with him one the 
 morrow as he pleissit. Bot of this 
 purpois all the lordis and captaines of 
 the Erie of Douglas ost was nocht 
 contentit ; and speciallie James Hamil- 
 toun, quha passit to the Erie of Douglas 
 incontinent, and requyreit of him quhat 
 was his mynde, gif he wald gif the 
 King battell or nocht? and schew to 
 him the langar he delayit he wald be 
 the fewar nomber at his purpois, and 
 the King was evir the mair abill aganis 
 him. The saide Erie ansuerit to James 
 Hamiltoun, sayand, gif he was tyred, 
 he micht depairt when he pleissit ; off 
 the quhilk answer the said James was 
 Weill contentit, and that samyn nicht 
 passit to the King, quhair he was weill 
 resauit, and thankfullie, and all thingis 
 remittit bypast." 
 
 fight, because he put his Army in Order 
 of Battle ; who, being very ready and 
 forward for their Part, Cadzoiv also 
 exhorting him that he would end these 
 Wars with a notable Victory to his per- 
 petual Praise, or with an honorable 
 Death, as became his House, that he 
 might vindicate himself from those 
 Miseries and Contumelies. But he 
 utterly refused to fight, though he were 
 more in Number, saying plainly his 
 Heart would not suffer him nor serve 
 him to fight against his Sovereign, 
 whereby it may be conjectured (as saith 
 the Manuscript) that his Meaning was 
 only to have terrified the King and 
 brought him some reasonable Condi- 
 tions of Peace. . . . He suffered him- 
 self to be carried unto that which he 
 most inclined to, his Love to his 
 Prince, and thereby he slipt and let 
 slide through his Fingers, as it were, 
 this fair Occasion which was then 
 offered unto him, of no less (in the 
 Judgment of his Friends) than the casting 
 the Dice for the Crown : and so James 
 Hamilton told him, that the Occasion 
 was such, that if he did not lay hold of 
 it, he should never find the like again. 
 He told him withall that his want of 
 Resolution would be his Overthrow, as 
 it was indeed. For James Hamilton 
 himself left him that same Night, and 
 went to the King, of whom he was so 
 honorably and well received, that 
 others thereby were encouraged to 
 come in also." 
 
190 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 From these two narratives can be gathered the solid 
 fact that Douglas was deserted on the eve of battle by his 
 ablest lieutenant, Hamilton of Cadzow, whose defection 
 brought about the " skailling " of the contingents under 
 other captains ; so that Douglas was left with but two or 
 three thousand of his own tenants in presence of a vastly 
 superior royalist force. Godscroft, over-solicitous for the 
 honour of his patron's ancestor, makes out that Hamilton 
 hotly urged Douglas to give the King battle, and assigns 
 lofty motives of reverence for the royal person as the reason 
 why the earl refused to strike. Pitscottie, on the other hand, 
 represents that Hamilton, under the influence of Bishop 
 Kennedy's arguments, was anxious to restrain Douglas 
 from hostilities ; but, being pledged to him, would not break 
 faith, provided the earl would not put off action too long. 
 
 In an earlier chapter Pitscottie relates a picturesque 
 scene between the King and Bishop Kennedy, which seems 
 to give a key to the whole situation. When Douglas first 
 took the field. King James " was stupefact in his mynd, 
 thynkand his armye was ovir litill at that tyme to debeit 
 aganis the Erie of Dowglas." He took ship and sailed to 
 St. Andrews to take counsel with Bishop Kennedy, upon 
 whom he had learned greatly to rely. The bishop set his 
 liege lord down to " disjohne " \dejeuner\ and passed to the 
 oratory to pray. Returning after the King had eaten and 
 drunk, he joined in prayer with him ; then " causit him to 
 pas into his stwddie or secreit hous quhair his bowis and 
 arrowis lay with vthir sindrie jowallis [jewels] of the said 
 bischoppis." Pulling out a sheaf of arrows, he bade the 
 King break it across his knee. Not unnaturally James 
 answered that it was " onpossibill " — no mortal was 
 strong enough to break such a sheaf " Precisely," an- 
 swered the bishop, " but I will show your Grace how any 
 child may break them," and began pulling them out, " ane 
 be ane or twa be twa, quhill [until] he had brokin thame 
 all." The simile was transparent. The league of barons 
 with Douglas was too powerful to be crushed as long as 
 they were bound together; detach them from each other, 
 
BATTLE OF ARKINHOLM 
 
 191 
 
 and they might be overcome easily. The bishop, who was 
 an active and adroit diplomatist, undertook the task of dis- 
 integration, and carried it through successfully, concentrat- 
 ing his arts upon Hamilton as the strongest man among 
 the insurgents. 
 
 It may well be that Hamilton was the more ready to 
 hearken to Kennedy's overtures in consequence of Douglas's 
 hesitation to attack the King. Moreover, he had a powerful 
 friend at Court in the person of his uncle, Sir James 
 Livingstone, who was once more in favour, and Chamber- 
 lain of Scotland. Anyhow, all accounts agree in this — 
 that Hamilton changed sides, and that Douglas's " ost " 
 melted away.^ Douglas himself rode off the field with a 
 Douglas ^^^^ slender following, and made his way across 
 takes refuge the Border into England with but four or five 
 in England, companions, leaving his garrison in Abercorn to 
 make what terms they could for themselves. The gallant 
 fellows scorned to haul down the bloody heart before all the 
 power of Scotland. " Thus the King," says the Auchin- 
 leck chronicler, " remanit still at the sege, and gart strek 
 mony of the towris doun with the gret gun, the quhilke a 
 Franche man schot richt wele, and falyeit na shot within 
 a faldome [fathom] quhar it was chargit him to hit." They 
 held out for a month, when the place was levelled to the 
 ground, many of its defenders being hanged.^ 
 
 Before that was achieved Scottish blood had flowed 
 freely in another part of the country. The Douglas chief 
 The Battle of found shelter in England, but his brothers 
 Arkinhoim, remained to lead his vassals against the royal 
 troops. In Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray 
 [xxi.], the fiery spirit of his race had slumbered but lightly in 
 
 ^ Mr. Hume Brown [Jlz'sf. Scotland^ i. 237] discredits Boece's statement that 
 the armies of Douglas and the King met on the banks of the Carron, because 
 no contemporary authority mentions it. But contemporary authority for this 
 period is almost absent, and it is difficult to account for Douglas's flight upon 
 any other hypothesis than that quoted in the text. 
 
 2 Abercorn Castle was never rebuilt. The site thereof is now within the 
 park of Hopetoun House, about a mile to the west of the present mansion, 
 commanding a magnificent view up and down the Firth of Forth. 
 
192 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 the gentle and cultivated seclusion of Darnaway. He roused 
 himself at the first summons, and made all speed to join his 
 brother Ormond [xxii.] in Annandale, whither also came 
 John Douglas of Balvany [xxiv.], a lad still in his teens, 
 but a gallant one. These three young knights assembled a 
 brave levy of the Douglas vassals, and threatened to raise 
 the whole south-west against the King. The men of 
 Galloway had always been readier in allegiance to a visible 
 chief than to a distant monarch. But he of the Fiery 
 Face was no laggard in war. To crush the Douglas rebels 
 he chose one of their own brood, George Douglas, 4th Earl 
 of Angus [xlii.], and detached him with sufficient force to 
 put down this fresh rising, while he himself remained before 
 Abercorn. There is no detailed account of what followed. 
 It is only known that the brothers Douglas gave their kins- 
 man battle at Arkinholm on the Esk,^ that Angus was 
 completely victorious, and that the gentle Earl of Moray 
 was among the slain. 
 
 " Pompey by Ccesar only was undone, 
 None but a Roman soldier conquered Rome ; 
 A Douglas could not have been brought so low, 
 Had not a Douglas wrought his overthrow." 
 
 Ormond was wounded and taken. Pitscottie records with 
 virtuous satisfaction that he was " keipit werrie straitlie in 
 pressoune till he was haillit of his wondis and then broght 
 to the King in Edinburgh and heidit [beheaded] for his 
 rebellioun." John Douglas of Balvany joined his brother, 
 the Earl of Douglas, in England. 
 
 Parliament met in June and formally forfeited the estates 
 of the Earl of Douglas, his three brothers, and his mother, 
 Forfeiture of Countcss Beatrix. The office of Warden of the 
 the Doug- Marches, which had become hereditary with the 
 12th June ' chiefs of Douglas, was declared to be so no 
 1455. longer. Another act was passed prohibiting all 
 
 men, on pain of death, to receive or aid in any way the 
 surviving members of this great family, and by a third act 
 
 ^ The village of Langholm now covers part of the battlefield. 
 
TAKING OF THE THRIEVE 
 
 193 
 
 the lands of Galloway, Ettrick Forest, Ballincrief, Gosford, 
 and the estates in Moray were vested in the Crown.^ 
 
 The King bestowed Annandale upon his second son, 
 Alexander, Duke of Albany, and the other Douglas lands 
 were divided among the Maxwells, Johnstones, and Scotts, 
 families destined to rise to power on the ruins of the mightier 
 house. Herries of Terregles, whose father, it is alleged, the 
 8th Earl of Douglas had " cassin in irons and hangit 
 schamefullie," was appointed Keeper of Lochmaben, and 
 Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw, hereditary Sheriff of 
 Wigtownshire, received compensation for the death of his 
 father in the King's service. Angus was not likely to go 
 without substantial reward for the ruin of his kinsman, and 
 to him was given the lordship of Douglas with the original 
 possessions of his ancestors in Douglasdale.^ 
 
 Douglas of course defied the summons issued for him to 
 appear before the King, and remained in England. By the 
 month of July, of all his strongholds, the Thrieve alone held 
 out for its lord. Galloway is enriched with much legendary 
 lore, but round no event in its history does this gather so 
 closely and so sadly as round the downfall of the Douglas. 
 As to events during the siege of the Thrieve, no doubt 
 popular belief has wandered far astray ; yet it is upon popular 
 belief that one is thrown for any surmise of how the Thrieve 
 was taken. Pitscottie is mute, even the garrulous Godscroft 
 Takin of ^^^^ nothing about it ; perhaps it were safest to 
 the Thrieve, follow their example, but local tradition is so 
 persistent and so jealously cherished by the 
 people on Deeside that it may be put on record, under all 
 reserve, for what it may be worth. Only one thing is 
 matter of history in this affair, namely, that one of the first 
 acts of the Earl of Douglas on escaping to England had 
 been to give formal possession of the Thrieve to Henry VI. 
 in return for a cash payment of 400 marks for its succour, 
 relief, and victualling, and an annuity of ;^500 to the earl, 
 until such time as he should be restored to the estates 
 
 ^ Ac^s of Pari. Scot., ii. 42, 43. 
 ^ Charter and sasine printed in Fraser, iii. 86. 
 VOL. I. N 
 
194 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 taken from him " by hym that calleth hymself Kyng of 
 Scottes." 1 
 
 It is said that towards autumn King James marched 
 into Galloway to receive the formal submission of his lieges 
 in that lordship, and that the garrison of the Thrieve under 
 Margaret, Countess of Douglas, the Fair Maid of Galloway, 
 refused to surrender. Thereupon King James directed 
 siege to be laid to the castle, and the country people 
 gathered from far and near to witness the bombardment. 
 It was soon found that the royal guns were far too weak 
 to have any effect upon the walls. Among the spectators 
 stood one M'Kim, a blacksmith, commonly known as Brawny 
 Kim, who undertook to make a gun for the purpose, pro- 
 vided he was supplied with plenty of iron. This having 
 been done, Kim set to work with his seven sons and forged 
 a cannon fashioned as a cooper makes a cask with staves and 
 hoops. His forge was on the Buchan Croft, near the Three 
 Thorns of Carlingwark,^ and while he wrought parties of 
 workmen quarried balls of granite on the Bennan Hill. 
 Joseph Train, the industrious collector of local lore for Sir 
 Walter Scott, gives the subsequent story as it ran some 
 eighty years ago — 
 
 "The first charge of Kim's cannon is said to have consisted of a peck of 
 powder and a stone ball the weight of a Carsphairn cow. The eminence from 
 which this great gun was first discharged was from that circumstance called 
 Knockcannon,^ and in the end of the Castle of Thrieve, facing Knockcannon, 
 there is an aperture in the wall still called the Cannon Hole. . . . The first 
 ball discharged from Kim's gun carried away the hand of the Fair Maid of 
 Galloway, as she sat at table in the banqueting room, and was about to raise 
 
 ^ Bain, iv. 259. 
 
 2 Carlingwark, the old name of Castle Douglas, now a thriving market- 
 town and railway station. The modern name has no relation to the old 
 Douglases, though the town is within sight of the Thrieve, but was given to 
 it by a modern speculator who built mills there. 
 
 ^ Obviously mythical etymology of the most unblushing kind. It fits the 
 narrative nicely, and undoubtedly the hill still bears that name, but the anal- 
 ogies in other Celtic districts are numerous — Carrigcannon, Drumcannon, Letter- 
 cannon, etc., where the suffix represents the Gaelic ceann fhionn [pronounced 
 "cannon"], literally "white head," but generally signifying "freckled" or 
 " streaked." 
 
MONS MEG 195 
 
 the wine-cup to her lips. The destructive powers of this extraordinary weapon 
 of war pleased the King so well that, before leaving Galloway, he erected the 
 town of Kirkcudbright into a royal burgh, and granted the forfeited lands of 
 Mollance to Brawny Kim." ^ 
 
 Now here we are plunged into myth of the most 
 nebulous order, nor is our confidence heightened when 
 Train goes on to identify the great cannon with Mons Meg, 
 now on the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle, which he alleges 
 is a contraction of Mollance Meg, Brawny Kim's loud- 
 voiced wife, in whose honour the piece was named. Still 
 less is one's faith equal to the strain expected of it when 
 Train, too good an antiquary to father such fibs, solemnly 
 affirms that when the Thrieve was being cleared of rub- 
 bish by Sir Alexander Gordon for the reception of some 
 French prisoners early in the nineteenth century, a massive 
 gold ring was found bearing the legend " Margaret de 
 Douglas," the inference being that it had been blown off 
 with the Fair Maid's hand. The finding of such a priceless 
 relic would only be less marvellous than that it should have 
 been allowed to disappear ; yet Train admitted, within twenty 
 years of its discovery, that all trace of it had vanished. 
 
 King James certainly erected Kirkcudbright into a royal 
 burgh in 1455, which had been hitherto a burgh of regality 
 under Douglas ; ^ but there is no documentary evidence of 
 the lands of Mollance, which belonged to the abbey of 
 Tungland, having been granted to M'Kim or M'Myn.^ 
 
 Of the remaining acts of the last Earl of Douglas the 
 recital is as brief as it is melancholy. King Henry continued, 
 until his defeat by the Yorkists at Northampton [loth July 
 
 ^ Mackenzie's History of Galloway, vol. i. Appendix M. 
 
 2 Its first provost was Maclellan of Bombie, son of the laird said to have 
 been so cruelly slain by the 8th Earl of Douglas. In a burgh of regality the 
 jurisdiction was vested in some baron or ecclesiastic, who held his own courts ; 
 but royal burghs, besides other privileges, were subject to the jurisdiction of the 
 King and his judges. 
 
 ^ " Mons Meg" may be identified with the King's "great bombard," for the 
 conveyance whereof, with other artillery, from Linlithgow to the Thrieve, pay- 
 ments appear in the Exchequer Rolls. As it appears from the same record that 
 James II. imported his bombards from Flanders, Mons Meg was probably of 
 foreign make. [Exchequer Rolls, vi. 4, 6, 115, 122, 200, 209, etc.] 
 
196 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 1460], to pay the earl his annuity by more or less regular 
 instalments.^ James II., considering himself released from 
 the truce concluded with Henry, tried to snatch Roxburgh 
 Castle from the English, but on 3rd August he was killed 
 there by the bursting of a siege piece [" be ane of his awin 
 gunis that brak rackleslie in hir schutting," as Pitscottie 
 puts it], Douglas, Earl of Angus, standing beside him, being 
 wounded at the same time.^ The turn of the wheel which 
 brought the crown of England to the house of York 
 marked the opening of a more vigorous policy against 
 Scotland. This was in great measure forced upon Edward IV. 
 by the action of Bishop Kennedy and the Earl of Angus, 
 strong Lancastrian partisans, who had received Henry VI. 
 Douglas sent Queen to shelter in St. Andrews after 
 
 to treat with the final overthrow of their cause at Towton 
 
 the Lord of ■, n r i ^ -t tt r i 
 
 the Isles, [30th March 1 40 1 J. In June of the same year 
 junei46i. Edward IV. dispatched Douglas and his brother 
 John [xxiii.] to stir up to rebellion the Earl of Ross, Lord 
 of Owteryles [Outer Isles], and Donald Balloch.^ 
 
 it was a shameful mission for one of thy name, and it 
 succeeded so far that the Lord of the Isles, being at 
 Ardtornish Castle, appointed Ranald of the Isles, and 
 Duncan, Archdeacon of the Isles, his ambassadors, who 
 proceeded to London and, aided by Douglas, concocted 
 a treaty with the King of England.^ Under this precious 
 document the Lord of the Isles and all his vassals were to 
 become vassals of King Edward, to act as his allies in all 
 wars within Scotland and Ireland, in consideration of wages 
 fixed both for peace and war. They were to hold in 
 homage to King Edward all lands conquered by them north 
 of the Forth ; but Douglas, on the same condition, was to 
 receive back all his lands between the Forth and the Border. 
 
 King Edward held other cards in his hand, and when 
 occasion arose he did not hesitate about throwing over 
 
 ^ Bain, iv. 263 passim. ^ King James died in his thirtieth year. 
 
 2 Bain, iv. 268, 271. Fadera^ xi. 484-487. 
 
DOUGLAS TURNS RENEGADE 197 
 
 Douglas. A marriage between the Queen-mother of Scot- 
 land, Marie de Gueldres, and the King of England was 
 seriously discussed. Marie met the Earl of Warwick at 
 Dumfries in April 1462, and again at Carlisle in June. 
 Should this marriage go forward it were hard to say 
 whether Scotland or England would become the most hope- 
 less refuge for Douglas. Meanwhile he was ordered by 
 King Edward to leave Carlisle, and next we hear of him in 
 July " as a sorrowful and a sore rebuked man lyeth in the 
 abbey of St. Albans, and shall not be reputed nor taken but 
 as an Englishman, and if he comes in danger of the Scots, 
 they to slay him." ^ But the Lancastrian sympathies of 
 Bishop Kennedy interfered to put an end to King Edward's 
 matrimonial projects. In the autumn of 1462 he was again 
 using Douglas as his most valuable instrument against the 
 Scots, sending him to reconnoitre the Border for immediate 
 invasion.2 Ross and Donald Balloch had sent round the 
 fiery cross ; their galleys were sweeping the west coast and 
 intercepting the King's customs. Howbeit, the projected 
 combination fell through. John Douglas of Balvany [xxiii.] 
 was taken in Ewesdale by King James's men and suffered 
 a traitor's doom ; " erle James, his brother, was chasyt in 
 Ingland," that is, had to retire precipitately to the safe side 
 of the Border. King Edward, foreseeing how useful this 
 renegade earl would be in future dealings with Scotland, 
 treated him very handsomely ; in addition to the parlia- 
 mentary annuity, he paid his whole expenses while on his 
 traitorous embassies, made him sundry special gifts of sub- 
 stantial sums,^ and appointed him Keeper of Carrickfergus 
 Castle in Ulster, where doubtless were perquisites and 
 pickings for a sagacious administrator. 
 
 Provision was made by the English Parliament in 1475 
 for payment of £600 to Douglas's executors in the event of 
 his death, he being then about to proceed with King Edward 
 to the war in France.* His pay as an earl was fixed at 
 6s. 8d. a day, and provision was made for his retinue of four 
 
 ^ Fasten Letters ^ ii. iii. ^ Bain, iv. 271. 
 
 2 Ibid. ^ Ibid, , 290. 
 
198 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 men-at-arms and forty archers. Of his fortunes in that 
 abortive campaign there is no record ; but he was back in 
 England in 1476, when King Edward demanded from the 
 King of Scots that " therl Duglas unto his lyvelood [be] 
 restored " ; but inasmuch as this was coupled, inter alia^ with 
 the further demand " that the King of Scottes and his heires 
 shall doo thair homages unto the King of England and his 
 heires," ^ it received no more consideration from the Scottish 
 government than it deserved. 
 
 King James got the upper hand of his rebellious brothers 
 Albany and Mar in 1479, and shut them both up in prison. 
 Mar died in a dungeon of Craigmillar Castle, not without 
 suspicion of foul play; Albany escaped from Edinburgh 
 Castle and made his way into France. Failing to obtain 
 more than shelter from wily Louis XI., he next came to Eng- 
 land by invitation of the Earl of Douglas. Well did it suit 
 King Edward to encourage him, and Douglas was too deeply 
 committed now to hope for restoration save by aiding Albany 
 in his attempt upon the Scottish throne. Previous to Albany's 
 coming to England, Douglas was on the Border again in the 
 autumn of 1479, busy upon certain matters to be done for 
 King Edward and the realm of England.^ One member of 
 his suite, Richard Holand, clerk, may be pretty confidently 
 identified as the author of the Buke of the Howlat^ sometime 
 protege of the deceased Earl of Moray [xxi.]. 
 
 In 1482 Douglas received from King Edward a joint 
 commission with the Earl of Gloucester [soon to become 
 Richard III.] to receive the allegiance of all Scotsmen who 
 would forswear their country and settle in England, with power 
 to promise lands, lordships, and other benefits as a bribe.^ 
 
 We are nearing the end of this murky chapter now, but 
 the threads of the story get more confused than ever. In 
 December 1482 Albany, after invading Scotland with the 
 Earl of Gloucester, and taking the town of Berwick for the 
 English [August 24], appeared in Edinburgh as the deliverer 
 of his brother. King James, from captivity, was received into 
 full favour and made Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. 
 
 ^ Bain, iv. 413, 2 /^^^.^ 299. ^ Ibid., 300. 
 
A SHAMEFUL TREATY 
 
 A couple of months later the Earl of Douglas was sent by- 
 King Edward to defend the Border against the Scots.^ He 
 was not the only renegade Douglas by this time. Archibald, 
 5th Earl of Angus [xliii.], who three years before had earned 
 his title of "Bell-the-Cat" by hanging King James's favourites 
 oyer Lauder Bridge, and imprisoning King James himself in 
 Edinburgh Castle, was now quite ready to betray his country. 
 The ink on Albany's commission as Lieutenant-General was 
 hardly dry before he sent Angus, Lord Gray, and Sir James 
 Liddel to treat with the Earl of Northumberland. The result 
 was a shameful compact — a treaty binding Albany, who had 
 already assumed the title of Alexander IV., King of Scots, to 
 renounce the allegiance of the Scottish people in favour of 
 England, to dissolve the ancient league with France, and to 
 assist King Edward in the conquest of that country.^ Of 
 course the usual clause was inserted securing the restoration 
 of the Earl of Douglas to his estates — perhaps all Douglas 
 really cared for ; but there is a curious reference in the said 
 clause to an existing convention between Douglas and Angus 
 with that special object in view, showing that the feud 
 between the two Douglas chiefs had been composed, and 
 that the 9th Earl of Douglas had condoned the slaughter of 
 his brothers by the 4th Earl of Angus. In consideration of 
 the obligations upon the Scottish parties to this treaty, the 
 King of England was to assist Albany in the conquest of 
 Scotland, which Albany was to hold as an English fief, and 
 to give the said Albany one of his daughters in marriage, but 
 without a dowry. 
 
 Probably this treaty came to King James's knowledge, 
 and there were enough true men among the mass of traitors 
 at his court to enable him to defeat the conspiracy. At all 
 events, Albany made full acknowledgment of his treason 
 before the King on 19th March, surrendered his lieutenancy 
 and retired to Dunbar, being forbidden to come within six 
 miles of the King, as also were Angus and Buchan. Had 
 James been of the mettle of some of his line, several heads 
 would have been struck from their shoulders, and never 
 
 ^ Bain, iv. 306. 2 jud,^ 305. 
 
200 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 with greater justice, as the event proved. For Albany went 
 straight back to England, and reappeared in Scotland as an 
 invader in the summer of 1484. 
 
 The annual fair of Lochmaben happened on 24th 
 July, and thither were gathered the country-folk from far 
 The Affair of near, including many vassals and tenants 
 
 KirUebank, of the old Douglas lands. Suddenly in their 
 24th July 1484. j^jjg^ appeared the Duke of Albany and the Earl 
 of Douglas, riding at the head of 500 English horse. 
 Douglas was an old man now, but he had trusted to the 
 magic of his name to rally the ancient following to his 
 banner. Never was man more grievously out of his reckon- 
 ing. The charm was broken. For a while the crowd eyed 
 the English riders in silence, or muttering beneath their 
 breath. Then something happened ; perhaps a trooper 
 pressed roughly on a bystander ; a blow was struck ; 
 whingers leapt from easy scabbards, and the mellay began. 
 It went on all afternoon, till a force under Charteris of 
 Amisfield and Crichton of Sanquhar coming up, drove the 
 English out of the town. On their way to the Border they 
 were intercepted on the banks of the Kirtle by the Steward 
 of Annandale, John, Master of Maxwell,^ and lost a number 
 of men. The Duke of Albany made good his escape, but 
 Capture of Douglas was unhorsed. There was a reward set 
 Douglas, 24th upon his head, 1000 merks in money and 100 
 July 1484. nierks in land, but nobody recognised him, it 
 seems ; at least if we accept the narrative of Godscroft, which, 
 if not gospel, is at least picturesque. He says that Douglas 
 called to a former vassal of his own, Alexander Kirkpatrick, 
 son of the Laird of Closeburn, and made himself known. 
 Kirkpatrick was overcome with grief to see his chief in 
 such a plight, and offered to escort him into England, " but 
 he would not, being wearied of such endless troubles," 
 and surrendered himself prisoner,^ He was taken before 
 
 ^ Eldest son of Robert, 2nd Lord Maxwell. 
 
 2 It must be remarked that all this is extremely unlikely. Douglas had come 
 to rouse his own vassals ; to do that it was necessary he should make himself 
 known, and for that purpose would display his arms and banner. Alexander 
 
Archibald Douglas. Earl of Moray, 
 ob. 1455. 
 
 Hugh Douglas, Earl of Ormond, ob. 1455. 
 
DEATH OF THE LAST EARL 201 
 
 his much - wronged master, King James, who with 
 singular clemency spared his life, but sentenced him to 
 seclusion in the abbey of Lindores. " He that may no 
 better be, must be a monk," was the comment of Douglas 
 upon the inevitable. It is not known whether he actually 
 took the vows of a monk, but he never left Lindores again. 
 Godscroft repeats a report current about another meeting 
 between him and the King, when James III., distracted by 
 the factions of his barons and the rebellion of his son, sought 
 out Douglas in the retirement of his cloister and implored 
 him to take command of his army against the rebels. But 
 Death of the Douglas had no spirit left for the task. "Sir," 
 last Earl of he is Said to have replied, " you have kept me 
 Douglas, 1488. your black coffer ^ in Stirling too long. My 
 friends have forsaken me ; my followers are scattered among 
 other masters ; your black coffer is far from you, and your 
 enemies between you and it." King James was done to 
 death in Beaton's Mill on i ith June 1488, and in the same 
 year the troubled and cloudy life of James, 9th and last 
 Earl of Douglas, came to a close, and with it the direct line 
 of the great house of Douglas.^ Of the six sons of James 
 the Gross [xix.], the eldest perished under the dagger of 
 James 11., the third fell in battle against his King, the 
 fourth and fifth suffered for rebellion on the scaffold ; only 
 the second and the sixth died from natural causes. 
 
 It has been described above how the 9th Earl of 
 Douglas married, under dispensation, his brother's widow, 
 The Fair Margaret, the Fair Maid of Galloway. There 
 Maid of was no issue of the marriage. Pitscottie relates 
 Galloway. Margaret, whom he calls Beatrix, confusing 
 
 her with the earl's mother, threw herself on James ll.'s 
 mercy after her husband's rebellion, repenting of " that 
 
 Kirkpatrick, however, was certainly his captor, and did not scruple to receive 
 the stipulated reward. — ^e^: Magni Sigilli, ii. No. 1603. 
 
 ^ The black cofifer contained treasure accumulated by James iii. — Acts of 
 Pari. Scot., ii. 230. 
 
 2 His nephew Hugh, Dean of Brechin, son of the Earl of Ormond, survived 
 him. Of another nephew, James, son of the Earl of Moray, nothing can be 
 traced. 
 
202 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 wngodlie and wickit marieage," and beseeching him to 
 deliver her from it. This must refer to the 
 events of 1459, until which year Margaret 
 remained with Earl James in England. Then 
 she returned to Scotland, under letters of 
 commendation to King James from Henry vi.^ 
 She was graciously received, and was married 
 in 1460, during her second husband's life- 
 time, to the King's half-brother, John Stewart, 
 Earl of Athol, who received the forfeited 
 lordship of Balvany,^ but she must have been 
 either divorced or dead in 1471, when 
 Eleanor Sinclair was Countess of Athol. 
 How her marriage with the 9th Earl of 
 Douglas was dissolved does not appear, but 
 dissolved it must have been, because between 
 1 46 1 and 1484 he married Anne, daughter 
 of John Holland, Duke of Exeter, relict of 
 two John Nevilles, uncle and nephew, and 
 mother of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmor- 
 land. This lady died 26th December i486 
 [after her third husband had been sent to 
 Lindores], being described at the inquest as 
 the wife of James, Earl of Douglas.^ 
 
 Of the character and career of the last 
 Earl of Douglas it is not possible to speak 
 in praise, unless one turn special pleader like 
 Hume of Godscroft. First a rebel against 
 his King, and then a renegade in the pay 
 of England, he wrought with all his might 
 to destroy that national independence which 
 the cool head and strong arm of his ancestor 
 had chiefly prevailed to establish. In pallia- 
 tion may be pleaded the strong provocation 
 he and his brothers received, while still 
 very young men, in the treacherous murder 
 
 ^ Excheqtier Rolls ^ vi. 498. ^ Reg. Magni Sigilli, ii. No. 750. 
 
 ^ Inquisitiones post niorteni^ 2 Henry VI., quoted by Fraser, i. 496, note. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 203 
 
 of their elder brother by the hand of the King. Although 
 reconciliation followed after this deed, confidence between 
 monarch and subject must have been fatally undermined ; 
 mutual suspicion must have been kept aglow by the busy 
 counsels of interested partisans, ready, as the event proved, to 
 burst into flame of war at any new combination of forces. 
 Doubtless the hazard of such hollow relations was intensified 
 by the earl's irresolute character, of which many traces may 
 be discerned in the conflicting accounts of his conduct. He 
 ended by making Scotland too hot to hold him, and brought 
 indelible disgrace upon his name by enlisting himself as one 
 of the most active of her foes. 
 
 Appendix B 
 
 Lochmabenstane 
 
 The defeat of the English under Douglas, Earl of 
 Ormond, 23rd October 1449 [?], is usually known as the 
 battle of the Sark, from having been fought on the banks of 
 that stream, but it receives mention also as the battle of 
 Lochmabenstane, from its proximity to a large boulder of 
 that name which holds such an important place in border 
 history that it may be convenient to quote here what I have 
 already stated about it in the Histoiy of Dumfriesshire and 
 Galloway [Blackwood, 1896], p. 132 : — 
 
 It is a large boulder on the farm of Old Gretna, in 
 Dumfriesshire, near the confluence of the Kirtle with the 
 Solway. In the New Statistical Account [1845] it is 
 stated that this boulder was once surrounded by a ring of 
 large stones, enclosing about half an acre, which had not 
 long before been removed in the course of agriculture. 
 There is a careful drawing of the Lochmaben Stone in Mr. 
 Armstrong's excellent History of Liddesdale, etc. [Edinburgh, 
 i883]._ 
 
 This stone is constantly mentioned in charters and 
 other early writings as a trysting-place both for the assembly 
 
204 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 of troops to undertake or repel invasion, and for meetings 
 between English and Scottish Wardens of the Marches to 
 discuss matters concerning their jurisdiction, or to arrange 
 the preliminaries of truce. Seeing that it is many miles 
 distant from Lochmaben town and parish, and that there is 
 no lake near it, the name of Lochmaben Stone has long 
 been a puzzle to antiquaries, and it is only lately that a 
 satisfactory solution has been arrived at. 
 
 The name is frequently written Clockmabanstane [e.g. 
 Foedera^ vol. iii. part 4, p. 152], whereby light is shed 
 on the meaning of the name. It is obvious that the 
 prefix is the well - known old Gaelic clock, a stone [in 
 modern Gaelic, clacJ{\, Anglian speech established itself at 
 an early date in Dumfriesshire. The meaning of clock 
 having come to be forgotten, this notable stone received 
 the Anglian suffix stdn, and became Lochmaben Stane. 
 Cloch Mabon, then, the stone or burial-place of Mabon, was 
 the original title, just as Clorriddrich, near Lochwinnoch, in 
 Renfrewshire, commemorates Rydderch Hael, the Christian 
 conqueror of Strathclyde. 
 
 The next thing is to ascertain if there was any notable 
 individual called Mabon in early times, or if the name 
 merely bore the signification it has in modern Welsh — a 
 young hero : the sense, by the way, in which it is applied 
 affectionately at this day by Welsh miners to Mr. Abraham 
 Thomas, M.P. 
 
 In the Black Book of Carmartken, a collection of 
 Welsh poems, mostly attributable to the sixth century, the 
 following occurs in No. XXXI : — 
 
 Line 11. "If Wythnaint were to go, 
 
 The three would be unlucky : 
 Mabon, the Son of Mydron, 
 The servant of Uthir Pendragon, 
 Cysgaint, the Son of Banon ; 
 And Gwyn Godibrion. 
 
 Lme 21. Did not Manawyd bring 
 
 Shattered shields from Trywrind? 
 And Mabon, the son of Mellt, 
 Spotted the grass with his blood." 
 
THE LOCHMABEN STONE 
 
 205 
 
 Here are two individuals named Mabon, one of whom seems 
 to have been killed in action after the battle of Trywrind, 
 Now Mr. Skene has identified Trywrind with Trathen Werid, 
 the scene of Arthur's tenth battle, fought in 516. The 
 poem, however, which is very obscure, gives no indication of 
 the place where Mabon, son of Mellt, perished ; but Arthur's 
 eleventh battle was fought in Mynyd Agned or Edinburgh, 
 commemorated in the name of Arthur's Seat, and this may 
 have been the place of Mabon's death. 
 
 The following passage occurs in the important 
 topographical poem of Taliessin, No. XL, which was written 
 to celebrate the deeds of Gwallawg ap Lleenag, who has 
 been identified with Galgacus, whom Tacitus describes as 
 fighting against Agricola, A.D. 80, and with Galdus, of local 
 Galloway tradition, mentioned by the untrustworthy Boece: — 
 
 Line 26. "A battle in a wood of Beit at close of day, 
 Thou didst not think of thy foes : 
 A battle in the presence of Mabon." 
 
 " The wood of Beit " may be, as Mr. Skene suggests, Beith 
 in Ayrshire ; but it may just as probably be one of the 
 many other places named from beth — the birch, such as 
 Beoch in Wigtownshire, or Dalbeattie in Kirkcudbright. 
 In the same poem two places are named as scenes of 
 Gwallawg's battles : one in Wigtownshire — " The marsh 
 of Terra," where are the Standing-Stones of Glenterra, 
 or Glentirrow ; and the other in Kirkcudbright — pencoet 
 Cledyfein^ or the woodhead of Cluden, near Lincluden. 
 Moreover, Gwallawg or Galdus is supposed to be buried at 
 Torhouse, near Wigtown, where there is a notable circle of 
 stones called King Galdus's tomb. 
 
 But the most circumstantial reference to Mabon appears 
 in the Book of Taliessin^ ^OQvn XVHL, where the invasion of 
 Strathclyde and the battles of Owen, the son of Urien, are 
 described, as reported to the bard of Kelso (Calchvynyd) — 
 
 Line 17. "A battle, when Owen defends the cattle of his country, 
 Will meet Mabon from another country, 
 A battle at the ford of Alclud. 
 
206 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Line 23. A battle on this side of Llachar, 
 The trembling camp saw Mabon, 
 A shield in hand, on the fair portion of Reidol. 
 Against the kine of Reged they engaged, 
 If they had wings they would have flown, 
 Against Mabon without corpses they would not go. 
 Meeting, they descend and commence a battle. 
 The country of Mabon is pierced with destructive slaughter. 
 
 Line 43. About the ford of the boundary, about the alders his battle-places. 
 When was caused the battle of the king, sovereign, prince. 
 Very wild will the kine be before Mabon. 
 
 Line 47. The resting-place of the corpses of some was in Run. 
 There was joy, there will be, for ravens. 
 Loud the talk of men after the battle." 
 
 Here we have an account, in language fairly explicit for a 
 bard, of a foray on the territory Alclud, which, of course, is 
 the Cymric name for Dumbarton (dtm Bretan, the fort of 
 the Britons or Cymri). A retaliatory invasion resulted in 
 a defeat of Mabon at Reidol on this side of Llachar — that 
 is, at Ruthwell on the east bank of Lochar. Reidol seems 
 to be the Celtic rendering of Ruthwell, which in turn is the 
 Anglo-Saxon rod well, the well of the rood or cross. There 
 is still near the village a chalybeate well, which took its 
 name from the celebrated Runic rood or cross now standing 
 within the walls of the parish church, and afterwards gave 
 the name to the parish. In lines 17, 24, and 45, "kine" 
 and " cattle " are metaphorically used for " people." The 
 " kine of Reged " are the people of the district between 
 Dumbarton and Loch Lomond, which was known by that 
 name. " The ford of the boundary about the alders " may 
 either have been on the Lochar waters, or the pursuit may 
 have been carried as far as the " ford of the boundary " on 
 the Sark, so often used in the later days of Border warfare. 
 Here we may imagine Mabon to have perished, and to have 
 been laid under the boulder which bears his name. A 
 circle of stones was afterwards added, according to that 
 custom of interment which took the form of what are 
 erroneously termed Druid circles. 
 
THE LOCHMABEN STONE 
 
 207 
 
 As to the date of this event, Taliessin seems to be 
 telling of something which has just happened. His own 
 era may be pretty accurately fixed as early in the seventh 
 century, for he speaks elsewhere of the Welsh leader 
 Brochmail as being contemporary with himself ; and we 
 know from Bede {Ecclesiastical History^ chap, ii.) that 
 Brochmail was present at the battle of Chester in 607. 
 So we may assume that there was at least one warrior of 
 the name of Mabon, who gave his name both to the district 
 of Lochmaben and also to the Lochmaben Stone, towards 
 the close of the sixth or beginning of the seventh century. 
 
 A thousand years later it was the recognised place of 
 muster for the royal levies of Dumfries and Galloway, and 
 remained so until the union of the two kingdoms. 
 
 The Lochmaben Stone is just one of those historical 
 relics, of more than local interest, which ought to be placed 
 without delay under the protection of the Ancient Monu- 
 ments Act. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 209 XXV. Sir Andrew Douglas of Herd- 
 
 manston, etc. 
 209 xxvi. William Douglas of Herd- 
 
 manston, c. 1277. 
 209 xxvii. Sir James Douglas of 
 
 Lothian, c. 1307. 
 209 xxviii. Sir William Douglas, 
 
 "Knight of Liddesdale," c. 
 
 1300-1353. 
 211 Made Warden of the Marches, 
 1330. 
 
 211 Captured by Sir Antony de Lucy, 
 
 1333. 
 
 212 Battle of Borough Moor, ist 
 
 August 1335. 
 
 215 Battle of Kilblain, 30th November 
 
 1335. 
 
 216 Douglas reconquers Teviotdale, 
 
 1339-1342. 
 
 217 Capture of Edinburgh Castle, i6th 
 
 April 1 34 1.' 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 217 Douglas encounters the Earl of 
 
 Derby, December 1341. 
 
 218 Ramsay captures Roxburgh Castle, 
 
 31st March 1342. 
 
 219 Slaughter of Sir Alexander Ramsay, 
 
 1342. 
 
 220 Fall of William Bullock, c. 1343. 
 220 Douglas is restored to favour, 1342. 
 
 222 David II. invades England, October 
 
 1346. 
 
 223 Battle of Neville's Cross, 17th 
 
 October 1346. 
 
 224 Douglas is captured, 17th October 
 
 1346. 
 
 224 Slaughter of Sir David Barclay 
 
 1350. 
 
 225 Douglas becomes King Edward's 
 
 man, 17th July 1352. 
 
 226 His death, August 1353. 
 
 227 xxix. Sir Henry Douglas of Lug- 
 
 ton, died 1393. 
 
 The origin of that branch of the house of Douglas now 
 represented by the Earl of Morton, and the precise manner 
 in which it diverged from the senior line, is a matter of 
 conjecture and estimate of probability. Previously to 1 198 
 Sir Archibald de Douglas [iii.] sold the lands of Flailes in 
 Midlothian to the abbot and monastery of Dunfermline.^ 
 Somewhere between the years 12 14 and 1226 he received 
 a charter — Archebaldo de Douglas filio Willelmi de Douglas 
 — from Malcolm, Earl of Fife, of the lands of Herdmanston 
 and Livingston, also in Lothian, formerly held by William 
 of Kilmaron,^ to which charter Freskin [Friskyn], Dean of 
 Moray, was one of the witnesses. This transaction received 
 
 ^ Registrwn de Dunfermelyn, 190. ^ Morion, i. p. xxxiii. 
 
THE LINE OF MORTON 209 
 
 confirmation from King Alexander li.^ Sir Archibald is 
 believed to have married Margaret, elder daughter of Sir 
 John de Crawford, who is supposed to have borne him two 
 sons, namely, William " Long-leg " [iv.], who succeeded to 
 the Douglas estates, and Andrew [xxv.], who became the 
 founder of a separate branch of the house of Douglas. 
 
 The proof of this step in the pedigree is far from 
 complete. The fact that William Long-leg succeeded to 
 
 XXV. Sir the Douglas estates, and Andrew to those of 
 Andrew de Hcrdmanston and Livingston, all of which were 
 Herdmanston, possessed by Sir Archibald, renders it exceed- 
 
 ingly probable that they were respectively his 
 elder and younger son ; that they were brothers is rendered 
 almost certain by the manner in which their names are 
 coupled as witnesses to a charter by John Gallard of Keith 
 in favour of the monks of Dunfermline, where they are 
 described as Domini Willelnius et Andi^ea de Dufglas? 
 
 That Andrew Douglas had a son named William, who 
 succeeded him in possession of Herdmanston, is abundantly 
 . „,.,,. clear from the confirmation by Alexander III. in 
 
 XXVI. William 
 
 deDougriasof 12/7 of Andrew's gift of that property to his 
 Herdmanston. ^^.^ William ; ^ but obscurity descends again 
 upon the parentage of Sir James Douglas de Laudonia — of 
 
 xxvii. Sir Lothian — who had charters of Kincavill and 
 iToTi^^f Caldorcler in 1307.* All uncertainty about 
 Lothian, ob. this pedigree ends with the appearance of Sir 
 c. 1320. William Douglas [xxviii.], known later as the 
 Knight of Liddesdale, who is mentioned in several documents 
 
 xxviii. Sir as the son and heir of the deceased Sir James 
 Doners of [xxvii.].^ Henceforward we have the advantage 
 Lothian, of a consecutivc series of about three hundred 
 Liddesdale, charters, which were formed into a chartulary 
 c. 1300-1353. during the fourteenth century, being probably, 
 as the late Mr. C. Innes observed, the oldest register of lay 
 possessions in Scotland. 
 
 This Sir William Douglas it was who first brought 
 
 ^ Morton, i. p. xxxiv. ^ Registriwi de Dunfernielyn, 97. 
 
 2 Morton, ii. 8. ^ Ibid., 11. ^ Ibid., 11, 22, 23, 29. 
 
 VOL. I. O 
 
2IO THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 distinction upon his branch of the house. Godscroft, 
 pardonably perplexed by the number of Douglases named 
 James and William/ pronounced him to be a natural son of 
 the Good Sir James [vii.], whereby Tytler and other writers 
 have been led astray. Even after this confusion has been 
 cleared up there remains the embarrassing fact that Sir 
 James of Lothian [xxvii.] left two sons called William, the 
 elder a natural son, the younger legitimate and the subject 
 of this notice. Even so well practised a genealogist as Mr. 
 John Riddell overlooked this point, considering that the 
 designation of " the younger," applied to William [xxviii.] 
 in a charter of David II., was meant to distinguish him 
 from his father, who, indeed, died before David came to the 
 throne.2 But it was no more than the popular way of 
 distinguishing him from his bastard brother ; which Bower 
 makes perfectly clear in his account of the taking of Edin- 
 burgh Castle in 1341 per dominos Willelmum et Willelmum 
 de Douglas et Bullok. He states that after the place was 
 taken " the said William placed therein as constable his 
 elder brother, a bastard \nothus\ named William." ^ Allusion 
 also is made to this brother as Willelmus de Douglas senior 
 in various documents of the reign of Edward III. He was 
 taken prisoner at the battle of Durham, lodged successively 
 in the Tower of London, Rockingham, and Nottingham 
 Castles, and released from his chains on i6th May 1350, 
 under the pledges of Sir Walter de Haliburton and Sir 
 David de Annan that he would not go outside Nottingham 
 Castle without the constable's leave.'^ Finally, Willelmus 
 f rater meus is one of the witnesses to the will executed by 
 the Knight of Liddesdale in 1351.^ 
 
 ^ Ever since the Conquest John and William have been the commonest 
 baptismal names in England. It is recorded that in 11 73 Sir William de St. 
 John and Sir William Fitz-Hamon gave a dinner party limited to knights bearing 
 the name of William, and that the company numbered one hundred and twenty. 
 In Scotland, William was very popular, but John became discredited because of 
 John Baliol ; so much so that John the Steward, when he came to the throne in 
 1390, assumed the name of Robert. 
 
 2 Stewartiana, p. 137. ^ Bower, xiii. 47. 
 
 ^ Bain, iii. 274, 277. ^ Morton, ii. 55. 
 
THE KNIGHT OF LIDDESDALE 
 
 211 
 
 Born about the year 1300, William de Douglas was the 
 legitimate son of Sir James of Lothian [xxvii.]. Of his 
 mother nothing is known save that her name was Joan, and 
 that when she became a widow she drew her terce from 
 the lands of Blackness in Linlithgowshire.^ He makes his 
 Warden of ^^^^ appearance in history as Warden of the 
 the Marches, Marches in 1330, to which office it may be 
 
 assumed that he had been appointed on the 
 departure of his kinsman the Good Sir James [vii.] for the 
 Holy Land with the heart of King Robert. Complaints 
 were laid before Edward III. against him and the Earl of 
 Moray in that year by the communale of a northern county, 
 probably Cumberland, for arbitrary conduct in regard to 
 redress of offences, and for careless observance of the truce.^ 
 When war between England and Scotland was renewed by 
 the landing of Edward Baliol and the disinherited lords in 
 Fife in the autumn of 1332, Douglas vigorously resisted 
 the usurper, albeit he is not mentioned as taking part in 
 the Lineman's [x.] camisade at Annan, nor in his raid upon 
 Gilsland in March 1333. But when Sir Antony de Lucy, 
 on the 23 rd of that month, made a counter-raid upon 
 Annandale, Sir William de Douglas, with Sir Humfrey de 
 Boys, Sir Humfrey de Jardine, William Baird — malefactores 
 solemnes^ — attacked him with the garrison of Lochmaben. 
 
 After de Boys, Jardine, and four-and-twenty of 
 SiV^A^ntoty^ the Scots had been slain, Douglas and Baird 
 ^^^ucy, 23rd yielded themselves prisoners. Lucy received 
 
 three wounds, but only two Englishmen were 
 killed.* By King Edward's command Douglas and Baird 
 were put in irons in Carlisle.^ Douglas was not ransomed 
 until two years later, when he returned to Scotland and 
 applied himself vigorously to the task of clearing the 
 English and the adherents of Baliol out of Scotland. 
 
 He was present at the Parliament convened at Dairsie 
 in April 1335 by the Guardians, Robert the Steward and 
 the Earl of Moray, of which Parliament Fordun contemptu- 
 
 ^ Bain, iii. 341, 389. ^ jtid.^ 187. ^ Lanercost, 272. 
 
 " Ibid.^ 273. 5 g^jjj^ jii^ 1^4^ 
 
212 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 ously observes that " nothing was done therein but what 
 was ridiculous." This he attributes to the Earl of Athol's 
 influence over the Steward, " who was at that time not 
 governed by much wisdom " ; but he pays the compliment 
 to March, Moray, Sir Alexander de Mowbray, and Sir 
 William de Douglas that they " behaved discreetly and 
 quietly." ^ Athol certainly was working some mischief 
 between the Guardians at this period, though nobody seems 
 to know exactly how or why.^ It was not a safe time for 
 dissension, inasmuch as Edward of England and Edward 
 Baliol were on the warpath, and the Scottish Guardians 
 had issued orders for all movables and cattle to be carried 
 and driven into the hills, lest they should serve for the 
 support of the invaders. In July an English fleet of one 
 hundred and eighty sail appeared in the Forth, and King 
 Edward occupied Perth.^ 
 
 Guy, Count of Namur, landing on the east coast with 
 a body of Flemish troops to reinforce King Edward, was 
 Battle of encountered on ist August on the Borough Muir 
 MuTr"!st "^^^ Edinburgh by the Earls of Moray and March 
 August 1335. and Sir Alexander de Ramsay of Dalwolsey.^ 
 A brisk combat ensued, in which Bower assigns a foremost 
 place to qucedarn virago Gellerena — a certain virago of 
 
 ^ Fordun, ii. 350. 
 
 ^ The Deputy Chamberlain, Adam of Buthirgask, reports that owing to the 
 dispute \discordid\ between the Stewart and Moray he had been unable to 
 collect the customs of any of the burghs north of the Forth, except part of those 
 of Aberdeen, as the two Guardians had appointed each his own people to collect 
 them. — Excheqtier Rolls, i. 435. 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
 ^ Fordun, Bower, Wyntoun, and the Pluscarden chronicler all state that this 
 expedition was commanded by the Count of Gueldres, who also was an ally of 
 the English at this time. But King Edward's safe-conducts to the Count of 
 Namur, describing him as coming [12th July 1335] with an armed force to the 
 English King's assistance, and [nth August] as returning home, leave no doubt 
 that the Scottish historians are mistaken, and that the authors of Scalacronica 
 and the Lanercost Chronicle are right. Moreover, King Edward [3rd August] 
 gave Namur's brother Philip a silver gilt enamelled cup and ewer, and a similar 
 cup to his knight, for services against the Scots [Bain, iii. 211] ; paid Namur's 
 expenses home from Scotland, replaced two horses lost by the Count's esquires 
 \^Ibid., 5th September], and granted safe-conducts [23rd July 1337] for knights 
 taken in Edinburgh in the company of the Count of Namur \_Ibid.^ 226]. 
 
BATTLE OF BOROUGH MUIR 
 
 213 
 
 Gueldres — who, fully armed and well mounted, did single 
 combat with Sir Richard Shaw. These opponents charged 
 each other with such force that the lance of each transfixed 
 the other's body. Then, when their corpses were being 
 prepared for burial, it was found that the doughty Flemish 
 champion was a woman.^ 
 
 The battle was turning in favour of the Count of 
 Namur when Sir William Douglas arrived in the nick of 
 time with his own men and a force gathered in the Pent- 
 lands, and took the foreigners on the flank. They broke 
 and fled for Edinburgh, hotly pursued by the Scots. The 
 castle was in ruins at the time, having been dismantled lest 
 it should fall into English hands, but the Flemings swarmed 
 among the rocks, slaying their own horses and making a 
 rampart of them, as Bower reports. They made good 
 their defence till the morrow, when they surrendered. 
 The Earl of Moray, ultra modum curialis — imprudently 
 courteous — not only released his prisoners, but insisted upon 
 escorting them over the Border.^ He paid dearly for his 
 clemency. After parting with the foreign knights on the 
 march his escort was attacked by Percy. Moray himself 
 was taken prisoner and entered upon a captivity of six 
 years ; Sir William Douglas, who rode with the Guardian, 
 escaped with difficulty, and wounded in the ear, and 
 William's brother James was slain. 
 
 All the north of Scotland was now in the power of 
 Edward II. and his puppet, Edward Baliol, who had been 
 crowned at Scone in 1332. Athol, who hated Moray and 
 Douglas, had thrown up the cards and made terms with 
 the English King, and persuaded one of the Guardians, 
 Robert the Steward [afterwards to inherit the crown of the 
 Bruce and found the Stuart dynasty], to do the same.^ 
 The other Guardian, Moray, was in an English prison. 
 
 ^ Bower, xiii. 35. 
 
 ^ According to the custom of chivalrous warfare, Moray could only release 
 those prisoners who had yielded themselves to him. Knights who took other 
 prisoners than Moray's would be entitled to hold them to ransom ; hence in 
 1337 there were still at least two Flemish knights in Scottish durance. 
 
 " Scalacronica^ 165. 
 
214 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Athol was rewarded by being appointed Baliol's lieutenant 
 of the realm. Truly the national cause of Scotland had 
 never been at so low an ebb since Robert the Bruce emerged 
 from his hiding. 
 
 Well might the Abbot of Inchcolm bless the saints for 
 the ambition which at this crisis impelled Edward III. to 
 enter upon the Hundred Years War for the crown of 
 France — 
 
 ii to«5 ia <S£0tlanb a gttb chnnu 
 
 %hni that mab^ thaim to tomas ^ in cjfrana : 
 
 ^ox habi thai hal^lg thaim tane 
 
 <j0r to fajttras in cSc^tlanb allanc, 
 
 CSfftgr th£ Qxtt m^schtftis ttoa, 
 
 ^ttplsne anb ^alibxytone iDar tha, 
 
 "^hai sxtlb hat)£ sliaithit it to Qxdl^." ^ 
 
 But there were still a few true-hearted Scots knights at 
 liberty whom neither blandishment nor bribe nor menace 
 could bring to bow the knee to Baliol — Sir Andrew 
 Moray of Bothwell, to wit, who, having been ransomed 
 about August 1334, had been elected Regent by the 
 patriots ; Patrick Dunbar, Earl of March ; Sir Alexander 
 Ramsay of Dalwolsey, and Sir William Douglas of Lothian. 
 These faithful chevaliers collected a force of some eight 
 hundred spears out of Lothian and the Merse to maintain 
 withal the cause of their absent King. There are so many 
 sorrowful and shameful episodes in Scottish history, one has 
 to blush so often for the treachery and selfishness of men of 
 honourable lineage and high rank, that it is good to dwell 
 on the splendid stand made by this little band, but for 
 whom the hard-won independence of Scotland must assuredly 
 have gone by the board. 
 
 The Almighty, says the pious Bower, having deter- 
 mined to put an end to the malice of Athol, inspired 
 him with the project of capturing Kildrummie, the last 
 strength north of the Forth which still held for King 
 David, except Lochleven, where Sir Alan de Vipont had 
 gallantly stood and repelled a siege. Now Kildrummie 
 
 ^ To make war. ^ Have injured it [Scotland]. — Wyntoun, viii. 33. 
 
THE CAUSE OF BALIOL DECLINES 215 
 
 was in charge of Sir Andrew Moray's wife, of the house 
 of Bruce, wherefore it was determined to proceed to her 
 Battle of Kii Seemed a hopeless enterprise, seeing 
 
 biain, Novem- that Moray, March, and Douglas had such a 
 berso, 1335. ^g^i^ following. Nevertheless they made all 
 speed to intercept Athol ; and, having been reinforced 
 by three hundred men from Kildrummie, surprised his 
 greatly superior force in the forest of Kilblain. The 
 result was a great victory for the patriots : Athol him- 
 self was slain, and his army was dispersed with much 
 slaughter. Upon hearing of the fate of Athol, Edward III. 
 suddenly returned to Scotland, in order to relieve Lochindorb 
 Castle, where Moray had laid siege to the Countess of 
 Athol. Having effected the relief, the King of England 
 laid waste Moray, burnt Aberdeen, and returned to his own 
 country as swiftly as he had left it. 
 
 After this stroke of good fortune the patriot cause 
 gained much strength throughout Scotland. A valuable 
 accession thereto was that of William Bullock, formerly a 
 priest or friar of obscure birth, whose talents had raised him 
 to the post of chamberlain to Edward Baliol. Him Sir 
 William Douglas bribed or frightened into surrendering the 
 castle of Cupar, whereof Bullock was constable for Edward. 
 Dunnottar, Kinclevin, Laurieston, Falkland, St. Andrews, 
 Leuchars, Bothwell, and other places of strength followed in 
 rapid succession, for Edward III.'s mind and energy were 
 now directed upon the French War. The Countess of 
 March — " Black Agnes of Dunbar," daughter of Bruce's 
 nephew Randolph, Earl of Moray — bravely defied a besieg- 
 ing force under the Earl of Salisbury for several months, 
 until she was relieved by the approach of Sir Alexander 
 de Ramsay in June 1338. Sir Andrew Moray died, and 
 was succeeded in the Regency by Robert the Steward, 
 whose purpose it now suited to turn patriot once more. 
 He laid siege to Perth, which was practically Baliol's 
 capital, and despatched Douglas to Calais to purchase 
 material. Douglas returned with French ships, which made 
 captures among King Edward's victualling fleet in the 
 
2l6 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Tay} He was wounded in the operations before Perth, but 
 witnessed the fall of that city on 17th August 1339. 
 
 After that Douglas devoted himself to the reconquest 
 of Teviotdale, having his headquarters in the recesses of 
 Jedburgh Forest, whence he made repeated 
 
 Douglas iT^i-i • T»i 
 
 reconquers sallies upon tne JiLnglisn garrisons. ±5y tne year 
 ^39*134^^^' ^34^ master of all Teviotdale, except 
 
 Roxburgh Castle, and King David's writs ran 
 once more in lands which had been long in the grip of 
 King Edward. His gallant exploits in this long and 
 desultory campaign earned for him the title of the Flower 
 of Chivalry, along with the more substantial recognition 
 conveyed in the office of Sheriff of Teviotdale, coupled, as 
 it always was, with that of Constable of Roxburgh Castle, 
 as yet but an honorary appointment. 
 
 These honours proved disastrous in the end to the fair 
 fame of this renowned chevalier, marking the turning-point 
 in his career; but there still remained some notable 
 " juperdyis " to be undertaken by Douglas before he entered 
 upon the downward course. Edinburgh, Roxburgh, Ber- 
 wick, Jedburgh, and Lochmaben were still in the hands of 
 the English at the beginning of 1341 — 
 
 " SEorthg SEillam^ oft ^o\3)Qhx& 
 In till his hart all angrp toas 
 ^hat (Bh^nhuxdxisi CCastdk stoa 
 ^Sbi t0 ihz lanb anog anb toa,^ 
 cStanbanb in mgiibis; oU the lanb ; 
 (Siija lang teas it in his fais^ hanb. 
 thutocht to cast a ppcrbg."^ 
 
 Edinburgh Castle had been rebuilt and garrisoned by 
 the English after the battle of Borough Muir, and Douglas 
 listened willingly to a scheme for its recovery propounded 
 to him by William Bullock, who had played traitor to 
 the two Edwards in the surrender of Cupar Castle. This 
 
 ^ Douglas received payment in 1342 for his expenses at Calais. — Exchequer 
 Rolls, i, 507. 
 
 2 Injury and woe. ^ Foe's. 
 
 ^ To hazard an exploit. — Wyntoun, viii. 38. 
 
RECAPTURE OF EDINBURGH 217 
 
 scheme consisted of one of those complicated ruses, almost 
 as dear as miracles to the mediaeval chronicler. 
 
 A mariner named Wat Curry was hired to take his 
 vessel to Inchkeith, with a party of picked men under com- 
 mand of Sir William Douglas and Eraser of 
 Edinburgh Durds. He then presented himself as a merchant 
 Castle, i6th before the commandant of the castle/ and offered 
 
 April 1341. ' 
 
 him supplies of excellent wine and corn, which 
 he pretended to have for disposal. Some of the Edin- 
 burgh townsfolk — William Fairley, William Bartholomew, 
 and others — were in the plot.^ A bargain having been 
 struck between Curry and the English officer, wagons were 
 soon on their way up the Castle Hill, freighted with casks 
 filled, some with sand and others with salt water. The draw- 
 bridge was lowered for their admission ; a cunning driver 
 managed to jam his team under the portcullis so that it could 
 not be let down ; the blast of a horn rang out ; Douglas 
 rushed from concealment with a well-armed party, over- 
 powered the gate-guard, and carried the castle by surprise. 
 
 The prowess of the Flower of Chivalry attracted the 
 admiration of Sir Henry de Lancaster, Earl of Derby ,^ who 
 „ , longed to measure lances in the lists with such 
 
 Douglas ° 
 
 encounters a renowned chevalier. Edward III., having con- 
 Derby,*^^*^^ cluded a truce with France after the siege of 
 December Toumay [1340], had returned to England. This 
 ^^'^^* truce was framed to include the Scots ; neverthe- 
 
 less the Earls of Sutherland and March had been raiding 
 destructively in Northumberland, which brought Edward in 
 haste to the Border. He entered Scotland in December 
 I 341, passed through Ettrick Forest in very bad weather, 
 and returned to Melrose.^ Derby obtained King Edward's 
 
 ^ Sir Thomas de Rokeby was the governor, but he was absent at the time, 
 defending Stirling Castle, of which also he was governor. Froissart mentions 
 Richard Limosin as the governor of Edinburgh, but this name does not occur in 
 official documents. — Bain, iii. pp. xlix., 252. 
 
 ^ They afterwards received rewards for their services from King David. — 
 Exckeqtier Rolls, i. 490, 507, 522. 
 
 ^ Son and heir of Henry, Earl of Lancaster. 
 
 ^ Leland's synopsis of Scalacronica. The corresponding folios in the 
 
2l8 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 permission to challenge Douglas to single combat, which 
 was willingly accepted by the Flower of Chivalry. The 
 knights met in the King's presence, but the Scottish 
 champion was wounded in the hand at the first encounter 
 by the breaking of his own lance, and the stipulated 
 number of tilts could not be fulfilled. Douglas seems not 
 to have recovered in time to take his part in an interna- 
 tional tournament which took its rise out of this affair, when 
 twenty Scottish knights, headed by Sir Alexander Ramsay 
 of Dalwolsey, ran three tilts at Berwick against as many 
 English chevaliers. Fortune declared for the Scots, of 
 whom only one, a Hay, was slain, which success perhaps 
 strengthened Douglas's growing jealousy of Ramsay. The 
 lamentable depth of infamy into which that passion plunged 
 one of the doughtiest defenders of Scottish independence 
 must now be told. 
 
 Ramsay's growing fame culminated in the spirited 
 capture of Roxburgh Castle by a night escalade. This 
 Sir Alexander stroughold, whcreof Douglas was the titular con- 
 Ramsay stable, had hitherto defied all the Flower of 
 
 captures Rox- . , , , r • • 11 1 • 
 
 burgh Castle, Chivalry s plans for its seizure, and he took it 
 Easter, 1342. ^ deadly affront that any other chevalier 
 should succeed where he had failed. Sir Thomas Gray 
 was scandalised at the impiety of Ramsay, whose exploit 
 was carried out " at the very hour of the Resurrection," and 
 points out that all they who devised the plot came to an 
 evil end.^ 
 
 King David, returning from his exile in France on ist 
 June following, was delighted with Ramsay's exploit ; but 
 David was only just eighteen ; he understood nothing of the 
 internal affairs of Scotland, and he adopted a rash method of 
 rewarding the gallant knight. Depriving Douglas of his 
 offices of Sheriff of Teviotdale and Constable of Roxburgh, 
 
 original have been lost, but King Edward's presence at Melrose in December 
 1 34 1, which Lord Hailes overlooked, is attested by two writs issued at Melrose 
 on 20th and 27th of that month. — Bain, iii. pp. xlix., 250. 
 
 ^ Leland's synopsis ; the original passage in Scalacronica having been 
 written on the missing folio. 
 
CRUEL FATE OF RAMSAY 219 
 
 he conferred them upon Sir Alexander, to the great dismay 
 of experienced men, who foresaw the coming trouble ; " for 
 few were the things that King David did with mature 
 deliberation and the advice of wise men ; but his acts were 
 often headstrong, on his own judgment and without counsel, 
 as afterwards became plain." ^ 
 
 Douglas was incensed beyond measure on beholding his 
 offices bestowed upon a hated rival, thereby implying that 
 he had proved himself unworthy to hold them. His 
 vengeance was as swift as it was horrible. Ramsay had 
 summoned a Court to meet in the church of Hawick, and 
 was quietly awaiting its assembly when supervenit filius 
 invidicB^ — there arrived that brat of jealousy — William 
 Douglas, with a strong following. Ramsay, suspecting no 
 ill, inasmuch as he knew of no offence, rose and saluted 
 Douglas, inviting him to a seat on the bench. But Douglas 
 and his men flew like wolves upon Ramsay's unready com- 
 siaughterof P^^X' overpowcrcd them, wounded the Sheriff and 
 Sir Alexander bound him upon a mule. They carried him off 
 Ramsay, 1342. Douglas's castle of Hermitage, where this 
 brave knight was literally starved to death. Fordun says 
 he lingered for seventeen days without food ; another story, 
 quoted by Bower, runs that he prolonged his existence by 
 means of some corn which dropped into his dungeon from 
 a granary above. O externiinabilis invidia Diaboli ! ex- 
 claims the pious Bower, and launches into fine moral re- 
 flections, winding up with an appropriate quotation from 
 Seneca ; but after all, what seems to have shocked the 
 Abbot of Inchcolm most deeply in this affair was the 
 sacrilege committed in Hawick church ; while King David 
 chiefly resented the crime because it was committed upon 
 one of his officials. At all events, it was not long before 
 the Flower of Chivalry was received back to royal favour, 
 so completely that the offices of his victim were restored to 
 the murderer by the King. Robert the Steward was the 
 chief agent in this reconciliation ; — " thus," observes Lord 
 Hailes, " was the first Douglas who set himself above the 
 
 ^ Pluscarden, ii. 222. ^ Ibid. 
 
220 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 law pardoned through the generous intercession of the 
 Steward." 
 
 It has been shown how closely Douglas had been 
 associated with William Bullock, the renegade, in some of 
 P his most brilliant exploits. Bullock by this 
 
 William time was a knight and Chamberlain of Scotland, 
 Bullock, whether with good reason or without, certain 
 
 c. 1343. ' ^ ' 
 
 persons managed to arouse the King's suspicions 
 
 against him. David ordered Sir David Barclay to arrest 
 
 and imprison him in the dreary castle of Lochindorb, where 
 
 the luckless ex-priest died shortly afterwards of starvation, 
 
 as was commonly reported. Douglas was on his good 
 
 behaviour at the time, and was prudent enough to take no 
 
 immediate action in revenge for his friend's fate. Not the 
 
 less did he mark out the King's agent, Barclay, for future 
 
 punishment, and from this time forward his loyalty to King 
 
 David was of very dubious quality. 
 
 Impulsive young David did not do things by halves : 
 
 having granted pardon to Douglas, he proceeded to load 
 
 him with favours, bestowing upon him by separate 
 
 reg-ains the charters the lands of Aberdour, the whole earldom 
 
 King's favour, Athol, the lands in Ewesdale and Eskdale for- 
 1342. ' 
 
 feited by Sir James Lovel, the lands forfeited by 
 Sir John Mowbray, and the old Graham barony of Dalkeith 
 resigned by Sir John de Graham.-^ As has been mentioned 
 above,^ the King had granted the lordship of Liddesdale to 
 Robert the Steward ; but Robert now resigned this on re- 
 ceiving from Douglas the earldom of Athol, whereupon the 
 King bestowed Liddesdale upon Douglas,^ who was thence- 
 forward known generally as the Knight of Liddesdale. No 
 doubt he had a splendid record of services in driving out 
 the English, and the easy-going King overlooked his 
 crime against a patriot not less devoted and hardly less 
 successful. 
 
 Much of the territory recovered by Sir William Douglas 
 from the English was part of the ancient Douglas lands. 
 The head of the house at this time was Hugh the 
 
 ^ Morton, ii. 44-48. - P. 77, ante. ^ Morton, ii. 46, 47. 
 
DUBIOUS LOYALTY OF DOUGLAS 221 
 
 Dull [ix.], a parish priest, wholly unfitted by training, 
 habit, and inclination to enact the part of a great feudal 
 proprietor. The Flower of Chivalry, therefore, had no 
 scruples, and encountered no difficulty in persuading his 
 chief to make over to him large tracts of country, including 
 half the barony of Westerkirk, the barony of Stabilgorton, 
 the lands of Polbothy [now Polmoodie], and other lands 
 lying in the town and territory of Merton.^ 
 
 On 26th May 1342 Hugh the Dull, as mentioned in 
 a former chapter, made formal renunciation of all his great 
 possessions, for the purpose of entailing them upon 
 William, afterwards 1st Earl of Douglas [xi.], and his 
 heirs, whom failing, upon the Knight of Liddesdale and 
 his heirs.^ 
 
 There is the gravest cause for suspicion of the Knight's 
 loyalty after all these honours and favours had been 
 heaped upon him. A truce with England had been 
 agreed upon in 1343, to last till 1346, but the Scots 
 observed it very loosely, and King Edward sent Baliol 
 to the Border to overawe them. It may be inferred that 
 Douglas had treasonable dealings with him. Mr. Lang 
 suggests that he was carrying on the intrigues for which 
 Bullock had suffered, and that a raid which the Knight 
 of Liddesdale led into England in 1343 was no more than 
 a blind.^ 
 
 When the truce came to an end in i 346 Douglas, says 
 Bower, tried to persuade David to march to the Highlands 
 for the purpose of restoring order, which had been violently 
 disturbed by the murder of Ranald, Lord of the Isles, and 
 seven others, by the Earl of Ross. If this allegation is 
 true it may indicate Douglas's endeavour to fulfil a secret 
 compact with the English King. But Edward III. was 
 busy at the siege of Calais, wherein David perceived a fine 
 opportunity for ravaging his dominions. He mustered an 
 army of some thirty thousand, according to the Lanercost 
 chronicler, who waxes almost inarticulate with rage at the 
 
 ^ Morton, ii. 89-92, 93. ^ ^otuH Scotia, i. 637, 640. 
 
 ^ Lang's Scotland, i. 256. 
 
222 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Scots — " accursed sons of Belial," and their King — " pos- 
 sessed of the devil, another Ahab."^ David first be- 
 leas^uered the Tower of Liddel, which he took, 
 
 David II. ^ ' ' 
 
 invades Eng- and cut off the head of Edward's governor 
 1346'°''^°*'^'^ thereof. Sir Walter de Selby, who was accused 
 of freebooting. Douglas renewed his advice that 
 the King should march to the Highlands instead of ven- 
 turing into England, but he was given to understand that 
 the army had been mustered for higher purpose than 
 merely winning the knight's tower of Liddel. So forward 
 went the Scots, burning and spoiling, through Cumberland 
 into Tynedale, till they reached Hexham, where they 
 abode three days. The good friar of Lanercost is 
 carried so completely away by his feelings as to repeat 
 a scandalous story of the Scottish King's proceedings 
 there, whereof the details are, to say the least, highly 
 indelicate.2 
 
 By this time Percy, Thomas de Rokeby, and the Arch- 
 bishop of York — providus pater — had raised the country, 
 and were moving in three columns to resist the invaders. 
 St. Cuthbert stood in apparition before King David, as 
 is attested by sundry chroniclers, and warned him to 
 desist from his wicked enterprise ; but the King of Scots 
 paid as little heed to this spiritual visitant as he had 
 done to the advice of the Flower of Chivalry. He 
 continued his march and encamped in the park of 
 Beaurepair, in the neighbourhood of Durham. On the 
 morning of 17th October the Knight of Liddesdale, 
 with a foraging party, came into contact with the columns 
 of Rokeby and York, and narrowly escaped capture. 
 Hard pressed by Sir Robert Ogle's men, he galloped 
 into the Scottish camp — satis calefactus^ warm enough 
 — and warned King David that the enemy was upon 
 him. David was incredulous. " There are no men left in 
 England," he said, " but wretched monks, worthless priests, 
 and swineherds. They dare not touch us : we are safe 
 enough." 
 
 ^ Lanercost^ 344. Ibid. , 346. 
 
NEVILLE'S CROSS 
 
 223 
 
 If that was really his opinion, as reported by the friar 
 of Lanercost, it was about to be violently altered. Percy's 
 ^ ^ division, forming the right of the English army, 
 Neville's drew near, with Umfraville Earl of Angus, Scrope, 
 Cross, 17th Mussrrave in subordinate commands. Next 
 
 October 1346. 
 
 in echelon advanced the Archbishop of York, 
 and the left was brought up by the division under Sir 
 Thomas de Rokeby. 
 
 The Scottish line of battle was quickly formed. In the 
 centre the King commanded in person, the Earl of Moray 
 and the Knight of Liddesdale were on the left, the Earl 
 of March and the Steward of Scotland on the right.^ 
 Percy's column was the first to engage, falling upon the 
 Scottish left, covered by a cloud of archery. Sir John 
 Graham begged for a hundred horse with which to 
 scatter the enemy's archers, but, failing to get a single 
 one, charged alone. His horse was shot under him, and 
 he returned on foot.^ Percy pressed on and threw 
 Moray's troops into disorder. Moray was slain, last of 
 the noble line of Randolph, and Douglas yielded himself 
 prisoner. 
 
 All went ill with the Scots after this. John Coupland 
 captured King David ; the Earls of Fife, Sutherland, 
 Wigtown, and Menteith were taken ; among the slain were 
 the Earl of Stratherne, the Constable, the Marshall, and 
 the Chamberlain of Scotland, with Lindsays, Camerons, 
 Erasers, and others of many notable houses. There is 
 some doubt about the behaviour of the Scottish right wing 
 under the Steward and March. They made good their 
 retreat into Scotland, and perhaps there was some ground 
 for King David's complaint that they did not support him 
 in the action as they ought. But David never loved his 
 heir-presumptive. 
 
 The young King of Scots paid dearly for his rashness 
 by eleven years of captivity. Bower, throwing all the 
 
 ^ This formation is what appears most probable after comparing the discrep- 
 ancies of various writers. 
 ^ Bower, xiv. 3. 
 
224 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 blame upon him for having rejected Douglas's advice, draws 
 the following moral — 
 
 " PStigts state $iff ^oxt toill Wbz, 
 "Eiti alb mmnxB tonsnil tak Quhz htbt : 
 flot) aam his kgngliam ksit/ 
 ^ongc mtmis CDusall iox ht chtsit." ^ 
 
 But it was the old story — delu^ant reges^ plectuntur 
 Achivi. If the fault was the King's, the penalty was 
 paid by his people, and weighed them low for many long 
 years to come, by reason of the ransoms that had to be 
 wrung from them, both for King David and for his com- 
 rades in misfortune. 
 
 It has been shown that the action began on the 
 Scottish left, where Moray fell dead and the Knight of 
 Liddesdale was taken. Dare we assume that the Flower 
 ^ , of Chivalry was altoe^ether whole-hearted on 
 
 Douglas 
 
 is taken this occasion ? Where so many Scottish knights 
 prisoner. ^j^^ their hamess, this Douglas might have 
 found a fitting end. It had been better for his fame and 
 name had he done so, in view of all that was to come. 
 
 His first thought in captivity seems to have been to 
 avenge the fate of his old confederate William Bullock. 
 Now Sir David Barclay had only been carrying out the 
 King's command when he arrested Bullock and lodged him 
 in the dungeon of Lochindorb, never to leave it alive ; but 
 it is also alleged that he had slain John Douglas, brother of 
 the Knight of Liddesdale, at Forgie Wood. There was in 
 Slaughter of ^^^^ ample foundation for a blood feud ; there- 
 sir David fore, when Barclay was done to death at Aber- 
 Barciay, 1350. ^^^^ ^ band of assassins under Sir John de 
 St. Michael [? Carmichael], nobody seems to have doubted 
 that his death had been procured by Douglas. Godscroft, 
 at all events, accepts the charge against his hero, which he 
 would scarcely have done had there been reasonable doubt 
 about it, for Godscroft is a famous special pleader. He is at 
 much pains to justify the deed. After a long explanation 
 how Douglas was far too deeply indebted to Bullock to be 
 
 ^ Lost. ^ Chose. 
 
A RENEGADE KNIGHT 
 
 225 
 
 indifferent to his fate, and perfectly in his right in avenging 
 the slaughter of his own brother, he describes Barclay's 
 murder as — 
 
 " A just fact, but not justly done ; the matter was good, the form ill, being 
 beside and against all or^er. But who could wait for order in so disordered a 
 country ? . . . His duty to his friends defendeth the fact ; the estate of the 
 country excuseth the form. God looketh not upon such things." 
 
 Worse was to follow, though about this Godscroft 
 remains discreetly silent. A stain of blood-guilt more or 
 less could not greatly affect the character of him who had 
 caused the gallant Ramsay to perish of starvation ; but 
 never before had one of the Douglas name stooped to 
 treason. 
 
 In I 35 I the Knight of Liddesdale was employed by 
 Edward III. upon a secret mission to some of the Scottish 
 nobles concerning the release of King David ; but the 
 terms offered could not be accepted with honour or profit. 
 The negotiations fell through, and Douglas returned into 
 captivity.^ 
 
 Foiled by the loyalty of his countrymen in this attempt 
 to regain his liberty, the Flower of Chivalry now betrayed 
 Douglas be- cause in which he had won his renown. By 
 comes King an indenture, executed in London on 1 7th July 
 man, 17th 1 3 5 2, he bound himself as liegeman of the King 
 July 1352. q£ England, whom he was to serve henceforward 
 with ten men-at-arms and ten " hobelars " [light horsemen] 
 at his own cost, but not against the Scots, except at his 
 own pleasure. He was not to give counsel or aid against the 
 English, and he was to allow them free passage through 
 his lands at all times. In short, his estates were to form a 
 door ever open for the invasion of Scotland. Finally, he 
 was to give his only daughter and his nearest male heir as 
 hostages to England for two years. In return for all this 
 he was to receive at once Hermitage, Liddesdale, Corehead, 
 
 ^ Lord Hailes states that it was W^illiam, Lord of Douglas, who was intrusted 
 with this negotiation by King Edward, but the person is distinctly mentioned in 
 the document as Monsieur William Douglas^ the usual appellation of the Knight 
 of Liddesdale. — Foedera, v. 738. 
 
 VOL. I. P 
 
226 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Newton, and Granton-Polboothy, all in Annandale and 
 Moffatdale.i 
 
 It was a shameful compact, but there was still justice 
 under heaven, and the Knight of Liddesdale was baulked 
 of the price of his infamy. Upon returning; from 
 
 Slaughter of ^. . . / . ■ r ■, - i 
 
 the Knig-ht his captivity to enjoy the fruits of his treason he 
 of Liddesdale, found another William Douglas fxi.!, his cousin 
 
 August 1353. ^ L J' 
 
 and godson, hammering the English out of the 
 southern Scottish counties, a task wherein he had attained 
 great measure of success. How these two Williams met in 
 Ettrick Forest, and how the elder fell by the hand of 
 the younger, has been described above.^ His body was 
 taken first to the chapel of Lindean near Selkirk, and then 
 laid in Melrose Abbey. In the lordship of Liddesdale he 
 was succeeded by his slayer. 
 
 There is no record of the Knight of Liddesdale's 
 marriage, but he left a daughter Mary, who, according to 
 agreement, went to England as hostage for her father. On 
 24th June 1357 King Edward granted licence "to his 
 beloved vallet Peter Tempest, for his good service," to marry 
 Maria, daughter of Sir William de Douglas, knight, " who 
 was lately delivered by her father as a hostage in England ; " ^ 
 but this licence, which was overlooked by Sir William 
 Eraser, does not seem to have been put into effect, for in 
 I 361 Mary of Douglas married Reginald, son and heir of 
 Sir William More of Abercorn,* who divorced her before 
 1365, probably on finding that her inheritance had been set 
 aside by her father's will in favour of her cousins. In 1365 
 a Papal dispensation was obtained for Mary's marriage with 
 Thomas, son and heir of Sir Robert Erskine.^ She died in 
 giving birth to a child by her second husband, who claimed 
 
 ^ Bain, iii. 286. 
 2 P. 78, ajtte. 
 2 Bain, iii. 298. 
 
 ^ On 30th June 1360 Sir William More paid £2^0, part of 650 merks to be 
 paid for the marriage of Mary de Douglas ; and on 30th November a further 
 sum was paid for delivery of the lady's person. — Original receipts in Public 
 Record Office, quoted by Sir W. Fraser, i. 253, note. 
 
 ^ Theiner, p. 330. 
 
KNIGHT OF LIDDESDALE'S HEIRS 227 
 
 a liferent in the lands of Dalkeith, " according to the courtesy 
 of Scotland, on the plea that the child had been born alive." ^ 
 James Douglas of Lothian [xxix.], nephew and heir under 
 the will of the deceased Knight of Liddesdale, opposed the 
 claim ; and it was arranged that the question should be 
 settled in chivalrous fashion by a duel between the rival 
 claimants, to take place in Edinburgh in presence of the King. 
 The lists were prepared, Thomas Erskine was knighted by 
 his father, James Douglas by Archibald the Grim [xiii.], 
 when the King, yielding to remonstrance by friends of the 
 parties, intervened and stopped the duel. Erskine consented 
 to receive a sum of money in lieu of his claim, leaving James 
 in undisputed possession of the barony of Dalkeith, etc. 
 
 The Knight of Liddesdale's will, above referred to, was 
 singularly explicit, " as if," observed Mr. Cosmo Innes, " for 
 the express benefit of genealogists." ^ Dated at Peebles, 3rd 
 November 1351, it must have been executed while he was 
 on the secret embassy from Edward III. It contains no 
 reference to his daughter Mary, but the whole lands of 
 Dalkeith, Newlands, and Kilbochok are devised to his five 
 nephews in succession — James, Thomas, William, John, and 
 Henry, sons of his brother John. Among the witnesses to 
 this document are his natural brother Sir William, Sir 
 Andrew Douglas, and Archibald the Grim [xiii.], designated 
 consanguineus meus — " my kinsman." ^ 
 
 Of these sons of Sir John Douglas, nephews of the Knight 
 of Liddesdale, Sir Henry [xxix.], the youngest, married 
 Marjory, daughter of Sir John Stewart of Ralston, 
 Henry Doug-- uicce of Robert 11.,^ and widow of Sir Alexander 
 ib^ Lindsay of Glenesk, and became progenitor of 
 
 the family of Douglas of Lochleven. Alan 
 Stewart, Lord of Ochiltree, bestowed upon him the lands 
 of Langnewton in Roxburghshire in 1377.^ In 1383 
 
 1 Fraser, i. 254. ^ Morton, i. p. xv. ^ Ibid.^ ii. 53. 
 
 ^ William of Douglas, Henry's son, has been erroneously stated in the peer- 
 ages to have married this Marjory Lindsay, but see Sir Henry's will \Morton^ 
 ii. 176] and King David ii.'s precept [Ibid., i. p. xli.]. 
 
 ^ Morton, i. pp. xxxv.-xxxvii. 
 
228 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 King Robert granted him £20 a year from the customs 
 of Haddington/ and six years later he received from 
 the King charters of the barony of Lugton in Mid- 
 lothian,^ and of the castle and lands of Lochleven in Kin- 
 ross/^ whence his descendants received their style and 
 title. 
 
 Sir Henry died before the end of 1393, being survived 
 by his widow.'^ 
 
 ^ Morton, i. p. xxxvii. 
 ^ Ibid., 168. 
 
 2 Ibid., ii. 167. 
 ^ Ibid.., i. p. xl. 
 
 / 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 PAGE 
 
 229 XXX. Sir James Douglas of Dal- 
 keith and Morton, c. 1355- 
 1420. 
 
 229 Marries Agnes of Dunbar, 1372. 
 
 231 Founds the Collegiate Church of 
 
 Dalkeith, June 1406. 
 
 232 His death, 1420. 
 232 His will, 1 390- 1 392. 
 
 235 xxxi. Sir James Douglas, 1st 
 
 Lord Dalkeith, <:.i372-r. 1441. 
 
 236 Created a Lord of Parliament. 
 
 236 His death, c. 1441. 
 
 237 xxxii. Sir James Douglas, 2nd 
 
 Lord Dalkeith. 
 
 237 Marries Elizabeth Gifford. 
 
 238 xxxiii. Sir James Douglas, ist 
 
 Earl of Morton, 3rd Lord 
 Dalkeith, ob. c. 1504. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 238 Created Earl of Morton, 1458. 
 
 238 Marries Lady Joan, daughter of 
 
 James i., 1458. 
 
 239 His death, c. 1504. 
 
 240 xxxiv. Sir John Douglas, 2nd 
 
 Earl of Morton, 4th Lord 
 Dalkeith, ob. c. 1528. 
 
 242 Marries Janet Crichton. 
 
 242 His death, c. 1528. 
 
 242 XXXV. James Douglas, 3rd Earl 
 
 of Morton, 5th Lord Dalkeith. 
 
 243 Marries Katherine Stuart. 
 
 243 Deprived of his earldom and lands, 
 
 17th October 1540. 
 
 244 Deprivation of Douglas of Loch- 
 
 leven, January 1541. 
 
 245 Morton is restored, 24th April 1543. 
 245 His death, 1552. 
 
 In accordance with the provisions of the will of the Knight 
 of Liddesdale, his possessions passed to James, the eldest 
 XXX. Sir of his brother John, by his wife Agnes 
 
 James Doug:- Monfode. But in these possessions were not 
 
 las of Dalkeith . , , , tt • 1 t • , t . 1 1 . t 
 
 and Morton, included Hermitage and Liddesdale, which were 
 ob. 1420. to revert to the Crown in consequence of 
 
 the deceased knight's treasonable acceptance of them from 
 the King of England, and were conferred by King David 
 upon William, Lord of Douglas [xi.].^ Sir James Douglas 
 therefore became at once a very extensive landowner, and 
 Marries immensely increased his wealth by marrying, 
 Agnes of Dun- in 1372, Agnes, daughter of "Black Agnes" 
 bar, 1372. Dunbar, the famous Countess of March,^ 
 
 who brought as her dowry not only the lands of 
 
 ^ Fraser, iii. 360. 2 Morton, ii. 100, 102. 
 
230 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Mordington and Whittinghame and an estate in the Isle of 
 Man, but also the liberal sum of one thousand merks a 
 year, secured by royal grant upon the customs of Hadding- 
 ton and Aberdeen, pro apparatii et amictu ipsius — that is, for 
 pin-money.^ In addition to all this. Sir James's brother-in- 
 law, George, Earl of March, bestowed upon him the castle 
 and lands of Morton, and the lands of Whittingham in 
 East Lothian, and of Dabton, Drumcork, and Thornhill in 
 the county of Dumfries.^ 
 
 Sir James accompanied Sir Archibald the Grim [xiii.] 
 and the Bishop of Glasgow on their embassy to France in 
 1 37 1 ;^ and he was one of the Scottish Commissioners 
 with the Earl of Moray and Sir Archibald, who fixed the 
 truce with the English at Ayton, 7th July 1 384. But in the 
 course of a long life he does not seem to have taken any 
 leading part either in the agitating politics of the time or 
 in the constantly recurring warfare, although proving himself 
 an active and excellent man of business, as a large number 
 of the papers in the Morton chartulary amply testify, a great 
 benefactor to the Church, and superior in education to most 
 of his rank at that period. In 1372 Robert II. granted to 
 his " beloved kinsman, James de Douglas," licence to endow 
 a chaplainry in the chapel of St. Nicholas, in the town of 
 Dalkeith, with the annual sum of £6^ 1 3s. 4d., charged 
 upon the lands of Horsburgh in the county of Peebles.* In 
 1377 Sir James endowed another chaplainry in the same 
 chapel from the lands of Quilt and Fethane, also in Peebles- 
 shire, for the salvation of his father John, his mother Agnes, 
 his brother John, his uncle the Knight of Liddesdale, and 
 the knight's daughter Mary. He made it a condition that 
 the chaplain should be constantly resident and should 
 attend to his duties, and threw an interesting side-light 
 upon contemporary ecclesiastical habits by the significant 
 
 1 Morton, ii. 84. 2 /^/^_^ ^g^ 
 
 ^ Godscrofl says it was James, afterwards 2nd Earl of Douglas [xii.], who 
 did so, but this James was but a child in 137 1. To meet this difficulty Godscroft 
 alters the date of the embassy to 1381. 
 
 * Morton^ ii. 98. 
 
BENEFACTIONS TO THE CHURCH 231 
 
 provision that, should the said chaplain keep a concubine 
 publice, and refuse to dismiss her upon being warned to do 
 so, he should vacate the chaplainry.^ In 1406, having 
 obtained the consent of Bishop Wardlaw of St. Andrews, 
 Founds the Douglas crcctcd the chapel of St. Nicholas into a 
 Collegiate collcp-iatc cliurch, endowing; it with funds out of 
 
 Church of,.,^,^' ^ ^ 
 
 Dalkeith, his lauds for the support of a provost and nve 
 June 1406. prebendaries as perpetual chaplains, with suitable 
 " manses." The provost and chaplains were to reside 
 continually, and all were to attend divine service daily, 
 " decently dressed in gown and black hood furred with 
 lamb's-wool," except one of their number detailed to cele- 
 brate mass daily in the chapel of Dalkeith Castle. All this 
 was done " in memory of the Kings Robert I., David II., 
 and Robert II., their predecessors and successors, of Sir 
 John de Douglas our father, and Lady Agnes our mother. 
 Sir William Douglas Lord of Liddesdale our uncle, and 
 his daughter Mary, of Agnes also and Egidia our wives, 
 of John, Sir Henry, Thomas, and Nicholas Douglas our 
 brothers, of John Douglas our son, Elena and Margaret our 
 sisters, and for the salvation of all faithful departed souls, 
 and of our own, and of that of Sir James, Sir William, and 
 Sir James our sons, and that of our daughters, and of all 
 others procreated or to be procreated of our body, and of 
 Sir William Douglas our brother and his sons, and for the 
 welfare of Elizabeth our sister, so long as we shall remain 
 upon earth, and after death for the salvation of our souls." ^ 
 
 Besides this church of St. Nicholas in the town of 
 Dalkeith there was a chapel of Our Lady and St. John 
 the Baptist within the castle, which Sir James endowed 
 in 1384 with a chaplainry in memory of his first wife, 
 supported by funds from his lands of Louchurde and 
 Kirkurde, providing that, should the demolition or repair 
 of the said castle interrupt the services, they should be 
 held in the chapel of St. Nicholas, or, if war rendered that 
 impossible, then in the parish church of Lasswade.^ 
 
 Sir James Douglas died of influenza in 1420. Bower 
 
 ^ Morton, ii. 125. - /Md., ii. 324. ^ Ibid., 151. 
 
232 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 mentions that it was very destructive in that year, — " not 
 only nobles, but the commonalty succumbing to it." This 
 mysterious epidemic, he says, was vulgarly 
 ?ametDoug- Called "the Quhew," just as at the present time 
 ^aso^f^ai- 'vve may hear it spoken of as "the flue"; and 
 ' although Bower quotes the highest medical 
 
 opinion to prove that it was the result of certain peculi- 
 arities in the season, its causes, prevention, and treatment 
 were just as little understood in his day as they are in 
 ours.^ 
 
 Sir James's first wife, Agnes of Dunbar, died before 
 1384. His second wife was Egidia, or Giles, daughter of 
 Walter the Steward, half-sister of King Robert II., and 
 relict of (i) Sir James Lindsay of Crauford, and (2) Sir 
 Hugh Eglinton. 
 
 Sir James had two legitimate sons, both by his first 
 wife — (i) Sir James [xxxi.], who succeeded him; and (2) 
 Sir William. He left three daughters — (i) Margaret, who 
 married Philip Arbuthnot of that ilk ; ^ Agnes, who married 
 John Livingstone of Callander;^ and Jean, who in 1388 
 married Sir John Hamilton of Cadzow.* 
 
 Besides his legitimate issue. Sir James left two illegiti- 
 mate sons, John Douglas of Aberdour, and Sir James 
 Douglas, also of Aberdour, Roberton, etc., whom the good 
 knight is careful to name along with the rest of his children 
 and relatives in the dedication of the collegiate church of 
 Dalkeith. 
 
 By far the most interesting memorial left by this worthy 
 knight remains in two wills, dated respectively 30th Sep- 
 His last will tember 1 390 and i 3th September i 392. Except 
 and testament, the testament above mentioned of his uncle, the 
 1390-1392. Knight of Liddesdale [xxviii.], these are the 
 oldest wills known to be extant executed by any Scotsman, 
 
 ^ Bower, xv. 32. 2 /^^d., 97. 
 
 2 /did., 145. 
 
 /did. , i. p. xxxviii. The original indenture under which this marriage was 
 arranged remains at Dalmahoy, and is an exceedingly curious document, illus- 
 trating Sir James Douglas's shrewd business mind. The seal appended thereto 
 bears the earliest extant example of the Hamilton cinquefoils. 
 
SIR JAMES'S FIRST WILL 
 
 233 
 
 and " are better calculated to convey a just notion of his 
 rank and importance as a Scottish baron than any historical 
 document that remains to us." ^ By these documents Sir 
 James constituted his eldest legitimate son James as his heir, 
 with Archibald the Grim [xiii.] and Sir Henry Douglas [xxix.], 
 the testator's brother, as guardians, failing whom, George, 
 Earl of March. Commending his soul to the keeping of 
 the Virgin and all saints, he directed that his body should 
 be laid beside that of Agnes, his first wife, in the monastery 
 of Newbattle, leaving half of his free goods for the expenses 
 of his funeral and for masses and alms for his soul's sake. 
 The vicar of Lasswade was to have his best horse and, 
 curiously enough, his arms, as funeral fee, under the 
 express condition that the said vicar was not to ask 
 nor sue for any more [sic quod pro funerali meo ulterius 
 non petat nec calunipniat\ To James his heir he left 
 his helmet and arms and plate armour, with the silken 
 surcoat worn over the armour, his second best horse, and 
 his jack and tusches. Also an "owche" with a ruby in 
 the middle, a ring de columna Christie a cross made of the 
 true cross super quam pendebat Jesus^ a silver reliquary en- 
 closing hair of Mary Magdalene, and a gilt girdle. Among 
 other legacies to James were mentioned a golden circlet, a 
 great " counterfillet " of gold, a silver basin and cover valued 
 3-t -^IS) 3s. 8d., his best gilt cup at £\Z^ 2s., and his best 
 sapphire ring, which he, the testator, had received from his 
 mother with her blessing, and now left to his son James 
 with his own cordial blessing. To James also he left a 
 large quantity of silver plate valued at ^^24, 4s. 8d., his 
 best bed, and all his books, including the Scottish statutes 
 as well as the romances, except those on grammar and 
 logic, which were bequeathed to his illegitimate son John of 
 Aberdour, upon whom also he settled £10 di year until he 
 should be provided with land to that amount. In regard 
 to his library there is a most exemplary and commendable 
 clause in his will, to the effect that all books which he had 
 borrowed should be returned to their owners. 
 
 ^ Miscellany of the Bannatyne Club, ii. 101-120. 
 
234 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 His daughter Jean received a golden circlet valued at 
 forty merks in full discharge of the balance of her dowry. 
 His illegitimate son James got his father's second best 
 girdle, a pair of plates, and a suit of tilting armour. His 
 brothers William and Nicholas each received suits of 
 armour with an allowance of twenty and ten merks a year 
 respectively. All the rest of the knight's armour was to 
 remain in Dalkeith Castle perpetually. 
 
 The rest of his bequests consist chiefly of articles of 
 which the mere mention must turn all good antiquaries 
 green with despair because of their disappearance. The 
 Earl of March received a ring with a ruby ; John de 
 Livingston a ring with a St. Christopher; the church of 
 Newbattle a jewel of St. John that cost forty merks, with 
 twelve silver plates of the value of £iS, 6s., for the use 
 of the refectory, and his third best horse. To Elizabeth, his 
 sister, he bequeathed a gold brooch ; to Sir Henry, his 
 brother, a sapphire ring ; to Archibald the Grim, a ring 
 with a ruby " endlang " inscribed Vertu ne pus auoir 
 conterpois^ a sapphire on a gold stalk for the purification of 
 the blood, and his second best gilt cup and cover valued 
 at ;^8. To his second legitimate son William he left an 
 emerald ring with a poesy beginning " Remembrance," and 
 to his second wife Egidia an " owche " which she had given 
 him, " provided she does not lay any claim to the other 
 jewels." 
 
 The next provision in this remarkable will must be 
 for ever deplored by historians, for it decreed " for the 
 weal of my uncle's soul and my own," that all the bonds 
 of the Knight of Liddesdale should be destroyed by 
 fire. The solemnity of the injunction suggests that these 
 documents were of much importance, not exclusively credit- 
 able to the said uncle, and capable of throwing much light 
 upon disputed points in his later career. Other provisions 
 settled a chalice and missal on the church of St. Nicholas in 
 Dalkeith, sums of various amounts for building and upkeep 
 of different churches, legacies to the friars of Haddington 
 and Edinburgh, the monastery of Kelso, and a number of 
 
HIS SECOND WILL 
 
 ^35 
 
 private individuals. All his horses except those above 
 specified were to be divided among his brothers by his 
 executors, of whom there were nine named in the first will, 
 to wit — Egidia, his wife ; William, Henry, and Nicholas, his 
 brothers ; James of Aberdour, his natural son ; Hamilton 
 and Livingston, his sons-in-law ; Andrew Crocket, chaplain ; 
 and William de Kincardine, priest. The residue of his 
 plate was to be sold for the good of the poor ; his robes of 
 cloth of gold and silk were left for vestments to the churches 
 of St. Duthoc at Tain and St. Nicholas at Dalkeith ; Andrew 
 Crocket, chaplain, Richard Melok, William of Dreghorn, 
 and other priests were to share his furred garments ; his 
 green robe went to the parish church of Lasswade ; his robe 
 with a fetterlock, " which John Gibson last bought in 
 Flanders," to the parish church of Newlands, and so on, all 
 the rest of his wardrobe to be distributed among his poor 
 servants at the discretion of his executors.^ 
 
 In the will of 1392, revoking that of 1390, there are 
 some slight alterations in these bequests, but the most 
 significant, perhaps, is the omission of Sir James's wife, 
 Egidia, from the list of executors. The trifling bequest to 
 her remains, the " owche " that she had given her husband ; 
 but his affection for her does not seem to have been great, 
 judging from the caveat that she is not to claim any of the 
 other jewels. The most important new provision was that 
 of the bequest of all his goods, after legacies and debts, to 
 the building and decoration of the chapel of St. Nicholas.^ 
 
 In 1378 James, son and heir of Sir James Douglas of 
 Morton and Dalkeith [xxx.], was betrothed to one of the 
 xxxi. Sir daughters of the Earl of Carrick, afterwards King 
 James Doug- Robert III. Inasmuch as his father was only 
 
 las, ist Lord 
 
 Dalkeith, married about i 3 7 1 , the bridegroom could not 
 c. 1372-1441. have been more than seven years old ; but 
 precocious matrimony was promoted in those days by far- 
 seeing parents and guardians. " To one of the daughters," 
 I have said, because the indenture only binds young James 
 to marry " one of the two daughters of the said Lord John 
 
 ^ Moi'ion/xi. 170-176. Ibid., 179-186. 
 
236 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 [Earl of Carrick], either Margaret his elder daughter or 
 Elizabeth his younger daughter, according to his own fancy 
 and choice [^secundum libitum et eleccionem ipsius\r ^ He 
 chose Elizabeth. In 1392, when it is supposed the marriage 
 took place, James's father infeft him in the castle and town 
 of Dalkeith, with 5 00 merks of land ; ^ and in 1393 he added, 
 by permission of Archibald, Earl of Douglas and Lord of 
 Galloway, the barony of Prestoun in Galloway.^ In 1401 
 the younger James's father-in-law, King Robert III., bestowed 
 upon him the lands of Morton in Nithsdale, Mordington in 
 ^ ^ J Berwick, and Whittinghame in East Lothian * and 
 
 Created a ' ^ ^ ' 
 
 Lord of in the following year granted him £a^o a year from 
 Parliament, ^j^^ customs of Edinburgh.^ It has been stated 
 that King James I. made him a lord of Parliament under the 
 style of Lord Dalkeith, but evidence is wanting on this point. 
 
 Sir James Douglas, Lord Dalkeith, died about 1441, 
 having married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of John the 
 Steward [afterwards King Robert III.], by whom he had 
 three sons — 
 
 (1) William, who married in 142 1 Margaret, daughter 
 
 of Sir William Borthwick, and widow of Sir 
 William de Abernethy, and died during his 
 father's life without issue. 
 
 (2) James [xxxii.], who succeeded as 2nd Lord Dal- 
 
 keith. 
 
 (3) Henry, to whom his father gave a charter of the 
 
 lands of Borgue, etc., in Galloway, whereof he 
 had sasine from Archibald, Earl of Douglas and 
 Lord of Galloway [xiii.]. Henry married Mar- 
 garet, daughter of James the Gross, 7th Earl of 
 Douglas [xix.], and had a son, Hugh of Borgue, 
 who in 1474 renounced in favour of his cousin, 
 the I st Earl of Morton [xxxiii.], all rights to the 
 lordship of Dalkeith, except what might come to 
 him as heir male of the line.^ 
 Lord Dalkeith married, secondly, Janet, daughter of Sir 
 
 ^Morton, ii. 136. "Ibid., 188. ^ Ibid., 190. 
 
 * Ibid.^ 148. ^ Ibid.^ 202. ^ Ibid.., 222. 
 
INSANITY OF 2^,^ LORD DALKEITH 237 
 
 William Borthwick ^ of that ilk, by whom he had a son 
 William. Upon his father's death, 1440, this Sir William 
 became proprietor of Morton and Whittinghame, and pro- 
 genitor of the family of Douglas of Whittinghame, a line 
 which ended in an heiress Elizabeth, who married 
 Alexander Seton, Viscount Kingston. Lady Kingston's 
 daughter married Hay of Drummelzier, whose descendants 
 became the lineal representatives of Douglas of Whitting- 
 hame in this country .2 In 1474 Sir William Douglas 
 renounced his right to the lordship of Morton in favour of 
 James, ist Earl of Morton [xxxiii.].^ 
 
 Lord Dalkeith's second wife survived him, and married 
 the Admiral of Scotland, Sir George Crichton, Earl of 
 Caithness. 
 
 James, 2nd Lord Dalkeith, married Elizabeth, daughter 
 of James Gifford of Sheriffhall ; but having be- 
 james Doug-- come insane during his father's lifetime, upon his 
 Daikehh'°^'^ succeeding in 1441, the King appointed James 
 Gifford, Lady Dalkeith's brother, his curator for 
 nineteen years, with full powers to administer the estates 
 and to collect the rents.^ By the same instrument 
 Gifford was constituted constable of Dalkeith Castle, a 
 stronghold of considerable importance to that party in the 
 kingdom which should hold it in those days of dissen- 
 sion. Consequently King James's Government spent con- 
 siderable sums in repairs and upkeep during the tutelary of 
 Gifford, the bills for iron, Prussian timber, etc., amounting 
 to ;^ 1 2 2, 15s. 5d. during the years 1444-1445.^ 
 
 Lord Dalkeith left two children by his wife — (i) James 
 [xxxiii.], who succeeded him, and (2) Beatrix, who married 
 
 ^ Morton, ii. 330. 
 
 2 The male line is still represented by Carl Wilhelm, Count Douglas [born in 
 1824], premier gentilhojnme de la chambre to the King of Sweden. Count 
 Douglas traces his descent from Patrick Douglas of Standing Stones, sprung from 
 a younger brother of Douglas of Whittinghame. Patrick's son Robert [born in 
 161 1] served under Gustavus Adolphus ; was created Baron of Skalby in 165 1, 
 Count of Scheningen in 1654, and Field-Marshal in 1657. 
 
 ^ Morton, ii. 207. ^ Exchequer Rolls, v. 146 et passim. 
 
 ^ Ibid., 207-209. 
 
238 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 the first Earl of Errol, Constable of Scotland. The 
 brothers and step-mother of the 2nd Lord Dal- 
 ETougiair^sr keith made some attempt to set aside or infringe 
 Earl of upon James's right of succession, on the ground 
 3rd Lord of his father's insanity, but without success, and 
 Dalkeith, became 3rd Lord Dalkeith in due order. 
 
 ob. c. 1504. ^ 
 
 In 1458 he was belted Earl of Morton on the 
 occasion of his marriage with Joan, third daughter of 
 James I. The lustre of this alliance is sadly overcast by 
 the surmise, amounting almost to certainty, that this un- 
 lucky princess was deaf and dumb. There is no contem- 
 porary evidence to prove it, but in the divorce proceedings 
 of Hugh, 3rd Earl of Eglinton, against Joanna Hamilton, 
 his wife, in 1562, on the plea of consanguinity, it is set 
 forth that the earl and countess were descended from a 
 common ancestress, namely, Joan, Countess of Morton, or 
 Lady Dalkeith, known as muta doniina^ the dumb lady. 
 James Douglas therefore had to make some sacrifice in 
 return for his earldom, and the prospects of offspring 
 between the son of a madman and a dumb lady were 
 anything but reassuring.^ 
 
 Nevertheless, the ist Earl of Morton proved shrewd 
 enough in his benefactions to the Church. In 1471 
 Pope Sixtus IV. wrote to him urging him to join in 
 the projected crusade against the Turks in Europe,^ an 
 invitation which he was far too prudent to accept. Lord 
 Morton increased and re-endowed the collegiate church 
 of Dalkeith, founded by his great-grandfather [xxx.],^ and 
 in 1474 founded a hospital of St. Martha in Aberdour, for 
 the comfort of travellers and the support of the poor, 
 being moved thereto, as he expressed it, by the " pious 
 importunity " of John Scott, canon of Inchcolm and vicar 
 of Aberdour.^ For a " purprusione " made upon the King's 
 
 ^ The Lady Joan must have been of at least mature age at the time of her 
 marriage, because, eighteen years before, she had been betrothed to James 
 Douglas, 2nd Earl of Angus [xxxix.], who, by hook or by crook, managed to 
 evade the alliance. 
 
 2 Morton, ii. 217. ^ Ibid,, 226-235. ^ Ibid.^ 235-243. 
 
DEATH OF MORTON 
 
 239 
 
 moor of Peebles, Morton was adjudged to pay James in. 
 the sum of £100. Even the wealthiest nobles of that 
 period found it exceedingly difficult to meet their obliga- 
 tions with cash ; accordingly King James was content to 
 take ^50 down, and in pledge of the balance received 
 " ane chene of gold with ane crucifix of gold hyngand 
 at the same." ^ 
 
 Fig. 30. — Ruins of the Collegiate Church of Dalkeith. 
 
 Morton died about the year 1504, leaving two sons — 
 (i) John [xxxiv.], who succeeded to the earldom; (2) 
 James ; and one daughter, Janet, who married 
 Patrick, Earl of Bothwell. 
 
 An interesting memorial of the ist Earl of 
 Morton and his wife, Lady Joan, ^ remains, sadly 
 dilapidated, in the ruined chancel of the collegiate church 
 
 Death of the 
 ist Earl of 
 Morton, 
 c. 1504. 
 
 ^ Morton^ ii. 243. 
 
 2 According to modern usage this lady would be entitled princess, but the 
 sons and daughters of the Kings of Scotland |were seldom given that style of 
 courtesy until after the union of the Crowns. 
 
240 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 of Dalkeith. It is a sepulchral monument, with two 
 recumbent figures, which were long reputed to repre- 
 sent individuals of the Graham family, who preceded 
 Douglas in the lordship of Dalkeith ; but the late Mr. 
 James Drummond satisfactorily proved, from the armorial 
 bearings, that the figures were those of the ist Earl of 
 Morton and his royal spouse.^ The arms shown on one 
 shield are the paternal coat of Douglas, lords of Dalkeith, 
 which showed only two stars or mullets in chief instead of 
 three, as in the arms of Douglas, lords of Douglas. The 
 other shield shows Douglas, as above, impaling the royal 
 arms of Scotland on the wife's side. 
 
 Fig. 31. Fig. 32. 
 
 Armorial Stones in Dalkeith Church. 
 
 Patrick Graham, who succeeded his able half-brother 
 Kennedy as Bishop of St. Andrews, resembled his prede- 
 cessor only in so far as he was an active and 
 johriDougias, masterful politician. Now, success in politics at 
 2nd Earl of that period consisted, or was held to consist, in 
 
 Morton, . . , ' 
 
 4th Lord possession of the person of the young King, 
 
 ^b!c.1S8. J^"^^^ "^-^ ^^^^t wh^^h Lord Kennedy, elder 
 brother of the late Bishop of St. Andrews, made 
 a bond with Lord Fleming and Sir James Boyd, whereof 
 
 ^ Proceedings of the Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 25. 
 
FACTION AND INTRIGUE 
 
 241 
 
 the members agreed " to stand in afald kendnes, supple 
 and defencs, ilk an til odir, in all thair caussis and qiier- 
 rell, leiful and honest, movit and to be movit, for all the 
 dais of thair liffis, in contrery and aganis al maner of 
 persones that leiff or dee may." At the same time Flem- 
 ing made a similar cabal, including Bishop Graham of St. 
 Andrews, and the Lords Boyd, Crawford, Hamilton, Living- 
 stone, Cathcart, and Montgomery. These confederates 
 obtained their primary object in the seizure of King James's 
 person at Linlithgow on loth July 1466. How eagerly 
 they desired to secure the great territorial influence of the 
 Earl of Morton, including possession of the important 
 stronghold of Dalkeith, seems indicated by a document 
 dated a few days before their coup d'etat. On 30th June 
 Morton was induced to execute an indenture with the 
 Bishop of St. Andrews, binding the earl's son John to 
 marry Elizabeth, daughter of David Graham, the bishop's 
 brother, " the tyme God willing that thai cum to lachful 
 and perfite age of mariage." Failing the life of John, his 
 brother James was taken bound to marry the lady, " and sa 
 furth quhill the said Lord James Erie of Mortone have 
 ony sone and the said Dauid ony dochteris lachfully 
 gottin." In return, the bishop, his brother David, and 
 Robert Graham of Fintry, their father, bound themselves 
 to do all in their power to help the earl to recover his lost 
 heritage in Whittinghame and Morton, then in possession of 
 Sir William Douglas, son of the ist Lord Dalkeith [xxxi.] 
 by his second wife. If the said earl should be reinstated 
 in these lands, he was to pay the Grahams 1500 merks.^ 
 
 Seven years later, in January 1474, Morton was so 
 reinstated upon the renunciation of Sir William Douglas 
 per fustem et baculum^ but by that time the Boyds had 
 come to ruin, and their estates had been forfeited to the 
 Crown. Bishop Graham, also, had fallen upon evil days, 
 for, after obtaining the erection of his see into an arch- 
 bishopric, he was inhibited by the rector of St. Andrews 
 University, persecuted by Schevez, the future archbishop, and 
 
 ^ Morton, ii. 213. - Ibid.^ ii. 219. 
 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
242 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 became hopelessly insane. Under these changed conditions 
 the 2nd Earl of Morton easily escaped from his engage- 
 ment to Elizabeth Graham, marrying instead Janet, 
 daughter of Crichton of Cranston - Riddell. He died 
 before 1528, leaving issue — (i) James [xxxv.], who suc- 
 ceeded as 3rd earl; (2) Elizabeth, who married Robert, 
 Lord Keith; and (3) Agnes, who married Alexander, 5th 
 Lord Livingstone. The only distinction which can be 
 claimed for the 2nd Earl of Morton above many other 
 powerful and more famous landowners of his day, is that 
 he had the good sense and good luck to keep clear of the 
 sordid intrigues and bitter factions which rent the kingdom 
 during the reign of James V. ; but it does not follow there- 
 from that his life was wasted. Too much of written history 
 is made up of the doings of noisy demagogues and am- 
 bitious oligarchs ; the silent, unobtrusive influence of peace- 
 loving men of means upon the national character and 
 development of industry, is apt to be overlooked ; and it 
 is possible that this earl may have done much good upon 
 his estates, whereof the record has passed clean away. 
 
 At the second earl's death the lands and lordships 
 passed to his only son, who was a confirmed invalid, but 
 who, in one respect at least, showed the instincts 
 
 XXXV. James, , . 
 
 3rd Earl of of an improving proprietor. Magnificent in ex- 
 
 Lord ^^"^ were the territories of the lords of Dalkeith, 
 
 Dalkeith, the richcst part of them lay beneath the surface, 
 
 o . c. 1553. which the first three Earls of Morton seem to 
 
 have had an inkling, for in 1530 John Crichton, vicar of 
 
 Dalkeith, entered into an indenture with the 3rd earl, in 
 which the following sentences occur : — 
 
 " Forsamekill as the said schir Johne Creichtoun, vicare forsaid, consideris, 
 understandis and perfitly knaws the greit travell, coistis and expensis sustenit 
 and borne be umquhile ^ of gud memorie James ei le of Mortoun, lord of Dalkeith, 
 Johne erle of Mortoun, lord of Dalkeith, and now lately the sumptuous labouris, 
 exorbitant expensis and greit diligence done and debursit be the said nobill and 
 michty lord, James erle of Mortoun, lord of Dalkeith, sone and air of the said 
 umquhile Johne erle of Mortoun, lord of Dalkeith, for to fynd and obtene the 
 
 ' By the late. 
 
RESIGNATION OF THE EARLDOM 243 
 
 coles of Colden and Dalkeith lyand within the scherififdome of Lowdiane and 
 regalite of Dalketh, and the importance and emolumentis the said vicare and 
 his successouris micht haue therthrow, giff the saidis coles wer wonnyng^ and 
 gottin. — Thir'-^ causis and consideiationi.s moving the said schir John, vicare 
 forsaid, he ryply avisit^ and aluayis providing the utilite, augmentatioun and 
 singulare profht of the kirk and vicarage of Dalkeith, and to giff the said nobill 
 and michty Lord James erle of Mortoun, lord of Dalkeith, and to his ane 
 successoure, all and hale the teynd coles of Colden and Dalkeith "... 
 
 — all for the annual rent of forty shillings.* It is strange 
 to look upon the great Lothian coalfield, as it appears now, 
 with its annual output of many hundreds of thousands of 
 tons, and trace the origin of that great industry to the 
 " sumptuous labouris, exorbitant expensis and greit dili- 
 gence " of the shrewd Earls of Morton. 
 
 Having married Katherine, a natural daughter of 
 James IV. by Mary Boyd, the Earl of Morton in 1540 
 was coerced by Tames v., under " dredour " of 
 
 Deprived of . . . . , . , , 
 
 his earldom, imprisonment m Inverness, to resign his earldom 
 
 17th October lands in favour of Robert Douplas of Loch- 
 
 1540. ^ 
 
 leven, reserving only his own liferent and a 
 
 reasonable terce \rationabilis tercia\ for his countess in 
 
 the event of her surviving him.^ No reason is alleged for 
 
 this arbitrary procedure in the King's letter to his treasurer 
 
 ^ Obtained. ^ These. ^ Ripely advised. Morton, ii. 260. 
 
 ^ Ibid., ii. 261-269. It is no figure of speech to say that King James 
 "coerced" his luckless brother-in-law, as the following passage from the judg- 
 ment of the Lords of Council in 1543 upon the transaction proves : — "The gift 
 maid [by the Earl of Morton] to the said Sir Robert Douglas was maid be dreid 
 that mycht fall in ane constant man, in consideration that the said James Erie of 
 Mortoun was chargit immediatlie of befoir to pass to Invernes, to the extreme 
 north partis of the realme, and ther remane in ward in the sesioun of wynter ; to 
 permut and change the halsoum and warme air with cauld and tempestious air ; 
 the natural fudis [foods] with the quhilkis he was nurist all his liftyme with rude 
 and unganand [unsuitable] metis ; and quhair sic thingis as accordit to his estait 
 and preservatioun of his lif mycht not be had ; and als to permute ane plesand 
 palice, castell, yardis, toun, college, with diverse otheris plesouris, with hummil 
 [humble] and sober lugeingis [lodgings], with diverse incommoditeis and dis- 
 plesouris quhilkis were lang to rehers, the said Erie being ane of the maist nobill 
 baronys of the realme, and impotent of his leggis, aigit, occupyit and detenit 
 with diverse maledeis in his persoun." The judgment goes on to recite how the 
 resignation was extorted at Brechin, and how the King sent daily from his 
 " lugeing," pressing for Morton's consent, otherwise the earl was to go to prison 
 in Inverness straightway. — Ibid. , ii. 289, 290. 
 
244 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 on I 8th October notifying the transfer, which he says has 
 been effected " for gude caussis," as Lochleven would explain 
 to him. Among the " caussis " given to Robert of Loch- 
 leven to account for the King's extraordinary favour to him 
 would be, no doubt, the fact that Morton had no male issue. 
 Moreover, Morton was a cripple, having been absolved for 
 life from all military service and wappinshaws on account 
 of his being " subject to diverse seikness and infirmiteis in 
 his persoun, havand ane sare leg, and not habile to endure 
 greit travel in weirfare without extreme danger to his 
 persoun." ^ It was of the utmost importance, Lochleven 
 would be told, that, in these troubled times, the feudal lord 
 of such great possessions should not only be well affected 
 to the monarch, as Morton undoubtedly was, but able to 
 exercise his power, which he was not. Douglas of Loch- 
 leven was suitable in both these respects, but it is not 
 surprising that the Countess of Morton offered vigorous 
 opposition to the King's design,^ which, however, was duly 
 carried out.^ 
 
 But Robert Douglas's illusion was as brief as his enjoy- 
 ment of the honours so unexpectedly conferred upon him. 
 Compulsory King James's real motives were rudely unravelled 
 resignation and discloscd bv the Lords of Council when they 
 
 by Robert . ^ /, 
 
 Doug-las, came to try the case m 1543. "Our said 
 January 1541. umquhile Soverane Lord, quhem God assolze, 
 labourit allwayis to that effect that he mycht have the 
 saidis lordschippis and lands heritablie " ; a conclusion to 
 which the King's catspaw, Lochleven, was forced when, 
 three months after the date of his infeftment, namely, on 
 20th January 1541, he resigned the earldom of Morton 
 and lordship of Dalkeith into the King's hands, protesting 
 at the same time that he did so under coercion, in fear of 
 death and of losing his estate of Lochleven.^ 
 
 Upon James v.'s death, 14th December 1542, the Earl 
 of Arran, Morton's son-in-law, became Regent ; against 
 whom Morton immediately brought an action for the re- 
 
 ^ Morton^ i. 3. 
 
 3 Ibid.^ ii. 261-267. 
 
 2 Ibid., i. 3, ii. 269. 
 ^ Ibid., ii. 281-293. 
 
RESTORATION OF THE EARLDOM 245 
 
 duction of the " pretendit " resignation. After hearing all 
 parties, the Lords of Council pronounced in 
 ofTheelriTom judgment that the said resignation should " be 
 in favour of reducit, cassat, annullit, declarit and decernit to 
 
 James Doug- i • 1 1 
 
 ias[xxxvi.], have bene fra the begynnyng and to be in all 
 1543^^"' tyme cuming of nane avale, and the said James 
 Erie of Mortoun to be reponit in the samin 
 stait tuiching the saidis lordschippis and landis, like as he 
 was befoir the making of the said pretendit resignatioun." ^ 
 
 Robert of Lochleven's resignation of the earldom, etc., 
 into the King's hands was also annulled as matter of 
 course ; and Morton executed a conveyance of the earldom 
 and his estates to his son-in-law James Douglas [xxxvi.], 
 second son of Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich [li.], 
 and brother of David, 7th Earl of Angus [Iv.].^ 
 
 The 3rd Earl of Morton died in 1552, leaving, by his 
 His death, wife Katherine Stuart, three daughters — 
 
 ( I ) Margaret, married James, Earl of Arran, 
 Duke of Chatelherault, Regent of Scotland ; 
 
 (2) Beatrix, married Robert, 6th Lord Maxwell, and 
 
 became mother of John, 8th Lord Maxwell, upon 
 whom James VI. bestowed the earldom of Morton 
 in I 5 8 1 ; and 
 
 (3) Elizabeth, who married in 1543 James Douglas 
 
 [xxxvi.], who became 4th Earl of Morton. 
 
 1 Morton, ii. 281-293. " Ibid., 294-298. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 246 xxxvi. James Douglas, 4th Earl 
 
 of Morton, Regent of Scotland, 
 c. 1516-1581. 
 
 247 Marries Elizabeth, daughter of the 
 
 3rd Earl of Morton [xxxv.], 
 1543- 
 
 250 Joins the Lords of the Congrega- 
 
 tion, December 1557. 
 
 251 Signs the Reformers' Covenant, 
 
 27th April 1560. 
 
 252 Appointed Chancellor of Scotland, 
 
 1562. 
 
 253 The Countess of Lennox renounces 
 
 her claim to the earldom of 
 Angus, 1565. 
 
 254 Murder of David Riccio, 9th 
 
 March 1566. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 256 Morton flies to England, 1566. 
 
 257 Is recalled, January 1567. 
 
 257 Conspiracy against Darnley, 
 
 1567. 
 
 258 xxxvii. Archibald Douglas, par- 
 
 son of Glasgow, died c. 1600. 
 
 260 Civil war, June 1 567. 
 
 261 Surrender of Queen Mary, 14th 
 
 June 1567. 
 
 262 The Casket Letters, 20th June 
 
 1567. 
 
 264 Queen Mary escapes from Loch- 
 leven, 2nd May 1568. 
 
 264 Battle of Langside, 13th May 
 
 1568. 
 
 265 Earl of Lennox appointed Regent, 
 
 1 2th July 1570. 
 
 James Douglas, second son of Sir George of Pittendreich 
 [li.], brother of the 6th Earl of Angus [1.], succeeded to 
 . , the earldom of Morton under the disposition of 
 
 xxxvi. James ^ 
 
 Douglas, 4th his fathcr-in-law, the 3rd Earl of Morton [xxxv.]. 
 Snf Regent" bom about I 5 1 6, and, notwithstanding 
 
 of Scotland, the forfeiture and banishment of his father and 
 
 C. 1516-1581. . 1 1 1 • ' r 
 
 uncle in 1528, and the general proscription 01 
 the house of Douglas, which endured till James v.'s death 
 in 1542, he remained in Scotland with his mother, and was 
 named as her heir in a charter of Pittendreich granted in 
 her favour by King James in 1536.^ This is taken by Sir 
 William Eraser as disproof of Godscroft's statement that 
 James's boyhood and youth were spent in hiding from the 
 
 * Reg. Magni Sigilli, iii. No. 1541. 
 246 
 
EARLY YEARS OF FUTURE REGENT 247 
 
 King's persecution. But Pittendreich had been forfeited in 
 1528, and bestowed upon the King's bastard brother, James 
 Stuart, Earl of Moray, afterwards Regent, who held them 
 until the date of the charter in question ; which charter 
 was revoked in the year after its execution, when Moray 
 resumed possession, and held the lands until the restoration 
 of the Douglases in 1543. All this seems quite consistent 
 with Godscroft's account of young James Douglas's mode 
 of life. He expressly states that nothing is known about 
 the early years of James's elder brother David [Iv.], but 
 that — 
 
 "Of this James it is certainly known that, all the time of his father's 
 banishment and exile, he lurked under the borrowed name of James the 
 Grieve ^ or James Innes ; first, with his cousin at Glenbervie ; afterwards, for 
 fear of being discovered with so near a kinsman, with some gentleman in the 
 more northern parts of Scotland. And as he bore the name, so he did also 
 execute the office of a grieve and overseer of the lands and rents, the corn 
 and cattle of him with whom he lived. . . . He attained hereby such skill 
 in husbandry, and such perfection in economy and thriftiness, that, having 
 acquired a habit of frugality, he not only repaired the decayed and shattered 
 estates of these two earldoms, Augus and Morton, but also helped to recover 
 and augment the revenues of the Crown and kingdom more than any other 
 Regent." 
 
 It has been described in the last chapter how, as soon as 
 James V. was off the scene, the 3rd Earl of Morton was restored, 
 . and how he bestowed his young^est daus^hter upon 
 
 Marries J ^ far 
 
 Elizabeth, Jamcs Douglas younger of Pittendreich, whom he 
 thefr^dEari Constituted his heir. Thereafter James became 
 of Morton known as Master of Morton. 
 
 1543. Lii^e his father Sir George [li.], and his uncle 
 Angus [1.], Morton was an ardent advocate of the English 
 alliance, which at first received the support of Regent 
 Arran. But Cardinal Beaton, head of the French faction 
 in Scotland, soon gained over the Regent, who abjured 
 the reformed religion, so that the Douglases found them- 
 selves once more in opposition. No effective opposition 
 could be offered in the sixteenth century without the argu- 
 ments of cold steel and gunpowder, wherefore Angus and his 
 
 ^ " Grieve " is the Scottish term corresponding to the English farm-bailiff. 
 
248 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 clan entered into a mutual bond of defence, and to the Master 
 Siege and Morton was Committed the keeping of Dalkeith 
 
 surrenderor Castlc. Here he was besieg-ed by Regent Arran, 
 
 Dalkeith , , , 1 , t 1 
 
 Castle, No- and surrendered upon honourable terms on 7th 
 vemberi543. November 1543, being allowed to depart with 
 all the garrison, and to remove his goods and gear.^ 
 
 The perplexing politics of these years will be more fully 
 dealt with under the memoirs of the 6th Earl of Angus [L] 
 and of Morton's father, Sir George Douglas [li.] ; meanwhile 
 it is enough to mention that Morton and his elder brother, 
 like the rest of the Douglases, after having been served with 
 summonses for high treason, became outwardly reconciled 
 with the Regent's Government. But as long as Cardinal 
 Beaton's influence was supreme, no Douglas head was safe 
 on its shoulders. The Earl of Hertford's sudden descent 
 upon the Forth, in May 1544, probably saved the lives of 
 the Earl of Angus and his brother Sir George, whose 
 treasonable correspondence with the English had been 
 intercepted, and who were at the time imprisoned in Black- 
 ness. Sir George's sons, David and James, had actually 
 offered to surrender the great castle of Tantallon to the 
 invaders,^ showing that they were in perfect concert with 
 their father, who had invited the English to invade 
 Scotland. 
 
 The scene now shifts from national defence to faction 
 war. Arran was practically deposed at a convention of 
 barons at Stirling [3rd June 1544]; the Queen-mother, 
 Mary of Guise, was committed to the authority of four 
 bishops and twelve lay peers ; Arran stood on his defence 
 in Blackness Castle, and the English — that is, the Douglas 
 — faction seemed in the ascendant once more. But it is all 
 very confused, as might scarcely be otherwise, seeing that 
 " euerie lord did for his awne particulare proffeit, and tuke na 
 heid of the commoun weill." ^ Angus was unscrupulous 
 enough in the means by which the French policy should be 
 
 ^ Morton, i. 5. 
 
 2 Hamilton Papers^ iv. part i. 94, 98. — Maitland Club. 
 ^ Diurnal of OccurrentSy 33. 
 
MORTON'S CAPTIVITY 249 
 
 defeated and the English alliance secured, but when Scot- 
 tish drums were beating the point of war, the Douglas 
 blood in him would assert itself, and he bore himself 
 as became a skilful and courageous soldier. It does not 
 appear that the Master of Morton was with his uncle and 
 Arran, now restored as Regent, when they routed the 
 English under Eure and Layton on Ancrum Moor [27th 
 February 1545]; but he was with the army which, in 
 August of the same year, mustered on Roslyn Moor 
 and marched into Northumberland 30,000 strong, with 
 3000 French auxiliaries, and which, on the treacherous 
 advice of Angus and Sir George, turned its back on 
 a very inferior English force and marched back into 
 Scotland. 
 
 In June 1548 the Master of Morton was besieged in 
 his castle of Dalkeith by Lord Grey, and being taken 
 prisoner with the rest of the garrison, was sent to 
 prisoner at the Tower of London, where Godscroft believed 
 ?une^iS48 ^^^^ remained for " certain years, for during 
 that time he learned the . . . English tongue 
 and tone, which he did ever thereafter much delight to 
 use." Probably he did not regain his liberty till the pacifi- 
 cation in 1550. 
 
 His first appearance as Earl of Morton was at the Privy 
 Council on 14th October 1552. His elder brother David 
 became 7th Earl of Angus [Iv.] upon the death of his uncle 
 the 6th earl [1.] in 1557; and at David's death in June of 
 the same year, Morton undertook the duties of tutor and 
 guardian to his infant son Archibald, 8th Earl of Angus 
 [Ivi.]. Having, therefore, practically absolute control 
 over both these great earldoms, and the princely possessions 
 comprised therein, Morton was now a territorial magnate as 
 great as any of the old Earls of Douglas had been. But 
 the times had moved somewhat : politics had been compli- 
 cated by the advance of reforming doctrines in religion, and 
 the battle of the creeds had greatly confused the old simple 
 formula that might made right. Morton moved very warily 
 at first. Son of the prime agent in the English interest, he 
 
250 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 naturally inclined to the side of the Reformation, and in 
 Joins the December 1557 signed the confederation which 
 Lords of the bound the Protestant barons together as Lords 
 
 Congregation, - , „ . i i- i • i • 
 
 December of the Congregation. He took little part m their 
 deliberations ; when Perth was held against the 
 Queen-Regent, Morton was absent on duty, settling the dis- 
 puted frontier between England and Scotland [31st May 
 1559]; neither is he recorded as having had any hand in the 
 seizure of Edinburgh by the Reformers in July. The truce 
 then concluded between the Lords of the Congregation and 
 the Queen-Regent, to endure till the following January, 
 broke down almost immediately, and again the lords 
 advanced upon Edinburgh in October. 
 
 This time also Morton held aloof, although close at hand 
 in Dalkeith, and although Sadleyr had just written to the 
 English Council that " the Protestants make [of Morton] a 
 certain account to be theirs." Sadleyr had been long enough 
 in Scotland by this time to read shrewdly the motives of 
 Scottish politicians, and in a subsequent letter probably 
 interpreted the earl's attitude aright. He is " simple and 
 fearful . . . albeit he hath by his handwriting bound himself 
 to take part with the Protestants, yet he lieth aloof ; some 
 think he doth it partly fearing which party shall prevail, 
 and partly in respect of the great benefit that he hath 
 heretofore received at the dowager's hands, by whose 
 means he hath obtained the earldom of Angus, though 
 another hath a better title to the same ; ^ and yet we 
 think him to favour the Protestants more than the other 
 party." 
 
 Morton, in short, was performing that delicate feat in 
 political athletics, not unfamiliar to students of history 
 ancient and modern, known as " sitting on the fence." 
 He remained at Dalkeith when the Lords of the Congrega- 
 tion withdrew from Edinburgh to Stirling. But he was 
 not long in doubt about which was the stronger party. 
 The earnest reformers were stimulated by the return of John 
 
 ^ Referring to Margaret, Countess of Lennox, only surviving legitimate offspring 
 of the 6th Earl of Angus. 
 
THE SCOTTISH REFORMATION 251 
 
 Knox in this year ; the Church of Rome was in no country- 
 more cynically corrupt than in Scotland, and had lost much 
 of its hold upon the affection of the commonalty ; lastly, 
 there was the ever-present residuum, the irresponsible mob 
 whose arbitrament has turned the scale in so many 
 momentous issues, fired on this occasion, as Bishop Lesley 
 mournfully described : " specialie for hoip of the spulye ^ 
 of the freris ^ places and kirkis." 
 
 Moreover, the English army was on the march. It 
 crossed the Border on 2nd April 1560; from that moment 
 Morton felt assured of success, and took a leading place 
 among the Reformers. The lords, with their English 
 allies, laid siege to Leith, which the Queen-Regent had 
 Signs the garrisoucd with French troops. During the 
 Reformers' sicp-e they bound themselves by a covenant to 
 
 Covenant, ri -ii r • 
 
 27th April " set fordward the reformation of religion accord- 
 ^560. jj^g |.Q Goddis word." Morton signed this cove- 
 
 nant,^ and also, on loth May, the ratification of the treaty 
 concluded with Queen Elizabeth at Berwick on 27th 
 February. 
 
 The Queen-Regent died on loth June in the same 
 year, and the French troops were dismissed immediately 
 thereafter. In the absence of Mary Queen of Scots in 
 France, the Lords of the Council summoned Parliament 
 to meet in August, when four-and-twenty " regents " were 
 appointed, whereof twelve, of whom Morton was one, were 
 designated as councillors to act in the name of the Queen. 
 Outside Parliament, John Knox " taught publicklie upon 
 the prophecie of Haggee. He was fervent in applica- 
 tioun." ^ Inside Parliament, the Scottish Reformation was 
 established by law, in the teeth of the prelates, once all 
 powerful in the legislature ; the Pope's jurisdiction was 
 declared at an end, the mass proscribed, and the confession 
 of faith approved, as drawn up by Knox. Sir James 
 Sandilands of Calder, a knight of St. John, holding 
 ecclesiastical rank as Master of the Preceptory of 
 
 ^ Spoliation. ^ Fj-iars. 
 
 ^ Original at Hamilton, 27th April 1560. ^ Calderwood, ii. 12. 
 
252 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Torphichen, was sent to France to obtain the royal assent, 
 but failed to obtain access to the Queen of Scots. 
 
 In October Morton was appointed one of three 
 ambassadors to carry report of these proceedings to Queen 
 Elizabeth, and to propose to her a marriage with the Earl 
 of Arran, eldest son of the former regent, who had become 
 Duke of Chatelherault. 
 
 When Queen Mary, escaping from the ships of war which 
 her cousin Elizabeth of England had sent out to intercept 
 her, landed at Leith on 19th August 1561, Morton at once 
 took a foremost place among her advisers, and did his best to 
 temper the inevitable friction between a Protestant people 
 and their Popish Queen. He opposed Knox's attempt to 
 interfere with Mary's private exercise of her religion ; but 
 it is doubtful whether he accompanied her in her tour to 
 the north in the autumn of 1562 — an expedition which 
 ended so mysteriously in the operations against 
 chanceihfr ^arl of Huntly, head of the Catholic party, 
 
 of Scotland, Huntly was slain at Corrichie, and his son. Sir 
 John Gordon, taken and executed ; the chan- 
 cellorship of Scotland, which Huntly had held since 1547, 
 being bestov/ed upon Morton. 
 
 The witty and beautiful young Queen from the first 
 caused her chancellor many an anxious and perplexing 
 moment. Her marriage, of course, was a constant subject 
 of speculation among her ministers and courtiers. Mary 
 took delight in bewildering them with the multitude of 
 her suitors ; but she gave a severe shock to Morton's 
 equilibrium when she announced her intention of choosing 
 as her consort Lord Darnley, the son of the Countess of 
 Lennox, a formidable claimant on the Angus succession. 
 Personally, Morton disliked Darnley, as did a number of 
 the other Scottish nobles, but he dared not offend Lady 
 Lennox by betraying his feelings ; that, at least, was the 
 interpretation put on his conduct by Randolph, the English 
 ambassador, who wrote to Cecil in May 1565: " My Lord 
 of Morton this time was absent, but so misliked that I have 
 not heard any man worse spoken of. He is now in hopes 
 
MARY'S MARRIAGE TO DARNLEY 253 
 
 that [the Countess of Lennox] will give over her rights of 
 Angus, and so [he] will become friends to that side." In 
 fact, in this matter, Morton resumed his favourite posture on 
 the fence, detesting the Darnley marriage, yet refraining 
 from opposing it, lest the Countess of Lennox in revenge 
 should persist in her claim to the magnificent property of 
 his young nephew, to whom Morton was heir-presumptive. 
 
 How accurately Randolph had gauged the situation 
 is shown by the contract between the Lennoxes, Darnley, 
 The Countess ^nd the boy Angus on 12th and 13th May 
 of Lennox i565,wherein the Countess of Lennox ratified 
 
 renounces , . _ _ ^ a - t • i 
 
 her claim, the mfeftment of Angus m his estates, and 
 May 156s. renounced all claim on her part or that of 
 her posterity, provided — 
 
 ' ' The said Archibald Erie of Angus, with expres consent and assent of the 
 said James Erie of Mortoun, his tutor, for his interesse and acceptand the 
 burding vpoun him, as said is, sail, with the assistance of his haill freindis and all 
 that will do for him within the realme of Scotland, be quhatsumever honest and 
 lefull menys at the vtermaist of his and thair poweris and vpoun thair awin 
 expenss, solisst, avance and sett furthwardis the said Henry Lord Dernley 
 ... to the mariage to be contractit and solemnizat betwix hir hienes and the 
 said Lord Dernley, and sail employ thameselffis, ther labouris and guidis in maist 
 honorable maner thairupoun." ^ 
 
 Morton, therefore, cannot be judged as disinterested in 
 his support of the Queen, although it may be granted that 
 her personal charm may have had some effect upon one 
 who was certainly not indifferent to feminine beauty. 
 Two days after Queen Mary had secured her chancellor's 
 support, she announced her betrothal with Darnley. Morton 
 remained calmly at his post, but Moray, who detested 
 Darnley, left the court with Argyll and other lords, and 
 prepared for rebellion. 
 
 The marriage took place on 25 th July, Morton acting as 
 carver to the King and Queen at the great banquet which 
 followed it. In October he took the field against the 
 insurgents, sharing with the King command of the main 
 division of the army, while Lennox took the advanced 
 
 ^ Eraser, iii. 255-261. 
 
254 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 guard, and Huntly ^ the rear. Morton, in fact, was in 
 chief command ; but Mary's suspicion of him was on the 
 alert, by reason of his well-known friendship with Moray 
 and Argyll. Therefore, after the insurgent lords had been 
 driven across the Border, a bond was exacted from Morton 
 for the delivery, whenever required, of Tantallon Castle, 
 which he held as his nephew's guardian.^ 
 
 This put the chancellor upon his guard ; it behoved a 
 man in danger of losing the royal favour to gather other 
 support to himself, if he set any value upon liberty and life. 
 
 Morton soon became aware that it was the Queen's 
 purpose to obtain the forfeiture of Moray, Argyll, and the 
 Murder of Other banished lords ; current report, confirmed 
 Riccio, 9th by Mary's behaviour, pointed out her confidential 
 March 1566. secYQtsiYy, David Riccio, as chief adviser in this 
 design, and, which was of singular interest to Morton, 
 indicated the Italian as probably to be appointed chancellor 
 in the earl's room. Riccio had enemies already in the 
 highest quarters. Mary had certainly set tongues wagging 
 by her indiscreet intimacy with him ; even if there were no 
 truth in her alleged amour, doubtless she found in his 
 cultivated conversation and musical talent an agreeable 
 relief from the vapid chatter of the husband who had 
 already forfeited her " vehement love " — from the dull 
 Scottish Court, so different from that in which she had 
 grown to womanhood — and from the interminable lectures 
 of grim and tactless divines. It was the case of James III. 
 and his " fiddlers and bricklayers " over again, and similar 
 means were applied as remedy. Even Darnley, though he 
 was continually absent from his wife, hunting and hawking, 
 was quite willing to fall in with his father, Lennox's, 
 project for doing away with the foreigner. Sir James 
 Melville, a contemporary diarist, imputes the origin of the 
 plot to Morton, and says that he employed his amiable 
 cousin, George Douglas [liv.], future Bishop of Moray, to 
 
 ^ George, 5th earl, son of the 4th earl, slain at Corrichie three years 
 previously. 
 
 2 /^e^. Privy Council, i. 382, 417. 
 
MURDER OF RICCIO 
 
 255 
 
 inflame Darnley's mind against Riccio. William Maitland 
 of Lethington was as deep in it as any one. " I see no 
 certain way," he wrote on 9th February to Cecil, " unless 
 we chop at the very root." Four days later Randolph 
 wrote to Leicester that " David, with consent of the King, 
 shall have his throat cut within these ten days." There 
 were plenty of people in the secret — John Knox has not 
 escaped the imputation, but there is nothing to prove that 
 he knew about it beforehand. He certainly never con- 
 demned it afterwards. But Morton, though resolved to 
 " chop," was careful that responsibility should rest on the 
 proper shoulders. He persuaded Darnley to grant a 
 " band of assurance," declaring the coming crime to be of 
 his own designing, and guaranteeing the performers against 
 all consequences at the hands of " great persons." Darnley 
 pledged himself in this document to maintain the Protestant 
 religion, and to restore the banished lords, in consideration 
 whereof he was to receive equal regal rights with the 
 Queen. 
 
 The circumstances of the deed on 9th March 1566 
 have been too often described to require detailed repeti- 
 tion here. Probably the intention was to seize Riccio 
 and execute him publicly after some summary . form of 
 judicial procedure ; but sixteenth century politicians were 
 not meticulous about the precise means to a desirable end, 
 and Scottish daggers ever slept lightly in their sheaths. 
 Hence, when, at dusk on Saturday, 9th March, Morton, 
 with an armed band, had secured the gates of Holyrood 
 Palace, forced his way to the Queen's supper-room, where 
 were Darnley and Ruthven, seized Riccio in his mistress's 
 presence and dragged him into the anteroom, it was the 
 cleric, George Douglas [liv.], say nearly all writers, who 
 ended the scuffle by snatching the dagger from Darnley's 
 belt, and plunging it into Riccio's bosom, cried, " Take 
 that from the King ! " ^ 
 
 Message of the murder had filtered through the locked 
 
 1 Anthony Standen [unpublished MS. at Hatfield] says George drove the 
 dagger through Riccio's temples. 
 
256 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 palace gates. A crowd gathered outside, to whom Darnley 
 appeared, and dispersed the people with the assurance that 
 all was well within. The Queen was locked into her chamber, 
 Bothwell and others who resisted were overpowered, and 
 custody of the palace was taken over by Morton. 
 
 Next day, Sunday loth, Moray and the banished lords 
 came to Edinburgh, and on Monday iith obtained an 
 interview with the Queen, Chancellor Morton explaining 
 their grievances and intentions to her Majesty. Mary spoke 
 them fair, and proposed a general reconciliation ; but that 
 very night she escaped to Dunbar, taking with her the craven 
 Darnley, and escorted by Lord Seton with 200 horse. 
 At Dunbar she was joined by Bothwell, whose masterful 
 bearing had already won her changeful heart. 
 
 Deserted by Darnley, who stoutly repudiated all part 
 in the conspiracy,^ the Protestant party scattered, Morton 
 Morton flies Ruthvcn Seeking refuge in England, where 
 
 to England, they claimed protection from Elizabeth. The 
 Queen of England had been kept informed of 
 the successive steps in the conspiracy, and had been quite 
 prepared to profit by its success ; but the turn taken by 
 affairs made it prudent that she should dissociate herself 
 from even a tacit part in the matter, and on i6th June 
 Morton sailed for Flanders. He was back in England on 
 4th July, when he received orders to " convey himself to 
 some secret place, or else to leave the kingdom." ^ 
 
 The Earl of Moray remained in Scotland during his 
 friend Morton's exile. Bothwell, though a Protestant — 
 " the stoutest and the worst thought of" — was now a 
 power at court. To him Moray had to address himself 
 to secure the Queen's consent to Morton's recall. Darnley 's 
 part in this affair had inspired Mary with unconquerable 
 aversion from her consort, whereof she made no secret to 
 Bothwell. That unscrupulous individual, perceiving that 
 
 ^ "All men were discharged by proclamatioun to affirme that the King was 
 partaker or privie to the last fact; wherat manie smiled." — Calderwood, ii. 
 316. 
 
 - Ca/. State Papers, Scotland, i. 237. 
 
CONSPIRACY AGAINST DARNLEY 257 
 
 Morton's return would turn the balance against Darnley, 
 used all the power he had acquired over Mary to obtain 
 her forgiveness for him. Mary at last having consented 
 to pardon the fugitives, Morton returned in January 1567, 
 but, being forbidden to come within seven miles of the 
 court, was met at Whittinghame by Bothwell and Secretary 
 Maitland, who invited him to plunge into a far more serious 
 plot than the first, namely, one against the King's life. 
 Fourteen years later, a few hours before Morton suffered 
 on the scaffold, he gave his own account of how he received 
 Bothwell's proposal, which is truly so little to his own credit, 
 that it may be accepted as a very probable version of the 
 truth. 
 
 Bothwell told him that the Queen desired that " the King 
 sould be tane away," holding him more guilty of Riccio's 
 Conspiracy blood than Morton himself. Now Morton had 
 against Special reason for detesting Darnley, who had 
 Darnley, 1367. ]^Q^j.ayed him, and past events had proved that 
 he suffered from no insuperable qualms about murder for a 
 sufficient purpose. Speaking within a few hours of his own 
 death, he did not say that he was at all shocked by such 
 damnable proposals, but that he declined to be mixed up 
 in fresh trouble, seeing that he was not yet free from the 
 consequences of the old one. In spite of repeated solicita- 
 tions by Bothwell and Archibald Douglas [xxxvii.] he con- 
 tinued firm in his refusal, at least until Bothwell should 
 show him the Queen's authority in her own handwriting, 
 " the quhilk warrand he never reported vnto me." 
 
 The position, then, was this. Morton knew weeks 
 beforehand that a plot was in progress against King 
 Henry's life ; he declined to take an active part therein, as 
 he did not wish to get himself into fresh trouble ; but he 
 diligently refrained from giving any warning to the intended 
 victim, " ffor I durst nocht reveill it for feir of my lyfe." 
 Asked why he allowed Archibald Douglas to take part in 
 such an odious crime, he replied that he neither ordered nor 
 advised him to proceed or refrain. Reminded that Archi- 
 bald, being his servant and depender, implicated his master 
 VOL. I. R 
 
258 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 in whatever he did with his knowledge, Morton replied : 
 " Mr. Archibald at that tyme was a depender on the erle 
 Bothuel, making court fer him self, rather than a depender 
 of myne." Asked whether he received Archibald after the 
 crime, he replied : " I did indeid," and listened to the 
 particulars from the mouth of one of the King's assassins. 
 
 The blackest part of Morton's conduct, as explained in 
 his confession, remains to be told. 
 
 " Last of all it was said to him concerning this purpos 
 that, in respect of his owin depositioune, his pairt wald be 
 suspectit to be mair fowle nor he declairit ; he spereit ^ 
 * ffor what reasone ? ' I was ansuerit, * Because ye, beand 
 an auctoritie, howbeit ye puneist vtheris fer that murther, 
 ye puneist not Mr. Archibald, whome ye knew to be guiltie 
 thairof.' He ansuerit, ' I puneist him not, indeid, nather 
 durst I, for the caus befoir schawin,' " ^ namely, fear of his 
 precious life. Now Morton did himself injustice in thus 
 excusing himself. No man ever breathed who had less 
 regard for his own personal safety than he ; in later years it 
 was a frequent subject of reproach and remonstrance by his 
 friends that he would not take ordinary precaution against 
 assassination. Rightly or wrongly he considered himself 
 indispensable to his country's welfare and to the Protestant 
 cause, and deemed that it would be an irreparable mis- 
 fortune to Scotland if he lost either life or influence. 
 Morton's qualities, good and ill, were on a large scale : 
 he was free from petty weakness of all kinds. 
 
 It is time to explain who was this Mr. Archibald 
 Douglas, so balefully prominent in this affair. He was 
 xxxvii. Archi- ^he younger brother of William Douglas of 
 bald Douglas, Whittinghame, and grandson of the 2nd Earl 
 Glasgow, died of Morton [xxxiv.]. Trained in France for the 
 c. 1600. priesthood, he accommodated his conscience to 
 accepting the Protestant cure of Douglas parish, and in 
 1565 he was raised to the bench as extraordinary Lord of 
 Session in place of the Bishop of Orkney. Four months 
 later, having been concerned in the murder of Riccio, he 
 
 ^ Enquired. ^ Morton's confession : R. Bannatyne's Memoriales. 
 
ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS 
 
 259 
 
 fled to France, whence, having obtained the favour of 
 Charles IX., future author of the massacre of St. Bar- 
 tholomew, he was allowed to return to Scotland, and 
 exerted himself to obtain pardon for his fellow-conspirators. 
 He was present with his servant Thomas Binning at the 
 murder of Darnley in Kirk-o'-field, where he " tynt his 
 mulis " — lost his slippers or dancing pumps, having come 
 straight from the revel held by the Queen at Holyrood in 
 honour of Bastian's marriage. But no proceedings were 
 taken against this worthy at the time for his part in the 
 crime ; on the contrary, in the year following Darnley's 
 death, he was made an ordinary Lord of Session in place 
 of Bishop Lesley, the historian. In 1571 Regent Lennox, 
 at Morton's instance, bestowed upon Archibald the parson- 
 age of Glasgow, which appointment the General Assembly 
 refused to confirm, not without reason, it seems, to judge 
 from Richard Bannatyne's account of the scene, when 
 Douglas at last was allowed to go through the form of 
 examination. 
 
 "In register it was appointed to be put the exercise made be Mr. Archibald 
 Douglas, made at Stirveling in the assemblie of August 1571, who being comandit 
 to prepare himself for the same be the kirk, send Mr. Walter Gourlay to bid 
 him be reddie against the morne, fand ^ him playing at the tables ^ with the lard 
 of Bargany ; and efter he had resavit the kirkis charge in wrait fra the said 
 Walter, ansuerit, 'Why not? ye may say I am at my studie.' On the morne 
 when he come to the place of examinatione wanting a psalme buke, and luking 
 till sum gud fellow suld len him one, Mr. David Wemys had give him the Grek 
 testament (per Heroniam), but he said, ' Thinke ye, sirs, that everie minister 
 that occupeis the pulpet hes Greik ? ' and when he had gottin the psalme buike, 
 after luking and casting ower the leives thereof a space, he desyrit sum minister 
 to mak the prayer fer him ; 'fer,' said he, ' I am not vsed to pray.' Efter he 
 red his text ... he sayis, * fer the conexione of this text I will reid the thing 
 that is befoir,' and sua red a gud space, till he come whair he began, and sa 
 continewed his exercis with mony rastlie noises, &c. Ye may persave it was 
 frutfull, seing he culd not pray at the beginning. O Lord ! what salbe said whan 
 sic dum dogis salbe sufferit to mock the ministrie of thy word, and the trueth 
 thereof, on this maner? " 
 
 Just a week after Bothwell's trial for the King's murder, 
 namely, on 19th April, Morton received from Parliament 
 formal ratification of his earldom.^ He was once again the 
 
 1 Found. 2 Probably backgammon. ^ Acis of Pari. Scot., ii. 562. 
 
26o 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 most powerful territorial potentate in Scotland, and if he 
 feared to reveal what he knew of the crime, it is no matter 
 for surprise that the mouths of humbler witnesses were 
 sealed, or that Bothwell's mock trial on 9th April had 
 ended in an acquittal. Rather than serve on the jury, 
 Morton declared he would pay forfeit, giving as his reason 
 that Darnley was his kinsman. 
 
 Deeper and deeper he descended into the mire ; on 20th 
 he even signed the bond consenting to the Queen's marriage 
 with her husband's assassin,^ notwithstanding that, as there 
 is good reason to suppose, he was maturing a project for 
 Bothwell's overthrow. Morton knew well enough that 
 Bothwell, having used him for his own purpose, would not 
 hesitate to crush him when that purpose should be fully 
 accomplished, and Bothwell played well into his rival's hand. 
 He was a married man, yet on 24th April 1567 he inter- 
 cepted Queen Mary on her journey from Stirling to Edin- 
 burgh, and carried her off, a willing and probably collusive 
 captive, to Dunbar. Then he instituted two processes of 
 divorce against his young wife. Lady Jane Gordon, sister of 
 the Earl of Huntly, whom he had married little more than 
 a year before — a match of Mary's own making ! and 
 obtained decree upon them respectively on 3rd and 7th 
 May. On the 15 th Bothwell, created Duke of Orkney, 
 and Queen Mary, were married under Protestant rites by 
 the Bishop of Orkney. 
 
 The scandal of the whole proceeding was intolerable ; 
 horror thereof drove Athol and other Catholic lords into 
 the arms of the Protestant party. They entered into the 
 bond already subscribed by Morton and the other members 
 of the secret council, pledging themselves " to seek the 
 liberty of the Queen, to preserve the life of the Prince, and to 
 pursue them that murdered the King." A plan for the seizure 
 of Bothwell and Mary in Holyrood miscarried; warned in time. 
 Civil war, they had shut themselves up in Borthwick Castle. 
 June 1567. Thither Morton and Home rode with some 
 hundreds of their followers, and surrounded the place during 
 
 ^ Memoriales, 319 ; Calderwood, ii. 354. 
 
MARY'S SURRENDER 
 
 261 
 
 the night of loth June. Bothwell managed to escape to 
 Dunbar, where Mary, dressed as a man, joined him a few 
 days later. The confederate lords then seized Edinburgh, 
 and issued a proclamation at the Cross. Meanwhile Both- 
 well had been gathering what forces he could, and advanced 
 with the Queen upon the capital. Morton, in command of 
 the insurgent army, met the royalists at Carberry Hill on 
 Sunday, 14th June. Mary sent the French ambassador to 
 convey her wish that " the matter should be taken up 
 without blood." Morton replied that his party were in 
 arms, not against the Queen, but against the murderer of 
 . the late King", and promised submission if he 
 
 Surrender of ^ 
 
 Queen Mary, were given Up. Thereupon Bothwell proposed 
 14th June 1567. submit to the ancient ordeal by battle to prove 
 his innocence, offering to do single combat with Morton or 
 any other. The challenge was accepted, but Lord Lindsay 
 claiming his right as a nearer kinsman of Darnley, Morton 
 gave him place, and girt him with the great two-handed 
 sword of Archibald Bell-the-Cat [xliii.]. Then Queen Mary 
 interfered, declaring that her consort was of too high rank to 
 fight with any subject, and calling upon her troops to drive 
 the traitors off the hill. Not a man of them moved, except 
 towards the rear ; Bothwell saw the game was up ; accepted 
 Morton's private hint to avoid a worse fate by making his 
 escape, and rode off the field, leaving the Queen to return 
 to Edinburgh a captive. 
 
 A sorrowful cavalcade it was as ever summer sun looked 
 down upon. Mary, " in a short pitticoate, little syder than 
 her knees," ^ her beautiful features soiled with dust and 
 smirched with passionate weeping, rode between Morton, 
 murderer of Riccio and accomplice in Darnley's murder, 
 and Athol, head of the Catholic lords, upon whom she had 
 relied. From windows and stairs in the crowded High 
 Street curses and jeers were hurled at the fair head, which 
 ought to have been the pride of Scotland. Many of her 
 captors were hot to have her blood, but Morton restrained 
 them — at least so a Protestant contemporary states ^ — and 
 
 * Calderwood, ii. 364. 2 /^^^/.^ 266. 
 
262 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 on 1 6th June Mary was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle, 
 under charge of Sir WilHam Douglas [Iviii.], owner thereof, 
 and the Lords Lindsay and Ruthven.^ 
 
 Three days later, on 19th June, Morton, acting as chief 
 of the State in Moray's absence, hearing that one of Both- 
 ^t- ^ , . well's servants had come to Edinburp;h Castle 
 
 The Casket ^ 
 
 Letters, to rccovcr somc of his master's property, sent 
 June 1567. Archibald Douglas and others to arrest the 
 man. The result was that a certain silver - gilt casket 
 came into Morton's hands, which, on the 21st, was forced 
 open in the presence of several of the lords. It was found to 
 contain highly compromising documents, including letters 
 from Queen Mary written to Bothwell before their marriage, 
 which, if genuine, proved beyond all doubt guilty fore- 
 knowledge of the murder of Darnley. It is impossible 
 in this place to follow the discussion, which has never 
 yet produced agreement, and probably never will, as 
 to whether these papers were forged, tampered with, or 
 genuine. If they were forged, who was the forger — 
 Lethington or Archibald Douglas ? In whose interest 
 were they forged ? In that of Morton and the Protestant 
 party undoubtedly, to whose schemes and policy the Queen 
 was the chief obstacle, and it is scarcely possible that Morton 
 should not have been aware of such a forgery. The con- 
 science of the man who knew of Darnley's approaching fate, 
 and refrained from warning him thereof for fear of his own 
 life, would not have shrunk from sanctioning the fabrication 
 of evidence in support of a charge which, after all, he and 
 many others were convinced was true. On the other 
 hand, had Morton at that time desired the execution of 
 Queen Mary, would it not have been much simpler for him 
 to let that take place, as was strongly urged by some of 
 the lords, immediately after the surrender at Carberry ? 
 Instead of doing so, he had been the chief means of saving 
 the Queen's life, at least so says Calderwood, thereby 
 incurring from some of the other lords the reproach of 
 being " a stayer of justice." Genuine or forged, these 
 
 ^ Mortoji^ i. 24. 
 
SUSPICION AGAINST MORTON 
 
 263 
 
 casket letters were founded upon in Parliament, which, in 
 December, confirmed Morton's action in committing the 
 Queen to prison. 
 
 Meanwhile, on 24th July, Mary was compelled to abdi- 
 cate in favour of her son, James VI., and nominated as 
 Regent her natural brother, the Earl of Moray. An interim 
 council was appointed to act under Morton till Moray's 
 return ; the young King was crowned at Stirling on 29th 
 July, Morton taking the oaths on his behalf and swearing 
 to maintain the Protestant religion. Moray took up the 
 regency on 22nd August, Morton having been restored to 
 the chancellorship. 
 
 Morton had good cause to congratulate himself upon 
 the discretion which had kept him clear of the plot against 
 Darnley, for, on 14th December, when four of Bothwell's 
 wretched instruments were put on trial and condemned to 
 death for their part therein, no mention of the chancellor's 
 name occurred in their long and minute depositions.^ 
 
 It is true, as admitted by Calderwood, Morton's un- 
 wavering panegyrist, that it was commonly believed and 
 reported that Moray and Morton were at the bottom of the 
 whole deadly plot, but both had the sagacity to be absent 
 from Edinburgh when it took effect, and few dared to speak 
 above their breath. 
 
 In May 1568 Queen Mary escaped from Lochleven and 
 
 ^ Since this paragraph was written I have been favoured with a transcript 
 of the remarkable discovery by Father Ryan, S.J., in the Cambridge MS. of 
 Hepburn of Bowton's deposition. A long passage which occurs in this MS. 
 does not occur in the copy of the confession attested as "true" by the Lord 
 Justice-Clerk, Bellenden [B. M. Cotton, Caligula, c. i. folio 325], which was no 
 doubt the same as that put in at the Westminster conference. In this passage 
 occurs the following important sentence : — " Item depossis that Ilk ane that wer 
 of the band [for the murder of Darnley] and siclike the erle of Morton and Syr 
 James Balfor [who had not signed the band] suld haif send twa men to the com- 
 mitting of the murther." This, if true, would account for the presence of Archi- 
 bald Douglas and his servant Binning, as representing Morton. The inference 
 is a sinister one : namely, that Moray caused Bellenden to attest a false copy of 
 Bowton's confession, which was submitted at Westminster, so as to screen 
 Morton. Yet who shall pronounce what weight is carried by the confession 
 of Hepburn, the murderer present, against the confession of Morton, the 
 accomplice absent ? 
 
264 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 joined a force of 6000 men which her adherents had col- 
 Escape of lected in readiness. Moray was in Glasgow at 
 Queen Mary ^hc time, and summoned Morton to his assistance. 
 
 from Loch- ^ • t a n i i • 
 
 leven.znd The Qucen appomted Argyll her commander-m- 
 May 1568. ^Yiief, and marched to Hamilton ; but Argyll fell 
 sick, and his absence proved fatal to the conduct of opera- 
 tions when, on i 3th May, the forces of the Queen and the 
 Regent met at Langside. Moray's army, whereof Morton 
 commanded the advanced guard, was inferior in numbers to 
 the Queen's by one-third ; nevertheless Mary, seated on 
 r, ...1 r Cathcart Hill, about a mile from the conflict 
 
 Battle of ' 
 
 Langside, which cnsued, had to witness the complete rout 
 13th May 1568. 1^^^^ people, and rode off the field escorted by 
 the Lords Herries, Fleming, and Livingstone. A few days 
 later, trusting to the protection of her cousin, Queen Eliza- 
 beth, she crossed the Border, never to return to Scotland. 
 But her friends remained faithful to their beautiful Queen, 
 whose evil fortune had gone far to obliterate what was deplor- 
 able in her record. Morton had enough ado to secure the 
 position he had won for himself, not to mention the defence 
 of the reformed religion. He could not afford to be scrupul- 
 ous in remembering old friendships, and the influence of his 
 former confederate, William Maitland of Lethington, upon 
 Elizabeth's policy towards Scottish parties, caused him much 
 anxiety. Maitland, one of the authors of Riccio's murder, 
 had gone over for the nonce to Queen Mary's interest, 
 notwithstanding that he had accompanied Moray, Morton, 
 Lindsay, and the other commissioners to York, where they 
 publicly made their indictment against the Queen of Scots, 
 and the casket letters were privately shown to the Duke of 
 Norfolk. It came to Morton's knowledge that Maitland was 
 in secret communication both with Elizabeth and with Mary's 
 adherents; accordingly he caused the Regent to direct the 
 arrest and arraignment of Maitland on the charge of com- 
 plicity in Darnley's murder. In view of the opposition 
 expected from the Queen's party, Morton held himself ready 
 at Dalkeith with 3000 men to protect the judges in case of 
 disturbance. But the trial never took place. Kirkaldy of 
 
LENNOX APPOINTED REGENT 265 
 
 Grange demanded, before Maitland should go to an assize, 
 " the Hke justice to be done upon the Erie of Mortoun and 
 Mester Archibald, and Lord Heris offerit to feicht with the 
 Erie of Mortoun that he was upon the consell and airt and 
 part of the Kingis murthour." ^ So Morton deemed it 
 prudent to keep away from the capital. Kirkaldy then 
 rescued Maitland and took him into Edinburgh Castle, 
 which these two continued to hold for Queen Mary, till they 
 were overpowered in 1573. 
 
 On 23rd January 1570 the Regent Moray was assas- 
 sinated in Linlithgow by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh. 
 Morton applied to Queen Elizabeth for an armed force to 
 assist him in punishing the Hamiltons, threatening, if she 
 persisted in holding aloof, that " he would not run her 
 course any longer." This forced Elizabeth's hand ; Sussex 
 crossed the Border, wasted the lands of some of Queen 
 Mary's party in that region, and marched to Hamilton, 
 where he did the like. Lennox, father of the murdered 
 The Earl of Damley, and grandfather of the young King, 
 Lennox ap- retumcd to Scotland at this time, and, at Mor- 
 
 pointed Re- . • i i -r. 
 
 g-ent, 12th ton s earnest mstance with the Protestant party 
 July 1570. ^j^j^ Queen Elizabeth, was appointed to the 
 regency. This did not interfere with Morton's position as 
 practical head of the Government, " the strongest man in 
 Scotland," as Drury described him to Cecil ; ^ but nearly 
 all the nobility had ranged themselves against him in the 
 Queen's cause. The civil war, therefore, which was now in 
 progress, was the old blood-feud of Douglas and Hamilton 
 in an aggravated form. 
 
 Now, Archibald Douglas knew far too much about 
 Morton's guilty foreknowledge of the crime of Kirk-o'-field 
 Treachery of make it safe for Morton to neglect him ; 
 Archibald accordingly he was employed as the confidential 
 Douglas, 1570. ^ggj^^ q£ j^jg powerful relative in negotiations 
 with the English Government. Archibald could play many 
 parts — parson, judge, diplomat, murderer — but there was 
 
 ^ Melville's Memoirs, 218. 
 
 - State Papers {Foreign), 1569-157 1, No. 184. 
 
266 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 one in which he always failed — that of an honest man. 
 While employed by Morton, he took pay from Drury, the 
 English commander in Berwick, as a spy ; he entered into 
 treasonable correspondence and dealings with Kirkaldy 
 and Maitland, whom Morton was besieging in Edinburgh 
 Castle; but he could not refrain from cheating them of 
 looo out of 5000 Flemish gold crowns which he was 
 commissioned to convey to them ; he even caused his 
 servant. Binning, to attempt Morton's life with a pistol. 
 It is not improbable that his rancour against Morton arose 
 out of pique at the appointment of another Douglas to be 
 Archbishop of St. Andrews in i 5 7 1 ; but the fact that he 
 was deep in conspiracy against his patron did not prevent 
 him accepting at his hands the parsonage of Glasgow, 
 when straightway he began to stir up the Presbyterian 
 clergy to resist Morton's intromissions with their stipends. 
 
 Chief in Morton's counsel at this time was John 
 Knox, who greatly strengthened the earl in offering 
 resistance to Elizabeth's wavering inclination for Mary's 
 restoration. In February 1 5 7 1 Morton, Pitcairn, lay 
 abbot of Dunfermline, and Mr. James MacGill, clerk of 
 register, went on an embassy to London, in order to con- 
 vince the Queen of England of the necessity for Mary's 
 continued imprisonment. Ambassadors in Mary's interest 
 were already in London — Bishop Lesley of Ross, Bishop 
 Gordon of Galloway, and Lord Livingstone. Elizabeth 
 appointed Lord Burghley, Sir Walter Mildmay, and Sir 
 Francis Knollys to receive Morton's representations, which, 
 being put in writing and laid before her, mightily offended 
 her by the assertion of the inherent right of subjects to 
 depose their sovereign under certain circumstances. But 
 at this juncture a letter arrived from Sir Francis Walsing- 
 ham, whom Elizabeth had sent on a secret mission to Paris, 
 announcing that a project was afoot for the marriage of Mary 
 with the Due d'Anjou, which had received the sanction of 
 the Pope. Now this was pure and intentional fiction on the 
 part of Walsingham, intended to fire Elizabeth's jealousy 
 of Mary, for negotiations had been in progress for some 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S POLICY 267 
 
 time for the marriage of Elizabeth herself to Anjou. The 
 device took effect, but only a temporary one. Presently 
 Elizabeth seemed ready to fulfil the conditions of the 
 articles settled at Chatsworth between Mary and Lord 
 Burghley, which included the restoration of the Queen of 
 Scots and the removal of her son to England. Nothing 
 was farther from Burghley's design than a settlement so 
 menacing to Protestant interests ; it was probably in full 
 collusion with the English Secretary that Morton at this 
 stage resiled from the negotiations, declaring that he was 
 not empowered by the Scottish Government to consent to 
 Mary's restoration. The Scottish commissioners returned 
 home, and the Regent's Government were so well satisfied 
 with Morton's discharge of his mission, that, in order to 
 indemnify him for his expenses, they bestowed upon him 
 the bishopric of St. Andrews, vacated by the death of 
 Archbishop Hamilton. 
 
 After this, Elizabeth resumed the traditional policy of 
 England, encouraging alternately the hopes of each party 
 in Scotland, thereby aggravating the bitterness of civil 
 strife, and rendering an agreement between parties less 
 practicable than ever. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 269 Slaughter of Regent Lennox, 4th 
 September 1571- 
 
 271 Morton elected Regent, 24th No- 
 vember 1572. 
 
 273 Pacification of Perth, 23rd P^eb- 
 ruary 1573. 
 
 276 Deprived of the Regency, 8th 
 March 1578. 
 
 276 Resumes authority, 5th May 1578. 
 
 278 Arrested on a charge of murder, 
 29th December 1580. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 280 His trial and execution, ist and 
 2nd June 1581. 
 
 286 Treachery of Archibald Douglas, 
 
 1572. 
 
 287 He flies to England, December 
 
 1580. 
 
 289 Is tried for Darnley's murder, 26th 
 
 May 1586. 
 
 290 Goes as ambassador to England, 
 
 1586. 
 
 Unimportant engagements between the Regent's soldiers 
 and parties of the Queen's adherents continued, with vary- 
 ing success to either side, throughout the spring and sum- 
 mer of I 5 7 1 , involving in the aggregate the loss of many- 
 lives. The gallows was busy too. It is sickening to 
 read of the reprisals by both parties. Thus, on 15 th 
 April four of Kirkaldy's horse were taken in attacking a 
 convoy coming from Leith, and were promptly hanged. 
 Thereupon Kirkaldy hanged four prisoners of the Regent's 
 men, and " a gentleman called Dowglas " — unluckily not 
 Archibald. On the night of the 25 th, Morton in person, 
 lying in wait for Lord Claud Hamilton, missed his prey, 
 but fell upon a detachment of two-and-twenty of Kirkaldy's 
 foragers, whereof he slew fifteen or sixteen, and took five 
 prisoners. These were taken to Leith, where the Regent 
 and Morton had their headquarters during the siege of 
 Edinburgh Castle. Four were hanged at once, but the 
 fifth was sent to Holyrood, and " flowred captane Mitchallis 
 gallons." Kirkaldy immediately replied by stringing up 
 two prisoners " vpoun Mowtrais tries, foiranent the chapell," 
 
SLAUGHTER OF REGENT LENNOX 269 
 
 and two more on the 28th, "that thei of Leith micht sie ; 
 and so," ejaculates Richard Bannatyne ruefully, " thair is 
 nothing but hanging on eather syde." ^ 
 
 On the whole, the balance had turned in favour of the 
 Regent's party, several of the Queen's lords coming over 
 to that side. But the relations between Regent Lennox 
 and Morton were becoming more and more impracticable ; 
 Morton, indeed, may be held to have begun to long for the 
 removal of the Regent, when this was suddenly accom- 
 plished by the Hamiltons. A Parliament having been 
 summoned in Stirling on 4th September, three or four 
 hundred mounted men, under command of one George 
 Bell, were sent into the town by Lord Huntly at day- 
 break, captured Morton and Glencairn in their 
 
 Slaughter of . i i • i 
 
 Regent Len- lodgmg, and havmg taken the Regent prisoner 
 nox 4thSep- ^^lot him in cold blood. Morton would 
 
 tember 1571. ' 
 
 assuredly have suffered the same fate, had not 
 Scott of Buccleuch interfered. 
 
 Three candidates were nominated for the regency, 
 namely, the Earls of Argyll, Morton, and Mar, the choice 
 of Parliament falling on the last. From very weariness of 
 slaughter, as well as out of respect which all parties yielded 
 to this nobleman, it is probable that affairs in Scotland might 
 have settled into something like pacification ; but scarcely 
 had the harvest of 1572 begun when news of the massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew brought vividly before the reformers a vision 
 of what a Catholic restoration might expose them to, inflaming 
 their fears and hatred to an uncontrollable pitch. It shocked 
 Queen Elizabeth out of her temporising policy, and inclined 
 her to give up Queen Mary to be dealt with by the domin- 
 ant party in Scotland. Morton and Knox between them 
 overruled the milder Mar's hesitation ; but Morton was too 
 astute to yield to Elizabeth's wishes that Mary should be 
 privily done to death ; he " stipulated for some manner of 
 ceremony and a kind of process," and for the presence of 
 2000 English troops at the execution, in order that Eliza- 
 beth's part in this act of justice should be publicly manifest, 
 
 ^ Memoriales, 231, 232. 
 
270 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 so that she might never thereafter withdraw from the 
 Protestant alliance. 
 
 Mar had made Morton commander-in-chief in the 
 operations against the insurgents, as Queen Mary's parti- 
 sans must be technically termed, and the " Douglas Wars," 
 as men called them, went on with increasing bitterness. 
 Morton had his enemies even in the Reformed Church on 
 account of the firmness with which he resisted, or at least 
 sought to limit, the interference of churchmen with State 
 affairs. His life was attempted more than once, but 
 whatever were his faults, that of want of personal courage 
 was not of them. The knife and bullet were agents in 
 the politics of the sixteenth century, as universal and well 
 recognised as the platform is in the twentieth. Morton 
 must have been fully aware that his death would be hailed 
 with rejoicing by the Catholic party in all lands, yet never 
 would he consent to take any precautions, and used to walk 
 and ride about in town and country without any escort. 
 Admirers of his unquestionable ability, however, are hard 
 pressed to find excuse for an act which he was induced to 
 commit at this time out of desire to conciliate Elizabeth and 
 establish the union with England. In 1569 the Earls of 
 Northumberland and Westmorland, having joined in a 
 Catholic rising against Queen Elizabeth, were driven over 
 the Scottish border, where Northumberland was captured 
 by one Eckie Armstrong, delivered to the Regent Moray, 
 and imprisoned in Lochleven Castle. There he had lain 
 ever since ; Moray refused to give him up, and Queen 
 Mary, at the Chatsworth conference, had chivalrously 
 refused to make the surrender of these refugees one of the 
 conditions of her own restoration, so dishonourable had it 
 ever been held for one country to refuse asylum to the 
 political exiles of another. In the autumn of 1572 
 the Duke of Norfolk was sent to the scaffold for 
 plotting with Queen Mary. The discovery of this 
 conspiracy so much increased Elizabeth's desire to get 
 Northumberland into her hands, that she raised her price. 
 Morton, eager to conciliate the Queen of England at any 
 
MORTON ELECTED REGENT 271 
 
 cost, sanctioned the sale of the earl to the English Govern- 
 ment for ;£'io,ooo, and he was executed at York three days 
 after his delivery. " This fait wes done for sum vther caus 
 nor we know, to the great schame of this realme, to steale 
 sa noble a man, ane presonar, yea that come in this realme 
 for saiftie off his lyff." ^ 
 
 No doubt the delivery of Northumberland was part and 
 parcel of the compact for the surrender of Queen Mary's 
 person, with which other events were to interfere. 
 
 Regent Mar died on 29th October of an illness brought 
 on, it was said, because " he lufit peace and culd nocht haue 
 the same." ^ Followed the death of John Knox on 24th 
 November, leaving Morton more supreme than ever in the 
 King's government. " There lies one who never feared the 
 face of man," was Morton's eulogy beside the grave of the 
 mighty preacher. Doubtless he felt that he had lost a true 
 friend and valuable counsellor; not the less must he have 
 breathed more freely, released from the constant interference 
 with policy and government which Knox claimed as the 
 inalienable right of the Church. The consequence of 
 Knox's death was immediate and important. The attitude 
 of the reformed divines towards the Catholic party was 
 formed on a literal interpretation of the dealings of the 
 children of Israel with the Canaanites. No temporising 
 with them, no mercy shown to them ; smite them hip and 
 thigh ; destroy them utterly off the face of the earth ! 
 
 Morton was elected Regent in place of Mar, and it is 
 upon one of his earliest acts that Sir James Melville founds 
 Morton most damning accusation of him. He 
 
 elected declares that the new Regent sent for him and 
 November told him that the lords " had bourdenit him 
 with that faschious ^ office," which he had felt 
 bound to accept; that he wanted the help of all good and 
 honest men to bring about peace, and he wished Melville 
 to induce his friends in the castle — Kirkaldy, Maitland, 
 Home, and others — to submit. He promised as Regent 
 to forget all the injuries he had received from them as Earl 
 
 ^ Diurnal of Occur rents ^ 298. ^ Ibid.^ 317. ^ Troublesome. 
 
272 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 of Morton, and ended by promising that Melville should 
 receive the priory of Pittenweem as a reward for his labours, 
 Kirkaldy should have the bishopric of St. Andrews and 
 the castle of Blackness, and that all in the castle should 
 receive back their lands and possessions. Melville then 
 states that after two or three interviews with Kirkaldy, 
 he was able to report to the Regent that Kirkaldy was 
 willing to submit, but rejected the offer of the bishopric 
 and the castle, desiring only to get back his own estate of 
 Grange. Moreover, Kirkaldy was willing and able to bring 
 all the Queen's faction to submit to the Regent's authority. 
 This did not suit Morton's views by any means. 
 
 " James, I will be plain with you," quoth he to Melville. 
 " It is not my will to agree with them all, [for] then their 
 faction will be as stark ^ as it is, whereby they may some 
 day circumvent me if they liked. Therefore it is my will to 
 divide them ; and moreover, there have been great cumbers 
 in the country this while bygone, and, during them, great 
 wrongs and extortions committed, for which some fashion 
 of punishment must be made ; and I would rather that the 
 crimes should be laid and alight upon the Hamiltons, the 
 Earl of Huntly and their adherents, than upon your friends ; 
 and by that I will get more profit by their wreck than by 
 the wreck of those in the castle, that have neither so great 
 lands nor escheats ^ for us to win and to be the reward 
 of our labours. Therefore show Grange and your friends 
 that either they must agree by ^ the Hamiltons, the Earls 
 of Huntly and Argyll, or the said lords will agree without 
 them of the castle." 
 
 Melville bore this second message to Kirkaldy, who 
 replied, like the high-souled gentleman he was, that it was 
 neither godly nor just to punish men in proportion to their 
 wealth rather than to their guilt ; that the nobles had 
 always been willing to submit, after the Queen's detention in 
 England, but that they had been refused terms. He, Kirk- 
 aldy, preferred that they should now desert him and make 
 their own terms, rather than he should stoop to desert them. 
 
 1 Strong. 2 Forfeits. ^ Without. 
 
BETRAYAL OF KIRKALDY 273 
 
 Morton, says Melville, seemed to approve of Kirkaldy's 
 chivalrous fidelity to his friends, and assuring Melville that 
 he would come to terms with the whole of Queen Mary's 
 adherents, allowed him to go home well pleased.^ But 
 Morton's was a Punic faith ! Without further dealings 
 with Kirkaldy, he brushed aside the black-robed, blatant 
 horde of clergy, to attach whom he had often snuffled 
 canting phrases but never amended his own profligate 
 living, and opened direct negotiations with Huntly and the 
 Hamiltons. These and their adherents were 
 of^Perth!*23rd ^^^^7 willing to abandon a lost cause ; the 
 February rcsult was a general amnesty and pacification 
 concluded at Perth on 23rd February 1573 ; the 
 insurgent lords making submission to the King and Regent, 
 and binding themselves to dissolve their forces.^ 
 
 Thus was Kirkaldy betrayed and left in the lurch. 
 " This was the recompence that this gud gentilman obteanit, 
 for the gret help, hazard and charges done and maid for 
 thir lordis ; not beleuing that the Regent wald be sa 
 malicious as to cast him aff, and not accept his frendschip, 
 quhilk he ofiferit incontinent efter that the rest wer agreed 
 by ^ him." * Of all the acts of Morton's life there is none 
 that stands out so forbidding as his heartless, faithless 
 treatment of the bravest man in Scotland. 
 
 The siege of Edinburgh Castle went on, but it was not 
 Morton's arms that finished it. It was the Marshal of 
 Berwick's English guns which, in May 1573, battered 
 down the walls which Kirkaldy had so splendidly defended 
 for three -and -thirty months. No plea for mercy from 
 Kirkaldy's friends prevailed with the cold-blooded Regent ; 
 deeply versed in the poisonous statecraft of Machiavelli, he 
 allowed no compunction to interfere with his design of 
 shattering the Catholic opposition. Kirkaldy was drawn 
 to the shambles like a common malefactor, his companion, 
 Maitland of Lethington, having been delivered only by his 
 death in prison from a similar fate. 
 
 ^ Melville, 249-252. '-^ Calderwood, iii. 361-371. 
 
 3 Without. ^ Melville, 253. 
 
 VOL. I. S 
 
274 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 At last the government of Scotland had passed into 
 strong and capable hands. " The Regent is the most able 
 man in Scotland to govern ; his enemies confess it." ^ He 
 combined the qualities of a resolute and unscrupulous 
 administrator with those of an adroit financier. While 
 enforcing obedience to the sixth and eighth commandments 
 among the wild Border riders, and conformity to the Pro- 
 testant religion among men of all classes, he discarded 
 the gibbet and the stake, which familiarity had brought 
 into much contempt, and substituted a system of fines, 
 which served the double purpose of punishing offenders 
 and replenishing the exhausted national exchequer. " His 
 fyve years," wrote Mr. James Melville in his Diary, 
 " were esteemed to be als happie and peacable as 
 euer Scotland saw ; the name of a papist durst nocht be 
 hard of ; there was na a theiffe nor oppressor that durst 
 kythe." ^ It is the fate of every reformer to incur the 
 deadly animosity of those whose interests may be infringed 
 on by his action. His plan [1572] of creating " tulchan " 
 bishops — bishops, that is, who drew the full revenues from 
 their sees, but were obliged to hand over the larger portion 
 of them to lay patrons — was part of his policy for 
 diminishing the authority of the Church in civil affairs. It 
 brought upon him the charge of personal avarice, although 
 it is not proved that he profited directly thereby;^ and 
 alienated from him the sympathy of many of the clergy. 
 One of these, Mr. John Davidson, minister of Liberton, 
 had the dangerous gift of writing excellent satirical verses, 
 and suffered exile for a lampoon on Morton's policy of 
 reducing the number of incumbents.* The Regent further 
 exasperated the Presbyterian divines by his endeavour to 
 confirm episcopacy as a permanent form of Church govern- 
 ment, perceiving it to be indispensable to the unity which 
 
 1 Cal. State Papers {Foreign), 1 575-1 577, No. 299. 
 
 2 Melville's Diary, 47. 
 
 ^ A kinsman, John Douglas, parson of St. Andrews, was made "tulchan" 
 Archbishop of St. Andrews in 1572. 
 
 ^ M'Crie's Life of Andrew Melville, ii. 388. 
 
MORTON'S ADMINISTRATION 275 
 
 it was the whole object of his policy to establish with 
 England. Morton had no liking for Presbyterianism, to 
 which the Scottish reformers were steadily inclining ; he 
 wished " to bring in a conformitie with England in governing 
 of the Kirk be bischopes and injunctiones, without the 
 quhilk he thought nather the kingdome could be gydet to 
 his fantasie nor stand in guid aggriement and lyking with the 
 nibour land." ^ Above all, he detested the very name of the 
 General Assembly, and resisted their repeated exhortation 
 to become an " instrument of righteousness " as a lay elder. 
 When they invited him as chief of the Government to take 
 part in their interminable debates, he always replied that 
 he had " no leisure to talk with them " ; and at last, under the 
 exasperating effects of their deputations, he bluntly told the 
 reverend gentlemen that there would be no peace in the 
 land till he had hanged some of them.^ 
 
 The advent of Andrew Melville in i 574 gave new vigour 
 to the movement against episcopacy. Declining an astute 
 proposal by the Regent that he should become his 
 private chaplain, Melville took the lead of the Presby- 
 terians, and caused them to pass the Second Book of 
 Discipline in 1578, whereby the settlement under bishops 
 was overturned. 
 
 Still more serious in its effect upon Morton's career was 
 the disaffection engendered among Argyll,^ Athol, and other 
 lords by the curtailment of their feudal privileges and his 
 encouragement of townspeople and artisans. Morton would 
 not, or for want of public funds could not, stoop to con- 
 ciliate these proud personages by bribery ; wherefore arose 
 the strangest confederation against his authority — Andrew 
 Melville and the General Assembly hand-and-glove with the 
 heads of the dormant Catholic party. Argyll's hostility 
 was directly brought about by the tenacity with which 
 Morton insisted upon his restoring certain crown jewels 
 
 1 Melville's Diary, 35. 
 
 2 Calderwood, iii. 393, 
 
 ^ Not Queen Mary's commander-in-chief, but his half-brother, who succeeded 
 him in 1575 as 6th earl. 
 
276 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 which the Countess of Argyll had appropriated while she 
 was the wife of the Regent Moray. Argyll and Athol, 
 then, summoned a convention at Stirling on 8th March 
 M t d ^5^^' whereat Morton was deposed from the 
 privedofthe regency,^ and excluded from a council of twelve 
 M?rch"^'s78^ appointed for the guidance of James vi., who had 
 just completed his twelfth year. Morton offered 
 neither remonstrance nor resistance. " I wald be at that 
 point myself," he wrote to Douglas of Lochleven, " to haue 
 nathing ado now bot to leif quietlie, to serue my God and 
 the King my maister." ^ He retired to Lochleven, perhaps 
 feeling safer in that island retreat than in one of his own 
 castles, and began to occupy himself in laying out " a fayre 
 garden with allayis." 
 
 But such a dominant figure could not disappear from 
 the field of active politics without momentous effects. 
 Hopes of a Catholic revival were stirred, and the just 
 apprehensions of the Protestants were roused. Even the 
 Presbyterians, impatient as they had shown themselves of 
 Morton's authority, realised that they might easily come 
 under a worse ruler than King Log. 
 
 The Earl of Mar was hereditary keeper of Stirling 
 Castle, but the council had given that charge to his kins- 
 man, Erskine of Gos^ar. By Morton's advice, 
 
 Resumes ' i=> j j 
 
 authority, 5th Mar asscrted his right by forcibly seizing the 
 May 1578. castle, and Morton himself appeared there on 5 th 
 May, resuming his former place of authority over the King's 
 person. At a convention held in the castle on 12th June, 
 he was appointed to the presidency of the Privy Council,^ 
 and his nephew, the Earl of Angus [Ivi.], was made 
 Lieutenant - General of the King's forces.* Argyll and 
 Athol collected their forces in Edinburgh, and marched to 
 attack Stirling; but Angus was at hand with 5000 troops, 
 and Robert Bowes, English ambassador at the Scottish 
 court, mediated between the factions so successfully that he 
 was able to write to Leicester " that this darke clowde, 
 
 1 Morton, i. 92-100. - Ibid., 103. 
 
 * Acts Pari. Scot., iii. 121. ^ Reg. Privy Council, iii. 1-12. 
 
ESmi STUART 
 
 277 
 
 threatenynge a stormy shower, is dissolvynge gently into 
 small droppes, promisynge a calme." ^ Morton was once 
 more at the head of affairs, although the government was 
 nominally in the hands of the King. Unluckily, there 
 were old scores to be settled ; two Regents, Moray and 
 Lennox, had been slain by the Hamiltons, who, by the 
 pacification of Perth, had been exempted from criminal 
 proceedings until the King should assume the government. 
 Morton now caused the Privy Council to issue a commission 
 against the Hamiltons. Bothwellhaugh, murderer of Moray, 
 was dead, but his servant was tried and hanged ; ^ Lord 
 Claud and Lord John escaped abroad, but their lands and 
 those of their chief adherents were forfeited. 
 
 In pursuing this policy Morton may have been doing 
 what his experience showed him was essential to the 
 peace of the realm, not the less did it breed calamity 
 to his own fortunes. To this end another circumstance 
 contributed at this time. In order to celebrate the general 
 reconciliation, the Earl of Mar gave a banquet to the lead- 
 ing nobles in Stirling on 25th April 1579, on returning 
 from which the Earl of Athol suddenly died. It was assi- 
 duously bruited that he had been poisoned by Morton's 
 direction. An incredible slander, one might suppose ; but 
 the charge was levelled against one stained with the blood 
 of Riccio, Darnley and Kirkaldy, and discredited by 
 promiscuous private profligacy. To fill Athol's place at the 
 head of the Catholic party, Esme Stuart, Lord d'Aubigny, 
 a cousin of James VL, was invited to come from France, 
 and soon proved himself a far more formidable leader of 
 the opposition than Athol had been. 
 
 Esme Stuart, upon whom, in March i 580, the King con- 
 ferred the earldom of Lennox,^ had secret instructions to en- 
 able him to effect the overthrow of Morton, by charging him 
 openly with the murder of Darnley.^ But before divulging 
 this scheme he exerted himself to supplant Morton in the 
 
 ^ Bowes's Letters^ lO. ^ Pitcairn, i. 31. 
 
 2 Esme bought the earldom from the holder of the title. — Bowes's Letters, 21. 
 
 * Ibid.^ 22. 
 
278 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 King's confidence, and accomplished that purpose by assur- 
 ing his most Protestant Majesty that his theological argu- 
 ments had completely converted him from the errors of 
 Rome. This, of course, had a great effect upon the attitude 
 of the Presbyterian party, who had found Morton no more 
 favourable to their extreme views than he had proved 
 before his brief eclipse. 
 
 The forces thus arrayed against Morton were the more 
 overpowering, by reason that there existed a serious dis- 
 agreement at the time between him and his nephew Angus,^ 
 thus crippling the natural preponderance of the house of 
 Douglas. Morton, seeing no other course to avoid de- 
 struction, entered into a " platt for the common benefites " 
 with Ambassador Bowes,^ having for its object the con- 
 veyance of the King to the court of Elizabeth, whereby 
 to defeat a similar plot by Lennox for the King's 
 conveyance into France. Morton's " platt " miscarried, 
 chiefly by reason of the English Queen's vacillation, 
 and Lennox went from strength to strength, securing 
 for himself continual attendance on the King by his 
 appointment to an office created ad hoc — that of High 
 Chamberlain. 
 
 Morton, although fully warned of his danger, disdained 
 to seek safety in flight, and on 29th December 1580 a 
 . . ^ dramatic scene was enacted in the council chamber 
 
 Morton 
 
 arrested on of Holyrood, whcn Captain James Stuart,^ 
 mu?S^29th " with the previty and especiall commandement of 
 December the Kynge,"^ having demanded an audience, was 
 ^^^°* admitted, knelt before the King, and declared that 
 
 duty to his sovereign compelled him to reveal what he knew 
 of a great crime. Then rising to his feet, he denounced 
 Morton as the murderer of Darnley, and demanded his 
 arrest. Morton, with perfect coolness, replied at consider- 
 able length. He knew not, he said, whose tool Stuart 
 might be, but he was quite prepared to meet charges 
 brought even by so obscure an individual. As for the 
 
 1 Bowes's Letters, 73. 2 /^/^^ ^ gg^ 
 
 3 Shortly to be created Earl of Arran. ■* Bowes's Letters, 159. 
 
ARREST OF MORTON 
 
 279 
 
 murder of Darnley, it was perfectly well known that he 
 himself had brought to justice every one who had a share 
 in that guilt. 
 
 " False ! " shouted Stuart, starting forward. " Have 
 you not caused your cousin, Archibald Douglas, to pol- 
 lute the bench of justice with his presence, whereas he is 
 an infamous murderer ? " 
 
 The two men seemed to be about to fly upon each 
 other ; Morton's sword was half-drawn when the Lords 
 Lindsay and Cathcart rushed between them, and both 
 were removed from the chamber. Morton was ordered 
 to ward himself in his own apartments in Holyrood 
 House ; two days later he was transferred to Edinburgh 
 Castle,^ and then, to avoid manifestation of popular feelings 
 in the capital, was sent to Dumbarton Castle under custody 
 of his enemy the Earl of Lennox. Orders were issued 
 for the instant arrest of Archibald Douglas, but that crafty 
 rascal had already taken to his heels. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, repenting too late of her half-hearted 
 support of the Scottish Protestants, was now in dismay at 
 the impending wreck of the reformed religion in the north, 
 and sent Randolph post-haste to Edinburgh to obtain 
 Morton's liberation, or at least to save his life. But Lennox 
 took care that neither threats nor persuasion, nor argu- 
 ments about the safety of the Protestant ascendency, should 
 move King James, who was made to reply that Morton 
 should be brought to trial as soon as Archibald Douglas, 
 chief witness against him, should be sent back by the 
 Queen of England, under whose protection he remained at 
 Berwick. 
 
 P'ailing to move the King, Randolph next went before 
 Parliament, and for two hours laboured to convince the 
 members of the Three Estates that Morton was true and 
 Lennox false. He produced some intercepted letters, pur- 
 porting to be written by Bishop Lesley to the Pope, in 
 support of the charge that Lennox was a secret emissary of 
 Rome. Lennox, who was present, denounced the letters as 
 
 ^ Morton^ i. 124. 
 
28o THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 forgeries ; so they were, indeed, having been concocted by- 
 Archibald Douglas, as his brother the laird of Whittingham 
 confessed, adding that they were forged by Archibald in 
 collusion with the English ambassador Bowes.^ 
 
 Equally in vain was the military demonstration made 
 by the Earl of Huntingdon on the Border ; the menace of 
 invasion only strengthened the hands of the Scottish 
 Government by rousing the hereditary hatred of the nation 
 for the English. 
 
 Great are the misfortunes of the great. During the 
 five months that Morton lay in prison awaiting trial, the 
 people treated their former ruler with complete indiffer- 
 ence. They forgot the prosperity that had come to the 
 country during his regency, remembering only that the 
 price had been exacted in additional taxation. Young 
 Angus [Ivi.] raised the Douglas standard in vain ; the 
 vassals did not rally to it as of yore ; " il a est^ delaisse de 
 beaucoup qui lui avoit promis assistance." ^ 
 
 It cost his accusers much time and trouble to prepare 
 the charges against Morton. Great efforts were made to 
 obtain from France the extradition of Thomas Weirdy, who, 
 as was alleged, had bought the poison which caused the 
 death of the Earl of Athol, in order that Morton might be 
 charged with that murder also, but in the end the process 
 was adjusted only on the charge of treason. ^ 
 
 If the preliminaries of the trial were dilatory, there was 
 none of the law's proverbial delay in the final proceedings. 
 
 Morton was brought from Dumbarton to Edin- 
 !Lecutron!"tt burgh, and arraigned on ist June upon a charge 
 and 2nd June containing nineteen counts, chief of which was 
 that of being " council, concealing, and being art 
 and part of the King's murder." The only witness against 
 him was Sir James Balfour, who certainly had been an 
 
 ^ Letters from Lennox and Lord Ogilvy to Archbishop Beaton, i6th and i8th 
 April 1581. — Hosack, ii, 550-554. Bowes indignantly denied his alleged share 
 in the forgery. — Bowes's Letters, 174. 
 
 2 Lennox to Archbishop Beatoun, i8th April 1581. — Hosack, ii. 552. 
 
 ^ Ibid., 554. 
 
MORTON'S LAST HOURS . 281 
 
 active accomplice in the murder, and moreover had owed 
 immunity from the consequences to Morton's own reprehen- 
 sible lenity towards him. Upon his testimony the earl was 
 convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, 
 a doom commuted by the King to that of decapitation by 
 " the Maiden," an instrument resembling in principle the 
 guillotine, which it is said Morton himself had brought into 
 use in Scotland, having been favourably impressed by the 
 clean work he had seen it perform in Yorkshire. The 
 execution took place on the day following the trial [2nd 
 June]. Morton behaved with perfect dignity and fortitude 
 on the scaffold. It is not wise to lend much credence to 
 reports of last speeches made in days when the art of short- 
 hand was not ; but if the words reported by Richard 
 Bannatyne were not actually spoken, the thoughts they 
 express may well have passed through the mind of the 
 dying Douglas : " Gif I had bene als cairfull to serve my 
 God and walk in his feir as I was to see the Kingis weill, I 
 had nocht bene brocht to this poynt that I am at this 
 day." 1 
 
 James Stuart, his accuser, who by this time had received 
 his reward in being made Earl of Arran, stopped Morton 
 between his chamber and the scaffold, saying, " Now, my 
 lord, you will be reconciled with me, for I have done 
 nothing on any particular against you." 
 
 " It is no time now to remember our quarrels," answered 
 Morton. " I have no quarrel with you or any other. I 
 forgive you and all others, as I will all to forgive me." ^ 
 
 ^ Memoriales, 320. 
 
 ^ Ibid,, 331. Bannatyne's is the fullest, as it is probably a fairly trustworthy, 
 account of Morton's last hours. True, Bannatyne, so long secretary to John 
 Knox, between whom and Morton had been enduring friendship and confidence, 
 would incline to partiality for the earl ; but, on the other hand, Morton had 
 deeply offended the Presbyterians both by his inflexible resistance to their 
 attempts to interfere in matters of civil government, and by his firm maintenance 
 of episcopacy, so that they were far from united in devotion to him at the time of 
 his death. Bannatyne gives at length the report rendered by two ministers of 
 the confession made by Morton to them on the day of his death — a remarkable 
 document. "And sua," concludes Bannatyne, "quhatever he had bene afoir, he 
 constantlie died the trew servant of God ; and however it be that his vnfriendis 
 
282 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 Morton's corpse was left on the scaffold till sunset, and 
 was then taken to the place of common burial in Greyfriars' 
 churchyard, where his resting-place is marked by a stone 
 bearing the simple initials J. E. M. [James, Earl of Morton]. 
 His head, after being exposed on the Tolbooth for eighteen 
 months, was taken down by order of King James [8th 
 December 1582] and placed in the grave where his body 
 already lay.^ 
 
 One very ugly feature in this State trial remains to be 
 recorded. John, 8th Lord Maxwell, was a nephew of 
 Regent Morton, being the son of Beatrix Douglas, sister of 
 Morton's wife. Notwithstanding being thus near of kin to 
 the accused. Maxwell was one of the assize of sixteen which 
 convicted him, having previously, while Morton was in ward 
 awaiting trial, entered into an agreement with Esme Stuart, 
 Earl of Lennox, for the division between them of Morton's 
 estates " in cais proces of forfaltour be led againis the said 
 James, now Erie of Mortoun." ^ Comment is superfluous 
 upon a transaction so flagrantly at variance with imparti- 
 ality of justice. Maxwell got his blood - money, being 
 created Earl of Morton, and receiving the lands attached 
 to that dignity, except those of Dalkeith, Caldercleir, and 
 Aberdour, which fell to the share of Lennox. 
 
 Morton has never been a favourite with historians. It 
 has been his fate always to appear in contrast with the 
 inspiring and pathetic figure of Mary Queen of Scots ; and 
 although, like her, he ended his days on the scaffold, none 
 of the glamour of a lost cause falls upon him, where- 
 fore his faults loom more darkly, his merits shine less 
 brightly, than is altogether just to his memory. His 
 political principles were clearly defined and consistent, and 
 there is no reason to suspect him of private ambition or 
 self-seeking in ardently pursuing a Protestant league with 
 England and a union of the crowns as the surest means of 
 securing the much-desired peace for both countries. But 
 
 alledge that as he lived proudly so he died proudly, the chirritable servantis of 
 God could perceave nothing in him but all kynd of humilitie in his death." 
 ^ Pitcairn, i. 115, note. ^ Book of Carlaverocky ii. 490. 
 
MORTON'S CHARACTER 283 
 
 without doubt he was unscrupulous in the measures adopted 
 for establishing his policy. His guilty foreknowledge of 
 Bothwell's design upon Darnley's life remains absolutely 
 without excuse, even if we reject Bowton's dubious testi- 
 mony to Morton's active share in the murder. His part 
 in that heinous crime, rendered his subsequent punishment 
 of other accomplices of Bothwell, and his denunciation of 
 Queen Mary, peculiarly detestable. Beyond that, condem- 
 nation must not be carried, unless and until it can be 
 proved or made probable that the casket letters were 
 forgeries, wholly or in part, and known by Morton to be so. 
 
 As for ambition — well, granted that he was ambitious, 
 where is the opprobrium ? Morton set his hand deliberately 
 and resolutely to a great work of reform ; when was such 
 work ever effected except by an ambitious instru- 
 ment ? The charge of avarice, almost universally brought 
 against him, is deficient of proof Let his own manly and 
 dignified expressions be heard in repelling these two 
 charges. 
 
 "For ambicioun surely we think nane can justlie accuse ws, ffor in our privat 
 estait we culd and can leif als weill contented as ony of our degre in Scotland, 
 without further aspiring. The bearing of the charge of the governament of the 
 realme indeid mon leade ws or ony vther that fall to occupy that place, not simpillie 
 to respect our self bot his Majestie's rowme, quhilk we supplie. ... It aucht not 
 to be attributit to ony ambicioun in ws, ffor how sone as euir his Majestic sail think 
 himself reddy and able for his awin governament, nane sail mair willinglie aggre 
 and avance the same nor I. . . . For the avariciousnes laid to our charge, indeed 
 it lyis not in ws sa liberally to deale the Kingis geare as to sattisfie all cravers ; 
 nor neuir sail ony souerane and native borne prince, lett be ane officiar, eshew ^ 
 the disdayn of sic as thinkis thame jugeis to thair awin reward.^ In many 
 caussis I doubt not to fynd the assistence of my freindis ; bot quhair my actionis 
 sail appear vnhonest, I will not crave thair assistence, bot lett me beare my awin 
 burding." ^ 
 
 Several causes contributed to buttress the charge of 
 avarice against the Regent. By the Acts of 1 5 6 1 and 
 I 562 two-thirds of the Church revenues were made to revert 
 to the " auld possessors," i.e. lay proprietors ; of the 
 remaining third, after the reformed clergy had received 
 
 * ^ Escape. 2 judges of their own deserts. 
 
 2 Regent Morton to Douglas of Lochleven, 4th March 1578. — Morton^ i. 90. 
 
284 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 their stipends, the surplus was directed into the Exchequer. 
 This being found to work unsatisfactorily, Morton arranged 
 that the whole Church fund should be collected by the 
 Government, and ensured a surplus for the Exchequer by 
 largely reducing the number of benefices, obliging one 
 minister to discharge the services of several churches on 
 the stipend of one. The clergy who suffered under these 
 changes readily accepted the scandal that the Regent 
 enriched himself at the expense of the Church, whereas it 
 is almost certain that the money thus obtained was spent 
 in the public service. So, also, were the subsidies which 
 Morton received from Queen Elizabeth: magnified by 
 rumour into regular payment of a pension of 10,000 a 
 year, these sums were currently believed to pass into his 
 own pocket. On the other hand, he steadily and repeatedly 
 refused large bribes offered him by the French Government 
 to procure Queen Mary's release, saying that " as he was 
 chosen the King's Regent during his minority, he would 
 not know any other sovereignty so long as the King lived." ^ 
 The fidelity with which Morton administered the King's 
 revenues exasperated those who found their perquisites 
 stinted and their pilferings checked, and who swelled the com- 
 plaint against the minister whom it suited them to denounce 
 as avaricious. In fact, it was Morton's stern insistence upon 
 the restoration of certain crown jewels in the possession of 
 the Earl of Argyll which provoked the relentless hostility 
 of that nobleman, who was the chief agent in his un- 
 doing. After Morton's death it was reported that he had 
 amassed and concealed vast treasure ; proceedings were set 
 afoot to recover it ; one of his servants described, under 
 torture, the places where it was hidden, but when search was 
 made, none was discovered. 
 
 The groundlessness of such charges as these impart 
 suspicion to other and graver imputations upon Morton's 
 character, — that, for instance, of having caused the death by 
 poison of the Earl of Athol in 1579, — and these need not 
 be put in the scale of judgment against him. His private 
 
 1 Cal, State Papers {Foreign), 1575-1577, No. 294. 
 
MORTON'S CHARACTER 285 
 
 character, Morton himself admitted to be very imperfect : 
 though much concerned in religious questions, his interest 
 in religion was almost wholly political. The irregularity of 
 his relations with women has been accounted for, if not 
 excused, by the insanity of his wife, whom a jury pronounced 
 in I 5 8 1 to have been " furious " for two-and-twenty years, 
 but it was worse than a mere error in taste to make a 
 mistress of the pretty wife of Captain Cullen, whom, 
 reprobate as he was, Morton had sent to the gallows. Of 
 the ten children his wife is said to have borne him, all 
 are supposed to have died young ; but in the agreement 
 between Lord Maxwell and Esme Stuart, Earl of Lennox, 
 above referred to, Lennox undertook to raise brieves of 
 idiocy against the ex-Regent's three daughters, who must 
 therefore have been alive in i 5 8 1 . 
 
 Besides his legitimate children, Morton left four bastard 
 sons — 
 
 (1) James Douglas, who was lay-prior of Pluscardine 
 
 for a while, and married Anna, daughter and 
 heiress of George Home of Spott, by whom he 
 had issue. He was forfeited after his father's 
 death, and restored with his brothers in 1585. 
 In 1592 he was arraigned on a charge of 
 treason in connection with the rebellious pro- 
 ceedings of Francis, Earl of Bothwell, suffered 
 forfeiture a second time,^ and was restored again 
 in 1603. 
 
 (2) Archibald Douglas, upon whom his father bestowed 
 
 his paternal estate of Pittendreich. He married 
 Elizabeth, daughter of William Sutherland of 
 Duffus, and had issue Elizabeth, who married 
 John Innes of Leuchars.^ 
 
 (3) George Douglas, a cripple, pensioner of the priory of 
 
 St. Andrews ; and 
 
 (4) William, about whom nothing is known save that he 
 
 shared in the restoration of his brothers in 1585. 
 There remains to be noticed what is known of that 
 
 ^ Pitcairn, i. 268, 347 ; ii. 21. ^ Fraser, ii. 321. 
 
286 THE HOUSE OF, DOUGLAS 
 
 exemplary divine, Mr. Archibald Douglas [xxxvii.], parson 
 of Glasgow and judge of the Court of Session. Surely 
 of all the miscreants bearing the name of Douglas, here 
 is the most accomplished rogue. Morton, well knowing 
 his guilt, had screened him from criminal proceedings on 
 
 I^ igs. 33, 34, 35. — Seals of James Douglas, Earl of Morton, Regent. 
 
 account of Darnley's murder, though he sent others, his 
 accomplices, to the gibbet. Yet in 1572, when Morton 
 Treachery of besieging Kirkaldy in Edinburgh Castle, 
 
 Archibald Archibald, judge and parson, was diligently 
 Douglas, 1572. sijiuggling supplies into the beleaguered fortress, 
 and keeping Kirkaldy informed of the movement of 
 Morton's guns and troops. He conveyed Kirkaldy's 
 letters to France, and managed Queen Mary's clandestine 
 correspondence with Bishop Lesley. In April 1572 his 
 misdeeds came to the knowledge of Regent Lennox's 
 government by the seizure of some treasonable corre- 
 spondence. Archibald, it seems, had received 5000 crowns 
 from Flanders to transmit to Kirkaldy, whereof 1000 
 adhered to his fingers as middleman. Kirkaldy wrote 
 
ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS 
 
 287 
 
 complaining of his exorbitant greed, expressing an opinion 
 that 5 00 would have been ample ; and this letter fell 
 into the wrong hands. Among the correspondence thus 
 brought to light was some evidence of Archibald's plot 
 to procure Morton's murder. Archibald, however, either 
 explained this plot as a device to hoodwink his employers 
 in the castle, or else he knew enough to prevent Morton 
 visiting him with the consequences ; for, although he was 
 arrested and taken to Stirling on 14th April, he got off 
 with six years' imprisonment, " grit requeist " having been 
 made on his behalf by influential persons.^ Somehow 
 or other, Archibald was at large again in 1578, and on 
 I ith November, after Morton's temporary absence from 
 the head of affairs and his return to the court in May, the 
 
 Fig. 36.— Signature of James Douglas, Earl of Morton (1565). 
 
 King, acting of course upon Morton's instigation, restored 
 him to the bench. 
 
 Two years later, when Morton was seized upon James 
 Stuart's denunciation, warrants were issued for Archibald's 
 Flies to Eng-- ^Ppi'^hension, but he was over the Border before 
 land, Decern- they could take effect. He carried with him a 
 beri^so. warm letter of commendation from Ambassador 
 Bowes to Burghley, " for his devoted and good affeccion to 
 her Majesti by many servises, grett charges and sondry 
 dangers sustayned ; " - but Lord Hunsdon's testimony to 
 Archibald's worth was less cordial — " Towchynge Archbalt 
 Duglas, I thynke he can say lyttell of Skotlande att thys 
 
 ^ Memoriales, 230, 231. ^ Border Papers^ i. 68. 
 
288 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 present. And seurly, my lorde, he ys gretly hatyd there ! " ^ 
 He was degraded from the bench on 26th April 1581, 
 and sentence of forfeiture was pronounced upon him on 
 28th November.2 Elizabeth would not consent to his 
 extradition, but kept him as a source of information about 
 the internal affairs of Scotland. She sent Randolph to 
 intercede with the Scottish estates for Morton's life ; 
 and Archibald also exerted himself in a characteristic 
 way on behalf of his old patron. He forged certain 
 letters, implicating the Earl of Lennox in a Popish plot, 
 and so arranged that the bearer of them should be taken 
 by Drury at Berwick, who sent the letters on to his chief in 
 London. Randolph laid them before the council in Edin- 
 burgh, but Lennox, shrewdly discerning their authorship, 
 caused William Douglas of Whittinghame, Archibald's 
 brother, to be arrested. Whittinghame, who was also a 
 Lord of Session, was deep in Archibald's secret, and, having 
 no fancy for boot and thumbikins, at once gave away the 
 whole case against his brother. 
 
 After the execution of Morton, Archibald renewed his 
 secret connection with the English Government, but hedged, 
 as was the nature of the creature, by worming himself into 
 Queen Mary's confidence, for James VI., to whom he looked 
 for ultimate advancement, was veering under Lennox's 
 influence, to his mother's party. But Archibald's letters to 
 Mary were intercepted, and, being found full of matter little 
 to Elizabeth's liking, he was clapped in prison in September 
 1582. He was a valuable prize, being a breathing repertory 
 of the secrets of the unhappy Queen of Scots. Walsingham 
 saw his opportunity : he plied the prisoner with promises of 
 great and instant reward if he would tell all he knew. 
 Archibald mounted a very high horse, and spoke of " the 
 shame and disgrace" that would be his were he untrue to 
 his Queen. The fact is, he dreaded offending King James 
 by betraying Queen Mary, and thus for ever forfeiting all 
 prospect of preferment in his native land. But six months' 
 imprisonment wrought wonders upon his constancy. In 
 
 1 Border Papers^ i. 71. Acts Pari Scot., iii. 193, 196-204. 
 
TRIAL OF ARCHIBALD 
 
 289 
 
 May 1583 he showed signs of yielding to Fowler, Walsing- 
 ham's agent, and a year later he had done so much against 
 Queen Mary as enabled Queen Elizabeth to receive him 
 back to her favour. 
 
 After the fall of James Stuart, Earl of Arran, and the 
 restoration of the Earl of Angus [xxxviii.] and his 
 fellow-exiles in 1585, Archibald Douglas was permitted 
 to return to Scotland also, on the special intercession of 
 the English ambassador Randolph and Patrick, Master of 
 Gray, and under an Act of rehabilitation [ist May 1586], 
 passed with the limitation that it should not be operative 
 should Archibald be found guilty of Darnley's murder. He 
 gave Walsingham a description of his interview with King 
 James on 30th April. 
 
 " At your departure," he represents the King as saying, " I was your enemy, 
 now I am and shall be your friend. You are not ignorant what the laws of this 
 realm are, and what may best agree with my honour to be done for your safety. 
 ... I myself do believe that you are innocent of my father's murder, except by 
 foreknowledge and concealing, a fault so common in those days that no man 
 of any dealing could misknow, and yet so perilous to be revealed in respect of 
 all the actors in that tragedy, that no man without extreme danger could utter 
 any speech thereof, because they did see it and could not amend it." 
 
 So abounding is the King's grace ! yet for what had 
 Morton's blood been shed save for " foreknowledge and 
 concealing " ? 
 
 On 26th May Archibald Douglas was put upon a form 
 of trial for the " crewall, horribill, abhominabill, and tres- 
 
 sonabill murthour of vmquhile Henrie King of 
 Darnley's Scottis of gud memorie " ; but the whole pro- 
 May 1586^^^ ceedings were shamelessly collusive ; Morton's 
 
 deposition on the day of his execution, wherein 
 Archibald was shown to have been the chief instrument in 
 the murder, was not submitted to the jury.^ The deposition 
 of Archibald's servant, Thomas Binning, who had been 
 hanged for the crime in which he had assisted his master,^ 
 and who had testified that Archibald " tint his mwlis " — lost 
 his velvet slippers — at the doing of it, was set aside also. 
 
 ^ Pitcairn, i. 154. 2 jf^id,^ 95. 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
290 
 
 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 The Master of Gray, active agent in the preliminaries 
 of Queen Mary's execution, and earnest advocate with 
 Elizabeth on behalf of Archibald, was chosen chancellor 
 [z.e. foreman] of the jury, upon which also served George 
 Home of Spott, who, in June 1582, had been tried and 
 acquitted of part in that very crime. Lastly, Archibald's 
 brother William of Whittinghame was one of the judges 
 in the case. The whole affair was a transparent 
 sham. It was all arranged beforehand ; Douglas had 
 returned to Scotland as Queen Elizabeth's privy agent, 
 and she could not afford to let him get his deserts. 
 His acquittal was pronounced by all honest people 
 " the filthiest iniquity that was heard of in Scotland." 
 It may be mentioned to the credit of Scottish gentlemen, 
 that ten of them paid the penalty of £40 each 
 [Scots money, to be sure !] rather than serve as jurors on 
 such a fraudulent trial.^ 
 
 As soon as this blood-guilty wretch had been white- 
 washed, James VI. sent him as his ambassador to the English 
 ^ court, where his memory was in great request in 
 
 ambassador supplying materials for the indictment of Queen 
 iss?"^^^"^' Mary, his master's mother — " having discovered ^ 
 several passages betwixt her and himself and 
 other Catholics of England, tending to her liberation ; 
 which were made use of against her Majesty for taking her 
 life." 3 
 
 No sooner had these " passages " taken due effect and 
 helped to bring about Mary's execution on 8th February 
 1587, than Douglas was dismissed from office. Indeed it 
 is not at all certain that King James had not ceased to 
 regard him as his ambassador some time before the tragedy 
 at Fotheringay. At all events, influenced by Chancellor 
 Maitland, he had conceived distrust and dislike for the 
 murderer of his father and the betrayer of his mother. He 
 had commissioned Archibald to buy him a couple of good 
 English hunters in England, but, nearly a month before 
 
 ' Pitcairn, i. 154. - Revealed. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Sir James Melvill of Halhill^ 348. — Ed. 1735. 
 
ARCHIBALD ON THE DOWN GRADE 291 
 
 Queen Mary met her doom, Hunsdon wrote to Burghley to 
 say that he had been warned against Archibald by Sir John 
 Carmichael. 
 
 ' ' It ys moste serten that the Kynge hathe no lekynge too Archibald Duglas, 
 for he [Archibald] hathe bowghte two specyall huntynge horsys for the Kynge, 
 but the Kynge wyll by no meanes receve them, and yett hathe he sowght by all 
 the meanes he can, too gett the Kynge too take them, but as yett he wyll nott, so 
 they be yett yn Inglande." ^ 
 
 Archibald, therefore, considered it no fitting time to 
 return to Scotland, where, as Hunsdon assured Burghley, 
 " he will finde as bad enterteignment as ever hee had 
 in his lyfe." ^ He remained in England, posing still as 
 Scottish ambassador, and in February 1588 Hunsdon 
 wrote to Walsingham from Berwick, warning him that 
 Archibald should not be recognised. " If her Majestic do 
 accept of him as the kinges ambassadour, or looke to under- 
 stand anything by him from the King or the State here, her 
 Majestic will finde herselfe greatly abused and disceaved 
 therin." ^ Nevertheless, Hunsdon was unwilling to lose 
 Archibald as an agent of English policy in Scotland, for on 
 the very next day, 3rd February 1588, he wrote the 
 following remarkable letter to Burghley : — 
 
 " I recevyd your pakkett of the 29 of the laste the seconde of thys [month], 
 with the copy of hyr Majesti's letter and the ansers too Archbald Duglas pro- 
 posycyons, which I had byfor. 
 
 " Havynge pereusyd the coppy of hyr Majesti's letter, I fynde yt so harde, as 
 I had rather kepe ytt secrete then shew ytt, for yt ys nott yn season too wryght 
 thys too hym at thys tyme — for yt wyll butt veryfy theyr saynges that wold have 
 hym runn another cowrse, that hyr Majesti ys all yn wordes, but whan ytt 
 comes too the performance he shall fynde nothynge, and, as Archbald Duglas 
 letter was, she ys styll att generallytys, yf he want or yf he shall have occasyon 
 too euse hyr frendshype. Thes be no wayse nor meanes too wyn a prynce that 
 ys so far alyenatyd from hyr as he [King James] ys and hathe so many yle"* 
 instrumentes about hym as he hathe. . . . Hyr Majesti chargy the hym [Archibald] 
 with the dealynge with forren pryncys, and sundry uther matters, which yf he 
 have dune, then hathe she the more cawse to seke too wyn hym from them, 
 whyche muste be with lyberallyte and present mony too be offerd and sent hym, 
 too helpe hym yn hys dystres, which yf he accepte, thane hath she sume howlde 
 
 ^ Border Papers, i. 303 
 
 2 Ibid., 308. 
 
 3 Ibid., 309. 4 lU. 
 
292 THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS 
 
 of hym — yf he refuse ytt, then may she know what too looke for att hys handes. 
 But, my lord, yf hyr Majesti thynk that thys dealynge wyll doo any goode, she 
 ys greatly deceyved, and she wyll be soriy for ytt whan ytt wyll be too late. He 
 is wondyd^ thohe hyr Majesti [is] innocent thereof, yett hyr innocensy ys no 
 satysfactyon too him, nor wordes wyll go for no payment, where deedes muste 
 supply wantes, and he muste have yt eyther of hyr Majesti or sum uther prinse, 
 for utherwyse he shall nott be able to reule hys nobyllyte,^ but they wyll overrule 
 hym, as you may see by theyr late accyon. I assure your lordship that yf hyr 
 Majesti deale nott more effectually heryn, and that owte of hande, she wyll fynde 
 the lake of ytt, for he wyll be gone ! . . . I may be blamyd for wrytynge thys 
 playnly, but consyderynge the grete danger that depends heron, both too hyr 
 Majesti and the state, as yf I showlde be sylent heryn I showlde deserve farr 
 gretar blame, and therfor I hope hyr Majesti wyll accepte yt yn goode parte, 
 beynge dune yn dyscharg of my dewty. " ^ 
 
 Neither Burghley nor Queen Elizabeth could be brought 
 to take honest Hunsdon's view of the importance of 
 Archibald Douglas's services, and though he was afterwards 
 occasionally employed as a spy for the English government, 
 it was at his own charges, and he seems to have been left 
 without any means of subsistence. King James's dislike 
 for the fellow had grown to loathing ; he continued even 
 to refuse to receive at Archibald's hands the two hunters 
 which he had commissioned him to buy. This was the 
 more unkind because the royal stables were in a low state 
 at the time, as shown by Hunsdon's application to Burghley 
 on 25th February 1588 for "a placard from hyr Majesti 
 for the buynge of halfe a dosen horsys or geldynges for the 
 kynges owne saddell for huntynge, for he hathe over-huntyd 
 all hys horsys. I pray your lordshyp move hyr Majesti 
 heryn, or else he [King James] may thynke my credytt as 
 smale as A. Duglas makes ytt ! " ^ 
 
 If Archibald ever returned to Scotland [he was still in 
 England in June 1594^] it was only to linger a few years 
 in desperate penury, disowned by his former employers and 
 shunned by his old accomplices, even by the infernally 
 handsome and shifty Master of Gray. The obscurity which 
 hangs over the rest of his ignoble career is broken only by 
 
 1 Wounded. 
 
 2 Meaning that Archibald would have no means of bribing the Scottish lords. 
 Border Papers, i. 310. Ibid., 317. ^ Ibid., 533. 
 
THE EXIT OF A VILLAIN 
 
 293 
 
 the act deposing him from the parsonage of Glasgow for 
 neglect of duty and absence from his parish. He died 
 somewhere about the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
 
 His wife was Lady Jane Hepburn, widow of John, 
 Master of Caithness, but of his offspring there is no record. 
 The deeper that oblivion descends upon such a rascal, 
 the better for those in whose veins his blood may run, if 
 such there be. 
 
 Fig. 37. — Seal of Elizabeth Douglas, Countess of Morton. 
 
 Fig. 37A, — Signature of Matthew, Earl of Lennox (1565). 
 
 END OF VOL. 1. 
 
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