On the death of James Douglas 3rd Earl of Morton in
1550 the title did not pass, as might be expected, to the eldest of his
three daughters, Margaret, the wife of James Hamilton, Duke of Châtelherault, who at that time was Regent of Scotland. The title did
not by right pass through the female line, and, at the request of
Châtelherault, it passed to the husband of Elizabeth, the youngest
daughter, who was married to James Douglas of Pittendreich, the younger
brother of David, soon to inherit as 7th Earl of Angus. Châtelherault’s
action was prompted by his need to gain the alliance of the powerful
Angus Douglas clan, who traditionally supported the English party, and
James Douglas thereby became the 4th Earl of Morton.
Even this peculiarity was not in accordance with the entail agreed by
James V with the 3rd Earl in 1540. The 3rd Earl had married Katherine
Stewart, an illegitimate daughter of James IV, and was thus a
half-brother-in-law of James V. On 17 October 1540, James V had coerced
him into resigning the reversion of his title, in favour of Sir Robert
Douglas of Lochleven. On the face of it, Sir Robert was only remotely
connected to the 3rd Earl and was a long way from being the male heir by
dynastic right, being a 4th cousin twice removed. The reason for
choosing Sir Robert was more complex. Katherine Stewart had been the
daughter of Margaret Boyd, a favourite mistress of James IV. Margaret
was the daughter of Archibald Boyd of Bonshaw, the 3rd son of the 1st
Lord Boyd. Her sister Elizabeth Boyd had married Thomas Douglas of
Lochleven and was the mother of Sir Robert Douglas. Sir Robert was the
only male heir of the two Boyd sisters.
A Satire of the Three Estates is the oldest
surviving example of a complete play in Scots.
The 1552 performance of the Satire took place on the 7th June,
in the open air, starting early (around 7 am) on a long summer’s
day. In August, two years later, a second performance was given
in Edinburgh, before the Queen Regent, James V’s widow, Mary of
Guise. The cast of the interlude and the two full performances
in the 16th century would probably have been a mixture of
Lyndsay’s fellow courtiers, some talented performers drawn from
the social classes they represent, and some paid ‘players’ or
actors. The full performances would have lasted between five and
nine hours.
James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise |
In a second quirk of fate, Sir Robert Douglas had married Margaret
Erskine, daughter of the 5th Lord Erskine. After their marriage,
Margaret had become the mistress of James V, and was the mother of James
Stewart, later Earl of Moray and Regent. She had been the model for Dame
Sensuality in The Satire of the Three Estates by Sir David Lindsay, and
there were rumours that, but for her marriage to Sir Robert, James would
have made her his Queen. After her Royal affair came to an end, she
returned to Sir Robert, resulting in several more children from their
marriage. It was not surprising that James V felt he owed Sir Robert an
obligation. The unusual entail of the Morton title thus confirmed Royal
approbation for two favourite Royal concubines.
After changing the entail, James V asked Robert Douglas to resign his
rights to the Crown, a normal practice when a title was to take an
unusual route. Only when James V had died, did the 3rd Earl of Morton go
to the Court of Session where, with the assistance of Châtelherault, who
was now Regent, he obtained approval for the entail to be varied, so
that it was conveyed to James Douglas of Pittendreich, failing whom to
his elder brother David, soon to inherit the earldom of Angus, from his
uncle. Only on the failure of both their lines would the title revert to
Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven. James Douglas duly inherited and became
Regent Morton, but both his and his brother Angus’s male lines were to
fail.
Notwithstanding all of this, the 3rd Earl of Morton’s second daughter,
Beatrix, who had married Robert 6th Lord Maxwell, felt aggrieved at
being overlooked and her son, John 8th Lord Maxwell tried to lay claim
to the title when Regent Morton fell from power in 1581. At that time he
was an ally of Esmé Stuart, Duke of Lennox, a favourite of the young
James VI, who was trying to gain control of Government. After Regent
Morton’s execution, Esmé arranged for his huge fortune to be attainted
and Maxwell became Earl of Morton, inheriting the huge estate amassed
during the Regent’s life. Maxwell had no justifiable claim to the
existing Morton Earldom and it was not granted to him. He was the son of
only the second daughter of the 3rd Earl of Morton .
Maxwell’s inheritance only confused an already complex picture. He was
described by James as ‘ane cankart’ young man, and he had a lawless
streak in him, resulting in his own attainder on 9 April 1585. Both his
title and the Morton estates were forfeited, resulting in the original
attainder on Regent Morton being rescinded on 29 January 1586. Angus
duly inherited both the estates and the original Morton earldom, but he
elected not to take up his entitlement. His sister Elizabeth Douglas had
coincidently married Maxwell, and this would have created a conflict
with his brother-in-law. At that time he was estranged from his wife
Margaret Leslie, who had not provided him with an heir, and was to
divorce her in the following year. He thus allowed the title and estates
to pass in accordance with the original entail direct to
Sir William
Douglas of Lochleven, with whom he was closely associated, and Sir
William became the 5th Earl of Morton. Sir William had married Agnes
Leslie, the sister of Angus’s estranged wife Margaret and she had four
sons and seven daughters, the seven fair porches of Lochleven. When his
eldest son Robert died at about this time, Angus, in 1587, married
Robert’s widow Jean Lyon, but died in the following year still without
children.
When Maxwell died in 1597, his eldest son, John, was able to claim the
1581 creation of the Morton Earldom, becoming the 2nd Earl of Morton and
9th Lord Maxwell, although he could not now reclaim the Morton estates.
Having two earldoms of Morton caused a conflict with Sir William, and
John proved to be as lawless as his father. In 1602, he murdered
Johnstone of Johnstone, who he had imprisoned as part of a family feud.
Having been charged with treason, he was attainted and was eventually
beheaded at Edinburgh on 21 May 1613. His brother, Robert Maxwell, now
claimed his titles and, on 28 June 1617, was rehabilitated as 10th Lord
Maxwell. James sensibly resolved the conflict of the second Morton
creation by suggesting that it was not customary for two earls to bear
the same title, and proposed to change the name of the second Morton
creation to Nithsdale. Robert was thus restored as Earl of Nithsdale,
but with precedence dating back to 1581.
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