George, Earl of Angus
George Douglas, 1st Earl of Angus (1380–1403) was born at
Tantallon
Castle, East Lothian, Scotland. The bastard son of
William, 1st Earl
of Douglas and Margaret Stewart, Dowager Countess of Mar & Countess
of Angus and Lady Abernethy in her own right.
He was seen as
the product of incest as his mother was the widow of Earl William's
wife's brother, Thomas, 13th Earl of Mar.
Earl William's
legitimate wife Margaret of Mar had already produced an heir for her
Lord in 1358, James, 2nd Earl of Douglas and Mar inherited upon his
father's death in 1384.
In 1389, Margaret of Angus
relinquished her title in favour of her son, but he did not assume
it until his betrothal in 1397 to the princess Mary, daughter of
King Robert III. Margaret of Angus' influence must have been
considerable- in addition to obtaining a royal bride for her
illegitimate son, she persuaded King Robert to confirm him in his
style of Earl of Angus, and also to bestow upon him the lordships of
Abernethy, (Perthshire) and Bonkill, (Berwickshire); and "to endow
him and his spouse with the justiciary fees of the County of Forfar,
to ratify all gifts, entails, and leases made or to be made by
Isabel, Countess of Mar, to the said Jorge her brothir" -(Maxwell).
James 2nd Earl of Douglas, was killed without
legitimate issue in 1388, at
the Battle of Otterburn, and the Earldom of Mar, and all
non-entailed Douglas possessions passed to his sister Isabel. The
earldom of Douglas passed to a cousin, a bastard son of The Good Sir
James Douglas, the aptly named
Archibald the Grim.
The
descendants of Archibald formed the famed Black line, and those of
George the equally famed and longer lived Red Line.
Angus
does not appear to have taken much interest in Public life, although
his name appears on various minor charters. In 1402 however, he was
dispatched under orders of the Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland to
accompany Murdoch, Earl of Fife and the Earl of Moray to assist the
Earl of Douglas during his invasion of Northumberland. That
incursion ended at the disastrous field of
Homildon Hill, where the
Scots were routed and all of the above taken prisoner. Both Moray
and Angus died of the Plague whilst captive.
By his wife,
Mary of Scotland, Countess of Angus, a daughter of King Robert III
of Scotland, Angus had two children:
•
William Douglas, 2nd Earl of
Angus(1398–1437)
• Elizabeth Douglas; m1 Sir Alexander Forbes,
later 1st Lord Forbes; m2 Sir David Hay of Yester
Princess Mary
was to marry a further four times and bear seven more children by
three of these husbands. The issue by her second husband, Sir James
Kennedy younger of Dunure, were the ancestors of the Marquesses of
Ailsa; The product of her fourth marriage to William, 1st Lord
Graham were the ancestors of the Viscounts Dundee and the Dukes of
Montrose.
See also
•
Margaret Stewart, Countess of Angus, Lady of Abernethy and Bonkhill
(1mb; pdf)
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