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William, 1st Earl of Douglas
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William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas (c.1323 – 1 May 1384) was a
Scottish nobleman, peer, and magnate.
William Douglas was the son of Sir Archibald Douglas
(died 1333) and Beatrice de Lindsay(1), the daughter of
Sir Alexander de Lindsay of Crawford, South Lanarkshire. He was the
nephew of "Sir James the Good", the trusted deputy of
King Robert I of
Scotland (Robert the Bruce). From the time of his father's death at the
Battle of Halidon Hill, Douglas is described as being a ward of his
kinsman and godfather, William Douglas,
Knight of Liddesdale, and was
educated in France. In 1342, under pressure from Liddesdale, his uncle
Hugh the Dull resigned the Lordship of Douglas to him, though Liddesdale
rapaciously administered his estates while it was in his ward-ship, and
assumed direct ownership of some of the Douglas territories.
Douglas returned to Scotland, upon reaching his majority in 1348, and
immediately started to put his house in order. In 1346-47 following the
Battle of Neville's Cross,
King David II, and other nobility, including Liddesdale, were held captive by the English. Edward Baliol used the
opportunity to ravage the whole of the south of Scotland. Douglas
gathered his men and drove the English out from his ancestral lands of
Douglasdale. Douglas went in the style of his uncle, the Good Sir James,
and for the following few years waged guerrilla war against the English
in the Ettrick Forest and Jedforests.
Douglas next became one of the commissioners to negotiate with the
English for the release of David
II of Scotland.
In 1353, Edward Baliol was ensconced at Buittle in his ancestral
territories in Galloway. Douglas led a raid there to eject him due to
Baliol's forfeiture of those lands that had been made over to Sir James
Douglas in 1324. Following this raid, returning through the Forest,
Douglas came across Liddesdale hunting on what Douglas viewed as his
desmesne. This was the match that lit the fuse of years of resentment
over Liddesdale's assumption of the Douglas patrimony, notwithstanding
Liddesdale's murder of Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie which John of
Fordun gives as a reason for the enmity between the men. Liddesdale,
once in high standing with the Crown, had fallen into disfavour
following his murder of Ramsay and another Knight, Sir David de Barclay.
Douglas set upon Liddesdale and killed him. In February 1354, William of
Douglas received a new charter from King David bestowing all the lands
held by his uncle Sir James, his father Sir Archibald, and Liddesdale
itself.
In 1355 the truce with England expired and Douglas with the Earl of
Dunbar and March, whose lands had been ravaged, decided to take Norham
Castle in retaliation. One of Douglas' captains, Sir William Ramsay of
Dalhousie, was instructed to despoil the lands around Norham and burn
the town in an effort to entice the garrison out to battle. Ramsay did
so and the English under the castle's constable, Sir Thomas Grey of
Heaton and Lord Dacre, gave chase. Douglas and March meanwhile were
encamped seven miles away in woodland to the south of Duns, when Ramsay
had reached them. The English pursuers were ambushed by the Scots force,
and completely overwhelmed. Following this Battle of Nesbit Moor,
Douglas and March joined with the Earl of Angus in making an assault
upon Berwick, but the Scots had to retire from there before the
advancing army of Edward III. King Edward laid waste to the Lothians in
an event that would be known as the "Burnt Candlemas". His supply lines
were overstretched, and following the sinking of his fleet, and the
Scots scorched earth policy, Edward had to turn homewards, but not
before being ambushed and nearly taken by Lord Douglas's men outside
Melrose. Following Edward's retreat into England, Douglas arranged a
truce with William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton that would last
until Michaelmas.
He also arranged a Safe conduct to visit the captive King David.
Following this Douglas crossed with a large following to France and took
up arms with Jean le Bon against Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince.
Douglas was present at the Battle of Poitiers
where he was knighted by the French King. Douglas fought in the King's
own Battle, but when the fight seemed over Douglas was dragged by his
men from the melee. Froissart states that "... the Earl Douglas of
Scotland, who fought a season valiantly, but when he saw the
discomfiture he departed and saved himself; for in no wise would he be
taken by the Englishmen, he would rather there be slain". After the
defeat there Douglas escaped, but left a number of his men either slain
or captive, including his first cousin latterly the 3rd Earl of Douglas,
Archibald the Grim.
Douglas returned to Scotland by mid Autumn, and was involved in peace
negotiations with the English, one aspect of the treaty was the creation
of March Wardens of which Douglas was one. Under the auspice of this
office, Douglas seized Hermitage Castle in Liddesdale from the English
in response to their depredations on Eskdale.[16] Douglas was part of
the parliament that met at Berwick in 1357, which finalised the release
of King David through the Treaty of Berwick, Douglas himself being one
of the securities for his release.
Douglas was created Earl of Douglas on 26 January 1358. To reflect his
new-found status, he built Tantallon Castle, a Medieval castle
surrounded by a curtain wall. The castle became the home of Douglas'
sister-in-law and mistress, Margaret Stewart, 4th Countess of Angus,[21]
the mother of his illegitimate son, George Douglas, who would later be
created Earl of Angus by the right of his mother.
In 1364, Douglas joined King David II in seeking a treaty with England
that would have written off Scotland's debt to England in return for
depriving his nephew, Robert the Steward, formerly an ally of Douglas,
of the succession. King Edward III's son, Lionel of Antwerp, would have
taken the Scottish throne, although the independence of Scotland was to
be guaranteed, and a special clause was to be provided for the
restoration of the English estates of the Douglas family.
The plan never succeeded, and on the accession of Robert the Steward as
King Robert II, Douglas was nevertheless reconciled and appointed
Justiciar South of the Forth in 1372. The last years of Douglas' life
were spent in making and repelling border raids. He died at Douglas,
South Lanarkshire on 1 May 1384.
William Douglas married in 1357, Margaret of Mar, the daughter of
Domhnall II, Earl of Mar and Isabella Stewart, who succeeded her brother
Thomas as Countess of Mar. They had two children:
James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas (1358–1388)
Lady Isabel Douglas, Countess of Mar (1360–1408)
The Earl of Douglas also fathered two illegitimate children by his
brother-in-law's wife,
Margaret Stuart, widow of
Thomas, Earl of Mar and Countess of Angus in her own right:
George Douglas, who inherited the estates of Angus and was later created
Earl of
Angus, being the heir of his mother.
Lady Margaret Douglas, who received in 1404, the lands of
Bonjedward from her half-sister,
Lady Isabel Douglas.
He is also said to have been the father of another illegitimate
daughter, Joan Douglas, who married William Dacre, 5th Baron Dacre.
William Douglas, Lord of Douglas, Earl of Mar jure uxoris and Earl of
Douglas, died on 1st May 1384
Notes:
1. There is a theory that William's mother was Eleanor
of Lovain,
widow of William de Ferrers, Lord of Groby. She was, reportedly, Sir Archibald's
2nd wife.
See also
• Margaret
Stewart, Countess of Angus, Lady of Abernethy and Bonkhill (1mb;
pdf)
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Sources
Sources for this article include:
Brown Michael, Black Douglases: War and Lordship in Late Medieval
Scotland, 1300-1455.
• Maxwell, Sir Herbert, A History of the House of Douglas.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Douglas". Encyclopædia Britannica.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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