Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich

George Douglas of Pittendreich was a prominent member of the powerful Red Douglas family and the younger brother of Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. He played a critical role in Scottish politics during the minority of James V and later, Mary, Queen of Scots.

Family and Dynastic Power
* George's parents were George Douglas, Master of Angus, and Elizabeth Drummond. He was married to Elizabeth Douglas of Pittendreich.
* He used his influence to advance his family's position:
* His second son, James, was married to Elizabeth Douglas, the youngest daughter of the 3rd Earl of Morton, which ultimately led to James inheriting the title and becoming the 4th Earl of Morton and Regent of Scotland.
* His eldest son, David, became the 7th Earl of Angus.
* His illegitimate son, George Douglas of Parkhead, became Provost of Edinburgh and Keeper of Edinburgh Castle.

Struggle for Control of James V
* The Douglas family held custody of the young James V starting in 1526. George was tasked with keeping a secure watch over the King.
* In May 1528, James V successfully escaped from George's custody at Falkland Palace.
* Subsequently, the family was forfeited by the Scottish Parliament and went into exile in England, despite their stronghold, Tantallon Castle, successfully resisting the King's siege.

Peacemaking, Intrigue, and the English Alliance (1543-1544)
* After James V's death and the Battle of Solway Moss, George and his brother returned to Scotland in January 1543, where they were restored to their lands.
* Initially, George was a key proponent of the "English marriage" (Mary, Queen of Scots to Prince Edward of England), working with the English diplomat Ralph Sadler. He was a Scottish commissioner who completed the Treaty of Greenwich in July 1543, which outlined the marriage and peace terms.
* He attempted to reconcile Regent Arran with Cardinal Beaton, who opposed the marriage, preventing immediate armed conflict.
* After the Scottish Parliament rejected the Treaty of Greenwich in December 1543, leading to the Rough Wooing war, George strategically shifted his loyalty.

Supporting Mary of Guise and Final Years
* George became a supporter of Mary of Guise (Mary, Queen of Scots' mother) against Regent Arran, receiving a pension from her and offering advice on foreign policy.
* In February 1545, he advised Henry VIII to adopt a gentler approach to win Scottish favor, arguing that the extreme cruelty of the war was turning the people against England.
* In 1548, he was appointed Captain of Dalkeith for the English but then sided with the Regent. He narrowly escaped capture by English forces at Dalkeith Palace, though his son James was captured and injured.
* George Douglas died in the north of Scotland in 1552, while in the service of Mary of Guise.

Notes and research comment:

1.  James Douglas married Elizabeth, dau of James, 3rd Earl of Morton. Their son, James, inherited the Earldom.
2.  David Douglas, 7th Earl of Angus b: ABT. 1515

He also had a natural son, George Douglas of Parkhead.

He acquired the estate of Pittendriech through his wife.

Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich was master of the royal household, and in September 1526, had the charge of the young king, when his brother hastened forward from Edinburgh, to encounter the force under the earl of Lennox at Linlithgow bridge, on that nobleman’s unsuccessful attempt to rescue the monarch from the Douglases. James, who secretly favoured Lennox’s enterprise, advanced slowly and unwillingly, when Douglas, incensed at the delay, seizing his horse’s bridle, passionately exclaimed, “Think not that in any event you shall escape us; for even were our enemies to gain the day, rather than surrender your person, we should tear you in pieces,” – a threat which was never forgiven by the king. He was forfeited, along with his brother and uncle, 5th September 1528, when he took refuge in England. In 1542, he and the earl his brother, at the head of a large body of their retainers, joined an English force which made a hostile incursion across the borders into Scotland, but was defeated at Hadden-rig by the earl of Huntley and Lord Home.

After the death of James the fifth, the forfeiture of the Douglases was rescinded by parliament, 15th March 1542-3, and Sir George, on his return to Scotland, was appointed a member of the privy council of the regent Arran. He had been entrusted by Henry the Eighth with the principal share in negotiating the proposed marriage of the young queen Mary with Henry’s son, Prince Edward, and made several journeys into England on that account in 1543. His talents, says Tytler, for the management of political affairs were superior to those of his brother, the earl, over whose mind he possessed great influence, and in his correspondence with Henry he expresses himself with great warmth of devotion to the English monarch, who, in his designs upon Scotland was very much guided by the information transmitted to him and his ministers by Sir George.

The treaties of peace and marriage were finally arranged at Greenwich on the 1st July 1543. In all the intrigues of the period he acted a prominent part, and when Angus and the other lords of the English faction, to escape the sentence of forfeiture to which their repeated treasons had exposed them, transmitted to the governor Arran a bond of adherence to the government, Sir George was one of the pledges that it would be faithfully kept, but was soon liberated. He and his brother subsequently joined the party of Cardinal Bethune, and their names appear among those of the Scots nobility who signed the agreement in June 1544, to support the authority of the queen-mother as regent of Scotland against the earl of Arran. In a parliament held at Edinburgh in the beginning of December of the same year, he and the earl were absolved from the charge of treason, and declared innocent of the crimes which had been alleged against them. In 1545 he joined the earl of Cassillis and other noblemen in the conspiracy (mentioned by Mr. Tytler for the first time by any historian) which, on the suggestion of Henry the Eighth, they had entered into for the assassination of Cardinal Bethune, and had an interview with one Thomas Forster, the English envoy, on the subject, but the project seems early to have been abandoned on their part. In August 1545, he was with the Scots army that invaded England, the vanguard of which was commanded by the earl of Angus, but retreated without effecting anything of consequence, “through the deceit,” as an ancient Chronicle relates, “of George Douglas and the vanguard.”

In the memorable year 1546, after hearing George Wishart preach at Inveresk, he said publicly, “I know that my lord governor and my lord cardinal will hear that I have been at this sermon. Say unto them, I will avow it; and not only maintain the doctrine that I have heard, but also the person that teacheth, to the uttermost of my power.” After the assassination of Cardinal Bethune, he and his brother the earl of Angus were the first to vote that the castle of St. Andrews, in which those engaged in that act had taken refuge, should be besieged. He is said by Douglas in his Peerage to have been killed at the battle of Pinkie, 10th September 1547, but there is no evidence for this statement; and Godscroft says expressly that having been one of the “appointed to ride about among the soldiers, to encourage them and keep order, it was so much the easier for him to flee.”

He appears as one of the extraordinary lords of session in the sitting of that court of the 1st April 1549. He died before his brother, though the date of his death is not mentioned by the family historian.

By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of David Douglas of Pittendreich, he had David, seventh earl of Angus, James, earl of Morton, regent of Scotland, and two daughters.

George also had a son, George, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, outside his marriage. The son married Marioun Douglas heiress of Parkhead or Parkheid, and so became known as George Douglas of Parkhead and was later Provost of Edinburgh and keeper of Edinburgh Castle. His daughter by Lady Dundas, Elizabeth, married Smeton Richeson.  Margaret Douglas, who was born in Berwick, married a son of John Selby of Branxton 

Although he appears to be alive in 1549, some have him  as killed at the Battle of Pinkie, 1547, as above.

See also:
•  Douglas of Pittendreich family tree [ pdf]
•  Douglas family of Pittendreich