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Hugh "The Dull", Lord of Douglas
Hugh the Dull (1294 – d. after 1342 but before 1346) was Lord of Douglas, a
Scottish nobleman and cleric.
The second son of
William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas, William
Wallace's companion in arms, and Eleanor Ferrers. Hugh's elder brother was
Sir James Douglas, a hero of the Wars of
Independence, and his younger was Sir
Archibald Douglas, Guardian of the realm, and Scots commander at the
Battle of Halidon Hill.
Hugh of
Douglas is first heard of in 1296. Following the forfeiture of his father's
English possessions, the two-year-old Hugh was taken into custody at
Stebbing(1) in Essex, one of his father's manors.
Nothing further is
heard of him until 1325 when he appeared by proxy as a canon of
Glasgow
Cathedral during a meeting of Chapter. He appears to have been at this time
parish priest of Roxburgh.
The death of his nephew William, Lord of
Douglas, and brother Sir Archibald at Halidon Hill left the succession of
the patrimony of Douglas to Hugh. However, Scotland at this time was going
through the paroxysms of the Second War of Independence, and Edward III and
Edward Balliol controlled much of the south of the country. Balliol, having
paid homage for his kingdom to Edward, had also ceded to the Crown of
England in perpetuity, the Forests of Selkirk, Ettrick and Jedburgh, and the
shires of Roxburgh, Peebles, Dumfries, Linlithgow, Edinburgh and Haddington
- in essence, all the territories in which the Lord of Douglas held
property. Edward had re-appointed Douglasdale to Robert de Clifford, 3rd
Baron de Clifford, grandson of Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford,
who had been granted it by Edward I of England following his dissolution of
the Kingdom of Scots in 1296. Clifford never got to enjoy his new
properties, by way of stout resistance from the men of Douglas led by
William Douglas of Lothian.
Hugh the Dull had probably escaped to
France to the court of David II at Château Gaillard in 1337. Here it was
that his young nephews William Douglas, 1st
Earl of Douglas and Archibald Douglas,
3rd Earl of Douglas had sought refuge. Certainly by that date, Edward
III had appointed Andrew de Ormiston as prebend of Hugh's parish of
Roxburgh.
By 1337, William Douglas
of Lothian, using the same guerrilla tactics employed by Hugh's brother
James, had carved out a power base in the Borders and had styled himself
Lord of Liddesdale. It is assumed that the Lord of Douglas, no warrior, had
given executive control of the Douglas territories in the south to him. In
1342, Liddesdale, hankering after formal power, coerced the Lord of Douglas
into resigning the majority of the rest of the Douglas territories over to
him with all administrative powers pertaining. Hugh of Douglas resigned his
lordship in favour of his nephew William, still in France, making him Ward
of Liddesdale.
Douglas dedicated a church to St John the Baptist at
Crookboat, three miles south of Lanark, where the Douglas Water meets the
Clyde. Amongst other endowments to this establishment, he granted the priest
the right to the best cheese in every house on Douglas Moor. Hugh of Douglas
retired to his parish duties at Roxburgh. He died in relative obscurity at
some point before 1346; following the Battle of Durham that year, Edward III
controlled southern Scotland once more, and his parish was given to one
William de Emeldon.
Hugh, Lord of Douglas was a singular figure in
the warlike tribe to which he belonged. His perhaps unfair epithet has
probably more to do with his profession, which had him lead a more retiring
life than the rest of his family. Certainly there were no clerics amongst
the immediate families of the Chief of Douglas until the 1440s.For
further reading see Hugh
Douglas, Lord of Douglas, by William Fraser [pdf; 755kb]
Notes:
1. In the late 13th century the manor of
Woodham
Ferrers passed briefly to the Scottish noble house of Douglas by virtue
of the marriage of William Le Hardy, Lord of Douglas to Eleanor de Lovaine, the widow of William de Ferrers of Groby. Eleanor was a ward of
Edward I, and had her late husband's manors of Stebbing and Woodham
Ferrers made into a dowry for a future re-marriage.
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