THE HAMILTON-DOUGLASES.—(SECOND PERIOD.) MHERE is little need to account for
the antagonism between the Stewarts and the Douglases. The Douglases, if they did not aim at the throne, did aim at independence, and the violent character of the family, a character maintained for ages, would have made them hateful to any monarch, and did make them most hateful to a House which, though brave in battle, seems always to have lacked something of true manliness. William, the sixth and young Earl of Douglas, provoked the resentment of the Court by his ostentatious display of his feudal, or rather royal magni- ficence. He had a constant train of 1,000 horse, created knight., and held courts in imitation of parliaments. Crichton, the Chancellor, managed to entrap him and his brother David into the castle of Edinburgh, where after being entertained they were brought to a hasty trial, and beheaded on the 24th November, 1440. With them expired the Dukedom of Touraine, while the Earldom of Douglas devolved on their great-uncle James, second son of the third Earl, who succeeded as seventh Earl Douglas. He was called "James the Gross," and is described as "a peaceable man." This nobleman had married Lady Beatrix Sinclair, daughter of Henry Earl of Orkney, had obtained very large grants in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire to him and his wife, besides the castle and barony of Abercorn, and was created Earl of Avendale and Lord of Balveny, with a grant of the lands of Glencpdtan in Peebleashire. He died on the 24th March, 1443, and was succeeded by his eldest son William, eighth Earl of Douglas, who married his cousin Lady Margaret Douglas, called the Fair Maid of Galloway, daughter of Archibald, fifth Earl of Douglas. Obtaining the favour of King Janus IL, he was placed at the head of his Council. He at once displaced the Chancellor Crichton, whose estates were de- clared forfeited as those of a rebel in a Parliament in 1445. Crichton, however, defended himself in Edinburgh Castle till he made terms with Dciuglas for the restitution of his honours and property on condition of joining his party. The Earl was now appointed Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom in 1448, twice defeated superior bodies of English who had invaded Scotland, and in return ravaged England as far as Newcastle. His terri- torial power was swollen by fresh grants—forfeitures by the Livingstons and Dundases in the counties of Linlithgow, Lanark, and Berwick, besides lands, lordships, and regalities in the counties of Dumfries, Iladdington, Roxburgh, Aberdeen, Peebles, Ayr, &c., —his possessions altogether forming almost a compact principality stretching from the south of Perthshire to the Irish Sea, and compris- ing nearly the whole south-western portion of Scotland, besides out- lying possessions in other parts and the estates of the kindred branch of Angus. But fortune was now to desert the family. After the marriage of the King in 1419 their influence began to decline. The Earl finding this to be the case absented himself on an expedition to the jubilee at Rome, in 1450, with a train of six knights, fourteen gentlemen, and eighty attendants. During his absence his retainers behaved in such an outrageous manner that Douglas Castle was destroyed by the King's orders. On returning at first Douglas made submission to the King, but afterwards again openly- defied the King's justice and Royal authority, attempted to assassinate Crichton, and hanged John Berries in defiance of the King's express orders. He also entered into a con- federacy with the Earls of Crawford and Ross, and at length forced on his vassals an engagement of attendance and aid even nail st the Sovereign himself. One of them refusing to do this was carried prisoner to Douglas Castle, and when Sir Patrick Gray, uncle of the imprisoned man and Captain of the King's Guard, came with a Royal mandate for his release, Douglas entertained him at dinner, had the prisoner meanwhile beheaded, and then leading Sir Patrick to the spot told him he had come too late for the head, but there was the body of his sister's son. In February, 1452, the Earl was persuaded to meet the Court at Stirling Castle on a safe conduct under the Great Seal. King James called upon him to renounce his illegal compact with Crawford and Ross. Douglas refused. Violent words led to an outburst of Royal passion, in which the King exclaimed with an oath, "If you will not break this league I shall !" and at tbbed Douglas, Sir Patrick Gray seconding this with a blow from his battle-axe which proved mortal.
William Douglas was succeeded as ninth Earl by his brother James,-who married his brother's widow, the Fair Maid of Galloway, a Papal dispensation being obtained on the ground of the impotency of the late Earl. After rising in rebellion to avenge his brother's death, on the 28th of August, 1452, he submitted, and with Lord Hamilton entered into a solemn engagement of good conduct and fidelity for the future. But afterwards entering into secret and trea- sonable communications with the Duke of York in the commence- ment of the Wars of the Roses, and refusing King James's sum- mons to appear before him, Douglas and Hamilton rose in open re- bellion against the King of Scotland, and with the assistance of money from the Duke of York raised 40,000 men, with which they advanced in the autumn of 1454 to relieve Abercorn Castle, besieged by James. The King, driven to extremities, at last by an appeal and promise of pardon managed to raise an equal number of men, and the two
armies faced each other near the Carron river. But Bishop Ken- nedy managed to shake the fidelity of Hamilton by a secret mes- sage offering him pardon and reward if he would desert Douglas. A difference of opinion as to giving battle to the Royal forces enabled Hamilton to act on this offer. Douglas said to him with contempt, "If you are tired you may depart when you please." Hamilton instantly went over to the King, and Douglas's army falling into disorder broke up, and the Earl found himself a help- less fugitive. He lurked in Annandale till the spring of 1455, when he passed into England. His brothers after a short struggle were routed ; one fell in the action, another was taken and executed, the third fled into England. Douglas and Strathaven Castles were taken by the King and demolished, and in a Parliament which met in June, 1455, the forfeiture of this branch of the Douglases was formally decreed. The exiled Earl remained in England under the protection and support of Edward IV. and Richard III. till 1484, when with the exiled Duke of Albany, having 500 horse and some infantry, he re-entered Scotland and advanced to Loch- maben on the 22nd of July. But the neighbouring gentry raising forces attacked Douglas and made him a prisoner. He was brought into the Royal presence—Jatnes III. was now King—but turned his back on his Sovereign. The King sentenced him to become a monk in Lindores Abbey. Douglas, now old and unwieldy, muttered, "He who may no better be must be a monk,"—and he died accordingly a monk on the 15th April, 1488. His wife, the Fair Maid of Galloway, on his forfeiture in 1455, repaired to King James, declared she had been forced into these ungodly nuptials against her will, was received into his favour and remarried by him to his half-brother John, Earl of Athole, the King giving her the lordship of Balveny, forfeited by the youngest of the brothers Douglas. She had by this last marriage two daughters, who carried the estate into the families of Gordon and Forbes. Thus fell for ever the greatest branch of the House of Douglas.
We now return to George Douglas, the son of William first Earl of Douglas by his second wife, who was disinherited of the Douglas Earldom and estates, but succeeded to his mother's Earldom of Angus (by Royal grant) in 1389, and was confirmed by Robert
-whose daughter he had married, in the possession of all his lands within the Sheriffdom of Forfar [Angus], the baronies of Abernethy in Perthshire and of Bonhill in Berwickshire in a free regality with confirmation of a grant to him by James Sandilands of the lands of Cavers, with the Sheriffdom and keepership of the castle of Box- burgh; the town, castle, and forest of Jedburgh ; the lands of Bonjedworth ; the lordship of Liddell ; "the hail toun of Sel- kirk ;" the service and suzerainty of the barony of Buttill, Drum- laruigg ; annuals furth of the burgh of Haddiogton ; the lands of Dounbouk, Calbrache, and Clenaghe in Banffshire ; and the suc- cession of the barony of Tillictdtrie in the county of Clack- mannau. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Homildon, 1402, and died the same year in England. By his Royal bride he had three children, the eldest of whom, William, suc- ceeded him as second Earl of Angus. He was ambassador to England in 1430, appointed Warden of the Middle Marches, 1433, and routed Sir Robert Ogle at Pepperden, September, 1435. Some of the incidents of this battle have been mixed up in the old ballads of "Chevy Chase" with the fight at Otterburn, and the name of the reigning Sovereign of Scotland at the time of the fight at Pepperden has been substituted for that of the Sovereign who governed Scotland when Hotspur and James Douglas had their celebrated encounter. William Earl of Angus died in 1437, and was succeeded by his only son James, third Earl of Angus, who married a daughter of James I., but died without issue, being succeeded by his uncle George, fourth Earl of Angus. This noble- man may in one sense be said to be a new founder of the House of Douglas, for in his person a large fragment of the great property of the other branch became amalgamated with the possessions and acquisitions of the Angus branch. He had charters from James IL of the great customs belonging to the King in the borough of North Berwick (April 13, 1452), and of the King's castle of Temptallon (Tantallon), with the lands thereto belonging, erected in June, 1452, into the barony of Temptallon, in which grant he is desig- nated as guardian of the Eastern Marches ; also the lordship of Eskdale (January 28, 1459). He was ambassador to England in 1451, and standing firmly by the King in the rebellion of his relative the Earl of Douglas (1451) he received in 1457, on that Earl's forfeiture, a grant of the lordship of Douglas and the appertinent domains. He was by the side 'of King James when the latter was killed at Roxburgh in 1460, and was wounded by a splinter of the cannon. Henry YI., during his exile in Scotland in 1461, engaged to give Angus for his assistance lands between the Trent and the Humber of the yearly value of 2,000 marks, and to
erect them into a dukedom. In 1462 he extricated a French garrison out of Alnwick in the face of King Edward IV. The Earl died on the 14th November in the same year, and was buried at Abernethy.
He was succeeded by his eldest son, Archibald, fifth Earl of Angus, usually called the Great Earl, who was only nine
years of age at his father's death. He was sworn Warden of the Eastern Marches, April, 1481. In him not only the war- like qualities but the antagonism of his kindred to the House of Stewart also revived. James III., the Prince who consigned the last Earl of Douglas to the cloister, had endeavoured, like his two immediate predecessors, to raise up a class of new men to counteract the old baronial power. The great nobles leagued themselves together against the favourites, and in July, 1482, assembled in the church of Lauder, to debate on the best way of getting rid of them. Here Lord Gray told the fable of the cat and the mice, the latter of whom were unanimous in voting that a bell should be put round their enemy's neck to warn them of her approach, but could not find any of their number to undertake the task of affixing the bell. Angus immediately exclaimed, "I shall bell the cat !" and thenceforth went by the name of "Archibald Bell-the-Cat." The King's favourites were seized and hanged over the bridge of Lauder, and the King was confined in the castle of Edinburgh till he should give security that he would not
avenge their deaths. In 1488 Angus engaged in the conspiracy against James III. in which that King's son joined, and which ended in the King's death. He was in high favour with the new monarch, James IV., who made him a Privy Councillor and High Chancellor of Scotland in 1493, which office he held for five years. The King, however, compelled him to exchange the lordship of Liddisdale and castle of Hermitage, firtit for the lands and castle of Kilmarnock, and then for the barony and castle of Bothwell, Dunsyar, &e., in Lanarkshire (part of the possessions of the other Douglas branch), and Kettlescheil in Berwickshire (June 14, 1492), on the resignation of Patrick, Earl of Bothwell, to whom Liddisdale was given. Angus had also charters of the lands of Crawford-Lindsay, with the castle and town of Crawford in Lan- arkshire, forfeited by David, Duke of Montrose (January 25, 1496), of the barony of Braidwood in the same county, May 8, 1497, and of the lordship of Kerymuir (August 1, 1510). He accompanied James on his expedition into England in 1513, but strongly advis- ing the King against abandoning his strong position to attack the Earl of Surrey, James replied, "Angus, if you are afraid, you may go home." The Earl, full of hurt pride, left the field with tears of indignation, consigning the command of his contingent to his two sons, who fell on the fatal field of Flodden with 200 gentlemen of their name. Angus himself retired to the priory of Whithorn in Galloway, where he passed the rest of his days in acts of charity and devotion, and died in 1514. This is the Douglas of Scott's poem of " Martnion."
His third son by his first wife was Gawin, the celebrated Bishop of Dunkeld, the translator of Virgil's "/Eneid "and the author of some original poetry. Archibald " Bell-the-Cat " is described as being "of stature tall and strong-made, his countenance full of majesty, and such as bred reverence in the beholders." He was succeeded by his grandson Archibald, sixth Earl of Angus, who on the 6th of August, 1514, married Margaret, Queen-Dowager of Scotland, and eldest sister of Henry VIII. of England. But Angus and the English alliance were both unpopular in Scotland. Lord Dacre, Henry VIII.'s sagacious Minister, describes Angus as childish, young, and attended by no wise counsellers, though his person and countenance were beautiful, and his accomplish- ments showy and attractive. The recent memory of Flodden rendered the English alliance hateful, and the idea of the two sons of the late King being both in the hands of the head of the House of Douglas was alarming to the whole nation. The Parlia- ment /mauled a very hostile attitude towards Angus, and the Duke of Albany, detained for some time in France by Louis XII., returned in 1515, being supported by most of the nobility and by Archbishop Beaton, and Angus and the Queen-Dowager took refuge in England. Eight days after her flight the Queen bore a daughter to Angus, the Lady 11 argaret Douglas, the future mother of the unfortunate Darnley,-. But in 151n Angus, finding no hopes of restoring his influence in Scotland in any other way, deserted the Queen-Dowager, who lay dan- gerously ill at Morpeth, and making terms with Albany returned to Scotland, while Margaret, who never forgave her husband's desertion, repaired to the English Court, and tried to persuade her brother to interfere with arms in her behalf, having already accused Albany of poisoning the younger of her two Royal sons. Next year Albany, finding his power tottering, returned to his estates in France, and Angus became one, and speedily the head, of a Council of Regency. The Queen-Dowager was allowed to return, but prohibited from exercising any power. The arrogance of Angus, however, com- bined with external circumstances to restore the influence of Albany, who, returning in November, 1521, was received by the Queen-Dowager with open arms and even a partiality which led to scandalous reports, while Angus fled to England. He negotiated with Albany through Queen Margaret, offering to consent to a divorce from her, and he was pardoned by Albany on condition of his retiring with his brother, Sir George Douglas, to France, which he did early in 1522. Here he devoted himself for two years to studies which so much improved his understanding that he became a much more formidable opponent to Albany than formerly. In 1524 the Scottish nobility, venal and factious, deserted Albany in his English war, and a disgraceful retreat led to the downfall of the Regent and his retirement once more to France. The Queen- Dowager, supported by the Earl of Arran, seized the power, de- clared the young King (now in his thirteenth year) of age, and pronounced a public declaration that Albany's regency was at an end. But the Queen-Dowager now conceived a new passion for Henry Stewart, a young man who was second son of Lord Evan- dale, and bestowed upon him the high office of Chancellor, thereby alienating effectually the affections of the Scottish nation, while she endeavoured to secure an alliance with France in imitation of Albany's policy. This led to a revival of the English party, and Angus returned from England, whither he had been invited by Henry VIII., with assurances of support from that King and a secret agreement with Wolsey. His first moderate measures showed his improved judgment, ' and as a consequence he secured the support of Beaton and the majority of the nobility, and resumed the management of affairs in February, 1525, the Queen-Dowager conditioning that he should not resume any matrimonial rights over her, and that the custody of the young King should be com- mitted to a Council of Peers acting in rotation. Margaret however, refused all overtures of reconciliation with her husband, and a divorce agreed to between them being procured, she married at once (March, 1526) Henry Stewart. Arran at- tempted to dispute the authority of Angus, but was speedily crushed and induced to acquiesce in the new state of things, and in June, 1526, Angus contrived to consolidate his power by depriving the Queen-Dowager and her partizans of even their nominal authority in the Council of Regency. The young King having just attained his legal majority, fourteen, Angus had the Estates assembled, he and Beaton having at that time by rotation the charge of the King's person, and declaring all the powers of the Regents at an end, assumed the entire custody of the King and the absolute exercise of the Government. He now threw off his mask of moderation. Within a few months there was not an office of trust and emolument in the kingdom which was not filled by the Douglases or by one of their creatures. Angus's uncle, son of the late Earl by his second marriage, Archi- bald Douglas of Kilspindie, called by the young King his "Gray Steil," was made High Treasurer, and placed in con- stant attendance on the monarch, and the latter soon began to sigh for deliverance from the yoke of the Douglases. These abused their recovered power to the utmost. The Border became a scene of rapine and anarchy, and justice was everywhere overridden and set at defiance by the vassals of this power- ful House, who appropriated also with unblushing effrontery and filled most discreditably all the ecclesiastical dignities. The young King secretly intrigued with several of the noblemen opposed to Angus, and two attempts were made without success by Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch and the Earl of Lennox to rescue him from the power of the Douglases. But Angus, always on the alert, crushed all opponents, and obtained for himself in August, 1527, the appointment of High Chancellor. In July, 1528, however, a third attempt to rescue the King was made, with better success, the Douglases being thrown off their guard by their previous good fortune. James and Beaton concocted the plot. Angus was in Lothian, Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie at Dundee. Sir George Douglas (Master of the Household and brother of the Earl) had been lured by Beaton to St. Andrew's on a visit of business. James persuaded his mother to exchange the castle of Stirling for the lordship of Methven, her new husband being made Lord Methven, and he persuaded Angus to allow him himself to re- pair to Falkland Palace, not far from St. Andrew's. Issuing orders to the Douglas who acted as captain of his guard to b3 ready for a hunt the next day, the King dismissed him for the night, disguised himself as a yeoman, stole down stairs, and galloped to Stirling Castle, where he was welcomed bythegovernor, and the next day find- ing himself surrounded by a host of nobles hostile to the Douglases, called a council and issued a proclamation that no lord or follower of the House of Douglas should dare to approach within six miles of the Court under pain of treason. Sir George Douglas, arriving at Falkland the evening of the King's flight, was told he had re- tired for the night, and remained satisfied until aroused by a loud knocking, and Carmichael the Bailie of Abernethy rushing in, asked if he had lately seen the King. "His Grace," said Douglas, "is yet in bed." "No, no !" cried Carmichael, "ye are all deceived and betrayed. The King has passed the bridge of Stirling." On discovering that James had actually escaped Douglas at first stood rooted to the ground in agony. He then summoned Angus and his uncle Douglas of Kilspindie, and the three set out for Stirling. But they were met by a herald with the Royal proclamation, who read it boldly in their very faces, and prohibited them from pro- ceeding. They hesitated for a moment, but then, overawed by the Royal name, turned their horses and rode back to Lin- lithgow. They had abused their power frightfully. Not only had they sacrificed the country to the interests of the Douglases, but to secure their power they had neglected the King's education, and fostered in him tendencies to ignoble pleasures which survived their own downfall and laid the foundation of most of the subsequent misfortunes of Scotland. The King, implacable as a Stewart only could be, never forgave his old tyrants. Their estates were declared forfeited in a Parliament held in September, 1528. Angus made a short resistance, and then fled into England, where he was treated as an honoured guest by King Henry, who admitted him into his Privy Council and gave him a pension of 1,000 marks, but he remained an exile in that country during the rest of the life of the implacable James, who swore that while he lived no Douglas should ever set foot again in Scotland. Archi- bald Douglas of Kilspindie, the King's old "Gray Steil," and the uncle of Angus, who had retired to France on the overthrow of the Douglas ascendancy, being at last weary of exile, returned and threw himself on his knees before James as he was coming back from hunting at Stirling, and implored permission to lead an obscure life in his native land. The King passed on without an answer, and rode fast up the steep hill towards the castle. Douglas kept up with the horse, but endea- voured in vain to obtain a glance from the inexorable King. He sat down exhausted at the gate, and asked for a draught of water, which was refused by the Royal attendants. The King is said to have rebuked them for this conduct, saying that but for his oath there was no man he would sooner employ than Kilspindie. Return- ing to France he died of a broken heart. Henry VIII. blamed his nephew's unrelenting demeanour, saying that "a King's face should give grace." This is the story of which Scott has made such excellent use in his poem of the "Lady of the Lake," though he has very skilfully softened down the harshness of James into a more pleasing and artistic denouement. The House of Douglas was once more entirely prostrate, its estates confiscated, and its heads exiles in foreign countries, but fortune had not finally deserted them.
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