Archibald Douglas

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1297

Notes:

Regent of Scotland.

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

By the time Archibald reached adulthood, his half-brother, Sir James Douglas, had emerged as a key adherent of Robert I and Archibald benefited from the connection. During the 1320s he received estates at Morebattle in Roxburghshire and Kirkandrews in Dumfriesshire, and was granted Crimond and Rattray in Aberdeenshire; in 1327 he participated in the invasion of England.

Archibald Douglas's importance grew in the aftermath of the death of Sir James Douglas in 1330, when he became tutor to the latter's son. He himself married Beatrice (d. after 1337), daughter of Alexander Lindsay of Crawford, and their infant daughter Eleanor married Alexander Bruce, earl of Carrick, extending Archibald's connections. The losses among the Bruce party at Dupplin Moor on 11 August 1332 increased Archibald's significance and he engineered Edward Balliol's defeat at Annan at the end of the year. This military role and the Douglas reputation made him a natural choice for guardian of Scotland after the capture of Sir Andrew Murray in April 1333. He used his authority to personal advantage, illegally occupying Liddesdale and other southern lands. When Edward III laid siege to Berwick in May, Archibald raised an army and devastated northern England. This tactic failed to force Edward's withdrawal and Douglas marched to relieve Berwick. On 19 July at Halidon Hill he was defeated and killed in the attempt. His sons, John and William Douglas, fled into exile, and Archibald was remembered as the Tyneman or loser for this defeat, but his career shows he recognized the link between war and lordship which would allow William to become first earl of Douglas.

Family/Spouse: Beatrice Lindsay. Beatrice (daughter of Alexander de Lindsay) was born about 1286; died before 6 Dec 1352. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. William de Douglas was born about 1320; died about May 1384 in Douglas, Lanarkshire, Scotland; was buried in Melrose Abbey, Roxburghshire, Scotland.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 24 Jan 1298, Tower of London, London, England
• Alternate death: 9 Nov 1298, Tower of London, London, England

Notes:

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

[...] William was still under age in 1256, but had begun to earn his sobriquet of le Hardi, 'the Tough', by 1267, when he was severely wounded defending his father's house. Before 1288, when he was a widower, he had married Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Stewart and sister of James Stewart, both stewards of Scotland. In that year, at Tranent in Haddingtonshire, he seized Eleanor de Lorain, the widow of William de Ferrars, who was in Scotland to take sasine of her third of Ferrars's sixth of the lordship of Galloway. Imprisoned in Leeds Castle (Kent) in 1290, Douglas fined for £100 on 18 February 1291 for the marriage of the lady. He was not named in the Great Cause of 1291–2, except that he swore fealty to Edward I as overlord, near Dunbar on 5 July 1291.

During these two years, when three men of John de Balliol came to Douglas Castle, William threw them into the dungeon, beheaded one, allowed another to die, and (most unwisely) let the third escape to John, now king. Douglas was fined for absence from John's first parliament in February 1293, but attended the August 1293 parliament to answer for his misdeeds. About 1292 he had refused to deliver her terce (or widow's portion) to his mother, and when she successfully took legal action against him, he seized the justiciar's officials who had come from Lanark to Douglas Castle to levy damages of 140 merks and to deliver sasine to the lady, detained them overnight, promised to release them, but still delayed doing so; his excuse was that he needed time to raise the money.

Whatever fine was imposed on this trouble-maker did not prevent his being placed in command of Berwick Castle in 1295 by the council set over King John to resist Edward I. When the town fell quickly to Edward I's invading army on 30 March 1296, the castle garrison of 200 surrendered for life, limb, lands, and goods, but Douglas was to be attached to Edward's household until the campaign ended. On 10 June 1296 he swore fealty to Edward, the fourth rebelling magnate to do so, and on 28 August his lands were restored. On 24 May 1297, along with other barons, he was told to hear and obey the king's agents in Scotland—doubtless to join Edward in service in France. The threat of that service may have been the factor which pushed Douglas, before the end of May, into joining the rising of William Wallace by attacking the king's justiciar at Scone. Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick (the future Robert I), to prove his loyalty to the king, ravaged Douglasdale and seized William's wife and children, but soon launched his own rebellion with James Stewart; William Douglas, possibly to save his family, joined them, both in rebelling and in their submission at Irvine on 7 July 1297.

Surrendered to the English by his allies, Douglas was taken to Berwick, and, 'very wild and very abusive', was imprisoned in Berwick Castle in irons. His gaoler begged the king 'let him not be freed, not for any profit or influence', and he was indeed transferred south for safe keeping after the English defeat at the battle of Stirling Bridge in September. From 13 October 1297 he was a prisoner in the Tower of London, attended by one valet, until he died there on 9 November 1298. The story in Barbour's Bruce that Edward I had him poisoned (after spending 4d. per day keeping him alive) is to be dismissed; but Edward certainly gave his estate of Douglas to Sir Robert Clifford, perhaps while he was still alive. It was a suitably dismal end of the road for a career of political expediency and physical violence.

William married Eleanor de Lovaine after 18 Feb 1290. Eleanor (daughter of Matthew de Lovaine and Helisant) died after 3 May 1326; was buried in Dunmow Priory, Little Dunmow, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft Jun 1305

Notes:

Also called Eleanor de Ferrers. After the death of her second husband William Douglas, she married William Bagot of Staffordshire, son of another William Bagot and his wife Isabel. This union had no issue.

Royal Ancestry (citation details below; volume 3, page 147) shows her as a daughter of Matthew de Lovaine of Little Easton and his wife Muriel. Based on chronology she seems much more likely to have been a daughter of this Matthew's son Matthew de Lovaine and his wife Helisant, as shown by Ravilious (citation details below).

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1269

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Called "Longleg" on account of his "tall and goodly stature."

William married Constance. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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Also called Custancia. According to The Scots Peerage (citation details below), she was "probably, though not certainly, of the family of Batil, from a member of which Sir William purchased a part of Fawdon in 1264. She survived him."

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Steward of Eye.

Matthew married Helisant before 1 Jun 1268. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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A "kinswomen of Henry III", according to Complete Peerage.

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Said to have married Margaret, elder daughter of Sir John Crawford of Crawfordjohn in Lanarkshire.

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Custodian of the honor of Eye.

Matthew married Muriel. Muriel died after 1274. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1214

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Abt 26 Apr 1226

Notes:

Custodian of the honor and castle of Eye, Suffolk. CP notes that he passed most of his life in England, and that toward the end of John's reign Godfrey was in arms against him but returned to allegiance in 1217.

Godfrey married Alice de Hastings about 1199. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

CP notes that "[h]er name is sometimes given as Delicia, probably a clerical error for Aelicia."

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1142
• Alternate death: 21 Aug 1190

Notes:

Count of Louvain. Duke of Lorraine. Duke of Brabant.

Godfrey married Imagina of Looz. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Imaine.

Robert married Maud de Flamville. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]