The Black Douglases

by Clem Fandango

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The name of the Black  Douglases conjures up the traditional image of Medieval Scottish nobility. On the one hand, proud and lawless barons, holding court in the setting of massive and forbidding strongholds like Threave in Galloway or Bothwell on the Clyde; on the other, defenders of Scotland from the attacks of the English enemy, the heroes of Border ballads and epic poems.

  The Black Douglases were the greatest and most notorious of the lords of late Medieval Scotland. 

 The foundations of the family's power were in the service given by James Douglas - 'the good Sir James' to his lord, Robert Bruce. James's struggle to recover his ancestral lands at Douglas in Lanarkshire from English occupation mirrored the efforts of Robert to secure the Scottish throne.

 James also founded Douglas dominance in the Borders by making his base in the uplands of Ettrick Forest, used as a refuge by Wallace before him.

  In 1314 James emerged from this stronghold to storm Roxburgh Castle and, after Bannockburn, acted as one of Bruce's key lieutenants.  For the next 14 years Douglas led Scottish armies south to devastate northern England, winning the name of Black Douglas and a diabolic reputation from his foes - both for his swarthy colouring and for his ruthless skill in war.

To the English as far south as York he was the 'bogeyman'. Worried mothers soothed their frightened children to sleep with the rhyme:

 Hush ye, hush ye,

 little pet ye;

 hush ye, hush ye,

 dinnae fret ye.

 The Black Douglas will na get ye. 

 Douglas was rewarded by King Robert with lands and lordships along the border. So defence of his lands and of Scotland became one and the same.

  Later generations of the family  celebrated James's deeds and his links with Scotland's hero-king.  They took special pride in James's final exploit his death in battle with the Muslims of Spain, while carrying the dead king's heart on crusade.

  The blood-red heart of Bruce was adopted by the Douglases as the central badge of the family and the relationship was exploited to claim a special status within the Scottish nobility. 

 While James had been a loyal servant of the Bruce, after his death in 1330 his successors had to defend his lands and legacy from English attack without royal leadership. 

 Lords like William Douglas, the knight of Liddesdale, and James's nephew, the first Earl of Douglas, defended southern Scotland against the enemy and persuaded or forced Scots to follow their banner.  They increasingly resented any challenge to their rule from Scottish rivals and even Robert's son, David II, found himself opposed by Douglas magnates. 

 James Douglas himself left a bastard son as heir to his reputation, if not his lands. This son was known as Archibald the Grim or Black Archibald, and was a giant who bore a massive sword in battle.

  When David II returned to Scotland in 1357, Archibald renewed his father's loyalty to the house of Bruce, winning control of Galloway for the king and receiving it as his private lordship.

After the death of his cousin James, second Earl of Douglas - in battle at Otterburn in 1388, Archibald moved in, against the wishes of the government, to secure the lands of his father. 

 Under Archibald the Grim and his son, another Archibald, the power of the Black Douglas earls reached its height.

  The Stewart kings and guardians were hampered by family disputes and, on several occasions, the Douglases held the political balance in the kingdom.  In return for their backing these earls demanded support in the south against the English and their neighbours.

  By the second decade of the 15th century Archibald, the fourth Earl of Douglas, was by far the greatest magnate south of the Forth, running a huge network of lands and followers from Edinburgh Castle.  Though he was consistently unsuccessful in battle, and was scarred by wounds that had cost him an eye and a testicle, Douglas still sought new wars and the profits they brought.

 By 1415 he was looking beyond Scotland to France. The Douglases had a long history of friendship with the French, serving their kings, championing the Auld Alliance and attracting continental knights to their households.

  After their defeat by Henry V of England at Agincourt, the French faced military conquest. In these circumstances, they looked to Scotland and to Douglas for help. So in 1419 a Scottish army led by Douglas's son and son-in-law sailed for the continent and two years later scored the first victory of the war, defeating the English at Baugé and killing Henry V's brother.  This success encouraged Earl Archibald to take a hand in the war at a price.

 In 1424 he brought a fresh army to France, and in return received the Duchy of Touraine in the Loire valley, one of the richest provinces of France. He was the only duke in late Medieval France who was neither royal nor French, a fact which indicates the importance of his support.

But the prospect of a Franco- Scottish empire lasted for only a  summer. It died with Douglas and most of his army in their bloody defeat by the English at Verneuil in August, 1424.

  Verneuil also marked the beginning of the decline of Black Douglas fortunes in Scotland.  A few months before the battle Scotland received a new ruler when James I assumed power. James was a different kind of king from his father and grandfather.  He was not prepared to accept the power and independence of magnates like the Black Douglases.

 Though he was the king's nephew, Archibald, the new fifth Earl of Douglas, was forced to play a very different role to his father avoiding conflict, accepting the loss of power to the king, and facing continued royal mistrust. Douglas even suffered brief imprisonment at his uncle's hands in 1431, but unlike many Scottish lords, he survived James's reign. 

 When the king was murdered in 1437 Douglas was chosen to head the government for the young royal son, James II. But hopes for a full recovery of the family's power were short-lived.

 Two years later, the earl himself died of plague, leaving his lands and title to his teenage son.  In the troubled years after 1439 Black Douglas fortunes were shaped by the bloated figure of James the Gross. The younger son of Archibald the Grim, James had a career of service to his family which obscured his own ambition.  In 1440 his great nephews - William, the sixth Earl and his brother David - were invited to a banquet at Edinburgh Castle. After the meal they were arrested, hastily tried for treason, dragged outside and beheaded.

During the last course a black bull's head was placed before the earl as a sign of his impending death. The shameful episode, known as the 'Black Dinner', allowed James the Gross to become seventh Earl of Douglas.

 James completed his take- over by forcing his victims' sister Margaret, 'the fair maid of Galloway' - to marry his son, William. -  When William succeeded his father as earl in 1443 he sought a complete restoration of Douglas power. Defeating his enemies in a civil war, he claimed a special status for the house of Douglas based on his ancestors' defence of Scotland. 

 When the earl went on pilgrimage to Rome in 1450, he was feted in the courts of Western Europe. Such displays of aristocratic power were no longer acceptable to the king or to many of Douglas's peers. While the earl was abroad, the young king, James II, launched an attack on his lands. But this attempt to reduce Douglases' standing backfired...

  When he came home, the earl forced James to back down. The king's fury at this humiliation boiled over in early 1452. During a meeting between the two men at Stirling, James drew his dagger and stabbed the earl, leaving him to be butchered by the royal servants.

  Renewed civil war followed, in which the murdered earl's brothers sought to bring down their king. Though a peace was patched up, Scotland had become too small for both King James and the Black Douglases.

 In 1455 a third conflict erupted...and this time the king's preparations gave him total victory. He systematically destroyed the major Douglas strongholds. Last to fall was the island fortress of Threave, which was besieged by the royal army for two months before it was taken.

  The Black Douglas family were killed or driven into exile. They had risen in war with England; then the needs of Scottish kings and Borders people for leaders and protectors formed the basis of their power.  By the 1400s the earls of Douglas could raise armies of thousands from their followers.

 Their castles survive across Scotland as potent reminders of their strength as warlords.  However, by the middle of the 15th century, the era of major war with England, had passed.  For kings like James I and his son, the power wielded by the Black Douglases was a challenge to their own rule.

 For lesser families, such as the Scotts and Maxwells, the Douglas earls were a barrier to their own rise.  The result was the downfall of the Black Douglas dynasty.  Though they still claimed to be the loyal servants of Scotland's kings, by the end they acted more like the crown's rivals.

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