Clan Douglas

History

The Douglases take their name from Douglas in Lanarkshire, where Douglas Castle was the centre of their lordship. The first of the name on record is William de Duglas, who witnessed a charter of the Bishop of Glasgow in the later twelfth century. Where he came from is not known. One tradition links the family to a Flemish settler granted land on the Douglas Water in 1147. It remains a tradition, not a proven descent.

The family's rise began with Sir James Douglas, 'the Good Sir James', one of Robert the Bruce's closest lieutenants. He took Roxburgh Castle from its English garrison and fought at Bannockburn in 1314. After Bruce died, Douglas set out to carry the king's heart on crusade. He was killed fighting the Moors at Teba in Spain in 1330. Bruce rewarded the family's service with the royal forest of Selkirk and other lands across the south of Scotland.

In 1358 William Douglas was made 1st Earl of Douglas. He built Tantallon Castle on the East Lothian coast. Archibald 'the Grim', a son of the Good Sir James, became Lord of Galloway and built Threave Castle in 1369. He died in 1400 as 3rd Earl and one of the most powerful men in southern Scotland. The 2nd Earl had been killed in 1388 at Otterburn, in the moment of a Scottish victory. In the 1380s the family divided into two lines: the Black Douglases, Earls of Douglas, and the Red Douglases, Earls of Angus.

The power of the Black Douglases alarmed the Stewart kings. On 24 November 1440 the 6th Earl, aged sixteen, and his younger brother were invited to dine with the young James II at Edinburgh Castle. They were seized and beheaded after a trial that was no more than a show. The episode is remembered as the Black Dinner. In 1452 James II himself stabbed the 8th Earl at Stirling. Three years later the 9th Earl's forces were beaten at Arkinholm by a royal army led by his Red Douglas kinsman, the Earl of Angus. Threave surrendered after a two-month siege, and the Black Douglas estates were forfeited.

The Red Douglases carried on at Tantallon. They often clashed with the Crown: James IV besieged the castle in 1491 and James V in 1528. Cromwell's guns wrecked it in 1651. The head of the house became Marquess of Douglas in 1633 and Duke of Douglas in 1703. The Duke died in 1761 without an heir and the dukedom died with him. His estates were fought over in the long lawsuit known as the Douglas Cause. His older titles passed to the Dukes of Hamilton.

That inheritance explains the clan's position today. The Duke of Hamilton is the heir male of the house of Douglas, but his surname is Douglas-Hamilton. The Lord Lyon will recognise as chief only someone who bears the single name Douglas. So the clan has no chief and is described as armigerous. The Clan Douglas Society notes that only a future chief could settle the clan's list of septs.