THE HAMILTON- DOUGL A SES.
THE lad of nineteen who is now Duke of Hamilton, Premier Noble of Scotland, Duke in Great Britain, Duke in France, Prince in Germany, and inheritor of other titles which would occupy twenty lines of this paper, represents two great historical houses. He is heir male of the House of Douglas, the most historic of all Scotch families, the House celebrated at an interval of cen- turies in "Chevy Chase " and in the " Lady of the Lake," and heir general of the House of Hamilton, which in the reign of Mary of Guise was recognized by Parliament as standing next in succession to the Queen. A descent of this kind needs little aid from the peerage-makers, and the family historian relies on the genealogy which he can prove without calling on his imagination for an origin better suited to the career of the race. The Douglases sprang neither from the rocks, nor from the sea foam, nor from a ruffian who'happened to be present in a great battle and aided in a great spoliation. It is established by evidence which would convince a Committee of Privilege or Dr. Lushington that the founder of the race was one Theobald , a Fleming, of obscure or unknown antecedents, who just as the Plantagenets ascended the English throne turned up in Kelso, received for services unrecorded a grant of land from Arnold, Abbot of Kelso, and finding that the stream at the bottom of the strath was called Du-glas—the Black Water—said stream rising among peat bogs—used that for his designation. Theobald of the Du-glas, owner of Du-glas Dale, is the ancestor of the Earls of Angus and Morton, Dukes of Douglas, and all other titles borne by this Howe which stud Scotch history like the hard bosses on a shield. The Hamiltons, again, are the children of Gilbert de Hameldun, a personage with some courage, much energy, and no cash, whose son Sir Walter, an English adventurer, became acquainted with the Earl of Carrick, followed him as Robert Bruce the Pretender, and was invested by him as King Robert of Scotland with Machane in Clydesdale, the Barony of Kinnineil in the Sherjffdom of Edinburgh, and the Barony of Cadyow, now Hamiltod, in the Sheriffdom of Lanark. Any earlier or other origin of these families may be dismissed as either flattery or romance.
THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS.
We will first give some general account of the history of the House of Douglas, to which the present Hamilton-Douglases more strictly belong, though their landed possessions are derived from the Hamiltons, and this order will be found historically more con- venient. Theobald the Fleming, as we have said, obtained lands on Dunelglas from Pollenel to Duglas Water." His son William formally assumed the name of " DIIGLAS," and appears as a witness to several deeds between 1170 and 1190,—one of them executed by another Fleming settled in Clydesdale. His second son, Bryce, became Bishop of Moray in 1203, and after providing for his four younger brothers, who followed him into Moray, died in 1222. The eldest brother, Archenbald, succeeded to the paternal estate of Duglas, greatly increased his property by marriage with Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir John de Crawford, of Crawford, and died before the 18th July, 1240. His second son, Andrew, is the ancestor of the Earls of Morton. William, elder brother of Andrew de Douglas, was one of the party of King Henry III. in Scotland in 1255; and in 1259 contracted his eldest son Hugh to Marjory, sister of Hugh, Lord Abernethy, who agreed to give with the bride twenty carucates of land in the town of Glencorse, William de Douglas granting to his daughter-in-law a like portion in the fee of Douglas, and making over to his son the lauds of Glaspen, Hart- wood, Kennox, Carnacoup, &c. William de Douglas was knighted, and is mentioned with other Scottish knights as assuming the Cross and sailing for Palestine ; but on the 3rd February, 1270, he obtained, "in consideration of his counsel, aid, and patron age," from Henry, Abbot of Kelso, the Abbot's lands of Pollenel, the boundary of the original grant in Douglasdale. He is said to have died in 1276, and his eldest son Hugh (who contributed to the defeat of the Danes at Largs in 1263) was also dead, without issue, before 1288, and was succeeded by his brother William—called the " Hardy " or " Longle,g "—the first of the family who makes any great figure in history. His career, however, though adventurous in the extreme, was of a very chequered complexion. He was knighted and was present at the Parliament at Brigham (July 18, 1290), when the young Queen of Scotland was betrothed to Prince Edward. The next year, on the 5th of July, he swore fealty to King Edward in the chapel of Thurston. He had seized his mother's dower lands, and she had to appeal to the Courts against him, and the Justiciaries of Scotland having decided in her favour and awarded her 140 marks as damages, Sir William seized the King's officers who went to the castle of Douglas to execute the sentence. For this he was imprisoned in 1293, but we find him three years afterwards holding the castle of Berwick as Governor against King Edward, who was besieging it. The town was taken by storm on the 30th of March, thirty brave Fleming merchants perishing in the defence of one stronghold ; but Sir William Douglas, less reso- lute than his ancestor's countrymen, surrendered the castle the same day after a short defence, and again took an oath of fealty to King Edward. But he joined Sir William Wallace in 1297, took several castles, and contributed to the earlier successes of the patriots. Hereupon his estates were laid waste with fire and sword by the celebrated Robert Bruce, and his wife and children carried off, Bruce himself almost immediately afterwards joining the insurgents ! Henry Percy, however, marching against them with an overpowering force, Bruce, Douglas, the Steward of Scot- land, and others made submission to him in July, 1297, and were forgiven on certain conditions, which finding themselves unable to fulfil Douglas and the Bishop of Glasgow voluntarily surrendered themselves to the English. Douglas, however, was present as an assenting party at the election of Wallace as Governor of Scotland in the following year, but after Edward's successes was sent to England and died in the castle of York in 1302. He was twice married, but left children only by his first wife. His second he obtained by an act of open violence characteristic of the times. She was the widow of a younger son of Ferrero, Earl of Derby, and had come into Scotland in 1288 to look after her dower lands in that country, when she was seized by William Douglas and carried off against her will. Complaint was made to
King Edward, who sent his precept to the sheriff of Northumber- land to seize all the goods and chattels of Douglas in his bailiwick, but in 1291 in consideration of 100/. fine that King granted to Douglas the benefit of the lady's marriage. By his first marriage Sir William Douglas left three sons. The eldest, James, is the "Good Lord James' of Scotch history, and the favourite compan- ion of Robert Bruce, who after that monarch's death set out with his heart for the Holy Land, but engaging against the Saracens in Spain was killed in battle on the 25th August, 1330. He left only two natural sons, one of them, Sir William Douglas, "the Knight of Liddesdale," after performing the most gallant feats against the English, and being taken prisoner with King David at the battle of Neville's Cross (October 20, 1346), was released from his captivity in 1352 on entering into a bond with King Edward III., by which he bound himself to England against all others and promised access into Scotland at any time through his estates. Returning to Scotland, he was slain while hunting in Ettrick Forest in August, 1353, by order of his cousin, Sir William Douglas, in revenge for his murder of Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie in 1342. The other natural son of the "Good Lord James," Archibald Douglas, "the Grim," received the lordship of Galloway, and eventually became third Earl of Douglas, to the exclusion of the grandson of his father's youngest brother Archibald.
Hugh, the next brother of the "Good Lord James," who succeeded him in the family estates, seems to have been incapable in mind or body, and resigned them formally in May, 1342, to his nephew Wil- liam, son of his younger brother Archibald. This last-named Archi- bald had obtained from King Robert Bruce charters of the lands of Rattray, Ormond, and Cairnglass in Buchan, in 1324, of the lands of Marbottil and of Kirkanders in the county of Dumfries, which belonged to Sir John Wake and to &tills. He supported Robert Bruce's infant heir against the Baliols, invaded England in 1333 with 3,000 men, and in the same year became Regent of Scotland. on Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell being taken prisoner by the English. After a vain attempt to throw succour into Berwick, be- sieged by Edward III., Archibald Douglas invaded Northumberland,. but giving battle imprudently to the English posted on a rising ground at Halidon, with a marshy hollow in their front, to the west of Berwick, July 19, 1333, he was totally defeated, and being himself mortally wounded died almost immediately a prisoner in the hands of his enemies. He married a Comyn of Badenoch, niece- of John Baliol, and was succeeded in his property by his son William,. who as we have seen nine years afterwards became possessed of the family estates of his uncle. Educated in France, William Douglas returned home in 1316, expelled the English from Douglasdale, and conquered Ettrick Forest and Teviotdale. He entered in 1352- on negotiations with Edward III. for the release of David II., and the next year assassinated his godfather, the Knight of Liddesdale, who was his rival in the leadership of the Douglas family, and was suspected by him of having seduced the affections of his wife. Having succeeded in deluding Edward III. by pretended negotia- tions for submission until his own preparations were complete, Douglas baffled all the efforts of that King by his Parthian, system of tactics, and Edward returned hastily and in some disorder to avoid being starved to death in a country swarming with Douglas guerillas, and swept of all provisions by the orders of the crafty Scot, leaving only the memory of his bootless campaign as- the "Burnt Candlemas." Douglas was less successful in his next project. Concluding a truce with the English Warden of the Marches under the pretext of going on a pilgrimage, he offered his services in France against the Black Prince, and accompanied by a. numerous body of Scottish knights and gentlemen entered the service of King John just in time to share in the disastrous defeat of Poictiers on the 19th September, 1356. Douglas was wounded and carried off the field by his remaining companion; and aban- doning French wars returned to Scotland. He was present in the- Parliament at Edinburgh, September 26, 1357, as Lord Douglas, and was one of the eight great lords who were to be hostages on the release of King David. By a charter of David II. (4th Feb- ruary, 1357) he was created Earl of Douglas, and in the secret treaty between Edward HI. and King David in 1363 was a stipulation for the restoration of the Earl of Douglas to the estates in England to which his father or uncle had a right, or a proper equivalent for them. King David heaped honours- on the Earl. He gave him the lands of Strathurd, Logy, Strabran, and the forest of Brenan in Perthshire ; the office of Sheriff of Lanark ; and the lands of Balmorth in Fife, 14th January, 1369. On the death of King David in February, 1371, Douglas at first hesitated to acknowledge the succession of the Steward of Scotland, but became reconciled to it on the condition
of the new monarch's daughter being given in marriage to his son. He had charters under the new reign from Robert IL of the forest of Cabrach in Banffshire (9th January, 1374), and of the lands of Tabycultry on the resignation of Thomas Earl of Marr, and entered into an obligation (26th April, 1373) to resign his privilege of a port at North Berwick granted him by Robert IL, if the same should be found detrimental to the King, or to the com- munity in general, or to the borough in particular. In 1378 he defeated Musgrave, the English Governor of Berwick, and in 1380 entered England, " lifted " from the forest of Inglewood 40,000 domestic animals, burnt Penrith, and returned home safely. In 1384 he reduced Teviotdale, over which the English had kept some hold ever since the battle when King David was taken prisoner, and in the same year this distinguished soldier, the third founder we might call him of the fortunes of the Douglases, died and was buried at Melrose.
His two marriages added to the honours of his family. His first wife was the Lady Margaret Marr, daughter of David, twelfth Earl, and sister and heiress of Thomas, thirteenth Earl of Marr,—and in her right he was Earl of Marr. By this lady, who was divorced from him, he had a son James, who succeeded as second Earl of Douglas and Marr,—and a daughter, Lady Isabel, who eventually succeeded her brother in the Earldom of Marr, and resigned the Earldom in 1404 in favour of her second husband, Alexander Stewart, natural son of Alexander, Earl of Buchan. The second wife of William, first Earl of Douglas, was the Lady Margaret Stewart, Countess of Angus. By her he had a son, George, Earl of Angus, who was about thirty years younger than his half-brother James. The latter had in May, 1380, a Royal grant of 200 marks sterling annually out of the great customs and King's rents of Haddington, till he or his heirs should be by the King or his heirs hereditarily infeft in 200 marks of land in a competent place. The year of his succession to his father as Earl of Douglas and M.arr he received 7,500 livres Tournois as his share of the subsidy distributed by Jean de Vienne, Admiral of France, among the Scotch nobles. He is said to have been the inveterate enemy of the English, and his contests with Harry Hotspur are well known in history and song. His career terminated at Otterburn, August 19, 1388, when "a dead man won a field."
"Raise again my banner l" exclaimed the dying Earl of Douglas, "and shout Douglas !' but tell neither friend nor foe bow it fares with me, for my enemies would exult and my friends be dis- consolate ;" or, as the ballad improves the speech,— " Fight on, my merry men, all ; For why—my life is at an end, Lord Percy sees my fall."
The Scots reach ed home victorious with their distinguished prisoners Henry Percy and his brother Ralph, but with trailing arms and de- jected faces around the body of their brave leader, who was borne in the midst of their ranks. By his marriage with Robert IL's daughter Earl James left no children, but he had two natural sons, one of whom, William Douglas, is the ancestor of the House of QUEENS- BERRY. On the death of Earl James without legitimate male issue, the Earldom of Douglas devolved, as we have said, on Archibald Douglas, Lord of Galloway, natural son of the "Good Lord James," in virtue of a special entail executed before the birth of George, the Earl's half-brother. The Douglases therefore split into two branches—the Earls of Douglas and the Earls of Angus. Of the former line (although not direct ancestors of the present family of Hamilton-Douglas) we must give some brief account, as their history includes the most brilliant epoch of the Douglases. Archibald, "the Grim," who thus became third Earl of Douglas, received from David II. (13th September, 1368) the princely grant of the Lordship of Galloway (i. e , Wigtonshire and Kirkcudbright), with all the Royal lands between the water of Creth (Cree) and the water of Nyth (i. e., the Stewartry of Kirkcud- bright), and on the 8th of February, 1372, Thomas Fleming, Earl of Wigton, was obliged to dispose of the county of Wigton also to Archibald Douglas, retaining, however, the title of Earl of Wigton. Archibald Douglas accompanied his relative William, first Earl of Douglas, to France, and was with him at Poictiers, and in most of his subsequent exploits against the English ; and Froissart immor- talizes him as "Archbishop Douglas, a worthy knight, and much dreaded by his enemies." He married Joan, daughter and heiress of Thomas Moray, Lord of BOTH WELL, and with her obtained that • " But I hae dream'd a dreary dre.tm Ayont the isle o' Skye; I saw a dead man win a Add, An I wig that mu wu L" barony, and assumed the three stars, the cognizance of the Morays, into his arms. He succeeded in marrying his daughter by this alliance, the Lady Marjory, in February, 1400, to Prince David, the young, gallant, but reckless and dissipated Duke of Rothsay, the heir to the throne of Scotland. The umbrage given to Dunbar, Earl of March, whose daughter was postponed to that of Douglas, led to his renunciation of his fealty to King Robert III. and his junction with the new English King, Henry IV., and the Pereys in attempts to reduce Scotland to vassalage, while Douglas seized his stronghold, Dunbar Castle, and aided the Duke of Rothsay in defending Edinburgh Castle against King Henry, when the latter conducted the last (and unsuccessful) per- sonal expedition of a King of England into Scotland. As long as Douglas and Trail Bishop of St. Andrew's lived and remained at the Queen of Scotland's side as her advisers, their united influence kept Rothsay within bounds and checked the ambitious designs of the Duke of Albany, but their death nearly about the same time, in 1401 paved the way for the ruin of Rothsay and the usurpation of Albany. It was now said commonly through the land, says the chronicler Forduu, that the glory and the honesty of Scot- land were buried with those three noble persons. The Earl of Douglas was succeeded by his eldest son, also Archibald, fourth Earl, married to the Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Robert III., and one of the bravest knights and most unlucky com- manders in history. He it is who is immortalized by Shakespeare in his " Henry IV." Incensed at the neglect of his sister by Rothsay he took part against that Prince, and a remission under the Great Seal was granted to him along with Albany after the death of the Prince as full as if they had actually murdered the heir- apparent, whose death was said to have been occasioned by Divine Providence, and not otherwise. After some success against Percy in an invasion of Scotland during his father's lifetime, the fourth Earl of Douglas suffered a disastrous defeat from Hotspur at the battle of Homildon, September 14, 1402 (four years after the pardon for the Prince's death), and was taken prisoner. Released by the Percies the next year, when they rebelled against King Henry, he shared in their defeat at the battle of Shrewsbury, and after having felled King Henry to the ground during the fight was again taken prisoner. In 1407 he was allowed to return to Scotland on ransom. On the resignation of the lordship of Annandale by the Dunbars in 1409, he had a grant of it to him and his heirs male, in default to the Earl of March and his heirs male. After several enterprises in Flanders and England, Henry V. in 1421 managed to enlist him in his service in France with 200 horse and the same number of infantry fora yearly sum of 2001., but on the death of Henry the next year the Dauphin Charles persuaded him, through the Earl of Buchan, to exchange the English service for that of France. He had as a reward on the 19th of April, 1424, a gift to him and the heirs male of his body of the Duchy of Touraine, with the appointment of Lieutenant- General of the French forces. But on the 17th of August following his ill-luck returned—this time fatally—and he fell with most of the Scotch auxiliaries at the battle of Verneuil in Normandy. His son Archibald, filth Earl of Douglas and second Duke of Touraine, had in his father's lifetime the title of Earl of Wigton. He had enlisted with the Earl of Buchan on the French side, and obtained the county of Longueville while his father still adhered to the English, but was fortunately absent in Scotland from indis- position in the fatal year 1424. He was one of those employed to negotiate the release of King James L, and returned with him to Scotland the same year. He was accused along with the Duke of Albany in 1425, but afterwards sat as one of his jury. He suffered a short imprisonment afterwards on suspicion of underhand dealings with England, but on the death of King James was elected on the Council of Regency, and in 1438 was Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. He died of a fever the next year. His second wife, by whom alone he had issue, was Lady Euphemia Graham, grand- daughter of David, Earl of Strathem, son of Robert II. This lady married subsequently James, first Lord Hamilton, the first link between two families that were afterwards to become amalgamated. William, Earl Douglas, eldest son by her, succeeded as sixth Earl and third Duke of Touraine. The power of the Douglases was now enormous, the heirs of the Flemish adventurer completely outshining their kings. Besides Galloway, Annandale, and other extensive territories in Scotland, they had the Duchy of Touraine and county of Longueville in France—which together yielded as large a revenue as that of the Kings of Scotland—and the jealousy between the Stewards and the Douglases, which had never quite ceased from the time when the former ascended the throne of Scotland, now came to a crisis.
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