Douglas, Archibald, eighth earl of Angus and
fifth earl of Morton (c.1555–1588), magnate,
was the only son of David Douglas, seventh earl of Angus (c.1515–1557),
and Margaret Hamilton, daughter of John Hamilton of Samuelston, a natural
son of James Hamilton, first earl of Arran. He was only about two years
old when his father died, and in his early years his uncle
James Douglas, fourth earl
of Morton, supervised Angus's affairs. Since he was an infant this
would in any circumstance have been necessary, but the support of a
powerful figure like Morton was doubly important because of the bitter
legal wrangle which developed over his inheritance with Margaret, countess
of Lennox, the daughter of his great-uncle
Archibald Douglas, sixth earl of
Angus. This prolonged dispute was resolved only in May 1565 when the
countess, eager to obtain Morton's support for the wedding of her son Lord
Darnley to Mary, queen of Scots, renounced all her claims. A mutual
contract between the two parties confirmed Angus in his possession of
Tantallon Castle, one of the most
formidable strongholds in the lowlands, the regality of Bothwell, in
Lanarkshire, and ‘the Landis, lordschipps and baroneys of Abernethy,
Jedburgh Forest, Bonkle, Preston, Dryburgh and Selkirk’ (Fraser, 2.261).
He had established himself as a territorial magnate in central and
south-east Scotland.
Morton's influence is also evident in Angus's
education, which took place at St Andrews University under the tutelage of
the provost of New College, John Douglas,
a kinsman and protégé of his uncle, who subsequently became the first
protestant archbishop of St Andrews. While the future primate was no
radical, it is quite possible that Angus was influenced by Douglas's
tutoring, since he undoubtedly became a devout Calvinist, indeed, he was
unusual among the Scottish nobility of this period in the earnestness of
his religious observance. As head of one of the principal families in
Scotland, Angus played a leading role in a number of ceremonial occasions;
in spite of his youth he carried the crown at the state opening of
parliament in 1567 and again in 1571. But his career took off when Morton
became regent in November 1572. One of Angus's main responsibilities
during Morton's regency was to assist his uncle with the administration of
the borders, an area of Scotland with a long tradition of disorder and
unrest, where between 1573 and 1580 Angus held a number of appointments.
In 1573, for instance, he was appointed sheriff of Berwickshire, one of
the key administrative posts in the crown's possession while from July
1575 to February 1576 he was warden of Liddesdale, subsequently holding a
similar position on the west march between May 1577 and March 1578. But
his most important office, one placing him in overall control of the whole
region, was as lieutenant from July 1574 to March 1578. In that capacity
he took part in several judicial and military operations, notably Morton's
expedition to Lauder and Jedburgh in November 1576; on that occasion Angus
was personally in charge of the campaign against local lawbreakers.
Morton's deposition as regent in March 1578 spurred Angus, who had been
recently rewarded with the hereditary stewardship of Fife and the
captaincy of Falkland Palace, into considerable activity on his uncle's
behalf. Throughout the crisis he acted as the latter's spokesman and also
kept him in touch with developments at Stirling, where James VI's
parliament was bringing the regency to an end.
In summer 1578, with
Morton effecting a political comeback, his nephew also returned to play a
significant role in the new administration. In August 1578 Angus was put
in command of the forces which Morton had assembled against the league
raised against him by the disaffected earls of Argyll and Atholl. The
rival armies faced each other near Falkirk but Angus's military
capabilities were not on this occasion put to the test, since the parties
accepted a truce and signed a joint agreement ending hostilities. Angus
was also prominently involved in the vendetta pursued by Morton's
government against the Hamilton family in 1579, being one of the
commissioners appointed to enforce the measures prescribed against the
outlawed family.
Although Angus reputedly had some kind of
disagreement with Morton during 1580, he made strenuous efforts in support
of his uncle following the ex-regent's arrest on 31 December 1580, an
event at which Angus was present. Having abandoned plans to rescue Morton
on his way to incarceration in Dumbarton Castle prior to his trial, Angus
concentrated his energies into rallying noblemen sympathetic to his cause
and making appeals for assistance to Thomas Randolph, the English
ambassador, and Lord Hunsdon, the governor of Berwick. In the end nothing
significant came of these endeavours, but his activities did result in
March 1581 in the new administration of Lennox and Arran ordering him into
exile beyond the River Spey. Initially he ignored this decree, but when it
became obvious that his support was dwindling—a large number of border
lairds withdrew their allegiance by renouncing their bonds of manrent in
March—Angus reconsidered his position. Consequently, on 8 July 1581, six
days after his uncle's execution, Angus and his followers arrived at
Carlisle, to be taken under the protection of Henry, Lord Scrope, governor
of that city and warden of the English west march, and as such an official
with whom he had been on amicable terms since his own years as a border
administrator.
Morton's downfall signalled the start of a
bewildering series of fluctuations in Angus's fortunes, the outcome of the
complex religious struggle within Scotland in these years. The immediate
consequence was a period of exile in England. By summer 1581 Angus had
moved to London, where he relayed his version of events to Elizabeth and
her ministers. He also, apparently, became sufficiently friendly with Sir
Philip Sidney for the latter to show him a manuscript copy of his
Arcadia. Then in August 1582 the
ultra-protestant faction to which Angus was aligned, headed by William
Ruthven, earl of Gowrie, seized James VI and ousted the Lennox–Arran
administration. Although the Ruthven raiders survived in power for less
than a year, during their short ascendancy Angus received a royal pardon
and was reconciled with the young king. He also persuaded James to order
the removal of Morton's head from the Edinburgh tolbooth so that it be ‘layed
in a fyne cloath, convayed honorabilie and layed in the kist where his
bodie was buried’ (Calderwood, 3.692).
By summer 1583, following
James VI's escape from the control of the Ruthven faction and a comeback
by Arran and his supporters, Angus found himself in an awkward position.
Once again ordered to take himself beyond the Spey he spent the winter of
1583–4 in Elgin. However, his involvement in an unsuccessful coup by the
Ruthven party in April 1584 forced him to leave the country altogether and
return to England. There followed a year of frantic intrigue by Angus and
other Scottish exiles against Arran's regime. They were aided and abetted
in their plotting by Elizabeth's minister Sir Francis Walsingham and by
her Scottish ambassador, Sir Edward Wotton, both of whom had doubts of
Arran's political reliability in England's conflict with Spain. The
eventual upshot was that in October 1585 Elizabeth agreed to allow Angus
and his associates to return to Scotland to assist in the overthrow of
Arran. Their capture early in November of the town and castle of Stirling
signified that Arran had been ousted, just as the return of their estates
shortly afterwards to Angus, Mar, and the Hamiltons confirmed that Arran's
opponents were back in royal favour.
These events heralded another
upturn in Angus's career, and for the rest of his life (apart from an
interval early in 1587 when Arran made a brief recovery) he once again
played a significant role in the government of Scotland. Thus he was
prominent at traditional ceremonial events such as the opening of
parliament in July 1587 when he carried the royal sceptre. He was also
restored to his old position in the borders, being appointed lieutenant
and justiciar for the whole region on 2 November 1586. Moreover, he became
warden of the west march from around March 1587.
While he was
lieutenant, Angus took part in four judicial raids on the borders, during
which he held courts and dispensed justice over the length and breadth of
the region. In January 1587, for example, he held a court of justice at
Jedburgh at which he had sixteen offenders hanged and took pledges for
good behaviour from a number of others. In his last expedition, which took
place in May–June 1588 and was directed against the rebellious Maxwell
family, he accompanied James VI and the chancellor, John Maitland, into
south-west Scotland. Lord Maxwell himself was arrested and several of his
strongholds were captured.
Angus died on 4 August 1588 at Smeaton,
near Dalkeith. The latter had been one of the principal residences of his
uncle, whose lands and title Angus had inherited in July 1587, following
ratification in parliament. His body was buried at Abernethy (Perthshire),
a Douglas burgh of barony since 1459, although his heart was apparently
interred separately at Douglas (Lanarkshire), another family possession.
In all likelihood he died of tuberculosis, although Angus's biographer and
younger contemporary, David Hume of Godscroft, made some curious
references to sorcery and to the activities of a certain Agnes Sampson,
who would feature in the witchcraft trials conducted by James VI in 1591.
Angus married three times. His first wife was Mary Erskine, daughter of
the seventeenth earl of Mar, whom he married at Stirling on 13 June 1573.
She died less than two years later, on 3 May 1575, and Angus married, on
25 December following, Margaret Leslie, daughter of the fourth earl of
Rothes; he was divorced from her in 1587 because of her liaison with John
Graham, third earl of Montrose. Neither of these marriages produced
children. Immediately afterwards, on 29 July 1587, Angus took as his third
wife Jean (d. 1608×10), widow of Robert Douglas and daughter of
John Lyon, eighth Lord Glamis. Their daughter, Margaret, who died aged
fifteen, was born after her father's death. For want of a male heir
Angus's title was inherited by the nearest claimant, Sir William Douglas
of Glenbervie, great-grandson of the fifth earl.
Angus was held in
high regard by contemporary churchmen, especially those who shared his
ultra-protestant inclinations. Thus the presbyterian historian David
Calderwood was to declare that Angus was ‘more religious nor anie of his
predecessors, yea, nor anie of all the erlis in the countrie much beloved
of the godlie’ (Calderwood, 3.498). Archbishop John Spottiswoode, who
obviously did not share Calderwood's views on church polity, nevertheless
described Angus in glowing terms as
a nobleman in place and rank, so in worth and virtue, above other
subjects; of a comly personage, affable, and full of grace a lover of
justice, peaceable sober and given to all goodness and which crowned
all his virtues, truly pious. (History of the
Church, 2.371)
The diarist James Melville, too, was greatly impressed by Angus when he
met him in England in 1584.
This nobleman was felon weill myndit, godlie, devot, wyse and grave,
and by and besyde their comoun was given to reiding and privat prayer
and meditation and ordinarlie efter dinner and super haid an houres
and sum tyme mair nor twa houres, conference with me about all maters;
namely concerning our Kirk and comoun-weill, what war the abusses
thairof and whow they might be amendit. (Autobiography
and Diary, 185)
But all these eulogies notwithstanding, Angus's impact on the affairs of
the kirk was marginal, and it is as a border administrator that he
principally deserves recognition. In a letter written in August 1577 Lord
Scrope, the English warden and Angus's border colleague, wrote, ‘I am well
assured of your lordschippis honourable meaning and intention to
reformacion of such disorders’ (Fraser, 4.232). His words underline the
high regard in which Angus was held, and show that his contribution to the
difficult task of taming the borders was a substantial one.
- Birth: 1555
- Death: 4 AUG 1588
Father: David
(7th Earl of Angus) Douglas b: ABT. 1515
Mother: Margaret
Hamilton
Marriage 1 Jean (of Glamis) Lyon
Marriage 2 Mary Erskine
Marriage 3 Margaret Leslie
See also: • The Earls of Morton
• The
Marriage of John, Lord Maxwell, and Elizabeth Douglas
•
The Marian civil war in Scotland (1568–1573)
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