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The Character and Death of the 6th Earl of Douglas
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This page is an extract from Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland and of the Border Raids, Forays and Conflicts;
Author: John Parker Lawson
THE CHARACTER AND DEATH OF THE SIXTH EARL OF DOUGLAS
The period of the minority of James II. was full of the turbulence and anarchy which disfigure so many and large portions of the history of Scotland. The Islesmen made descents on the western mainland, and put multitudes of men and women, old persons and children, to the sword; the clans around Lochlomond spread devastation through many tracts upon the Lowland frontiers; some great families in Renfrewshire and Ayrshire committed assassinations, and threw all the communities around them into commotion; the border reivers and marauders made bold raids into England, and provoked fierce retaliations; and the very directors of the national affairs—including Crichton and Livingstone, two of the most powerful—had their own feuds, and became centres and sources of strife.
The contemporary Earl of Douglas possessed far more might of patrimony, position, and military retainership than any of the ringleaders of the general mischief, and in fact was almost a match for the throne; but, at the same time, was young and quite peaceable and orderly; yet was accused by enviers and enemies of cherishing unpatriotic and disloyal feelings—though on no better ground than that some of the distant retainers of his house took advantage of his youth and power to prosecute some rieving and roystering practices of their own; and he therefore seemed a very fit and princely subject to become the scapegoat of the disorders of the nation.
He was the sixth Earl of Douglas and the third Duke of Touraine. His father and grandfather had raised the family power to the most formidable height, and had won for it a lofty influence in France as well as at home. The young Earl was only fourteen years of age at his father’s death, and lived altogether only two years longer; yet displayed a nobleness of disposition and a loftiness of spirit which terrified his enviers and enemies. He was gentle, meek, and tractable, yet proud, aspiring, and kingly; and, while scorning to share in the cabals and animosities of the statesmen about the court, he scorned also to acknowledge their authority.
He maintained a great establishment—rode ever well accompanied when he appeared in public, kept several hundreds, or even nearly two thousand, mounted military retainers—conciliated many new followers by friendship and munificence—dubbed knights—preserved all his affairs in singularly good order—and exhibited throughout all his behaviour at once a spiritedness, a sagacity, and a prudence which were quite surprising in so young a man.
His enviers—particularly Chancellor Crichton and Sir Alexander Livingstone—dreaded to think how so magnificent a being might foil and crush them if spared to maturity, and they resolved to destroy him; and as they could not hope to overcome him by force, they cunningly devised a method to capture him by craft, and to kill him with some show of justice.
A convention of the estates had been convoked at Edinburgh to consider the distracted state of the country; and a letter was written to the Earl of Douglas, at the instigation of Livingstone, in the name of all the lords of parliament, stating that, out of regard to both himself and his progenitors, they wished much for his presence—that they could not conveniently get through their business without him and his friends—that if he had taken offence at anything, they would satisfy him so far as was possible—that whatever offensive things had been done by him or his friends against the peace of the country would be forgiven—that, in consideration of his ancestry and power and youth, they entertained hope of great services from him to the state—and that, as his progenitors had often by their arms and victories delivered the realm from anarchy and invasion, so they expected him also, in the present crisis of discord, to pacify and establish the country by his counsels and influence.
The young Earl was completely deceived by this missive—especially by the clause which told him that the Convention could not get on without him and his friends. He was too ingenuous to suspect the profound deception which was practised upon him; he did not dream that the inability of the Convention to do without him might be interpreted in a sense the very reverse of what the words naturally bore; and he likewise might be largely influenced both by an ambition to show off his vast consequence at court, and by the whispered desires of his chief followers to go in quest of state‑places and preferments.
Nor are all or perhaps many of the lords of parliament to be suspected of participation in the plot against him; for most were very probably the dupes of Livingstone and Crichton, and may be supposed to have given their assent to the missive in the conviction that all its statements were in perfect good faith.
The unsuspecting Earl, accompanied by his brother David, who must have been younger than himself, by his special counsellor Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, and by other friends, set out for Edinburgh, after having sent notice of his intention to do so; and the wily Crichton went out many miles to meet him, and invited him to go aside and pass a day or two in entertainments at his Castle of Crichton, situated about eleven miles south‑west of the metropolis.
The Chancellor here entertained the young Earl cheerfully and magnificently during two days, with every possible demonstration of respect and friendship; and so lovingly did he speak, so deferentially did he behave, so sumptuously did he honour his guest, and so anxious in everything did he seem to please and delight them, that some of Douglas’s retainers began to suspect his sincerity, and whispered to their young master admonitions to be on his guard.
“But to remove all suspicion, and the more to circumvent him,” says the Historian of the House of Douglas, “Crichton admonished him familiarly, that he would remember the royal dignity of his Prince, and his own duty towards him—that he would acknowledge him for his lord and sovereign… that he would abstain, and cause his men to abstain, from wronging the poor people… that he would be careful to keep the name of Douglas… from the foul blot of treason… that he would set himself to maintain justice… that penitency would be admitted and accepted as innocency.”
The young Earl, however, resolutely discredited all insinuations against his host’s good faith, and regarded the high hospitalities of Crichton Castle as a pledge of the cordial welcome which he should receive at Edinburgh; and he therefore resumed his journey in the highest spirits and with halcyon hopes.
“This noble youth and his brother and a few other principal friends,” says Godscroft, “on their arrival in Edinburgh, went directly to the Castle… and so came in the power of their deadly enemies and feigned friends. At the very instant comes the Governor… to play his part of the tragedy… they welcome him most courteously, set him to dinner with the King at the same table, feast him royally, entertain him cheerfully… At last, about the end of dinner, they compass him about with armed men, and cause present a bull’s head before him on the board.”
The bull’s head was in those days a token of death. The young Earl, offering to rise, was seized by armed men in the King’s presence, at the King’s table. Without process, without trial, without law, without crime proved, he was dragged out and executed. His brother David and Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld were executed with him, all three beheaded in the back court of the Castle that lies to the west.
The King, only ten years old, is said to have wept sorely and begged for their lives, but the Chancellor rebuked him sharply and declared that the executions were ordered “for the good of the realm.”
See also:
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A Narrative on the Origins and Nature of Lawson’s Historical
Tales
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Sources for this article include:
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland and of the Border Raids, Forays and Conflicts;
Author: John Parker Lawson
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