Harrower Family Tree » James Douglas (± 1286-1330)

Personal data James Douglas 

Source 1
  • Alternative names: 'The Black’ Douglas (also known as / alias), ‘The Good’ Sir James (also known as / alias)
  • He was born about 1286 in Douglas, Lanarkshire, Scotland.Source 1
  • Title: Sir James DouglasSource 1
  • Profession: in the year 1330 Scottish Guerrilla Leader and General, during the Wars of Scottish Independence.Source 1
  • (Individual fact) in the year 1318: With Sir Thomas Randolph, took Berwick uponTweed from the English.Source 2
  • (Individual fact) in the year 1319: With Sir Thomas Randolph, ravished northern England.Source 2
  • (Individual fact) in the year 1322: With Sir Thomas Randolph, defeated an English army at Byland, Yorkshire.Source 2
  • He died on August 25, 1330 in Teba, Malaga, Andalucia, Spain.Source 1
  • He is buried in St Bride's Kirk, Douglas, Lanarkshire, Scotland.Source 1
  • A child of William Le Hardi Douglas and Elizabeth Stewart

Household of James Douglas

(1) He is married to See marriage notes from Douglas 01 Stirnet.

They got marriedSource 3

Some web sites identify James's wife as Agnes Randolph, dau of Thomas, Earl of Moray, but we have not seen this supported by convincing evidence and, noting that the earldom of Moray was later obtained by a son of Agnes's younger sister, we follow TSP in believing that "The identity of his wife has not been ascertained."

Child(ren):

  1. William Douglas  ????-1333


(2) He had a relationship with Unknown Mother.


Child(ren):

  1. Archibald Douglas  ± 1330-1400 


Notes about James Douglas

James ‘the Black’ Douglas
Born c. 1286 Douglas, Lanarkshire, Kingdom of Scotland
Died 25 August 1330 (aged 43-44) Teba, Emirate of Granada
Occupation Scottish Guerrilla Leader and General, during the Wars of Scottish Independence
Spouse(s) unknown

Children
William IV, Lord of Douglas
Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Douglas

Parents
William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas
Elizabeth Stewart (daughter of Alexander, High Steward of Scotland)

He was the eldest son of Sir William Douglas, known as "le Hardi" or "the bold", who had been the first noble supporter of William Wallace (the elder Douglas died circa 1298, a prisoner in the Tower of London).[2] His mother was Elizabeth Stewart, the daughter of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland, who died circa 1287 or early 1288. His father remarried in late 1288 so Douglas' birth had to be prior to that; however, the destruction of records in Scotland makes an exact date or even year impossible to pinpoint.

Douglas was sent to France for safety in the early days of the Wars of Independence, and was educated in Paris. There he met William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, who took him as a squire. He returned to Scotland with Lamberton. His lands had been seized and awarded to Robert Clifford. Lamberton presented him at the occupying English court to petition for the return of his land shortly after the capture of Stirling Castle in 1304, but when Edward I of England heard whose son he was he grew angry and Douglas was forced to depart.[3]

James ‘the Black’ Douglas: The Most Feared Knight in Scottish History (See Web Links)
David C. Weinczock, The Castle Hunter
In my humble and entirely professional opinion, James Douglas could beat William Wallace in a fight. Before you scream ‘heresy!’, let me bolster that admittedly extraordinary claim with equally extraordinary evidence.

James Douglas, Robert Bruce’s indomitable captain during the Wars of Independence, is overshadowed only by Bruce himself as the most compelling of Scotland’s fourteenth century personalities. Douglas is something of a Janus figure in the history of the British Isles. While many Scots came to know him as ‘the Good’ Sir James for his championing of Bruce’s cause, it was his mastery of fear as a tool of war, his personal ferocity in battle, and his brutally effective raiding style that caused people in the north of England, often subject to said raids, to bestow on him his most enduring moniker - ‘the Black’ Douglas. His bogeyman reputation amongst the English was such that, while he was still very much alive and active, mothers in Northumbria and Cumbria supposedly sang to their children:

Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye,
Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye,
The Black Douglas shall not get ye…

A chilling folk story has this refrain followed by a calloused hand grasping the mother’s shoulder, and a growling voice uttering, “don’t be too sure of that…”

Douglas led and partook in many dramatic episodes in the period between joining Bruce in 1306 and his death in 1330, including the crafty and brutal retaking of his ancestral home, Douglas Castle, in the incident know as the ‘Douglas Larder’ in 1307, and the capture of the nigh-impregnable Roxburgh Castle in the Borders by surprise attack in February 1314. Douglas fought at Bannockburn, though he was not a commander of his own schiltron spear formation as depicted in John Barbour’s The Bruce, but rather acted as a sub-commander connected to King Robert’s own force.

In the aftermath of the battle, Douglas pursued the defeated Edward II to Dunbar, with Barbour suggesting he did so with a force outnumbered by the king’s five to one and following so close that the English king’s company dared not even stop to ‘make water’. This and other actions brought James the reputation of being “mair fell [fierce] than was ony [only] devill in hell”. His battle record speaks for itself: according to Barbour, Douglas gained fifty-seven victories to thirteen losses, and those losses were more tactical withdrawals than true routes.

The final and perhaps most famous episode of all came with the death of King Robert Bruce on June 7th, 1329. Upon his death Bruce assembled his captains and tasked Douglas to bear his heart on crusade to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, possibly as posthumous repentance for Bruce’s murder of his rival for the crown, John Comyn, at the High Kirk in Dumfries in 1306 and the suffering he inflicted on his own people with his ‘scorched earth’ tactics. Jerusalem, however, was firmly in the hands of the Mamluk Sultanate, but an alternative cause was readily available in the form of King Alfonso XI of Castile’s crusade against the Moors in Andalusia, Spain. Douglas and a hand-picked group of Scots knights bade their homeland farewell, promising to return Bruce’s heart to Melrose Abbey upon their victory and with Douglas bearing the heart in a cask around his neck.

A battle ensued in the shadow of the Castillo de la Estrella, the ‘Castle of the Stars’, near the village of Teba between Seville and the Moorish power base in Granada. Somewhere a command was misinterpreted, causing the Scots to charge the Moorish lines unaided. Inevitably they were surrounded. His end clearly upon him, the story as recounted by Sir Walter Scott goes that Douglas removed the cask from around his neck, declared aloud “Pass first in fight…as thou wert wont to do, and Douglas will follow thee, or die”, then charged the enemy one last time.

When the surviving Scots searched the field following the crusader’s victory, they found Douglas dead, hewed with “five deep wounds” and with the cask unharmed underneath his broken body. Douglas’ flesh was boiled from his bones as per the usual custom for long-distance transport of noble remains and his heart was removed, now a companion to that of Bruce, while his skeleton was interred in St Bride's Kirk in his home village of Douglas. It is this episode that gives us the term ‘Brave heart’, used by Scott, but never in reference to Wallace - the true Braveheart is Robert Bruce, and his steadfast friend the Black Douglas.

The specifics vary depending on whom you ask. No mention of such last words is made in The Bruce, the main source for later writers, and so it seems that it was, like so much else, a product of Scott’s imagination in Tales of a Grandfather. After all, if ever there was the Romantic equivalent of a ‘Midas touch’, Scott possessed it. What we know is that Douglas fought and died at Teba bearing Bruce’s heart; the specifics, as with all great stories, are perhaps best left to the imagination.

In case you’re still not convinced, it seems Douglas was not only a master of the arts of war but the art of the one-line comeback. During the Andalusian Crusade an English knight approached Douglas when the Scot first arrived at the crusader’s court. By that time Douglas’ reputation had haunted the imaginations of warriors throughout Europe, and none could believe that this master of terror was the man before them - he didn’t even have facial scars, and everyone knows a true knight bears his scars like a badge of honour. The English knight remarked as such, and Douglas - retaining total poise and, I like to imagine, taking a bit out of an apple like a cartoon villain - retorted, “Praise God, I always had strong hands to protect my head.” Basically, anyone who got close enough to give him a scar didn’t survive to tell the tale.

Another was a snap back at the Pope himself. While laying siege to Berwick, then a part of Scotland but occupied by an English garrison, Douglas received a letter from the Pope. It demanded that he cease shedding the blood of fellow Christians and abandon the siege at once, on pain of excommunication and eternal damnation. Douglas, not one for half measures or heavenly ideals, made his intent clear. His reply was as simple as it was defiant: “I would rather enter Berwick than paradise.”
Much of my time at the National Trust for Scotland's Bannockburn Heritage Centre was spent telling the story of James Douglas and the heroes of the Wars of Independence.

Regardless of whether or not you now agree with the bold claim I began this article with, what is undisputed is that James Douglas is one of the finest soldiers, tacticians and individual warriors that Scotland has ever produced. His name may be eclipsed by those of Wallace and Bruce, but in his own time he stood on the pantheon right alongside those giants of history. Some stake their claim to history through fame and fortune, but James Douglas cared not for these trappings; his was the way of the sword, aimed always at the terror-stricken hearts of his people’s enemies.

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Timeline James Douglas

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    Sources

    1. Web Site Information, James ‘the Black’ Douglas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Douglas,_Lord_of_Douglas See also http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/history/Places/Churches&Abbeys/stbride%27s_church.htm
      He was the eldest son of Sir William Douglas, known as "le Hardi" or "the bold", who had been the first noble supporter of William Wallace (the elder Douglas died circa 1298, a prisoner in the Tower of London).[2] His mother was Elizabeth Stewart, the daughter of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland, who died circa 1287 or early 1288. His father remarried in late 1288 so Douglas' birth had to be prior to that; however, the destruction of records in Scotland makes an exact date or even year impossible to pinpoint.

      Douglas was sent to France for safety in the early days of the Wars of Independence, and was educated in Paris. There he met William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, who took him as a squire. He returned to Scotland with Lamberton. His lands had been seized and awarded to Robert Clifford. Lamberton presented him at the occupying English court to petition for the return of his land shortly after the capture of Stirling Castle in 1304, but when Edward I of England heard whose son he was he grew angry and Douglas was forced to depart.[3]
      For Douglas, who now faced life as a landless outcast on the fringes of feudal society, the return of his ancestral estates was to become an overriding obsession, inevitably impacting on his political allegiances. In John Barbour's rhyming chronicle, The Brus, as much a paean to the young knight as the hero king........
    2. Web Site Information, Thomas Randolph, 1st earl of Moray Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Thomas Randolph, 1st earl of Moray". Encyclopedia Britannica, 16 Jul. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Randolph-1st-Earl-of-Moray. Accessed 4 July 2022.
      Thomas Randolph, 1st earl of Moray, (died July 20, 1332, Musselburgh, Midlothian, Scot.), nephew of King Robert I the Bruce of Scotland and a leading military commander in Robert’s successful struggle to gain independence from English rule; later he was regent for Robert’s young son and successor, David II (reigned 1329-71).

      Randolph was the son of one of Robert’s sisters. When Robert revolted against the English and claimed the Scottish throne (1306), Randolph joined the insurgency, but he was soon thereafter taken prisoner at the Battle of Methven. He did homage to King Edward I of England and fought in the English army against Robert until captured by the Scottish commander Sir James Douglas in 1308. Submitting to Robert, Randolph quickly became a trusted commander and adviser. Robert made him Earl of Moray in 1312 or 1314. By a brilliant tactical maneuver Moray captured Edinburgh Castle from the English in March 1314, and three months later he distinguished himself in the spectacular Scottish victory over Edward II of England at Bannockburn.

      With Douglas, Moray took Berwick-uponTweed from the English (1318), ravaged northern England (1319), and defeated an English army at Byland, Yorkshire (1322). In 1323 he persuaded Pope John XXII to recognize Robert’s right to the Scottish throne. Five years later he played a major role in negotiating the treaty by which England recognized Robert as king of Scots. Robert died in June 1329, and Randolph was regent for David II until his death.
    3. Web Site Information, Stirnet.com 'Douglas 01' https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/dd/douglas01.php
      ‘Douglas01' Index links to: Lead / Letter
      Families covered: Douglas of Douglas, Douglas of Nithsdale, Douglas of Tourraine

      William of Douglas (a 1177)
      1.Sir Archibald of Douglas and Hermiston (d c1240)
      m. Margaret Crawford (dau of Sir John Crawford of Crawfordjohn)
      A.Sir William of Douglas (b c1200, d by 10.1274)
      m. Constance of Batail
      Some sources show William (le Hardi) Douglas as son rather than grandson of Sir Archibald.
      i.Hugh Douglas
      ii.Sir William, Lord of Douglas ("le Hardi", a 1256, d 1298)
      m1. Elizabeth Stewart (d by 1289, dau of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward)
      Some sources suggest that Sir James's mother was by his father's second marriage rather than his first marriage.
      a.Sir James Douglas, Lord of Douglas ("the Good Sir James", d 25.08.1330) §D
      Some web sites identify James's wife as Agnes Randolph, dau of Thomas, Earl of Moray, but we have not seen this supported by convincing evidence and, noting that the earldom of Moray was later obtained by a son of Agnes's younger sister, we follow TSP in believing that "The identity of his wife has not been ascertained."
      m. ??
      (1)William Douglas (d Halidon Hill, 19.07.1333)
      (2)daughter possibly of this generation, of this marriage
      m. James de Tuedi or Tweedie of Drumelzier (a 1351)
      partner unknown
      (3)Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Douglas ("the Grim", d 24.12.1400)
      m. (c07.1362) Johanna Moray (d c1407, dau of Sir Maurice Moray, 3rd of Drumsagard, Earl of Strathearn)
      (A)Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas, Duke of Tourraine (b c1372, d Verneuil 17.08.1424)
      m. Margaret Stewart (dau of John Stewart, King Robert III of Scots)
      (i)Archibald Douglas, Earl of Wigtown, 5th Earl of Douglas, 2nd Duke of Tourraine, 1st Count of Longueville (b c1390, d 26.06.1438)
      m1.Matilda Lindsay (dau of David Lindsay, 1st Earl of Crawford)
      This marriage reported in BE1883 but not in TSP.
      m2. (c1424) Euphemia Graham (d c10.1468, dau of Sir Patrick Graham of Strathearn)
      (a)William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas, 3rd Duke of Tourraine, 2nd Count of Longueville (b c1425, dsp 24.11.1440)
      m. (before 1440) Jean (or Janet) Lindsay (dau of David Lindsay, 3rd Earl of Crawford)
      (b)David Douglas (d 24.11.1440)
      (c)Margaret Douglas ("the Fair Maid of Galloway")--
      m1. William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas (d 1451) @1@ below
      m2. (div 1459) James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas (d 15.04.1488) @2@ below
      m3. (1460) Sir John Stewart of Balveny, 1st Earl of Atholl (b c1440, d 19.09.1512)
      --
      (ii)Sir James Douglas (d Verneuil 17.08.1424)
      (iii)Elizabeth Douglas (d c1451)--
      m1. (1413) John Stewart, Earl of Buchan (Constable of France)
      m2. Thomas Stewart, younger of Mar and Garioch (dvpsp by 1435)
      m3. William Sinclair, 3rd Earl of Orkney, Earl of Caithness, Chancellor (d before 03.1482)
      --
      Not mentioned by TSP but also described as a daughter of Earl Archibald was the following Mary. We would normally presume that she had just been missed out by TSP but it has been pointed out to us (DMcA, 06.04.05) that a grandaughter of King Robert would probably have been well recorded. It is possible that either she was illegitimate or that she has been misidentified.
      (iv)Mary Douglas (b c1390) "elder legitimate daughter"?--
      m. (1406-7) Sir Simon Glendonwyn of Glendonwyn (b c1378, d 1437)
      --
      (B)James Douglas, Earl of Avondale, 7th Earl of Douglas (d 24.03.1443)
      m. (before 07.03.1425-6) Beatrix Sinclair (dau of Henry Sinclair, 2nd Earl of Orkney)
      (i)William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas (b c1425, dsp 1451)
      m. Margaret Douglas (dau of Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas) @1@ above
      (ii)James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas (d 15.04.1488)
      m1. (div 1459) Margaret Douglas (dau of Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas) @2@ above
      m2. Anne Holland (dau of John Holland, Duke of Exeter)
      (iii)Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray (d 01.05.1455)
      m. Elizabeth (Mary/Agnes) Dunbar (dau of James Dunbar, 4th Earl of Moray)
      (a)James Douglas (d before 18.03.1493-4)
      (b)Janet Douglas
      (iv)Hugh Douglas, Earl of Ormond
      (v)Sir John Douglas of Balveny
      (vi)Henry Douglas
      (vii)Margaret Douglas
      m. Henry Douglas of Borg ('of Dalkeith')
      (viii)Beatrix Douglas (a 1490)--
      m1. William Hay, 1st Earl of Erroll, Constable of Scotland (d c 10.1462)
      --
      m2. (1463) Arthur Forbes
      (ix)Janet Douglas--
      m. Robert Fleming of Biggar and Cumbernauld, 1st Lord (d 1491)
      --
      (x)Elizabeth Douglas--
      m. William Wallace of Craigie
      --
      (C)Mary (or Marjory) Douglas (d c1420)--
      m1. (02.1399-1400) David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay (d 1402)
      m2. (1403) Sir Walter Haliburton, younger of Haliburton, High Treasurer, 0th/1st Lord (d before 10.05.1447)
      --
      (D)Catherine Douglas possibly of this generation, of this marriage--
      m. William de Vaux of Dirleton (d 1392)
      --
      (E)Helen Douglas probably of this generation, of this marriage--
      m. (before 1400) Sir George de Lawedre or Lauder of Haltoun
      --
      partner unknown
      (F)William Douglas, Lord of Nithsdale
      m. (c1387) Egidia Stewart (dau of Robert Stewart, King Robert II of Scots)
      (i)Sir William Douglas of Nithsdale (d c1420)
      (ii)Egidia Douglas--
      m1. Henry Sinclair, 2nd Earl of Orkney (b c1375, d 1422)
      --
      m2. Sir Alexander Stewart (d 25.05.1425)
      m2. (before 28.01.1289) Eleanor de Louvaine (d after 03.05.1326, dau of Matthew de Louvaine)
      b.Hugh Douglas (d by 1347)
      c.Sir Archibald Douglas of Liddesdale, Cavers, etc. (Regent of Scotland, b c1297, d Halidon Hill 19.07.1333)
      m. Beatrix de Lindsay (d before 1352, dau of Sir Alexander de Lindsay of Crawford)
      (1)John Douglas of Westcalder (d by 1341)
      (2)William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas, Earl of Mar (d 1384)
      m. Margaret, Countess of Mar (b c1360, d by 19.10.1393, dau of Donald, 8th Earl of Mar)
      (A)James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas, Earl of Mar (dspls Otterburn 08.1388)
      m. Isabel Stewart (dau of Robert Stewart, King Robert II of Scots)
      (i)son (d infant)
      partner(s) unknown
      (ii)Sir William Douglas, 1st of Drumlanrig (d 1427)
      --
      m. Elizabeth Stewart (dau of Sir Robert Stewart of Durrisdeer)--
      (iii)Archibald Douglas, 1st of Cavers (d c 1435)
      --
      m. Margaret--
      (iv)Eleanor Douglas--
      m. Sir William Fraser of Cowie, 2nd of Philorth (d before 1441)
      --
      (v)Joan Douglas
      A Joan of this generation is normally shown as wife of William de Dacre, 5th Lord. We provisionally show his wife as Mary of a generation earlier (see below).
      (B)Isabella Douglas, Countess of Mar (dsp 1408)
      m1. (by 1388) Sir Malcolm Drummond (d 1402)
      m2. (1404) Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar (dspl 1435)
      p. Margaret Stewart, Countess of Angus (d 1417)
      (C)George Douglas, 1st Earl of Angus (d c1403)
      --
      m. (1397) Mary Stewart (dau of John Stewart, King Robert III of Scots)--
      partner(s) unknown
      (D)Margaret Douglas (a 1404)
      m. Thomas Johnson
      (E)Mary Douglas possibly of this family, of this generation
      m. William de Dacre, 5th Lord of Dacre and Multon (b 1357, d c1403)
      (3)Eleanor Douglas--
      Because she was known for much of her life as the Countess of Carrick, Eleanor is often described as though she was a Bruce. However, she was Countess not through inheritance but through her first marriage.
      m1. Alexander Bruce, Earl of Carrick (d Halidon Hill 19.07.1333)
      --
      m2. (c1349) Sir James of Sandilands (d 1358)
      --
      m3. (by 1364) Sir William Towers of Dalry
      m4. (by 1368) Sir Duncan Wallace of Sundrum (d c1376)--
      m5. (1376, sp) Sir Patrick de Hepburn, lord of Hailes (b c1321, d before 1406)
      iii.Willelma Douglas--
      m1. William de Galbraithe (of Buthernock) (d by 1296)--
      m2. Gilbert 'of Buthernock' ## see here ##--
      B.Sir Andrew Douglas of Hermiston (d c1277)--
      2.+other issue - Bruce (d 1222, Bishop of Moray), Alexander (a 1237), Henry (a 1239), Hugh (a 1230), Freskin (d by 09.1232), Margaret

      Main source(s): TSP (Douglas), BE1883 (Douglas of Douglas)
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    Historical events

    Day of death August 25, 1330

    

    Same birth/death day

    Source: Wikipedia


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    The Harrower Family Tree publication was prepared by .contact the author
    When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin:
    Colin Harrower, "Harrower Family Tree", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/harrower-family-tree/I4789.php : accessed May 4, 2025), "James Douglas (± 1286-1330)".