DOUGLAS, ARCHIBALD,
surnamed BELL-THE-CAT, was the son of George, fifth Earl of Angus. The
elder branch of the noble house of Douglas, that was represented by the
holders of the earldom of that name, and the dukedom of Touraine in
France, had become so powerful, and so dangerous to the royal family, that
the Stuarts had tried by every plan, both of violence and policy, to
lessen its influence and circumscribe its power. One method which they
adopted was, to exalt the house of Angus, a younger branch of the family.
But this only superseded one evil by another, and the Earls of Angus soon
threatened to become as formidable to royal authority as the Earls of
Douglas had formerly been. Archibald, who succeeded to the earldom of
Angus when only six or seven years old, was born to an inheritance which
his father had greatly enlarged, so that when the young minor attained to
manhood, he was by far the most powerful nobleman in Scotland, and he was
commonly called the "Great Earl of Angus." He married, in 1468, Elizabeth
Boyd, daughter of Robert, Lord Boyd, the all-powerful and afterwards
disgraced minister of James III., by whom he had four sons and three
daughters.
During the earlier part of
the reign of James III., little of Angus is known, except that he was
distinguished for stature, strength, and courage, like most of his race,
as well as for great possessions and political influence. It was probably
during this reign that an event occurred, characteristic of the man and
the times. One day, at table, as the king was conversing with his
courtiers, of the men of Scotland who were pre-eminent in corporeal
endowments, all present, except Spence of Kilspindie, gave the preference
to the Earl of Angus. This man, in a luckless hour for himself, began to
speak disparagingly of the earl, in the true Scottish fashion of doubt,
saying, "It is true, if all be good that is up-come," insinuating that the
earl’s valour and courage might not be quite corresponding to his
appearance. Douglas heard of the taunt, and vowed a deadly revenge. One
day after this, while riding from Douglas to Tantallan, having sent his
train another way, the earl continued his journey, attended by a single
follower, each having a hawk on his wrist; and in the neighbourhood of the
town of Fala, they lighted at a brook, for the purpose of bathing their
birds. While thus employed, the laird of Kilspindie approached them,
travelling from the opposite direction. "Is not this Spence?" the earl
asked of his retainer; "the man who made question of my manhood? I will go
and give him a trial of it, that we may know which of us is the better
man." The servant would have dissuaded him from encountering one his
inferior in rank, and offered to go in his stead; but to this Angus
answered, "I see he hath one with him; do thou grapple with the attendant,
whilst I deal with the master." Having fastened their hawks, that they
might not fly away, and mounted their horses, the pair rode forward to
achieve this double duel. "Wherefore did you speak of me so
contemptuously, and doubt whether my courage was equal to my appearance?"
cried Angus, in a loud tone of challenge. Spence, thus confronted, and
brought to bay, would fain have excused himself, but the other would not
be so satisfied. "We are both tall fellows, and one of us must pay for
it," he exclaimed; while the other, warming in anger, replied, "If better
may not be, there is never an earl in Scotland but I will defend myself
against him, and kill him if I can, rather than that he should kill me."
They alighted from their horses, and commenced a desperate combat with
their two-handed swords. But the affair was of brief continuance; for
Angus, with one tremendous blow, cut asunder the other’s leg by the
thigh-bone, so that the limb was lopped off like a branch beneath the
gardener’s pruning-hook, and Spence died,a few moments after. When the
conflict between the principals was thus ended, Angus put a stop to that
which had commenced between the two retainers, and said to Spence’s
follower, "Go thy way, and tell my gossip the king that there was nothing
but fair play here. I know my gossip will be offended; but I will get me
into Liddesdale, and remain in the Hermitage till his anger is over.’ This
he did; and the only penalty he underwent for the deed was of exchange of
the lands of Liddesdale for those of Bothwell, as the king declared that
no order could be kept with the Earls of Angus as long as they held the
former.
In the history of Scotland,
nothing can be more revolting than the feuds and factions of the nobles,
by which the country was rent asunder, unless it be the readiness with
which they joined the cause of England when their avarice or ambition was
solicited by a tempting bribe. Such had ever been the case since the war
of Scottish independence commenced. An excuse, perhaps, might be found for
the earliest defaulters, in the fact that they were Anglo-Normans, who had
but recently become Scotsmen; that they held estates in England sometimes
more valuable than those they possessed in Scotland; and that their homage
was due to the sovereign of either kingdom indifferently, as their lord
paramount. But no such excuse can be offered for their unworthy
successors, who continued the same course of treachery and double-dealing,
after a descent of more than two centuries had made them natives of the
soil. Hence it was that the reign of James III. was so full of trouble,
and finally so disastrous. In consequence of his unwarlike habits, and
devotedness to mean favourites, the Scottish nobles preferred his brother,
the Duke of Albany, whose stirring spirit and martial disposition were
more to their taste; and when the latter intrigued with the king of
England to supplant his royal brother, and reign in his stead, a powerful
band of the Scottish nobility were ready to support him, although the
price of English aid was to be nothing less than the independence of
Scotland. Albany was to be king; but he was to reign as vassal of Edward
IV., and do homage to the latter for his crown. In this infamous
coalition, we regret to find the Earl of Angus a leading member; and from
his possessing the wardenship of the eastern marches, by which the keys of
Scotland were at his belt, he seems to have been the firmest dependence of
the unscrupulous Albany. On one occasion, however, in the midst of these
intrigues, we find Angus acting with a more patriotic spirit. After a
peaceful season of unwonted duration between the two countries, James
III., at the instigation of France, resolved in 1480 to make war on
England; upon which Edward IV. prepared for resistance, by appointing his
brother, the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III.,
lieutenant-general of the north, to conduct an invasion into Scotland. But
before this able leader could assemble his forces, the Earl of Angus, at
the head of a small army, made a furious irruption across the marches into
England, and for three days ravaged the rich districts of Northumberland,
and then retired unmolested, laden with plunder. After this bold deed,
however, he retired again to his intrigues; and when Albany consented to
hold the Scottish crown from Edward IV. as his vassal, Angus was one of
the commissioners appointed by the duke to draw up the articles of
negotiation, and complete the treaty.
In the meantime, the
conduct of the weak infatuated king of Scotland seemed too much to justify
these treasonable proceedings. In addition to the few scholars and lovers
of the fine arts whom he had taken into his confidence, his chief
associates were astrologers, quacks, and low mechanics, whose society
he preferred to that of his high-born nobles and experienced
statesmen. It was not wonderful, therefore, that not only the aristocracy,
but also the commons preferred, to such a sovereign, the stately bearing,
popular demeanour, and chivalrous accomplishments of his brother, Albany.
But of all the favourites of James, the most valued, and consequently the
most obnoxious, was Cochrane, a man of low birth, and an architect by
profession, but indignantly termed in our old chronicles a stone-mason,
whom the king had raised to the earldom of Mar. Such a man was well
fitted, as a royal favourite, for the ruin of a weak, confiding master;
for he not only outshone the nobles by the splendour of his style of
living, but even excelled most of them in personal comeliness, strength,
and dexterity in warlike exercises, so that he could confront the frowning
courtiers with a fearlessness equal to their own. But his crowning
offence, and one for which he merited full punishment, was the advice
which he gave to his sovereign during a season of great dearth, to debase
the current coin, by which, while he increased his own wealth, and
enriched the royal treasury, the price of provisions was raised, and the
bitterness of famine aggravated. it seemed to the nobles a convenient
season to wreak their resentment, by sweeping the royal favourites from
their path. It is also alleged, that in this crisis the Earl of Angus and
his associates entertained the further design of dethroning James, and
exalting Albany in his room.
All being in readiness for
the accomplishment of their purposes, the Duke of Gloucester, who was
privy to their design, put his forces in motion, and laid siege to the
town of Berwick. A muster of the Scottish troops was the consequence; and
an army of fifty thousand, that was assembled at the Boroughmuir,
marched first to Soutra, and then to Lauder, having the king at
their head, accompanied by his unworthy minions. Most conspicuous among
these was Cochrane, to whom the command of the artillery was intrusted,
and who, on this occasion, appeared with a splendour which few Scottish
kings had hitherto equalled. His pavilion was of silken drapery, the
fastening chains of which were richly gilt; his camp-furniture shone with
gold and silver; and his body-guard consisted of three hundred tall
retainers, dressed in rich liveries, and armed with battle-axes. It was
the last glitter of a falling star before it disappeared for ever! On
encamping at Lauder, the nobles assembled in the church, and proceeded to
deliberate upon the best means of removing the favourites from the royal
person. Cochrane, as the most obnoxious, was the chief object at which
their discussion pointed; but to punish him was a task of danger, not only
on account of his master’s protection, but his own courage, and the
military retainers by whom he was surrounded. All this was expressed by
Lord Gray, who repeated on the occasion a homely apologue. "The mice," he
said, "having been continually annoyed by the inroads of the cat, met in
council to devise the best mode of delivering themselves from her tyranny.
At length, after various measures had been proposed, it was agreed that
the best plan was to hang a bell round her neck, that thus they might
receive due notice of the destroyer’s approach. This pleased the whole
meeting; but just when they were about to break up, the question occurred,
‘What mouse will adventure to hang the bell about the cat’s neck?" Here
the speaker paused; upon which Angus, raising his stalwart form in the
midst of the council, briefly and boldly exclaimed, "I will bell the cat!"
From this answer he derived the singular cognomen by which he is known in
Scottish history.
No sooner had this decision
been announced than a knocking was heard at the church door; upon which
Douglas of Lochleven, who kept guard there, demanded to know who it was
that sought admittance. "It is I, the Earl of Mar," cried the person
without. He thought that a council of war had been assembled, and was
desirous to be present at their deliberations. The door was gladly opened
to the victim, who entered, unsuspicious of danger. "It does not become
thee to wear this collar," cried Angus, stepping up to him, and rudely
snatching from his neck the gold chain which he wore; "a rope would suit
thee better " "Nor yet this horn," said Douglas of Lochleven, plucking
away the jewelled hunting-horn that dangled by his side; "thou hast
already hunted after mischief too long!" Cochrane, as fearless as any man
present, imagined that nothing more than some rude pleasantry was
intended, and asked, "My lords, is this jest or earnest?" The only answer
given was his instant seizure; his hands were pinioned, and a guard was
placed over him. Having thus secured the principal culprit, the
conspirators strode onward to the royal tent; and, before an alarm could
be raised in the king’s behalf; not only his favourites, but himself also
were prisoners in their hands. No trial followed of the men who were
already prejudged and doomed. They were dragged to Lauder bridge; and
there Torphichen the dancing-master, Hummil the tailor, Rogers the
musician, Leonard, Preston, and the other royal favourites, were hanged
over the parapet. Cochrane, who felt his "ruling passion strong in death,"
only requested to be hanged with one of the silken cords from his tent,
and not strangled with a hempen rope, like a sorry cur; but, instead of
acceding to his dying wish, they hanged him over the bridge in a halter of
horse hair. After this the nobles disbanded their feudal array, being only
anxious to secure the person of the king, while the Duke of Gloucester was
enabled to take Berwick without resistance, and advance unopposed to the
capital. It was now deemed a fitting time by Angus and his associates to
hint at their plan, which they had kept in reserve, of dethroning the
king, and placing Albany in his room, under English protection; but the
Scottish nobles were not only astonished, but indignant at the idea. They
had caballed against the king, and executed summary justice upon his
favourites; but to sacrifice the liberties of their country had never
entered into their calculations. Bell-the-Cat, therefore, with all his
audacity, was obliged to unite with them, not only in opposing the English
invasion, but effecting a reconciliation between the royal brothers. After
this last measure was accomplished, Angus returned to his disloyal and
unnational intrigues, as the principal negotiator of the Duke of Albany
with the English government; until, at last, the duke himself was
impeached by the Estates as a traitor, and obliged to flee, first to
England and afterwards to France, where, a few years after, he was killed,
not in actual battle, but in the chance-medley of an idle tournament.
After the departure of the
Duke of Albany from the kingdom, the Earl of Angus scarcely appears in
Scottish history; or, if his name occurs, it is only incidentally. It is
scarcely to be supposed, however, that he remained idle during the plots
that were afterwards formed against James III.; and it is certain, that
when the rebellion broke out, he was one of the insurgent lords who fought
against the royal army at the battle of Sauchie Burn, at which the king
was assassinated while he fled from the field. On the accession of James
IV., still a minor, the earl was allowed to take his full share in the
government; but when the young king had arrived at manhood, his vigorous
intellect soon perceived that the lords, who had arrayed him in arms
against his father, and procured his advancement to the throne, had only
used him as a tool for their own selfish purposes. He therefore regarded
them with displeasure; and among the foremost of these was the Earl of
Angus, who, in consequence, went to England full of resentment, and there
entered into a secret treaty with Henry VII., the particulars of which are
unknown. It appears, however,"to have been so suspicious, that on his
return to Scotland, he was met by an order from the king to confine
himself in ward in his castle of Tantallan; and soon after, the lands and
lordship of Liddesdale, and the castle of Hermitage, were taken from him,
and given to the Earl of Bothwell.
The reign of James IV. was
popular and energetic--one of those reigns, indeed, in which neither royal
favourite nor royal antagonist can have much hope of success. For years,
therefore, extending from 1491 to 1513, we hear nothing in our national
annals of the bold ambitious Earl of Angus; and it is probable that during
this long interval he quietly took his place as a Scottish councillor in
the Estates, and a feudal chief among his retainers, neither suspected nor
giving cause of suspicion. It is also not unlikely, that seeing his
country in peace, and every year becoming more prosperous, his better
feelings may have taught him that those turbulent schemes in which he had
been formerly engaged were not, by any means, the best for ultimately
accomplishing the happiness and independence of Scotland. That such was
the effect of his retrospections, as years advanced upon him, may be
charitably concluded from the closing scene of his career.
That scene was connected
with one of the saddest events in Scottish history. Henry VII., the
leading feature of whose politics was to keep peace with Scotland, and
whose endeavours to that effect had been eminently successful, died; and
his son and successsr, Henry VIII., was to the full as quarrelsome
as his father had been prudent and conciliatory. Between two such fiery
spirits, therefore, as himself and James IV., brothers-in-law though they
were, the unwonted tranquillity that had prevailed so long between the two
kingdoms could scarcely be expected to last much longer; and, in 1513,
James invaded England, at the head of an army one hundred thousand strong.
Not only the whole military force, but all the noble houses of Scotland,
had been mustered for the occasion; and among the latter was Angus, still,
in spite of his former failures, the most powerful peer of the realm. But
his experienced eye seems to have soon detected the blunders and
anticipated the disastrous close of this expedition, which James commenced
with a mere chivalrous freak. He was advancing, forsooth, three steps into
English ground to vindicate the beauty and fair name of the Queen of
France, as her chosen knight-errant and champion. The king’s whole conduct
was commensurate with this beginning. He squandered his vast resources in
the capture of a few paltry castles; allowed himself to be besotted with
the charms of an English lady whom he had taken prisoner, and who
deliberately betrayed him to her countrymen; and loitered away his
opportunities in her company, until more than half his army had deserted,
while the English had assembled in full force. All this Angus witnessed,
and witnessed, perhaps, with the bitter consciousness that his past
dealings had deprived him of the moral influence by which he might have
effectually interposed and arrested the coming ruin. At length, to crown
his career of utter madness, James took up his position, and appointed his
time for the approaching action, exactly according to the wishes of
Surrey, the English general, who piqued the knight-errantry of the former
to that effect. It was now time for the Scottish nobles to interpose; and
Angus, whose experience, years, and rank entitled him to this privilege,
earnestly advised the king either to make an instant attack, or commence a
retreat while it was still in his power. But to these wise suggestions the
king—across whose mind, perhaps, the scene of Lauder bridge at that moment
flitted—replied, "Angus, if you are afraid, you may go home." The earl
burst into tears at this degrading taunt, and replied, that his former
life might well have spared him such a reproach from his sovereign. "As
for myself," he added, "my age renders my body of no service, and my
counsel is despised; but I leave my two sons and my vassals in the field.
May the end be happy, and my forebodings unfounded!" With these words he
rode away from the encampment, accompanied by a few attendants.
His forebodings, alas, were
but too well-founded! The battle of Flodden was fought, in which the
flower of Scottish manhood and nobleness was "a’ wede away;" and the old
disconsolate man could scarcely have reached his home, and rested beneath
its roof, when the stunning intelligence reached him. But besides this
great national calamity, by which Scotland was threatened with a
subjugation more complete than any she had yet experienced, Angus himself,
both as a father and a feudal chief, was heavily visited by the event; for
his two sons, George the Master of Angus, and Sir William Douglas of
Glenbervie, were both slain, along with two hundred gentlemen of the name
of Douglas. In consequence of these tidings, the earl retired to St. Mains
in Galloway, where he led a life of austere mortification and devotion,
which, however, was soon terminated; for he died there about a year after,
and his body was buried in the church of St. Mains, while his heart was
carried to Douglas, to the resting-place of many of his ancestry. His
death occurred about the sixty-first or sixty-second year of his age.
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