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DOUGLAS, SIR JAMES, one of
the most remarkable men of the heroic age to which he belonged, and the
founder of the great fame and grandeur of one of the most illustrious
houses in Scotland, was the eldest son of William Douglas, a baron, or
magnate of Scotland, who died in England about the year 1302.
The ancestry of this family
have been but imperfectly and obscurely traced by most genealogists; but
it now seems to be established beyond doubt, that the original founder
came into this country from Flanders, about the year 1147; and, in reward
of certain services, not explained, which he performed to the abbot of
Kelso, received from that prelate a grant of lands on the water of
Douglas, in Lanarkshire. In this assignation, a record of which is yet
extant, he is styled Theobaldus Flammaticus, or Theobald the Fleming.
William, the son and heir of Theobald, assumed the surname of Douglas,
from his estate. Archibald de Douglas, his eldest son, succeeded in the
family estate on Douglas water. Bricius, a younger son of William, became
bishop of Moray, in 1203; and his four brothers, Alexander, Henry, Hugh,
and Freskin, settled in Moray under his patronage, and from these, the
Douglases of Moray claim their descent. Archibald died between the years
1238 and 1240, leaving behind him two sons. William, the elder, inherited
the estate of his father; Andrew, the younger, became the ancestor of the
Douglases of Dalkeith, afterwards created earls of Morton. William
acquired additional lands to the family inheritance; and, by this means,
becoming a tenant in chief of the crown, was considered as ranking among
the barons, or, as they were then called, magnates of Scotland. He died
about the year 1276, leaving two sons, Hugh and William. Hugh fought at
the battle of the Largs, in 1263, and died about 1288, without issue.
William, his only brother, and father to Sir James, the subject of the
present article, succeeded to the family honours, which he did not long
enjoy; for, having espoused the popular side in the factions
which soon after divided the kingdom, he was, upon the successful
usurpation of Edward I., deprived of his estates, and died a prisoner in
England, about the year 1302. Of this ancestor, the first whose history
can be of any interest to the general reader, we have made mention in the
life of Wallace, and, therefore, have no occasion to recur to him in this
place.
The young Douglas had not
attained to manhood, when the captivity of his father left him unprotected
and destitute; and in this condition, either prompted by his own
inclination, or influenced by the suggestions of friends anxious for his
safety, he retired into France, and lived in Paris for three years. In
this capital, remarkable, even in that age, for the gayety and show of its
inhabitants, the young Scotsman for a time forgot his misfortunes, and
gave way with youthful ardour to the current follies by which he was
surrounded. The intelligence of his father’s death, however, was
sufficient to break him off entirely from the loose courses upon which he
was entering, and incite him to a mode of life more honourable, and more
befitting the noble feelings by which, throughout life, he was so strongly
actuated. Having returned without delay into Scotland, he seems first to
have presented himself to Lamberton, bishop of St Andrews, and was
fortunate enough to be received with great kindness by that good prelate,
who promoted him to the honourable post of page in his household. Barbour,
the poet, dwells fondly upon this period in the life of Douglas, whom he
describes as cheerful, courteous, dutiful, and of a generous disposition,
insomuch, that he was esteemed and beloved by all; yet was he not so fair,
adds the same discreet writer, that we should much admire his beauty. He
was of a somewhat grey or swarthy complexion, and had black hair,
circumstances from which, especially among the English, he came to be
known by the name of the Black Douglas. His bones were large, but well
set; his shoulders broad, and his whole person to be remarked as rather
spare or lean, though muscular. He was mild and pleasant in company, or
among his friends, and lisped somewhat in his speech, a circumstance which
is said not at all to have misbecome him, besides that it brought him
nearer to the beau ideal of Hector, as Barbour fails not to remark, in a
not inappropriate comparison, which he attempts making of the two
characters.
Douglas was living in this
manner, when Edward, having for the last time, overrun Scotland, called
together an assembly of the barons at Stirling. The bishop of St Andrews
attended the summons of the English king on this occasion; and taking
along with him the young squire whom he had so generously protected,
resolved, if possible, to interest the monarch in his fortunes. Taking
hold of a suitable opportunity, the prelate presented Douglas to the king,
as a youth who claimed to be admitted to his service, and at the same
time, made earnest entreaty that his majesty would look favourably upon
him, and restore him to the inheritance, which, from no fault of his, he
had lost. "What lands does he claim?" inquired Edward. The good
bishop had purposely kept the answer to this question to the end, well
knowing the hasty and vindictive temper of the English king, and the
particular dislike which he bore to the memory of the former Douglas; but
he soon saw that the haughty conqueror was neither to be prepossessed nor
conciliated. Edward no sooner understood the birth of the suitor, than,
turning angrily to the bishop, he reproached him, in harsh terms, for his
presumption. "The father," said he, "was always my enemy;
and I have already bestowed his lands upon more loyal followers than his
sons can ever prove." The unfavourable issue of this suit must have
left a deep and resentful impression on the mind of the young Douglas; and
it was not long before an occasion offered whereby he might fully discover
the incurable inveteracy of his hostility to the English king.
While he yet resided at the
bishop’s palace, intelligence of the murder of Comyn, and the revolt of
Bruce, spread over the kingdom. Lamberton, who, it is well known, secretly
favoured the insurrection, not only made no difficulty of allowing the
young Douglas to join the party, but even assisted him with money to
facilitate his purpose. The bishop, it is also said, directed him to seize
upon his own horse for his use, as if by violence, from the groom; and,
accordingly, that servant in an unwitting attention to his duty, having
been knocked down, Douglas, unattended, rode off to join the standard of
his future king and master. He fell in with the party of Bruce at a place
called Errickstane, on their progress from Lochmaben towards Glasgow;
where, making himself known to Robert, he made offer to him of his
services; hoping that under the auspices of his rightful sovereign, he
might recover possession of his own inheritance. Bruce, well pleased with
the spirit and bearing of his new adherent, and, besides, interested in
his welfare, as the son of the gallant Sir William Douglas, received him
with much favour, giving him, at the same time, a command in his small
army. This was the commencement of the friendship between Bruce and
Douglas, than which, none more sincere and perfect ever existed between
sovereign and subject.
It would, of course, be
here unnecessary to follow Sir James Douglas, as we shall afterwards name
him, through the same tract described in the life of his heroic master; as
in that, all which it imports the reader to know has been already detailed
with sufficient minuteness. Of the battle of Methven, therefore, in which
the young knight first signalized his valour; that of Dalry, in which
Robert was defeated by the lord of Lorn, and Sir James wounded; the
retreat into Rachrin; the descent upon Arran, and afterwards on the coast
of Carrick; in all of which enterprises, the zeal, courage, and usefulness
of Douglas were manifested, we shall in this place take no other notice,
than by referring to the life which we have mentioned. Leaving these more
general and important movements, we shall follow the course of our
narrative in others more exclusively referable to the life and fortunes of
Douglas.
While Robert the Bruce was
engaged in rousing the men of Carrick to take up arms in his cause,
Douglas was permitted to repair to his patrimonial domains in Douglasdale,
for the purpose of drawing over the ancient and attached vassals of his
family to the same interest, and, in the first place, of avenging, should
an occasion offer, some of the particular wrongs himself and family had
sustained from the English. Disguised, therefore, and accompanied by only
two yeomen, Sir James, towards the close of an evening in the month of
March, 1307, reached the alienated inheritance of his house, then owned by
the lord Clifford, who had posted within the castle of Douglas a strong
garrison of English soldiers. Having revealed himself to one Thomas
Dickson, formerly his father’s vassal, and a person possessed of some
wealth, and considerable influence among the tenantry, Sir James, and his
two followers were joyfully welcomed, and carefully concealed within his
house. By the diligence and sagacity of this faithful dependent, Douglas
was soon made acquainted with the numbers of those, in the neighbourhood,
who would be willing to join him in his enterprise, and the more important
of these being brought secretly, and by one or two at a time, before him,
he received their pledges of fidelity and solemn engagements to assist him
to the utmost of their power towards the recovery of his inheritance.
Having, in this manner, secured the assistance of a small, but resolute
band, Sir James determined to put in execution a project which he had
planned for the surprisal of the castle. The garrison, entirely ignorant
and unsuspicious of the machinations of their enemies, and otherwise far
from vigilant, offered many opportunities which might be taken advantage
of to their destruction. The day of Palm Sunday, however, was fixed upon
by Douglas, as being then near at hand, and as furnishing, besides, a
plausible pretext for the gathering together of his adherents. The
garrison, it was expected, would, on that festival, attend divine service
in the neighbouring church of St Bride. The followers of Douglas having
arms concealed upon their persons, were, some of them, to enter the
building along with the soldiers, while the others remained without to
prevent their escape. Douglas, himself, disguised in an old tattered
mantle, having a flail in his hand, was to give the signal of onset, by
shouting the war cry of his family. When the concerted day arrived, the
whole garrison, consisting of thirty men, went in solemn procession to
attend the service of the church, leaving only the porter and the cook
within the castle. The eager followers of the knight did not wait for the
signal of attack; for, no sooner had the unfortunate Englishmen entered
the chapel, than, one or two raising the cry of "a Douglas, a
Douglas," which was instantly echoed and returned from all
quarters, they fell with the utmost fury upon the entrapped garrison.
These defended themselves bravely, till two thirds of their number lay
either dead or mortally wounded. Being refused quarter, those who yet
continued to fight were speedily overpowered and made prisoners, so that
none escaped. Meanwhile, five or six men were detached to secure
possession of the castle gate, which they easily effected: and being soon
after followed by Douglas and his partisans, the victors had now only to
deliberate as to the use to which their conquest should be applied.
Considering the great power and numbers of the English in that district,
and the impossibility of retaining the castle should it be besieged;
besides, that the acquisition could then prove of no service to the
general cause, it was determined, that that which could be of little or no
service to themselves, should be rendered equally useless and unprofitable
to the enemy. This measure, so defensible in itself and politic, was
stained by an act of singular and atrocious barbarity; which, however
consistent with the rude and revengeful spirit of the age in which it was
enacted, remains the sole stigma which even his worst enemies could ever
affix to the memory of Sir James Douglas. Having plundered and stripped
the castle of every article of value which could be conveniently carried
off and secured; the great mass of the provisions, with which it then
happened to be amply provided, were heaped together within an apartment of
the building. Over this pile were stored the puncheons of wine, ale, and
other liquors which the cellar afforded; and lastly the prisoners who had
been taken in the church, having been despatched, their dead bodies were
thrown over all; thus, in a spirit of savage jocularity, converting the
whole into a loathsome mass of provision, then, and long after, popularly
described by the name of the Douglas’ Larder. These savage
preparations gone through, the castle was set on fire, and burned to the
ground.
No sooner was Clifford
advertised of the miserable fate which had befallen his garrison, than,
collecting a sufficient force, he repaired to Douglas in person; and
having caused the castle to be re-edified more strongly than it had been
formerly, he left a new garrison in it under the command of one Thirlwall,
and returned himself into England. Douglas, while these operations
proceeded, having dispersed his followers, bestowing in secure places,
where they might be properly attended to, such among them as had been
wounded, himself lurked in the neighbourhood, intending, on the first safe
opportunity, to rejoin the king’s standard, in company with his trusty
adherents. Other considerations, however, seem to have arisen, and to have
had their share in influencing his conduct in this particular; for the
lord Clifford had no sooner departed, than he resolved, a second time, to
attempt the surprisal of his castle, under its new governor. The garrison,
having a fresh remembrance of the fatal disaster which had befallen their
predecessors, were not to be taken at the same advantage; and some
expedient had therefore to be adopted which might abate the extreme
caution and vigilance, which they observed, and on which their safety
depended. This Douglas effected, by directing some of his men, at
different times, to drive off portions of the cattle belonging to the
castle, but who, as soon as the garrison issued out to the rescue, were
instructed to leave their booty and betake themselves to flight. The
governor and his men having been sufficiently irritated by the attempts of
these pretended plunderers, who thus kept them continually and vexatiously
on the alert, Sir James, aware of their disposition, resolved, without
further delay, upon the execution of his project. Having formed an ambush
of his followers at a place called Sandilands, at no great distance from
the castle, he, at an early hour in the morning, detached a few of his
men, who very daringly drove off some cattle from the immediate vicinity
of the walls, towards the place where the ambuscaders lay concealed.
Thirlwall was no sooner apprized of the fact, than, indignant at the
boldness of the affront put upon him, which yet he considered to be of the
same character with those formerly practised, hastily ordered a large
portion of the garrison to arm themselves and follow after the spoilers,
himself accompanying them with so great precipitation, that he did not
take time even to put on his helmet. The pursuers, no ways suspecting the
snare laid for them, followed, in great haste and disorder, after the
supposed robbers, but had scarcely passed the place of the ambush, than
Douglas and his followers starting suddenly from their covert, the party
at once found themselves circumvented and their retreat cut off. In their
confusion and surprise, they were but ill prepared for the fierce assault
which was instantly made upon them. The greater part fled precipitantly,
and a few succeeded in regaining their strong-hold; but Thirlwall and many
of his bravest soldiers were slain. The fugitives were pursued with great
slaughter to the very gates of the castle; but, though few in numbers,
having secured the entrance, and manned the walls, Sir James found it
would be impossible to gain possession of the place at this time.
Collecting together, therefore, all those willing to join the royal cause,
he forthwith repaired to the army of Bruce, then encamped at Cumnock, in
Ayrshire. The skill and boldness which Douglas displayed in these two
exploits, and the success which attended them, added to the reputation for
military enterprise and bravery, which he had previously acquired, seem to
have infected the English with an almost superstitious dread of his power
and resources; so that, if we may believe the writers of the age, few
could be found adventurous enough to undertake the keeping of "the
perilous castle of Douglas," for by that name it now came to be
popularly distinguished.
When king Robert, shortly
after his victory over the English at Loudonhill, marched his forces into
the north of Scotland, Sir James Douglas remained behind, for the purpose
of reducing the forests of Selkirk and Jedburgh to obedience. His first
adventure, however, was the taking, a second time, his own castle of
Douglas, then commanded by Sir John de Wilton, an English knight, who held
this charge, as his two predecessors had done, under the lord Clifford,
Sir James, taking along with him a body of armed men, gained the
neighbourhood undiscovered, where himself and the greater number
immediately planted themselves in ambuscade, as near as possible to the
gate of the castle. Fourteen of his best men he directed to disguise
themselves as peasants wearing smock-frocks, under which their arms might
be conveniently concealed, and having sacks filled with grass laid across
their horses, who, in this guise, were to pass within view of the castle,
as if they had been countrymen carrying corn for sale to Lanark fair.
The stratagem had the desired effect; for the garrison being then
scarce of provisions, had no mind to let pass so favourable an
opportunity, as it appeared to them, of supplying themselves; wherefore,
the greater part, with the governor, who was a man of a bold and reckless
disposition, at their head, issued out in great haste to overtake and
plunder the supposed peasants. These, finding themselves pursued, hurried
onward with what speed they could muster, till, ascertaining that the
unwary Englishmen had passed the ambush, they suddenly threw down their
sacks, stripped off the frocks which concealed their armour, mounted their
horses, and raising a loud shout, seemed determined in turn to become the
assailants. Douglas and his concealed followers, no sooner heard the shout
of their companions, which was the concerted signal of onset, than,
starting into view in the rear of the English party, these found
themselves at once, unexpectedly and furiously attacked from two opposite
quarters. In this desperate encounter, their retreat to the castle being
effectually cut off, Wilton and his whole party are reported to have been
slain. When this successful exploit was ended, Sir James found means to
gain possession of the castle, probably by the promise of a safe conduct
to those by whom it was still maintained; as he allowed the constable and
remaining garrison to depart unmolested into England, furnishing them, at
the same time, with money to defray the charges of their journey. Barbour
relates, that upon the person of the slain knight there was found a letter
from his mistress, informing him, that he might well consider himself
worthy of her love, should he bravely defend for a year the adventurous
castle of Douglas. Sir James razed the fortress of his ancestors to the
ground, that it might, on no future occasion, afford protection to the
enemies of his country, and the usurpers of his own patrimony.
Leaving the scene where he
had thus, for the third time, in so remarkable a manner triumphed over his
adversaries, Douglas proceeded to the forests of Selkirk and Jedburgh,
both of which he in a short time reduced to the king’s authority. While
employed upon this service, he chanced one day, towards night-fall, to
come in sight of a solitary house on the water of Line, which he had no
sooner perceived, than he directed his course towards it, with the
intention of there resting himself and his followers till morning.
Approaching the place with some caution, Douglas could distinguish from
the voices which he heard within, that it was pre-occupied; and from the
oaths which mingled in the conversation, he had no doubt as to the
character of the guests which it contained, military men being then,
almost exclusively, addicted to the use of such terms in their speech.
Having beset the house with his followers, and forced an entrance,
the conjecture of the knight proved well founded; for, after a brief but
sharp contest with the inmates, he was fortunate enough to secure the
persons of Alexander Stuart, Lord Bonkle, and Thomas Randolph, the king’s
nephew; who were, at that time, not only attached to the English interest,
but engaged in raising forces to check the progress of Douglas in the
south of Scotland. The important consequences of this action, by which
Robert gained as wise and faithful a counsellor as he ever possessed, and
Douglas a rival, though a generous one even in his own field of glory,
deserves that it should be particularly noticed in this place. Immediately
upon this adventure, Douglas, carrying along with him his two prisoners;
rejoined the king’s forces in the north; where, under his gallant
sovereign, he assisted in the victory gained over the lord of Lorn, by
which the Highlands were at length constrained to a submission to the
royal authority.
Without following the
current of those events, in which Douglas either participated, or bore a
principal part, but which have more properly fallen to be described in
another place, we come to the relation of one more exclusively belonging
to the narration of this life. The castle of Roxburgh, a fortress of great
importance on the borders of Scotland, had long been in the hands of the
English king, by whom it was strongly garrisoned, and committed to the
charge of Gillemin de Fiennes, a knight of Burgundy. Douglas, and his
followers, to the number of about sixty men, then lurked in the adjoining
forest of Jedburgh, where they did not remain long inactive, before the
enterprising genius of their leader had suggested a plan for the surprisal
of the fortress. A person of the name of Simon of Leadhouse was employed
to construct rope-ladders for scaling the walls, and the night of
Shrove-Tuesday, then near at hand, was fixed upon as the most proper for
putting the project in execution; "for then," says Fordun,
"all the men, from dread of the Lent season, which was to begin next
day, indulged in wine and licentiousness." When the appointed night
arrived, Douglas and his brave followers approached the castle, wearing
black frocks or shirts, over their armour, that, in the darkness, they
might be the more effectually concealed from the observation of the
sentinels. On getting near to the castle walls, they crept softly onwards
on their hands and knees; and, indeed, soon became aware of the necessity
they were under of observing every precaution; for a sentinel on the walls
having observed, notwithstanding the darkness, their indistinct crawling
forms, which he took to be those of cattle, remarked to his companion,
that farmer such a one (naming a husbandman who lived in the neighbourhood)
surely made good cheer that night, seeing that he took so little care of
his cattle. "He may make merry to-night, comrade," the other
replied, "but, if the Black Douglas come at them, he will fare the
worse another time;" and, so conversing, these two passed to another
part of the wall. Sir James and his men had approached so close to the
castle, as distinctly to overhear this discourse, and also to mark with
certainty the departure of the men who uttered it. The wall was no sooner
free of their presence, than Simon of the Leadhouse, fixing one of the
ladders to its summit, was the first to mount. This bold adventure was
perceived by one of the garrison so soon as he reached the top of the
wall; but, giving the startled soldier no time to raise an alarm, Simon
sprang suddenly upon him, and despatched him with his dagger. Before the
others could come to his support, Simon had to sustain the attack of
another antagonist, whom, also, he laid dead at his feet; and Sir James
and his men, in a very brief space, having surmounted the wall, the loud
shout of "a Douglas! a Douglas!" and the rush of the
enemy into the hall, where the garrison yet maintained the revels of the
evening, gave the first intimation to governor and men that the fortress
had been assaulted and taken. Unarmed, bewildered, and most of them
intoxicated, the soldiery were unable to make any effectual resistance;
and in this defenceless and hopeless state, many of them in the fury of
the onset were slaughtered. The governor and a few others escaped into the
keep or great tower, which they defended till the following day; but
having sustained a severe arrow wound in the face, Gillemin de Fiennes
thought proper to surrender, on condition that he and his remaining
followers should be allowed safely to depart into England. These terms
having been accorded, and faithfully fulfilled, Fiennes died shortly
afterwards of the wound which he had received. This event, which fell out
in the month of March., 1313, added not a little to the terror with which
the Douglas name was regarded in the north of England; while in an
equal degree, it infused spirit and confidence into the hearts of their
enemies. Barbour attributes the successful capture of Edinburgh castle by
Randolph, an exploit of greater peril and on that account only, of
superior gallantry to the preceding, to the noble emulation with which the
one general regarded the deeds of the other.
The next occasion, wherein
Douglas signalized himself by his conduct and bravery, was on the field of
Bannockburn; in which memorable battle, he had the signal honour of
commanding the centre division of the Scottish van. When the fortune of
that great day was decided, by the disastrous and complete overthrow of
the English army, Sir James, at the head of sixty horsemen, pursued
closely on the track of the flying monarch, for upwards of forty miles
from the field, and only desisted from the chase from the inability of his
horses to proceed further. In the same year, king Robert, desirous of
taking advantage of the wide spread dismay into which the English nation
had been thrown, despatched his brother Edward and Sir James Douglas, by
the eastern marches, into England, where they ravaged and assessed at will
the whole northern counties of that kingdom.
When Bruce passed over with
an army into Ireland, in the month of May 1316, in order to the
reinforcement of his brother Edward’s arms in that country, he committed
to Sir James Douglas, the charge of the middle borders, during his
absence. The earl of Arundel appears, at the same time, to have commanded
on the eastern and middle marches of England, lying opposite to the
district under the charge of Douglas. The earl, encouraged by the absence
of the Scots king, and still more, by information which led him to believe
that Sir James Douglas was then unprepared and off his guard, resolved, by
an unexpected and vigorous attack, to take this wily and desperate enemy
at an advantage. For this purpose, he collected together, with secrecy and
despatch an army of no less than ten thousand men. Douglas, who had just
then seen completed the erection of his castle or manor house of Lintalee,
near Jedburgh, in which he proposed giving a great feast to his military
followers and vassals, was not, indeed, prepared to encounter a force of
this magnitude; but, from the intelligence of spies whom he maintained in
the enemy’s camp, he was not altogether to be taken by surprise. Aware
of the route by which the English army would advance, he collected, in all
haste, a considerable body of archers, and about fifty men at arms, and
with these took post in an extensive thicket of Jedburgh forest. The
passage or opening through the wood at this place—wide and convenient at
the southern extremity, by which the English were to enter,
narrowed as it approached the ambush, till in breadth it did not exceed a
quoit’s pitch, or about twenty yards. Placing the archers in a hollow
piece of ground, on one side of the pass, Douglas effectually secured them
from the attack of the enemies’ cavalry, by an entrenchment of felled
trees, and by knitting together the branches of the young birch trees with
which the thicket abounded. He himself took post with his small body of
men-at-arms, on the other side of the pass, and there patiently awaited
the approach of the English. These preparations for their
reception having been made with great secrecy and order, the army of
Arundel had no suspicion of the snare laid for them; and, having entered
the narrow part of the defile, seem even to have neglected the ordinary
rules for preserving the proper array of their ranks, these becoming
gradually compressed and confused as the body advanced. In this manner,
unable to form, and, from the pressure in their rear, equally
incapacitated to retreat, the van of the army offered an unresisting and
fatal mark to the concealed archers; who, opening upon them with a volley
of arrows, in front and flank, first made them aware of the danger of
their position, and rendered irremediable the confusion already observable
in their ranks. Douglas, at the same moment, bursting from his ambush, and
raising the terrible war cry of his name, furiously assailed the surprised
and disordered English, a great many of whom, from the impracticability of
their situation, and the impossibility of escape, were slain. Sir James
himself encountered, in this warm onset, a brave foreign knight, named
Thomas de Richemont, whom he slew by a thrust with his dagger; taking from
him, by way of trophy, a furred cap which it was his custom to wear over
his helmet. The English having at length made good their retreat into the
open country, encamped in safety for the night; Douglas, well knowing the
danger he would incur, in following up, with so small a number of men, the
advantage which art and stratagem had so decidedly gained for him.
Had this been otherwise, he
had service of a still more immediate nature yet to perform. Having
intelligence that a body of about three hundred men, under the command of
a person named Ellies, had, by a different route, penetrated to Lintalee,
Sir James hastened thither with all possible expedition. This party,
finding the house deserted and unguarded, had taken possession of it, as
also of the provisions and liquors with which it had been amply provided;
nothing doubting of the complete victory which Arundel would achieve over
Sir James Douglas and his few followers. In this state of security, having
neglected to set watches to apprize them of dangers, they were
unexpectedly assailed by their dreaded and now fully excited enemy, and
mercilessly put to the sword, with the exception of a very few who
escaped. The fugitives having gained the camp of Arundel, that commander
was no less surprised and daunted by this new disaster, than he had been
by that which shortly before befell his own men; so that, finding himself
unequal to the task of dealing with a foe so active and vigilant, he
prudently retreated back into his own country, and disbanded his forces.
Among the other encounters
recorded as having taken place on the borders at this time, we must not
omit one, in which the characteristic and unaided valour of the good Sir
James unquestionably gained for him the victory. Sir Edmund de Cailand, a
knight of Gascony, whom king Edward had appointed governor of Berwick,
desirous of signalizing himself in the service of that monarch, had
collected a considerable force with which he ravaged and plundered nearly
the whole district of Teviot. As he was returning to Berwick, loaded with
spoil, the Douglas, who had intimation of his movements, determined to
intercept his march, and, if possible, recover the booty. For this
purpose, he hastily collected together a small body of troops; but, on
approaching the party of Cailand, he found them so much superior to his
own, in every respect, that he hesitated whether or not he should
prosecute the enterprise. The Gascon knight, confident in his own
superiority, instantly prepared for battle; and a severe conflict ensued,
in which it seemed very doubtful whether the Scots should be able to
withstand the numbers and bravery of their assailants. Douglas, fearful of
the issue of the contest, pressed forward with incredible energy, and,
encountering Sir Edmund de Cailand, slew him with his own hand. The
English party, discouraged by the loss of their leader, and no longer able
to withstand the increased impetuosity with which this gallant deed of Sir
James had inspired his men, soon fell into confusion, and were put to
flight with considerable slaughter. The booty, which, previously to the
engagement, had been sent on towards Berwick, was wholly recovered by the
Scots.
Following upon this
success, and, in some measure connected with it, an event occurred,
singularly illustrative of the chivalric spirit of that age. Sir Ralph
Neville, an English knight who then resided at Berwick, feeling, it may be
supposed, his nation dishonoured, by the praises which the fugitives in
the late defeat bestowed upon the great prowess of Douglas, boastingly
declared, that he would himself encounter that Scottish knight, whenever
his banner should be displayed in the neighbourhood of Berwick. When this
challenge reached the ears of Douglas, he determined that the
self-constituted rival who uttered it, should not want for the opportunity
which he courted. Advancing into the plain around Berwick, Sir James there
displayed his banner, as a counter challenge to the knight, calling upon
him, at the same time, by herald, to make good his bravado. The farther to
incite and irritate the English, he detached a party of his men, who set
fire to some villages within sight of the garrison. Neville, at the head
of a much more numerous force than that of the Scots, at length issued
forth to attack his enemy. The combat was well contested on both sides,
till Douglas, encountering Neville hand to hand, soon proved to that brave
but over-hardy knight, that he had provoked his fate, for he soon fell
under the experienced and strong arm of his antagonist. This event decided
the fortune of the field. The English were completely routed, and several
persons of distinction made prisoners in the pursuit. Taking advantage of
the consternation caused by this victory, Sir James plundered and
desolated with fire all the country on the north side of the river Tweed,
which still adhered to the English interest; and returning in triumph to
the forest of Jedburgh, divided among his followers the rich booty which
he had acquired, reserving no part of it, as was his generous custom, to
his own use.
In the year 1322, the
Scots, commanded by Douglas, invaded the counties of Northumberland and
Durham; but no record now remains of the circumstances attending this
invasion. In the same year, as much by the terror of his name, as by any
stratagem, he saved the abbey of Melrose from the threatened attack of a
greatly superior force of the English, who had advanced against it for the
purposes of plunder. But the service by which, in that last and most
disastrous campaign of Edward II. against the Scots, Sir James most
distinguished himself, was, in the attempt which he made, assisted by
Randolph, to force a passage to the English camp, at Biland, in Yorkshire.
In this desperate enterprise, the military genius of Bruce came
opportunely to his aid, and he proved successful. Douglas, by this action,
may be said to have given a final blow to the nearly exhausted energies of
the weak and misguided government of Edward; and to have thus assisted in
rendering his deposition, which soon after followed, a matter of
indifference, if not of satisfaction to his subjects.
The same active hostility
which had on so many occasions, during the life of our great warrior,
proved detrimental or ruinous to the two first Edwards, was yet to be
exercised with undiminished efficacy upon the third monarch of that name,
the next of the race of English usurpers over Scotland. The treaty of
truce which the disquiets and necessities of his own kingdom had extorted
from Edward II. after his defeat at Biland, having been broken through, as
it would seem, not without the secret connivance or approbation of the
Scottish king; Edward III., afterwards so famous in English history, but
then a minor, collected together an immense force, intending not only to
revenge the infraction, but, by some decisive blow, recover the honour
which his father’s arms had lost in the revolted kingdom. The
inexperience of the young monarch, however, ill seconded as that was by
the councils of the faction which then governed England, could prove no
match, when opposed to the designs of a king so politic as Robert, and the
enterprise and consummate talent of such generals as Randolph and Douglas.
The preparations of
England, though conducted on a great and even extravagant scale of
expense, failed in the despatch essentially necessary on the present
occasion; allowing the Scottish army, which consisted of twenty thousand
light-armed cavalry, nearly a whole month, to plunder and devastate at
will, the northern districts of the kingdom, before any adequate force
could be brought upon the field to oppose their progress. Robert, during
his long wars with England, had admirably improved upon the severe
experience which his first unfortunate campaigns had taught him; and, so
well had the system which he adopted, been inured into the very natures of
his captains and soldiers, by long habit and continued success, that he
could not be more ready to plan and dictate schemes of defence or
aggression, than his subjects were alert and zealous to put them in
execution. He was, besides, fortunate above measure, in the choice of his
generals; and particularly of those two, Randolph, earl of Moray, and Sir
James Douglas, to whose joint command, the army on the present occasion
was committed. Moray, though equally brave and courageous with his
compeer, was naturally guided and restrained by wise and prudential
suggestions; while Douglas, almost entirely under the sway of a sanguine
and chivalrous spirit, often, by his very daring and temerity, proved
successful, where the other must inevitably have failed. One circumstance,
deserving of particular commendation, must not be omitted, that while in
rank and reputation, and in the present instance, command, these two great
men stood, in regard to each other, in a position singularly open to
sentiments of envious rivalry, the whole course of their lives and actions
give ample ground for believing that feelings of such a nature were
utterly alien to the characters of both.
Of the ravages which the
Scottish army committed in the north of England, during the space above
mentioned, we have no particulars recorded, but that they plundered all
the villages and open towns in their route seems certain; prudently
avoiding to dissipate their time and strength by assailing more difficult
places. To atone somewhat for this deficiency in his narrative, Froissart,
who on this period of Scottish history was unquestionably directed by
authentic information, has left a curious sketch of the constitution and
economy of the Scottish army of that day. "The people of that
nation," says this author, "are brave and hardy, insomuch, that
when they invade England, they will often march their troops a distance of
thirty-six miles in a day and night. All are on horseback, except only the
rabble of followers, who are a-foot. The knights and squires are well
mounted on large coursers, or war-horses; but the commons and country
people have only small hackneys or ponies. They use no carriages to attend
their army; and such is their abstinence and sobriety in war, that they
content themselves for a long time with half cooked flesh without bread,
and with water unmixed with wine. When they have slain and skinned the
cattle, which they always find in plenty, they make a kind of kettles of
the raw hides with the hair on, which they suspend on four stakes over
fires, with the hair side outmost, and in these they boil part of the
flesh in water; roasting the remainder by means of wooden spits disposed
around the same fires. Besides, they make for themselves a species
of shoes or brogues of time same raw hides with the hair still on them.
Each person carries attached to his saddle, a large flat plate of iron,
and has a bag of meal fixed on horseback, behind him. When, by eating
flesh cooked as before described, and without salt, they find their
stomachs weakened and uneasy, they mix up some of the meal with water into
a paste; and having heated the flat iron plate on the fire, they knead out
the paste into thin cakes, which they bake or fire on these heated plates.
These cakes they eat to strengthen their stomachs." Such an army
would undoubtedly possess all the requisites adapted for desultory and
predatory warfare; while, like the modern guerillas, the secrecy and
celerity of their movements would enable them with ease and certainty to
elude any formidable encounters to which they might be exposed from troops
otherwise constituted than themselves.
The English army, upon
which so much preparation had been expended, was at length, accompanied by
the king in person, enabled to take the field. It consisted, according to
Froissart, of eight thousand knights and squires, armed in steel, and
excellently mounted; fifteen thousand men at arms, also mounted,
but upon horses of an inferior description; the same number of infantry,
or, as that author has termed them, sergeants on foot; and a body of
archers twenty-four thousand strong. This great force on its progress
northward, soon became aware of the vicinity of their destructive enemy by
the sight of the smoking villages and towns which marked their course in
every direction; but having for several days vainly attempted, by
following these indications, to come up with the Scots, or even to gain
correct intelligence regarding their movements, they resolved, by taking
post on the banks of the river Tine, to intercept them on their return
into Scotland. In this, the English army were not more fortunate; and
having, from the difficulty of their route, been constrained to leave
their camp baggage behind them, they suffered the utmost hardships from
the want of provisions, and the inclemency of the weather. When several
days had been passed in this fruitless and harassing duty, the troops
nearly destitute of the necessaries of life, and exposed, without shelter,
to an almost incessant rain, the king was induced to proclaim a high
reward to whosoever should first give intelligence of where the Scottish
army were to be found. Thomas Rokesby, an esquire, having among others set
out upon this service, was the first to bring back certain accounts that
the Scots lay encamped upon the side of a hill, at about five miles
distance from the English camp. This person had approached so near to the
enemies’ position as to be taken prisoner by the outposts; but he had no
sooner recounted his business to Randolph and Douglas, than he was
honourably dismissed, with orders to inform the English king, that they
were ready and desirous to engage him in battle, whensoever he thought
proper.
On the following day, the
English, marching in order of battle, came in sight of the Scottish army,
whom they found drawn up on foot, in three divisions, on the slope of a
hill; having the river Wear, a rapid and nearly impassable stream, in
front, and their flanks protected by rocks and precipices, presenting
insurmountable difficulties to the approach of an enemy. Edward attempted
to draw them from their fastness, by challenging the Scottish leaders to
an honourable engagement on the plain, a practice not unusual in that age;
but he soon found, that the experienced generals with whom he had to deal
were not to be seduced by any artifice or bravado. "On our road
hither," said they, "we have burnt and spoiled the country; and here
we shall abide while to us it seems good. If the king of England is
offended, let him come over and chastise us." The two armies remained
in this manner, fronting each other, for three days; the army of Edward
much incommoded by the nature of their situation, and the continual alarms
of their hostile neighbours, who, throughout the night, says Froissart,
kept sounding their horns, "as if all the great devils in hell had
been there." Unable to force the Scots to a battle, the English
commanders had no alternative left them, than, by blockading their present
situation, to compel the enemy, by famine, to quit their impregnable
position, and fight at a disadvantage. The fourth morning, however, proved
the futility of such a scheme: for the Scots having discovered a place of
still greater strength at about two miles distance, had secretly decamped
thither in the night. They were soon followed by the English, who took
post on an opposite hill, the river Wear still interposing itself between
the two armies.
The army of Edward, baffled
and disheartened as they had been by the wariness and dexterity of their
enemy, would seem, in their new position, to have relaxed somewhat in
their accustomed vigilance; a circumstance which did not escape the
experienced eye of Sir James Douglas; and which immediately suggested to
the enterprising spirit of that commander, the possibility of executing a
scheme, which, to any other mind, must have appeared wild and chimerical,
as it was hazardous. Taking with him a body of two hundred chosen
horsemen, he, at midnight, forded the river at a considerable distance
from both armies; and by an unfrequented path, of which he had received
accurate information, gained the rear of the English camp undiscovered. On
approaching the outposts, Douglas artfully assumed the manner of an
English officer going his rounds, calling out, as he advanced, "Ha!
St George, you keep no ward here," and, by this stratagem,
penetrated, without suspicion, to the very centre of the encampment, where
the king lay. When they had got thus far, the party, no longer concealing
who they were, shouted aloud, "A Douglas! a Douglas! English thieves,
you shall all die!" and furiously attacking the unarmed and
panic-struck host, overthrew all who came in their way. Douglas, forcing
an entrance to the royal pavilion, would have carried off the young king,
but for the brave and devoted stand made by his domestics, by which he was
enabled with difficulty, to escape. Many of the household, and, among
others, the king’s own chaplain, zealously sacrificed their lives to
their loyalty on this occasion. Disappointed of his prize, Sir James now
sounded a retreat, and charging with his men directly through the camp of
the English, safely regained his own; having sustained the loss of only a
very few of his followers, while that of the enemy is said to have
exceeded three hundred men.
On the day following this
night attack, a prisoner having been brought into the English camp, and
strictly interrogated, acknowledged, that general orders had been issued
to the Scots to hold themselves in readiness to march that evening, under
the banner of Douglas. Interpreting this information by the fears which
their recent surprisal had inspired, the English concluded that the enemy
had formed the plan of a second attack; and in this persuasion, drew up
their whole army in order of battle, and so continued all night resting
upon their arms. Early in the morning, two Scottish trumpeters having been
seized by the patroles, reported that the Scottish army had decamped
before midnight, and were already advanced many miles on their march
homeward. The English could not, for some time, give credit to this
strange and unwelcome intelligence; but, suspecting some stratagem,
continued in order of battle, till, by their scouts, they were fully
certified of its truth. The Scottish leaders, finding that their
provisions were nearly exhausted, had prudently resolved upon a retreat;
and, in the evening, having lighted numerous fires, as was usual, drew off
from their encampment shortly after nightfall. To effect their purpose,
the army had to pass over a morass, which lay in their rear, of nearly two
miles in extent, till then supposed impracticable by cavalry. This passage
the Scots accomplished by means of a number of hurdles, made of wands or
boughs of trees wattled together, employing these as bridges over the
water runs and softer places of the bog; and so deliberately had their
measures been adopted and executed, that when the whole body had passed,
these were carefully removed, that they might afford no assistance to the
enemy, should they pursue them by the same track. Edward is said to have
wept bitterly when informed of the escape of the Scottish army; and his
generals, well aware how unavailing any pursuit after them must prove,
next day broke up the encampment, and retired toward Durham.
This was the last signal
service which Douglas rendered to his country; and an honourable peace
having been soon afterwards concluded between the two kingdoms, seemed at
last to promise a quiet and pacific termination to a life which had
hitherto known no art but that of war, and no enjoyment but that of
victory. However, a different, and to him, possibly, a more enviable fate
awaited the heroic Douglas. Bruce dying, not long after he had witnessed
the freedom of his country established, made it his last request, that Sir
James, as his oldest and most esteemed companion in arms, should carry his
heart to the holy land, and deposit it in the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem,
to the end his soul might be unburdened of the weight of a vow which he
felt himself unable to fulfil.
Douglas, attended by a
numerous and splendid retinue of knights and esquires, set sail from
Scotland, in execution of this last charge committed to his care by his
deceased master. He first touched in his voyage at Sluys in Flanders,
where, having learned that Alphonso, king of Castile and Leon, was then at
waged war with Osmyn, the Moorish king of Granada, he seems to have been
tempted, by the desire of fighting against the infidels, to direct his
course into Spain, with intention, from thence, to combat the Saracens in
his progress to Jerusalem. Having landed in king Alphonso’s country,
that sovereign received Douglas with great distinction; and not the less
so, that he expected shortly to engage in battle with his Moorish enemies.
Barbour relates, that while at this court, a knight of great renown, whose
face was all over disfigured by the scars of wounds which he had received
in battle, expressed his surprise that a knight of so great fame as
Douglas should have received no similar marks in his many combats. "I
thank heaven," answered Sir James, mildly, "that I had always
hands to protect my face." And those who were by, adds the author,
praised the answer much, for there was much understanding in it.
Douglas, and the brave
company by whom he was attended, having joined themselves to Alphonso’s
army, came in view of the Saracens near to Tebas, a castle on the
frontiers of Andalusia, towards the kingdom of Grenada. Osmyn, the Moorish
king, had ordered a body of three thousand cavalry to make a feigned
attack on the Spaniards, while, with the great body of his army, he
designed, by a circuitous route, unexpectedly, to fall upon the rear of
king Alphonso’s camp. That king, however, having received intelligence
of the stratagem prepared for him, kept the main force of his army in the
rear, while he opposed a sufficient body of troops, to resist the attack
which should be made on the front division of his army. From this
fortunate disposition of his forces, the christian king gained the day
over his infidel adversaries. Osmyn was discomfited with much slaughter,
and Alphonso, improving his advantage, gained full possession of the enemy’s
camp.
While the battle was thus
brought to a successful issue in one quarter of the field, Douglas,
and his brave companions, who fought in the van, proved themselves no less
fortunate. The Moors, not long able to withstand the furious encounter of
their assailants, betook themselves to flight. Douglas, unacquainted with
the mode of warfare pursued among that people, followed hard after the
fugitives, until, finding himself almost deserted by his followers, he
turned his horse, with the intention of rejoining the main body. Just
then, however, observing a knight of his own company to be surrounded by a
body of Moors, who had suddenly rallied, "Alas," said he,
"yonder worthy knight shall perish, but for present help;" and
with the few who now attended him, amounting to no more than ten men, he
turned hastily, to attempt his rescue. He soon found himself hard pressed
by the numbers who thronged upon him. Taking from his neck the silver
casquet which contained the heart of Bruce, he threw it before him among
the thickest of the enemy, saying, "Now pass thou onward before us,
as thou wert wont, and I will follow thee or die." Douglas, and
almost the whole of the brave men who fought by his side, were here slain.
His body and the casquet containing the embalmed heart of Bruce were found
together upon the field; and were, by his surviving companions, conveyed
with great care and reverence into Scotland. The remains of Douglas were
deposited in the family vault at St Bride’s chapel, and the heart of
Bruce solemnly interred by Moray, the regent, under the high altar of
Melrose Abbey.
So perished, almost in the prime of his
life, the gallant, and, as his grateful countrymen long affectionately
termed him, "the good Sir James Douglas," having survived little
more than one year, the demise of his royal master. His death was soon
after followed by that of Randolph; with whom might be said to close the
race of illustrious men who had rendered the epoch of Scotland’s
renovation and independence so remarkable.
Pictures are the copyright of
Patrick Hickey
The place where Douglas finally died was
during the battle of Teba, a small town in Andalusia, on August 25th 1330.
In the towns Plaza Espana there is erected a big granite stone in his
memory. One side of this stone is in Spanish and the other side in
English.
(Thanks to Patrick for sending us this note and these pictures.)
Note
"The statement of Chalmers (Caledonia, I, p 579) that the Douglases sprang
from Theobaldus the Fleming, who obtained a grant of lands on the Douglas
Water from the Abbot of Kelso is generally discredited. The lands granted
by the abbot to Theobald the Fleming between 1147 and 1160, though on the
Douglas Water, were not a part of the ancient territory of Douglas, and
there is no proof nor even any probability that William de Duglas of the
12th century is descended from the Fleming who settled on the opposite
side of his native valley." (The Surnames of Scotland, 1946, George F.
Black, p. 218) |
