During the century and a half of their power the Black Douglases earned fame as Scotland’s champions in the front line of war against England. On their shields they bore the bloody heart of Robert Bruce, the symbol of their claim to be the physical protectors of the hero-king’s legacy. But others saw the power of these lords and earls of Douglas in a different light. To their critics the Douglases were a force for disorder in the kingdom, lawless, arrogant and violent, whose power rested on coercion and whose defiance of kings and guardians ultimately provoked James II into slaying the Douglas earl with his own hand.

Michael Brown analyses the rise and fall of this family as the dominant magnates of the south, from the deeds of the Good Sir James Douglas in the service of Bruce to the violent destruction of the Douglas earls in the 1450s. Alongside this study of the accumulation and loss of power by one of the great noble houses, The Black Douglases includes a series of thematic examinations of the nature of aristocratic power. In particular these emphasise the link between warfare and political power in southern Scotland during the fourteenth century. For the Black Douglases, war was not just a patriotic duty but the means to power and fame in Scotland and across Europe.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Maps and Genealogical Tables
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: ‘A Large and Attractive Book’
• 1. The Black Douglas
  • The Green Tree
  • The Good Sir James
• 2. The Knight of Liddesdale and the Lord of Douglas
  • The Disinherited
  • The Rise of Douglas of Liddesdale
  • The Earldom of Douglas
• 3. Archibald The Grim (1358–1388)
  • The Stars of the Murrays
  • The Lion of Galloway
  • Archibald the Honourable
• 4. The Douglas Inheritance
  • The Heirs of Douglas
  • The Red and the Black
• 5. Ruler of the South: Archibald Fourth Earl of Douglas
  • Maker of War
  • The King’s Prisoner
  • Great Guardian
• 6. The Bloody Heart: The Rise of The Douglases and The Kingdom of Scotland
• 7. The War Wall: The Douglases at War
  • ‘With Dint of Derf Swerd’
  • Wardens and Warlords
• 8. Douglas Lordship
  • Council and Household
  • Land and Lordship I: The Middle March
  • Land and Lordship II: The West March and Galloway
  • Land and Lordship III: Lothian and Lanarkshire
• 9. ‘Eldest son of the Pope’: The Douglases and the Church
  • Protector and Defender
  • Uprooter of Schismatics
• 10. ‘Known through all Christendom’: The Douglases and Europe
  • ‘Sons of the Saxons’
  • ‘Très Chers Cousins et Alliez’: The French Connection
  • Duke of Touraine, Lieutenant-General of France
• 11. The Rise of James the Gross
  • ‘Our Dearest Nephew’: James I and the Earl of Douglas
  • King’s Men: James the Gross and the Royal Affinity
  • Marchmont: James I and the Douglas Heartlands
  • Lieutenant-General of Scotland
• 12. A Pride of Douglases
  • Black Dinner
  • Earl James and the Chancellor
  • ‘In Myddis of Murraye’: The Douglases in the North
  • Parliament of Fowls: The Douglases and the Community
• 13. The Fall
  • ‘Ever Servabile’
  • Breaking the Bonds
  • Conspiracy, Treason and Rebellion
• 14. Exile and End
  • ‘A Sore Rebuked Man’
  • The Fall of the Black Douglases
• Bibliography
• Index