Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/73

Rh determined to try which was most powerful. The bishop of Dunkeld, seeing that bloodshed was threatened, used his influence with archbishop Beaton of Glasgow, who was a partisan of Arran; when that prelate, striking his hand on his breast, asseverated, on his conscience, that he knew nothing of the hostile intentions of his friends. He had in reality assumed armour under his gown, in order to take a personal concern in the fray, and his hand caused the breastplate to make a rattling noise. "Methinks," said Douglas, with admirable sarcasm, "your conscience clatters;" a phrase that might be interpreted either into an allusion to the noise itself, or to what it betrayed of the archbishop's intentions. Douglas retired to his own chamber to pray, and in the meantime his nephew met and overthrew the forces of the earl of Arran. The bishop afterwards saved Beaton from being slain by the victors, who seized him at the altar of the Blackfriars' church. Gavin Douglas probably entertained a feeling of gratitude to this dignitary, notwithstanding all his duplicity; for Beaton had ordained him at Glasgow, and borne all the expenses of the ceremony out of his own revenues.

The earl of Angus was now re-established in power, but it was only for a short time. Albany returned next year, and called him and all his retainers to an account for their management of affairs. The earl, with his nephew and others, was obliged to retire to England. The bishop of Dunkeld experienced the most courteous attention at the court of Henry VIII., who, with all his faults, was certainly a patron of literature. We are informed by Holingshed that Douglas received a pension from the English monarch. In London, he contracted a friendship with Polydore Virgil, a learned Italian, who was then engaged in composing a history of England. It is supposed that the bishop assisted him with a little memoir on the origin of the Scottish nation. Here, however, our poet was suddenly cut off by the plague, in 1521, or 1522, and was buried in the Savoy church, where he had an epitaph, inscribed on the adjacent tomb of bishop Halsay. It is painful to think, that in consequence of the intestine divisions of his country, this illustrious and most virtuous person died a denounced traitor in a foreign land.

The only other poem of any extent by Gavin Douglas, is one entitled "King Hart," which was probably written in the latter part of his life, and contains, what Dr Irving styles, "a most ingenious adumbration of the progress of human life." It was first printed in Pinkerton's collection of "Ancient Scottish Poems," 1786.

DOUGLAS,, 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 in Moray claim their descent. Archibald died between the years 1238 and 1240, leaving behind him