Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/290

 and it was conferred on Secretary Maitland. In April 1586 he was made warden of the western marches, and in November lieutenant-general with command of the forces on the border. The ministers and strenuous presbyterians among the laity were much disappointed that the presbyterian form of church government was not restored. The Melvilles and Calderwood, the church historian, attribute this to the lukewarmness of the nobles, who when their estates were restored cared nothing for the church. Angus is treated by these writers as a conspicuous and solitary exception, ‘to whose heart,’ says James Melville, ‘it was a sore grief that he could not get concurrence with the presbyterian form of church government.’ There is no doubt he was the most zealous presbyterian among the nobles. But the dispute was not so simple as is represented by presbyterian authors, nor was the maintenance of episcopacy due only to the selfishness of the nobles. The king's favour for that form of government in the church was avowed. The English queen also supported it. It had a large portion of the people, especially in the north, on its side. Its opponents associated their advocacy of presbyterianism with views hazardously near republican principles. Angus expressed his views in a conversation with his retainer and biographer, Hume of Godscroft, upon a sermon John Craig (1512?–1600) [q. v.], one of the few moderates of the clergy, had preached against Francis Gibson of Pencaitland, who had insisted on the limitations of the royal authority and the duties of subjects on the point of religion. He indicated to Hume his distrust of all his colleagues, and ended by saying: ‘God knoweth my part I sall neglect nothing that is possible to me to do, and would to God the king knew my heart to his weal and would give ear to it.’

This is not the language of a strong man. He was in fact of a weak constitution, physically, and more fitted to be led than to be a leader. But he was a good figurehead for the presbyterian party. In the spring of 1587 he was placed in ward at Linlithgow, it is said on the accusation of Arran, who had then come back to Scotland. But nothing came of this, and he was present at the curious scene of the riding of the parliament from Holyrood to the castle on 15 May, when James, who had now attained majority, coupled the rival nobles two by two as a sign of their reconciliation and his own character as a peace-maker. Angus went with Montrose, a curious conjunction, for Montrose was suspected of a liaison with the second wife of Angus, Lady Margaret Leslie, from whom he was divorced in 1587. In July of the same year he married Jean Lyon, daughter of Lord Glamis and widow of Robert Douglas the younger of Lochleven. Angus bore the sceptre in the following parliament in July 1587, the crown being carried by the king's kinsman, the young duke of Lennox. In this parliament he obtained a ratification of the lands and honours of Morton which his uncle had entailed on him, and the title of Earl of Morton was conferred on him in October, but he held it so short a time that it is seldom given him. Both in this and the following year he acted vigorously in the administration of the border, doing justice on the border thieves, and taking part with James in person in an expedition against Lord Maxwell, which ended in his capture. But his health broke down, perhaps through these exertions, and he died at Smeaton, near Dalkeith, on 4 Aug. 1588. His body was buried at Abernethy, but his heart by his own wish at Douglas, perhaps one of the latest examples of that singular custom. He was only thirty-three, and his death was at the time attributed by the superstitious to sorcery. One poor woman was arrested on suspicion, but not condemned. Another, Agnes Sampson, who was burnt some years later for witchcraft, actually confessed to putting an image with the letters A. D. upon it into the fire, but said she did not know the letters referred to Angus. It appears to have been really due to consumption. He had no children by his first two wives, and a posthumous child of his last wife being a daughter, the estates and title of Douglas passed to Sir William Douglas of Glenbervie, the heir male of the eighth earl, those of Morton to Douglas of Lochleven. James VI used to call Angus ‘the ministers' king,’ and they have so loaded him with compliments as almost to excite suspicion of their truth. He was, according to Calderwood, ‘more religious nor anie of his predecessors, yea, nor anie of all the erlis in the countrie much beloved of the godlie.’ But Archbishop Spotiswood, a contemporary and more impartial writer, corroborates the testimony of the presbyterians, and describes him ‘as a nobleman in place and rank, so in worth and virtue, above other subjects; of a comly personage, affable, and full of grace, a lover of justice, peaceable, sober, and given to all goodness, and which crowned all his virtues, truly pious.’ Hume of Godscroft speaks of him not only with the panegyrical language he applies to all the Douglases, but in terms of strong personal attachment.

[Hume of Godscroft's History is specially valuable for the life of this earl. Sir W. Fraser's Douglas Book adds some documents. The Privy Council Records, James Melville's Diary, and