Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/372

 meantime (ib. 368). The Douglas of Lochleven who took part in the ‘raid of Ruthven’ on 22 Aug. 1582 for the deliverance of James from the power of Lennox, was young Douglas (, iii. 637), not the father, as often stated; but the father on 30 Aug. signed the bond of the confederates to remain with the king, and to take measures for the establishment of the ‘true religion and reformation of justice’ (ib. 645). After the counter-revolution at St. Andrews 24 June 1583, he was sent to the castle of Inverness, but on 2 Dec. was ‘released from the horn’ (Reg. Privy Counc. Scotl. iii. 613), on condition that he found caution in 20,000l., which he did on 8 Dec., to depart forth of Scotland, England, and Ireland within thirty days (ib. 615). He and the other principal conspirators went to France, where they organised a plot which resulted in the capture of Stirling Castle on 31 Oct. 1585 and the overthrow of Arran. On 14 July 1587 he was appointed one of the commissioners for the executing of the acts against the jesuits (ib. iv. 463). On the death in 1588 of Archibald, eighth earl of Angus, who had succeeded to the title of Earl of Morton when Lord Maxwell's title was revoked in 1585 (ib. iii. 734), Douglas, in accordance with the will of the regent Morton, succeeded to the earldom of Morton. Lord Maxwell's title was, however, revived in 1592, so that for a time there were two earls of Morton (ib. iv. 767). On 12 July it was declared that the revival of the title in the person of Lord Maxwell should not prejudice Douglas (ib. 768), but the arrangement could scarcely be regarded as satisfactory by either, and on 2 Feb. 1593 they came to blows in the church of Edinburgh on the question of precedency, and had to be parted by the provost. The existence of two persons with the one title has also caused some confusion in contemporary records and in historical indexes. After the marriage of the king, Douglas, as one of the leaders of the presbyterian party, exercised considerable influence at court. In September 1594 he was appointed the king's lieutenant in the south. He died 27 Sept. 1606. By his marriage to Lady Agnes Lesly, eldest daughter of George, fourth earl of Rothes, he had four sons and six daughters. He was succeeded in the estates and earldom by his grandson, William Douglas (1582–1649) [q. v.] John, eighth lord Maxwell, who succeeded his father in 1593, claimed also the earldom of Morton, but in 1600 he was attainted, and from this time his claims ceased to be recognised. In 1620 the title was changed in the Maxwell family to Earl of Nithsdale, with precedency from the grant of the earldom of Morton in 1581.

[Registrum Honoris de Morton (Bannatyne Club); Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd and 3rd Reps. Reg. Privy Counc. Scotl. vols. ii–vi.; State Papers, reign of Elizabeth; Sir James Melville's Memoirs (Bannatyne Club); Keith's Hist. of Scotland; Calderwood's Hist. of the Church of Scotland; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 273–4. Douglas and his mother figure in Sir Walter Scott's Abbot.] 

DOUGLAS, WILLIAM, tenth (1554–1611), eldest son of William, ninth earl [q. v.], was born in 1554. He studied at the university of St. Andrews, served for a few years under his kinsman, the regent Morton, and then made a short stay at the French court. He imbibed there the principles of the Romish faith, on account of which, on his return to Scotland, he was disinherited by his father and placed under surveillance by the crown authorities. Before the death of his father, however, the influence of his mother procured the paternal pardon and reinstatement in his birthright; but as at the time of his father's death he was a prisoner, he had to obtain special permission from the king to go home and bury his father, as well as for the necessary steps connected with his succession.

In 1592 the earl of Angus was employed as the king's lieutenant in the north of Scotland, chiefly for the purpose of composing the feud between the Earls of Atholl and Huntly. Angus succeeded in his mission and obtained the thanks of the king. Soon afterwards the popish conspiracy known as the ‘Spanish Blanks’ was discovered, in which he was implicated. He was immediately incarcerated in the castle of Edinburgh. His countess, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Laurence, lord Oliphant, whom he married in 1585, conveyed a rope to him in prison by means of which he escaped, and succeeded in joining the Earls of Huntly and Errol in the north, where they and others of the conspirators were still at large. His warder appears to have been privy to the escape, and for his complicity was taken and hanged two years later.

The trial of the three earls proceeded in their absence, when James took their part and secured delay. Provoked by this treatment of the case, the synod of Fife, as acting for the whole kirk of Scotland, laid the earls under the sentence of excommunication. They secretly travelled south and waylaid James while journeying from Edinburgh to Lauder, demanding that their trial should take place on an early date at Perth and not at Edinburgh. The king gladly promised to comply, though obliged to affect displeasure. They expected by assembling their friends in arms at Perth to intimidate the court, but their