Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 1.djvu/122

 100 ANGUS. XXIV. 161 1. U. William (Douglas), Earl op Angus [S.], & and h. merged. On 17 June 1633 he was cr. Maiu^'ess of Docolas [S.], having on 1633. the 13th resigned his claim (as Karl of Angus) " to the privilege and prerogative n/Mf /r ; tilting and eotiwj'm His Ma jestie's Parliaments," &c.(f). See " DOUGLAS," Marquessate of [S.], cr. 1633; and see "DOUGLAS," Dukedom of [S.], cr. 1703, ex. 1761. From 1633 to 1703 the Earldom of Angus, and from 1703 to 1761 the Marquessate of Angus, [S.] (cr. 1703) was used as the euurtesy title of the eldest son of the Marquess, or Duke of Douglas [S.] respectively. In 1761, the Duku OF Hamilton fS.], as h. male of the above named William (Douglas), Earl of Angus and (1st) Marquess of Douglas [S.], sac. to those titles, his right to the Earldom of Angus [S.] lieing under the regrant of lf>47. Since that time ( f ) The Precedency ok the Hauls of Anots [S.] The precedence claimed by the Earls of Angus v:is that of Premier Punts ; the precedence recognised ns their right was that of Premier Eahls. It was connected with the privilege of leading the van in battle, and bearing the Crown in Pari., and is therefore, perhaps, first (distinctly) to be traced in 1067 (ride supra); but as the then Earl was a boy at the time, it was, probably, at least as old as the 6th Earl. When William Douglas, the h. male, had proved his right to succeed as (9th) Earl of Angus, he obtained a charter in 1001 confirming all the ancient privileges of the family of Douglas to himself and his heirs male, mz: — The first vole in councilor parliament ; to he the Kinfs hereditary Lieutenant ; to hare the leading of the. ran of the arm;/ in the day of battle, and to carry the Crown at coronations." After his death, ami to the detriment of his s. and h. William, the 10th Earl (then 35 years old and upwards), the Duke of Lennox [S.] twice (1590 and 1092) carried the Crown, but Earl William was confirmed in the right of his Ancestors to the " first place in first sitting and voting in all Parliaments &c, first place and leiding of wanguard in battailis and bearing the Crown " (Acts of Par]., iii, OSS). These privileges were again recognised 15 Dec. 1099, and then stated to have been granted to the Earls of Angus and " utneris of the surname of Douglas* for their inony notable and guide offices, &c." See " Hiddell," pp. 156-157. Lastly, in the confirmation of the Comitatus of Angus by charter under the Great Seal to the Earl in liferent and to his son in fee (13 Feb. 1602), there was included "primum locum in sedendo in omnibus nostris Pari ia mentis, conventionibus et conciliis; DoroLAS (as the Representative of Brnce's chief comrade in arms, Sir James Douglas, " the Good," who commanded at Bannoekburn in 1314) came to the forefront among the Earls. What the exact nature was of the prerogative asserted, in 1371, by the Earl at the coronation of Robert II (which some historians have imagined to have been a rival claim to the throne) does not clearly appear, but some sort of compromise regard - ing it seems to have been adjusted, a condition of which was the marriag e of the Earl's eldest son, James Douglas (afterwards the 2nd Earl), with Isabel, da. of the said King. The important part sustained by the 3rd and 4th Earls Douglas (1388-1424) in the days of the Regent Albany, &c, is a matter of history, the 4th Earl having m. the da. of the King (Uobert III), while his sister was wife to Prince David, the h. Bp. to the Crown. On the accession (1437; of .lames II [S.], the 5th Earl (Lieutenant General of that Kingdom) occupied a position, entitling him to look down, from a vantage ground of superiority, on the highest nobles of the land ; he had his Barons who held of him, as also his Council of Retainers, analogous to the Pari, of the Country. The Earl of Crawford, alone, with his Heralds and Pursuivants, occupied a somewhat similar position, and, it is well known how formidable these two great Earls became when they leagued together against the Royal House. That Douglas was in all respect* (*e premier Marl during nearly the whole of the reigns (1400-60) of James 1 and Janiea II [S.], cannot admit of doubt, and it was only after the attainder of the 9th and last Earl, in 1405, when, as was popularly said, "The Red Douglas put down the Black," that the former (then represented by George, Earl of Angus, astedfast adherent of the Crown during the Douglas rebellion), seems to have been tac itly allowed to step into all the privileges of the latter. Ex inform. G. Burnett, Lyon
 * It was under the changed order of tilings, after the war of Succession [BLJ that