and he himself fell into the hands of Edward's officers about a year after the escapade, when he was imprisoned in the castle of Leeds. He obtained his liberty in a short time on four English barons becoming his sureties, and ultimately he was sentenced to a fine of 100l., which, however, Douglas never paid.
Douglas was among the barons who refused to acknowledge Baliol as king. On one occasion, when three of Baliol's officers presented themselves at the gate of Douglas Castle to enforce a decree of court in a civil case against him, he seized and threw them into his dungeons, whence one only made his escape, one dying while in durance, and the other being put to death. Events, however, ultimately obliged him to give way, and he proceeded to court to do homage to Baliol, whose majesty was vindicated by committing the recalcitrant baron for a short period to prison. But Baliol was soon afterwards forced to abdicate by the Scottish barons, who, resenting the commands of Edward that they should serve him in his foreign wars, entered into alliance with France and fortified Berwick and the borders against England. To Douglas was entrusted the command of the castle of Berwick. That town was besieged and taken by Edward amid a most sanguinary massacre of the inhabitants, but the garrison capitulated on assurance of life and limb, and were permitted to depart, all save Douglas, who was committed to close ward in a tower of the castle which has since been known as the Douglas tower. He regained his freedom by taking the oath of fealty to Edward, and received back his Scottish estates, but not his English manors, from Edward, who had compelled the Scots to lay down their arms. Douglas, however, on hearing of Wallace's movements in the cause of Scottish independence, though apparently without any communication with him, openly declared his adoption of the cause by attacking and capturing the castle of Sanquhar in Nithsdale, then held by an English garrison. One of his followers took the place of a wagoner who was wont to supply the garrison with wood, and, stopping the wagon under the portcullis, gave signal to Douglas and his companions, who lay in ambush near by. The capture was effected, but the castle was again besieged. Douglas found means to convey word of his straits to Wallace, who immediately brought relief and compelled the English to leave the district. Within a short time the most considerable of the Scottish barons joined Wallace, and as Edward was now moving a large army into Scotland, they consolidated their forces upon the water of Irvine in Ayrshire. The two armies met there in the month of July 1297, but the barons submitted voluntarily to the clemency of Edward. Douglas was at once loaded with irons and recommitted to prison in Berwick, whence he was carried to the Tower of London by the English, when in a few months they were obliged to evacuate the country. On 12 Oct. 1297 Douglas was committed to the Tower by an order signed by Prince Edward in his father's name, and he died there in the following year. In January 1299 Eleanor de Ferrers is mentioned as the widow of Sir William Douglas. Besides the ‘Good’ Sir James, he left two other sons: Hugh, who became a churchman, but afterwards succeeded his nephew William as lord of Douglas, and Sir Archibald Douglas [q. v.], who for a short time was regent of Scotland during the minority of David II, and was fatally wounded at the battle of Halidon in 1333. The Douglas estates in Scotland were, on the occasion of the capture of their lord, confiscated by Edward and bestowed by him on Sir Robert Clifford.
[Fordun's Scotichronicon; Liber de Calchou; Stevenson's Historical Documents; Rymer's Fœdera; Wyntoun's Cronykil; Chronicon Walteri de Hemingburgh; Ragman Rolls; Scalacronica; Barbour's Bruce; Hume of Godscroft's Houses of Douglas and Angus; Fraser's Douglas Book.]
DOUGLAS, Sir WILLIAM, Knight of Liddesdale (1300?–1353), was the eldest lawful son of Sir James Douglas of Lothian, though he has been called by many the natural son of the ‘Good’ Sir James. These two Sir James were descended from the same great-grandfather. The ‘Good’ Sir James was progenitor of the Earls of Douglas and Angus; his namesake was ancestor of the Douglases, earls of Morton.
Sir William Douglas was one of the bravest leaders of the Scots during the minority of David II. In 1332 he held the responsible post of keeper of Lochmaben Castle and warden of the west marches. Hostilities had been renewed between England and Scotland, and Douglas led a marauding force into Cumberland, laying waste the territory of Gillsland. In a retaliatory raid led by Sir Anthony Lucy, in which the English were confronted by Douglas and the forces at his command, the Scots were totally defeated, and Douglas, with all the chivalry of Annandale, fell into the hands of their enemies. For two years he was confined in irons in the castle of Carlisle, and was then ransomed for a very considerable sum. He returned to Scotland, and after taking part in the deliberations of the Scottish estates at Dairsie
