with vigour by Rothesay, and, according to some writers, his father-in-law, the Earl of Douglas. But the exact date of the death of the earl is unknown. Gray's ‘MS. Chronicle of the Sixteenth Century’ (Adv. Library) places it on Christmas eve, 1400, before the siege, which was raised by the approach of a large force collected by the Earl of Fife, now Duke of Albany, and through Henry's forced return to England to put down the rising of Owen Glendower. It is certain that Douglas died during this year, which also witnessed the deaths of the Queen Annabella and Walter Trail, bishop of Glasgow. These three deaths, according to Bower, gave rise to the saying that the glory, the honour, and the honesty of Scotland had departed, and opened the way to the tragic death of Rothesay, and the ambitious attempt of Albany to seize the supreme power.
The character of Archibald ‘the Grim,’ so highly praised both by the general historians of Scotland and those of his own family, was that of an able and energetic border chief. He was zealous for the interests of the church, of which he was a great benefactor and reformer—as was shown by his foundation of a hospital at Holyrood, and a collegiate church at Bothwell, and removal of the nuns from Lincluden, which he turned into a monastery—and also of the state, of which he was one of the chief supports against England, but he was above all desirous to extend the position of his own house, which was left at his death the most powerful family in Scotland. He had united both his son and daughter with the royal family by marriage, and had added the Bothwell estates by his own marriage, and Galloway by purchase, to the already wide hereditary estates of the Douglases. When the Earls of Fife and Carrick were created dukes, he refused that title with contempt, deeming the older Douglas earldom more honourable than a new patent of nobility, and wisely unwilling to accept the new title, which would be a mark for the jealousy of the other nobles.
He left by his wife, Joanna Moray, the heiress of Bothwell, two lawful sons and two daughters: Archibald, who succeeded him as fourth earl of Douglas [q. v.], became Duke of Touraine, and is called ‘Tyneman;’ and James, who afterwards became seventh earl of Douglas [q. v.], and is known as the ‘Gross’ or ‘Fat;’ Marjory, who was married at Bothwell Church in February 1400 to David, duke of Rothesay, by whom she had no issue; and Mary or Eleanor (according to Douglas and Wood), who was the wife of Sir Alexander Fraser of Philorth. An illegitimate son, William, sometimes styled Lord of Nithsdale, who distinguished himself in the English war, and by a somewhat piratical attack on Ireland and the Isle of Man in 1387, is separately noticed [see Douglas, Sir William, Lord of Nithsdale, d. 1392?)].
[Acts Parl. of Scotland; Exchequer Records; Wyntoun; Bower's continuation of Fordun and the family historian of the Douglases, Hume of Godscroft; Fraser's Douglas Book; Douglas and Wood's Peerage of Scotland, i. 425*, 426*.]
DOUGLAS, ARCHIBALD, fourth Earl of Douglas, first Duke of Touraine (1369?–1424), called ‘Tyneman,’ was second son of the third earl, Archibald ‘the Grim’ [q. v.] The influence and ambition of his father led to his marriage in 1390 to Margaret, daughter of Robert III, who granted him on that occasion, with his father's consent, the lordship of Douglas and the regalities of Ettrick, Lauderdale, and Romanock (Robertson, Index of Charters, p. 142). Ten years later, 4 June 1400, he was made keeper for life of the castle of Edinburgh. Towards the close of the same year, 24 Dec. 1400, he succeeded his father as earl and in the great estates of the Douglases, both on the east and west borders, as well as the barony of Bothwell, the inheritance of his mother, Jean Moray. In February of the following year, as warden of the marches, he remonstrated with Henry IV, then threatening an invasion of Scotland, and opposed with success the Earl of March and Henry Percy, whose followers were dispersed and many of them captured at Cockburnspath. Douglas carried the pursuit to the gates of Berwick, before which the lance and pennon of Thomas Talbot were taken. In August, Henry in person came to Scotland, and besieged the castle of Edinburgh, but the vigilant defence of the Duke of Rothesay and Douglas, aided by Albany, who appeared with a force at Calder Moor, forced him to raise the siege and return home. Possibly news of the threatened rising of Owen Glendower in Wales may have already reached him.
In the spring of 1402 occurred the death of Rothesay, the heir-apparent to the crown, at Falkland Palace, whither he had been conveyed, at the instance of Albany and Douglas, when arrested near St. Andrews. That at this time Douglas was acting in close union with Albany, whose aim appears to have been to convert his virtual into an actual sovereignty of Scotland, is proved by their meeting at Culross shortly before, and the joint remission in their favour issued shortly after the death of Rothesay in the parliament which met at Holyrood on 16 May. The silence of
