from the borders, but also the restitution of Berwick. Henry treated this as a declaration of war. Angus was summoned to the English court, given a pension first of a thousand merks, afterwards 1,000l. a year, in return for which he took the oath of allegiance to Henry as supreme lord of Scotland, and promised the services of himself and his friends. Henry on his side engaged not to make peace unless Angus was restored. From 1529 till 1542 Angus lived in England, sometimes on the borders, when preparing for or engaged in raids upon Scotland, but for a longer period in or near London, where he was hospitably treated by Henry VIII. One interesting episode in his exile was the romantic fate of his daughter, Margaret Douglas [see Douglas, Lady Margaret]. Henry VIII was able to do nothing towards the restoration of Angus. He was too much engrossed with his own personal and political aims to press the war with Scotland. His object after the fall of Wolsey was to tempt his nephew to break with the church of Rome and become his ally in the struggle with the pope. Angus took part in several border raids between 1529 and August 1533, when a truce for a year was concluded. In May 1534 peace was made for the lives of the two sovereigns and one year longer. By a separate agreement Cawmills, a small fort in Berwick, which had been held by the Douglases in the English interest, was given up to the Scots, and Angus's residence in England was sanctioned. Henry after this renewed attempts to procure the restoration of Angus, and his efforts were backed by the French king. But James would listen to no petitioners however powerful on behalf of the Douglases. He had sworn that they should never return while he lived. The past history of the family justified his suspicion, but the conduct of Angus himself might perhaps have allowed an exception in his favour. Instead of mitigating, the Scotch king increased his severity to all that bore the hated name, or were in any way connected with it. The uncle of Angus, Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie [q. v.], was dismissed when he presented himself to the king. On 14 July the master of Forbes, husband of a sister of Angus, was tried, condemned, and executed for attempting the king's life with a culverin at Aberdeen, and also for aiding and abetting Angus. Three days later Lady Jane Glammis [q. v.], another sister of Angus, was burnt at the stake. James Hamilton, the bastard of Arran, was beheaded on a similar charge of conspiring with Angus. ‘Few escape,’ wrote Norfolk to Cromwell, ‘that may be known to be friends to the Earl of Angus or near kinsmen. They be daily taken and put in prison. It is said that such as have lands of any good value shall suffer at the next parliament, and such as have little shall refuse the name of Douglas, and be called Stuarts.’ In the parliament of December 1540 the forfeiture of Angus and his friends was sealed with the great seal and the seals of the three estates, because, as the record expressed it, ‘the manor of tratories suld remain to the schame and sclander of them that ar comyn of tham, and to the terrour of all uthers.’ The principal baronies of Angus were by the same parliament annexed to the crown. But the two chief enemies of Angus soon died. Queen Margaret died after a short illness at Methven. It was reported that on her deathbed she begged her confessor to beseech the king ‘that he wold be good and gracious to the Earl of Angus,’ and asked God's mercy that she had ‘afendit with the said earl as she had.’ Two years later James himself died, distracted with grief at the defeat of Solway Moss. He too was said when dying to have declared, ‘I shall bring him [Angus] home that shall take order with them all.’ But this story, which we owe to Calderwood, after Angus had redeemed his character for patriotism, is not to be implicitly credited.
The death of James led almost immediately to the return of Angus on terms which his brother George negotiated with the regent Arran and Cardinal Beaton. On 16 Jan. 1543 a proclamation was issued, restoring their estates to both brothers, and in March their forfeiture was rescinded by parliament. On his return Angus was made a privy councillor, and took an active part in the treaty of peace with England, as well as that for the marriage of the infant Mary Stuart to Edward, prince of Wales. On 9 April 1543 Angus himself married, for the third time, Margaret, daughter of Robert, lord Maxwell. Of this marriage he had more than one child. Their birth alienated his daughter, the Lady Margaret, who in the next year married Matthew, earl of Lennox, with the consent of his father and Henry VIII, on the condition of Lennox promising to be faithful to the English interest. Lady Lennox had counted upon inheriting her father's title and estates, but on the death of his own children, who all died young, he passed her by in an entail which settled them on his heirs male. The marriage of Lennox to the Lady Margaret had important political consequences. Lennox, bred in France, was summoned to Scotland by Mary of Guise, the queen-dowager, and Cardinal Beaton to support the French connection, but from this time he became the most devoted, indeed, with the exception of Glencairn, the only steadfast adherent of the
