William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton

Aberdour Castle , Sir William the ancestral home of the Earls of Morton raised

Coat of arms of the Earl of Morton

Loch Leven Castle , previous ancestral home

William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton (around 1540 - 27 September 1606 ), also William of Lochleven , was a Scottish peer from the House of Douglas .

genealogy

William Douglas was the son of Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven (* 1515; † 1547, Battle of Pinkie Cleugh ) and Margaret Erskine , a mistress of Jacob V. Through his mother, he was the half-brother of the Scottish regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray , who in turn was a half-brother of Mary Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned as Queen of Scots in 1567/68 at William's ancestral home, Loch Leven Castle . He was also a cousin of the Scottish regent James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton (* 1525, † 1581). According to his decree, William of Lochleven succeeded Archibald Douglas , James Douglas' nephew and foster son, in the earl dignity in 1588 .

William Douglas is considered one of the ancestors of both Diana Frances Spencer and Camilla Rosemary Shand , the wives of the British heir to the throne Charles, Prince of Wales .

family

As a teenager, Sir William married Agnes Leslie (* 1541/42; † around 1606), the daughter of George Leslie, 4th Earl of Rothes († 1558), in 1554 . From this marriage came eleven children, including seven daughters, who were called because of their beauty "the seven pearls of Lochleven" ( the seven pearls of Lochleven ). Since the eldest son Robert, Master of Morton perished on a sea voyage in 1585, his son William Douglas, 7th Earl of Morton (* 1582, † 1648) succeeded his grandfather in the Earl dignity.

In the 1590s Sir William gave up Loch Leven Castle as ancestral home and residence in favor of Aberdour Castle , which was conveniently located on the Firth of Forth directly opposite the Scottish main town of Edinburgh and which had been given to him in 1588 with the title of Earl. Even before that, he continued the construction of the Newhouse of Lochleven , which his mother had begun in 1546, on the opposite shore of the mainland, which gradually replaced the castle as the center of the Lochleven estate. The Newhouse was the predecessor of the Kinross House , which is located on the site today .

In current affairs

In 1566, William Douglas was likely to be involved in the aristocratic conspiracy to assassinate Queen David Rizzio's favorite , led by Williams' cousin, 4th Earl of Morton and later regent James Douglas. On the day of Rizzio's murder, a formal charge was brought against Sir William, but this was not harmed; his fugitive cousin James was pardoned by Maria that same year.

The young William of Lochleven, who had not yet advanced to Earl of Morton, came deeper into the field of vision of European history when the Queen was imprisoned at Loch Leven Castle in June 1567 and was thus under his care. After his sister had signed her abdication at his brother's castle on July 24, 1567, the Earl of Moray, both half-brothers, took over the reign of their one year old son Jakob . The following spring, Maria managed to escape from the Inselburg to England with the help of Sir Williams' brother Robert, later 4th Earl of Buchan and Willie Douglas, a young orphaned relative. In a few days later by supporters of Mary brought against Moray troops Battle of Langside ( Battle of Langside ) William inherited a command with which he contributed by great presence of mind and military skill essential to Moray's victory.

After James Douglas was initially disempowered in 1578 and charged in 1580 for his involvement in the murder of Mary's husband, Lord Darnley in 1567, the Douglas clan fell out of favor and its leading members, including Sir William, were initially exiled to England and from participating largely excluded from the trial of her "cousin" in Edinburgh. After the Earl had been sentenced to death and executed in 1581 and a conspiracy involving Sir Williams failed in 1582 ( The Raid of Ruthven ), he was banished from the British Isles; He spent the years of exile on the continent (1582–1586) in La Rochelle, France . Two years later his firstborn Robert Douglas, Master of Morton , who died at sea in 1585 under unclear circumstances , was also exiled. In the following year, the Douglas' were rehabilitated, the briefly transferred to Lord Maxwell title of Earl of Morton , according to the orders of the executed Sir James, first went to the Earl of Angus and, upon his death in 1588, to William of Lochleven.

Returned to Scotland in 1587, he was appointed one of the plenipotentiaries to carry out the Jesuit decrees. After the king married in 1589, Morton came to have considerable influence at court as the leading representative of the Presbyterian group. In 1594 he was appointed royal representative for the south of the country ( king's lieutenant in the south ). Wilhelm of Lochleven , the 6th Earl of Morton, died on September 27, 1606 . Titles and lands went to his grandson William, Master of Morton .

Web links

• William of Lochleven, 6th Earl of Morton , on The Douglas Archives (English)
• Dictionary of National Biography: Douglas, William (d.1606) (DNB00) , on Wikisource

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} The Douglas Archives : William of Lochleven, 6th Earl of Morton , accessed December 27, 2013.
2. ^ ^{A b c} Dictionary of National Biography : Douglas, William (d.1606) (DNB00) , on Wikisource , accessed December 27, 2013
3. ↑ The Douglas Archives : Charles and Camilla - family ties , accessed January 21, 2014. Note : Various articles on German and English Wikipedia mention this ancestry at the same time, but without any evidence.
4. ↑ palmspringsbum.org: Sir William Douglas, 5th Earl of Morton , accessed January 19, 2014. Note : a) typically only eleven children are listed; b) the count of the Earls of Morton occasionally varies due to the title transfer to Lord Maxwell, which was finally revoked only after a long legal dispute.
5. ↑ Theodor Fontane placed a literary memorial stone for the young William in his poem The Dying Douglas .