William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas
William, Earl of Douglas | |
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Duke of Touraine(de jure) Earl of Wigtown Lord of Galloway Lord of Bothwell, Selkirk and Ettrick Forest, Eskdale, Lauderdale, Liddesdale and Annandale Count of Longueville (de jure) Lord of Dun-le-Roi (de jure) | |
Predecessor | Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas |
Successor | James Douglas, 7th Earl of Douglas |
Born | 1424 Scotland |
Died | 24 November 1440 (age 16) murdered at Edinburgh Castle |
Buried | 1440 St Bride's Kirk Douglas, South Lanarkshire |
Noble family | Douglas |
Spouse(s) | Janet Lindsay |
Father | Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas |
Mother | Euphemia Graham |
William, 6th Earl of Douglas (c. 1424 – 24 November 1440) was a
He married Lady Janet Lindsay, daughter of David, Earl of Crawford, and succeeded to the earldom on the death of his father, who had served as regent of James II. Following Archibald Douglas's death, Sir William Crichton, Sir Alexander Livingston of Callendar, and James Douglas, Earl of Avondale (William Douglas's great-uncle) shared power. Together they conspired to break the power of the late Archibald Douglas's family, and summoned William and his younger brother David to Edinburgh Castle. The so-called 'Black Dinner' which followed saw the two boys summarily beheaded on trumped-up charges, over the protests of the young King James II.
The lordships of Annandale and Bothwell fell to the crown; Galloway to
In popular culture
- The Black Douglason the death of William.
- His death at the "Black Dinner" served as one of the inspirations for "The Red Wedding" in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Douglas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the