“ehange 
32 
connected with. the most noble families 
in Europe, in consequence of immediate 
alliances with the greatest houses in 
England, Scotland, and France; and 
-matched no less than eleven times with 
the roval house of Stuart. Nor have 
the sovereigns cf these countries heen 
sparing of their honours ; for, in addition 
to a dukedom, marquisate, and earl- 
dom, in one portion of the United King- 
dom, and a barony in another, we find 
them also to have been dukes of Tu- 
renne, counts of Longueville, mareschals 
‘ef France, &c. &c. 
Whether this family. originally mi- 
grated from the continent, or may be 
considered asin some respects indigenous 
to the soil, is not perhaps exaetly known. 
Certain it is, that it became conspicuous 
in Scotland so early as 770, exactly two 
hundred and ninety-six years before the 
Norman conquest. At that remote pe- 
riod, there was-no other mode than that 
ef the sword to acquire iNustration ; arts 
being then utterly unknown, eloquence 
unpractised, commerce .exh:biting only 
rude beginnings. in the form of an inter- 
of unwrought commodities ; 
while arms qlone, that is to say, the daw 
of the strongest, afforded any pretension 
to superiority, or exhibited any claim to 
aweward. It was to this then that the 
family just alluded to, ,is indebted for its 
dands, its titles, andeven its name, 
Those who may be at the trouble, like 
the author-of sthis article,..to-read the 
ponderous ‘but elegant folio ediuon of 
athe learned and accomplished Bu- 
chanan, edited by Ruddiman, will there 
sce that the Douglases occupied the 
thighest stations in the state, were sur- 
rounded by.a. numerous body of follow- 
ers, and sometimes attained even the 
rank of protector, under the appellation 
of. Pro-Rer. | According to a remote 
tradition, the original ancestor towards 
the lattcr end of the eighth century, 
thaving restored the fallen fortunes of his 
‘king, by gaining a great victory, was re- 
warded, in compliance with the custom 
of those times, by a grant of Jandin the 
county of Lanark, most probably on the 
‘hanks of the stream at this day called 
tne Douglas, or De iglas-water, which 
uns into the Clyde.* ‘Thence we are 
told was derived the appellation, first of 
the barony, and then, by a very common 
eae a 
*& 66 Post Baroniam est Glottiana, (the 
Clyde.) Amnes,nobiliores funcit: a Java 
Avennuni, et Duglassen:, qui in Glottam 
decurrunt, dc Rerum Scot. Mids i, dQ) As 
Memoirs of the late Duke of Queensberry. [Feb. | 
transition, of the name. Thereto, accord- 
ing to the custom of those early days, 
_ was built a castle.* , 
But to proceed to more modern times : 
dn 1888, we fiad Archibald Douglas 
denaminated, by an eloquent Scottish 
historian, ‘ Austerus,” exhibiting great 
magnanimity in war, and what was then, 
and even now 1s, still more rare, great 
moderation after vietory. He is styled 
« Duglassiex Comes;” and we are told, 
that in 1996, when king David, during 
a convention of the states, at Perth, 
made the duke of Rothesay his son, and 
Robert bis brother, dukes, he. offered 
this title in vain to the head of the noble 
family just alluded tu. Here follows the 
text: 
“ SJic vani honoris titulus cum pri- 
mum‘ inter Scotos, magoo ambitionis, 
nullo virtutis incremento est celebratus : 
nec cuigquam posten feliciter cessit. Co- 
mitem elium Duglussie rea voluit eodem 
titulo afficere, sed ille, ut erat severus, 
constanter speciem supervacut honoris re= 
cusavit.” 
In 1420, we find another earl of 
Douglas of the name. of Archibald, in- 
vited into France by the dauphin, by 
whom he was acknowledged “ Dux Tu- 
ronensis.” In.1430, Archibald-Y. was 
shut up in the same castie in the same 
lake (Luch Leven) where Mary, in atter- 
times, happened to be confined; he was 
at length liberated, and in a republican 
speech addressed to the chancellor, 
-which is denominated “ superba respon- 
sio,” he denounced both the reigning 
‘king and his competitor as tyrants; the 
elevation.of neither of wham could prove 
serviceable to the state. We afterwards 
find his successors powerful enough to 
contend with the Hamiltons, with whom 
they at length intermarried ; but in 1455, 
one of them was obliged to take refuge 
in England. Under James IV. they 
proved once more triumphant ; for the 
earldom. of Angus appears to have been 
annexed to their other titles, At a lat- 
ter period, we perceive the head of this 
tribe or clan, nobly refusing to swear 
fidelity to Edward the First, who cast him» 
into prison. The next heir, soon after 
fought and overcame a body of English, 
* « Duglassius, Douglas, cognomen Sco- 
ticum in multas nobilissimas et fortissimas 
familias propagatum, quarum omnium olim 
princeps crat Duglasse comes, eoqtte extincto 
Comes Angusiz, postea ad Marchionis, ae 
non ita pridem Ducis Duglassie dignationem 
» evectys.—Prop. Nom, intespret. ad fin. Buc, 
during 
