A Force To Be Reckoned With

Hero or anti-hero, Sir James “The Black” Douglas was a true brave heart

- David Cweinczok

Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye,

Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye,

The Black Douglas shall not get thee.

SO, they say, mothers in the north of England would soothe their children’s fears – and perhaps their own – when the Black Douglas rode south.

One local tale recounts how a calloused hand would then fall upon the unfortunate mother’s shoulder as a cold voice croaked, “don’t be too sure of that!”. Such was the dread of Sir James Douglas that he was known, while very much alive and fighting, as being “mair fell [fierce] than was any devill in hell” and as any devil knows, the mind is a far deadlier weapon than even the sharpest steel.

As one of King Robert Bruce’s most trusted captains, between 1306 to 1328 Douglas waged a campaign of psychological terror against the interests of three successive English Kings, Edwards I, II and III.

The reiving path of Douglas was unmistakeable – wells poisoned with dead horses, the wholesale execution of castle garrisons, sudden and ferocious strikes deep behind enemy lines. Even in an age not notable for its pleasantries, the Douglas was a force that few dared reckon with.

The very name has enticingly sinister roots. The Stygian depths of the Douglas Water, a tributary of the Clyde flowing through South Lanarkshire, gave the family its name. Its Gaelic roots are dubh glas, meaning ‘black stream’ and indeed, though the surrounding lands are beautiful there is a sinister steadiness to the course of the Douglas Water’s seemingly impenetrable surface.