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During the century and a half of their power the Black Douglases earned fame as Scotland's champions in the front line of war against England. On their shields they bore the bloody heart of Robert Bruce, the symbol of their claim to be the physical protectors of the hero-king's legacy. But others saw the power of these lords and earls of Douglas in a different light. To their critics the Douglases were a force for disorder in the kingdom, lawless, arrogant and violent, whose power rested on coercion and whose defiance of kings and guardians ultimately provoked James II into slaying the Douglas earl with his own hand.Michael Brown analyses the rise and fall of this family as the dominant magnates of the south, from the deeds of the Good Sir James Douglas in the service of Bruce to the violent destruction of the Douglas earls in the 1450s. Alongside this study of the accumulation and loss of power by one of the great noble houses, The Black Douglases includes a series of thematic examinations of the nature of aristocratic power. In particular these emphasise the link between warfare and political power in southern Scotland during the fourteenth century. For the Black Douglases, war was not just a patriotic duty but the means to power and fame in Scotland and across Europe.… (plus d'informations)
If you need to know about the late Middle Ages in Scotland, this is a book you really should have. Which sort of makes me hope you aren't interested in the late Middle Ages in Scotland....
There was probably no one King Robert I Bruce trusted more than Sir James Douglas, the man the king asked to carry his heart to Jerusalem after he died. (Douglas tried but was killed on the way in 1330.) James Douglas was not a member of the nobility, but with that sort of history, small wonder that his descendants became Earls of Douglas and gained many other honors. Over time, the family split into branches -- the Black Douglases, the Red Douglases, the Douglases of Dalkeith. The Black Douglases were the most important branch -- they were the ones who became the Earls of Douglas, and were the most powerful lords in the southern lowlands. They, more than anyone else, were responsible for guarding the march with England.
But their life expectancy, as a result, was poor. Died in battle, assassinated (in one case, murdered by King James II himself!), captured at a dinner and executed after a mock trial -- rarely did the earldom descend from father to son, and I lost track of the times when it went to an illegitimate offspring of someone-or-other. I don't think there was a living legitimate descendant of the Good Sir James left by the year 1400. Yet they still kept their earldom until 1455.
You truly can't understand the story of Scotland from 1340 to 1460 without knowing about the Black Douglases, and this is just about the only book on the subject.
It is also absolute torture to read. There are useful genealogies, and the index is excellent. But the text... to call the prose "leaden" is an insult to lead. The sentences run on forever, and most paragraphs are at least half a page in length. The syntax is awful, and there are so many names that you're always thinking, "Wait, do I know this person?" It doesn't help that more than half the Douglases seem to have been named either James or Archibald, but if every one of them had had a different name, it still would have been a great burden to plow through this thing. It took me about three weeks to slog through this thing -- five to eight pages per day was the most I could usually manage. Where was Michael Brown's editor? Did he die of exhaustion along the way, perhaps?
Bottom line: To the best of my knowledge, there is no better reference about the Black Douglases than this book. And there is no worse monument than this thing that should have been entered into a bad writing contest. ( )
I am going to confess that I only have a limited knowledge of Scotland in this period and I do not feel The Black Douglases is a very good introductory text. I found the politics, shifting alliances, and on-again, off-again conflicts very confusing to follow. Clearly this is a very interesting and exceptional family in Scottish history, but I wish I had read a more accessible text. ( )
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Introduction: 'A Large and Attractive Book' The Black Douglases were amongst the most powerful and certainly the most notorious of the great aristocratic families of late medieval Scotland.
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During the century and a half of their power the Black Douglases earned fame as Scotland's champions in the front line of war against England. On their shields they bore the bloody heart of Robert Bruce, the symbol of their claim to be the physical protectors of the hero-king's legacy. But others saw the power of these lords and earls of Douglas in a different light. To their critics the Douglases were a force for disorder in the kingdom, lawless, arrogant and violent, whose power rested on coercion and whose defiance of kings and guardians ultimately provoked James II into slaying the Douglas earl with his own hand.Michael Brown analyses the rise and fall of this family as the dominant magnates of the south, from the deeds of the Good Sir James Douglas in the service of Bruce to the violent destruction of the Douglas earls in the 1450s. Alongside this study of the accumulation and loss of power by one of the great noble houses, The Black Douglases includes a series of thematic examinations of the nature of aristocratic power. In particular these emphasise the link between warfare and political power in southern Scotland during the fourteenth century. For the Black Douglases, war was not just a patriotic duty but the means to power and fame in Scotland and across Europe.
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There was probably no one King Robert I Bruce trusted more than Sir James Douglas, the man the king asked to carry his heart to Jerusalem after he died. (Douglas tried but was killed on the way in 1330.) James Douglas was not a member of the nobility, but with that sort of history, small wonder that his descendants became Earls of Douglas and gained many other honors. Over time, the family split into branches -- the Black Douglases, the Red Douglases, the Douglases of Dalkeith. The Black Douglases were the most important branch -- they were the ones who became the Earls of Douglas, and were the most powerful lords in the southern lowlands. They, more than anyone else, were responsible for guarding the march with England.
But their life expectancy, as a result, was poor. Died in battle, assassinated (in one case, murdered by King James II himself!), captured at a dinner and executed after a mock trial -- rarely did the earldom descend from father to son, and I lost track of the times when it went to an illegitimate offspring of someone-or-other. I don't think there was a living legitimate descendant of the Good Sir James left by the year 1400. Yet they still kept their earldom until 1455.
You truly can't understand the story of Scotland from 1340 to 1460 without knowing about the Black Douglases, and this is just about the only book on the subject.
It is also absolute torture to read. There are useful genealogies, and the index is excellent. But the text... to call the prose "leaden" is an insult to lead. The sentences run on forever, and most paragraphs are at least half a page in length. The syntax is awful, and there are so many names that you're always thinking, "Wait, do I know this person?" It doesn't help that more than half the Douglases seem to have been named either James or Archibald, but if every one of them had had a different name, it still would have been a great burden to plow through this thing. It took me about three weeks to slog through this thing -- five to eight pages per day was the most I could usually manage. Where was Michael Brown's editor? Did he die of exhaustion along the way, perhaps?
Bottom line: To the best of my knowledge, there is no better reference about the Black Douglases than this book. And there is no worse monument than this thing that should have been entered into a bad writing contest. (