Sir Archibald Tyneman Regent Douglas

October 26, 2013 — 6 Comments

My 19th great grandfather died in battle defending Scotland against the English..Think bloody brutal….think crusaders…think crazy people…..

Battle of Halidon Hill

Although Robert the Bruce’s reign in Scotland resulted in recognition of Scotland as a separate nation by Edward III in 1328, further wars with England were soon to follow. The deep animosity between England and Scotland that hardened after the wars of Independence, led to intermittent warfare for much of the next three hundred years. Scotland was handicapped in that, sometimes when a strong king was needed, they ended up have a weak king or a minor on the throne. This power vacuum at the top, helped to create an environment where the more noble families of Scotland vied for the power. The Earls of Douglas (the Black Douglases), the Earls of Angus (the Red Douglases), the Hamiltons and the Lennox Stewarts, were all related to the Scottish crown by marriage and battled for the power behind the throne. On Bruce’s death in 1329, he was succeeded by his 5 year old son, David II. England lost little time in taking advantage of the presence of a minor on the Scottish throne. Edward III provided encouragement and active support to Edward Balliol, the son of John Balliol, for claiming the throne. In 1332, Edward Balliol invaded Scotland with a mainly English force and was crowned King at Scone, after routing a much larger Scots army under Donald, Earl of Mar as Guardian, at Dupplin Moor near Perth. The disastrous defeat was due to incompetency of Mar, the use of long bows and their devastating effect by the English, and a guide with local knowledge, provided by a Murray of Tullibardine. The following year, 1333, saw the Scots suffer an even more disastrous defeat at Halidon Hill, near Berwick. In an effort to end the siege of the town of Berwick by the English, Sir Archibald Douglas, who had succeeded Mar as Guardian, ignored reasonable battle tactics. They advanced across a bog, against a strongly held position on Halidon Hill, under heavy fire from the English archers with their deadly longbows. They suffered enormous casualties and failed to even reach the English. Douglas, and most of the other leading Scots nobles and fighting men were left dead on the field. In 1334, Balliol acknowledged Edward III’s overlordship and ceded the southern half of Scotland, from East Lothian to Dumfries, to England, an act which was to mean over a hundred years of warfare before they were recovered. This resulted in the Lochmaben Castle being given to the English. It also affected Thomas Carruthers, 1st Laird of Mouswald. For his earlier support of Robert the Bruce, Thomas Carruthers had received in about 1320, a charter for all the lands of “Musfald et de Appiltretwayt cum pertinenciis”. This Thomas also received in the same year, a charter of half of all the lands, with pertinents, which belonged to “Robert de Applingdene in valle Anandie”, due to his marriage to one of Robert de Applynden’s daughters, Joan. These lands formed the kernel of what was to become just 4 generations later, the 1st Carruthers Barony – Mouswald, which is located just a few miles south of Dumfries. With Edward Balliol ceding the land of Dumfries to Edward III, Thomas Carruthers accepted an office under Edward III of England and relocated there, leaving his Mouswald land to his next oldest brother, William, now 2nd Lord Mouswald. Thomas is assumed to be the founder of the Carruthers family in England, where the family appeared at an early date in Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire.

Sir Archibald Tyneman Regent Douglas:

The younger son of Sir William “le Hardi” Douglas, the Governor of the castle at Berwick-upon-Tweed, and his wife, Eleanor de Lovaine. Douglas was also half-brother of “the Good” Sir James Douglas, King Robert the Bruce’s deputy.

Douglas is first heard of in 1320 when he received a charter of land at Morebattle in Roxburghshire and Kirkandrews in Dumfriesshire  from King Robert. In 1324, he was recorded as being granted the lands of Rattray and Crimond in Buchan and the lands of Conveth, Kincardineshire, already being possession of Cavers in Roxburghshire, Drumlanrig and Terregles in Dumfriesshire, and the lands of West Calder in Midlothian. By the time of his death, he was also in possession of Liddesdale.

History then keeps quiet about Douglas except whilst serving under his older brother, James, in the 1327 campaign in Weardale, where his foragers “auoint curry apoi tot levesche de Doresme”– overran nearly all the Bishopric of Durham. (Scalacronica)

Following the death of King Robert I and his brother’s crusade with the dead king’s heart, Douglas once again becomes of note. He was made guardian of the kingdom since he was “the principal adviser in…the confounding of the king” as much as he was heir to his brothers influence after Murray’s capture. Archibald’s success in local raids though, did not prepare him for full scale conflict.

During the Second War of Scottish Independence, Edward Baliol, son of King John of Scotland, had invaded Scotland with the backing of Edward III of England, inflicting a defeat on the Scots at the Battle of Dupplin Moor. Douglas served under the dubious leadership of Patrick V, Earl of Dunbar leader of the second army that aimed to crush the smaller Balliol force. Following the rout of the Earl of Mar’s force Dunbar did not engage the disinherited but retreated allowing Edward Balliol to be crowned at Scone. Following this battle, and as a sweetener to the English, Edward Baliol agreed to cede the county, town and castle of Berwick to England in perpetuity. However Douglas led a Bruce loyalist defeat on Balliol at theBattle of Annan, forcing him to flee back to England.
Battle of Halidon Hill

Edward III himself came north to command his army, and laid siege to Berwick. However, a temporary truce was declared with the stipulation that if not relieved within a set time, Sir Alexander Seton, the governor, would deliver the castle to the English. Douglas raised an army to relieve the beleaguered defenders of Berwick. As a feint to draw the English away he invaded Northumberland, but was forced to return to Berwick when the English refused to be lured. On 19 July, Edward’s army took positions at the summit of Halidon Hill, a summit some mile and a half north of the town with commanding views of the surrounding country. Douglas’ numerically superior force was compelled to attack up the slope and were slaughtered by the English archers, a prelude, perhaps, to the battles of Crécy and Agincourt. The English won the field with little loss of life, however by the close of the fight, countless Scots common soldiery, five Scots Earls and the Guardian Douglas lay dead. The following day Berwick capitulated.

Archibald was succeeded by his son, William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas.

Sir Archibald Douglas married Beatrice Lindsay, daughter of Sir Alexander Lindsay of Crawford, an ancestor of the Earls of Crawford. They had three children.

• John Douglas (d.b. 1342 in the retinue of David II of Scotland in France)
• William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas
• Eleanor Douglas married five times

1. Alexander, Earl of Carrick, natural son of Edward Bruce, King of Ireland (k. 1333, Battle of Halidon Hill)
2. Sir James de Sandilands, ancestor of the Lords of Torphichen (d.b. 1358)
3. Sir William Tours of Dalry (d.b. 1368)
4. Sir Duncan Wallace of Sundrum (d.b. 1376)
5. Sir Patrick Hepburn of Hailes, ancestor of the Earls of Bothwell

Sir Archibald Tyneman Regent Douglas (1289 – 1333)

is my 19th great grandfather
Baroness Catherine Douglas (1320 – 1360)
daughter of Sir Archibald Tyneman Regent Douglas
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