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"Hush yea Hush yea Dinae fret yea.
The Black Douglas will nae get yea."
lullaby from the North of England.
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The Douglas family were very loyal to the Crown and the Scots people. The Earl of Douglas fought and suffered the same death as The Wallace and the title was lost.
But every picture tells a tale and this is the tale of the Good Sir James of Douglas grand son of the Douglas who died with Wallace. This is a tale of valour and loyalty or glory and death. This is the tale of THE BLACK DOUGLAS. There are many tales told of the adventures of The Douglas but this is the best known of them all. This is the tale of how this
Bruce had been excommunicated from the Catholic Church, not once but, three times for his murder of the Red Coymn in a church. He then went on to be crowned king ( This tale can be found here) On his way back from Scone a wild eyed youth stopped the Kings party, dropped on one knee and swore allegiance to the New King. He was dark haired and of sallow complexion, his clothes were ragged but his voice was educated and told all who heard it that this youth was a noble. He was infact the very first noble to swear to Bruce. After many an heroic deed he would become known as the Good Sir James ( to the Scot's) and the Black Douglas ( to the English)
Bruce was desperate to make up for his crime and had sworn that as soon as he was able he would go on a crusade for the church, but after winning his countries freedom Bruce was out of time. Bruce was dying he was dying of the leprosy he had caught while hiding in the Irish Bogs. Bruce called for the Good Sir James and begged that on his death that the Douglas would cut out his heart and take it on a crusade for him.
This obviously upset James, but through the tears he was able to see that it meant so much to this man who was not only his king, but his friend too. With tears choking him and with a trembling hand James cut the heart out of the body of his dead king and placed it in a casket. Bruce's body was buried at Dumfermline Abbey, but his heart journeyed on to Spain to fight the saracens.
The Douglas did not fight alone, many of the Scot's nobles had sent sons on this mission to 'convert the heathen'. They fought on the field with great bravery, the Douglas would throw the heart in front of him and shout the battle cry 'A Bruce A Bruce' and the Scots would fight toward it.
This ends the tale of the Black Douglas, he died on the crusade and the heart was returned to Scotland and buried in Melrose abbey and somewhere in Spain there is a statue to unknown warrior named simply 'El Douglas'. The Douglas family ( and the others who had sons fight in this crusade) changed their coat of arms to remember this one Earl, their greatest Earl and the heart on it now is the heart of Bruce.
Indeed all the families who sent sons show the heart on their coat of arms, the Logan one shows the heart with a knife through it as their representatives dies in a knife fight before they reached Spain.
I hope in time to add more tales of the Douglas including my personal favourite 'The Douglas Larder'. There is no record of what his second name actually was, it may have been Douglas it may not have been.
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