Flower of Chivalry

Sir William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale (circa. 1300-k.1353) was also known as the Knight of Liddesdale and the Flower of Chivalry. He was a Scottish nobleman and soldier active during the Second War of Scottish Independence.

Douglas' father, James Douglas of Lothian, a minor landowner in the Lothians was a second cousin of the Good Sir James Douglas, a hero of the First War of Scottish Independence. At some point circa. 1323, Douglas succeeded to his small desmesnes. Circa. 1327 he became godfather to his third cousin William, son of Sir Archibald Douglas, and nephew of the "Good Sir James". Douglas was to hold minor positions of state and is not much heard of until 1332.

Robert the Bruce died in 1329 and also "The Good Sir James" on Crusade in 1330, Bruce's son David II was a child. Edward III of England, son of Edward II, had just attained his majority and was known to resent his father's disgrace at the hands of the Scots, and his own supposed humiliation when forced to sign the Treaty of Northampton in 1328, at just sixteen years old.

A party known as the Disinherited (senior Anglo-Scottish Nobles on the losing side after Bannockburn) lured Edward Baliol, son of former King John of Scotland from France in 1331, with the aim of restoring him to the throne and their privileges. Throughout the winter and spring of 1332 the Disinherited led by a veteran campaigner Henry de Beaumont and Baliol, with tacit support, but outward neutrality from Edward III, were gathering supplies and men for the invasion of Scotland. The last of the old guard Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, Bruce's nephew died in July and the leadership crisis in Scotland made it ripe for the picking. In violation of the Treaty of Northampton, which forbade any military incursions across the Border, Baliol's forces set sail from the Yorkshire coast and landed at Kinghorn in Fife, and marched to meet the forces of David Bruce. The Battle of Dupplin Moor, was a decisive defeat for the defenders and Baliol was crowned King of Scots on 24 September. Baliol had little support in his new kingdom, except in his ancestral lands in Galloway. Baliol and his army marched across the Lowlands, and was being slowly eroded by guerrilla tactics learnt only twenty years previously. Baliol was ambushed at the Battle of Annan on 16 December 1332. Baliol's brother Henry is said to have died in the skirmish, and it is the first time that William Douglas is recorded in battle, and Baliol himself had to flee south ignominiously.

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