Hugh the Dull, Lord of Douglas

Hugh the Dull (1294 – between 1342 and 1346) was Lord of Douglas, a Scottish nobleman and cleric.

The second son of William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas, William Wallace's companion in arms, and Eleanor Ferrers. Hugh's elder brother was Sir James Douglas, a hero of the Wars of Independence, and his younger was Sir Archibald Douglas, Guardian of the realm, and Scots commander at the Battle of Halidon Hill.

Hugh of Douglas is first heard of in 1296. Following the forfeiture of his father's English possessions, the two-year-old Hugh was taken into custody at Stebbing in Essex, one of his father's manors.

Nothing further is heard of him until 1325 when he appeared by proxy as a canon of Glasgow Cathedral during a meeting of Chapter. He appears to have been at this time parish priest of Roxburgh.

The death of his nephew William, Lord of Douglas, and brother Sir Archibald at Halidon Hill left the succession of the patrimony of Douglas to Hugh. However, Scotland at this time was going through the paroxysms of the Second War of Independence, and Edward III and Edward Balliol controlled much of the south of the country. Balliol, having paid homage for his kingdom to Edward, had also ceded to the Crown of England, in perpetuity, the Forests of Selkirk, Ettrick and Jedburgh, and the shires of Roxburgh, Peebles, Dumfries, Linlithgow, Edinburgh and Haddington - in essence, all the territories in which the Lord of Douglas held property. Edward had re-appointed Douglasdale to Robert de Clifford, 3rd Baron de Clifford, grandson of Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford, who had been granted it by Edward I of England following his dissolution of the Kingdom of Scots in 1296. Clifford never got to enjoy his new properties, by way of stout resistance from the men of Douglas led by William Douglas of Lothian.

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