William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas

William Douglas
Earl of Douglas
Seal of the 1st Earl of Douglas
Predecessor	New Creation
Successor	James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas
Spouse(s)	Margaret, Countess of Mar
Issue James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas, George Douglas, 1st Earl of Angus (illegitimate)
Father	Sir Archibald Douglas (died 1333)
Mother	Beatrice Lindsay
Born	1327 Scotland
Died	May 1384 Douglas, South Lanarkshire
Buried	1384 Melrose Abbey

William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas (c. 1327–1384) was a Scottish nobleman, peer, and magnate.

William Douglas was the son of Sir Archibald Douglas (died 1333) and Beatrice Lindsay, and nephew of "Sir James the Good", Robert the Bruce's trusted deputy. From the time of his father's death at Halidon Hill, he is described as being a ward of his kinsman and godfather, William Douglas, Knight of Liddesdale and was educated in France. In 1342, under pressure from Liddesdale, his uncle Hugh the Dull resigned the Lordship of Douglas to him, though Liddesdale rapaciously administered his estates while it was in his ward-ship, and assumed direct ownership of some of the Douglas territories.

Douglas returned to Scotland, upon reaching his majority in 1348, and immediately started to put his house in order. In 1346-47 following the Battle of Neville's Cross, King David II, and other nobility, including Liddesdale, were held captive by the English. Edward Baliol used the opportunity to ravage the whole of the south of Scotland. Douglas gathered his men and drove the English out from his ancestral lands of Douglasdale. Douglas went in the style of his uncle, the Good Sir James, and for the following few years waged guerrilla war against the English in the Ettrick Forest and Jedforests.

Douglas next became one of the commissioners to negotiate with the English for the release of David II of Scotland.

In 1353, Edward Baliol was ensconced at Buittle in his ancestral territories in Galloway. Douglas led a raid there to eject him due to Baliol's forfeiture of those lands that had been made over to Sir James Douglas in 1324. Following this raid, returning through the Forest, Douglas came across Liddesdale hunting on what Douglas viewed as his desmesne. This was the match that lit the fuse of years of resentment over Liddesdale's assumption of the Douglas patrimony, notwithstanding Liddesdale's murder of Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie which John of Fordun gives as a reason for the enmity between the men. Liddesdale, once in high standing with the Crown, had fallen into disfavour following his murder of Ramsay and another Knight, Sir David de Barclay. Douglas set upon Liddesdale and killed him. In February 1354, William of Douglas received a new charter from King David bestowing all the lands held by his uncle Sir James, his father Sir Archibald, and Liddesdale itself.