g without
his permission. He gave a grudging allegiance to John de Baliol, and
swore fealty to Edward I. in 1291; but when the Scottish barons induced
Baliol to break his bond with Edward I. he commanded at Berwick Castle,
which he surrendered after the sack of the town by the English in 1296.
After a short imprisonment Douglas was restored to his Scottish estates
on renewing his homage to Edward I., but his English possessions were
forfeited. He joined Wallace's rising in 1297, and died in 1298, a
prisoner in the Tower of London.

His son, SIR JAMES OF DOUGLAS (1286-1330), lord of Douglas, called the
"Good," whose exploits are among the most romantic in Scottish history,
was educated in Paris. On his return he found an Englishman, Robert de
Clifford, in possession of his estates. His offer of allegiance to
Edward I. being refused, he cast in his lot with Robert Bruce, whom he
joined before his coronation at Scone in 1306. From the battle of
Methven he escaped with Bruce and the remnant of his followers, and
accompanied him in his wanderings in the Highlands. In the next year
they returned to the south of Scotland. He twice outwitted the English
garrison of Douglas and destroyed the castle. One of these exploits,
carried out on Palm Sunday, the 19th of March 1307, with barbarities
excessive even in those days, is known as the "Douglas Larder." Douglas
routed Sir John de Mowbray at Ederford Bridge, near Kilmarnock, and was
entrusted with the conduct of the war in the south, while Bruce turned
to the Highlands. In 1308 he captured Thomas Randolph (afterwards earl
of Moray), soon to become one of Bruce's firm supporters, and a friendly
rival of Douglas, whose exploits he shared. He made many successful
raids on the English border, which won for him the dreaded name of the
"Black Douglas" in English households. Through the capture of Roxburgh
Castle in 1314 by stratagem, the assailants being disguised as black
oxen, he secured Teviotdale; and at Bannockburn, where he was knighted
on the battlefield, he commanded the left wing with Walter the Steward.
During the thirteen years of intermittent warfare that followed he
repeatedly raided England. He slew Sir Robert de Nevill, the "Peacock of
the North," in single combat in 1316, and in 1319 he invaded Yorkshire,
in company with Randolph, defeating an army assembled by William de
Melton, archbishop of York, at Mitton-on-Swale (September 20), in a
fight known as "The Chapter of