Douglas book > Angus memoirs

26
WILLIAM DOUGLAS, SECOND EARL OF ANGUS.
In the negotiations which took place between Scotland and England in
1421 for the release of King James the First, William, Earl of Angus, was
proposed as one of the twenty hostages who were to take the place of the
king during three months' leave of absence from captivity. 1 But the
proposal was not carried into effect at that time. Two years later, when the
king's release was finally arranged, Earl "William was one of twenty-one
hostages named as securities for the payment of the indemnity of forty
thousand pounds demanded from King James. The annual value at that
time of the Earl's estate was estimated at the sum of six hundred merks. 2
When, however, the list of hostages was finally drawn up, the Earl of Angus
was not included ; 3 and happily so, as many of those who expatriated them-
selves on this occasion died in England after long periods of detention there,
for the ransom was never fully paid. The Earl, however, was one of the
Scottish nobles who met the king at Durham, and accompanied him into
his own kingdom. 4
Surrounded by over three hundred of the nobility and gentry of
Scotland, King James the Eirst and his queen, Joanna Beaufort, made a
triumphal progress to Melrose, 5 and thence to Edinburgh. The rejoicings
were continued through April to the end of May, in the latter part of which
the coronation of the king and queen took place at Scone, in honour of
which a number of knights were made, one being, it is said, William, Earl
of Angus. 6 King James also held his first Parliament, at which the Earl
of Angus was probably present. 7
The harshness of the measures taken by King James the First to reduce
the power of his nobility, and the sanguinary revenge with which he visited
1 Rymer's Fcedera, vol. x. p. 125.
- Ibid. p. 307.
3 Ibid. pp. 327-351.
4 Ibid. p. 309.
6 5th April 1424. Ibid. p. 344.
Liber Pluscardensis, 1S77, vol. i. p. 370.
7 Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland,
vol. ii. p. 3.