"Lord Alfred Douglas Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 187020 March 1945), nicknamed Bosie, was a British author, poet, translator, and political commentator, better known as the friend and lover of Oscar Wilde. Much of his early poetry was Uranian in theme, though he tended, later in life, to distance himself from both Wilde's influence and his own role as a Uranian poet. Politically he would describe himself as ""a strong Conservative of the 'Diehard' variety"". Douglas was born at Ham Hill House in Powick, Worcestershire, the third son of The Most Hon. The 9th Marquess of Queensberry and his"
"after that, he chose to ""come out"" to his family. Ross found work as a journalist and critic, but he did not escape scandal. He is believed to have become Oscar Wilde's first male lover in 1886, even before he went to Cambridge. In 1893, a few years before Wilde's imprisonment, Ross had a sexual relationship with a boy of sixteen, the son of friends. The boy confessed to his parents that he had engaged in sexual activity with Ross and also admitted to a sexual encounter with Lord Alfred Douglas while he was a guest at Ross's house. After"
"of Queensberry, the father of Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas (who was on holiday in Algiers at the time), had planned to disrupt the play by throwing a bouquet of rotten vegetables at the playwright when he took his bow at the end of the show. Wilde and Alexander learned of the plan, and the latter cancelled Queensberry's ticket and arranged for policemen to bar his entrance. Nevertheless, he continued harassing Wilde, who eventually launched a private prosecution against the peer for criminal libel, triggering a series of trials ending in Wilde's imprisonment for gross indecency. Alexander tried, unsuccessfully, to"
"William Douglas, MP for Dumfries Burghs. Sir John Douglas, 3rd Baronet Sir John Douglas, 3rd Baronet of Kelhead (""circa"" 1708 – 13 November 1778) was Member of Parliament for Dumfriesshire between 1741 and 1747. A descendant of William Douglas, 1st Earl of Queensberry, he married Christian Cunningham, daughter of Sir William Cunningham of Caprington, 2nd Baronet. He was arrested in July 1746 on suspicion of having favoured the cause of the Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, and was, on 14 August, committed to the Tower of London. He was given bail in March 1748. He died at Drumlanrig in November 1778"
"Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London. At the height of his fame and success, while ""The Importance of Being Earnest"" (1895) was still being performed in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry prosecuted for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency with men. After two more trials he was convicted and sentenced to two years'"
"Sir John Douglas, 3rd Baronet Sir John Douglas, 3rd Baronet of Kelhead (""circa"" 1708 – 13 November 1778) was Member of Parliament for Dumfriesshire between 1741 and 1747. A descendant of William Douglas, 1st Earl of Queensberry, he married Christian Cunningham, daughter of Sir William Cunningham of Caprington, 2nd Baronet. He was arrested in July 1746 on suspicion of having favoured the cause of the Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, and was, on 14 August, committed to the Tower of London. He was given bail in March 1748. He died at Drumlanrig in November 1778 and was succeeded by his son,"
"Thomas William Hodgson Crosland Thomas William Hodgson Crosland (21 July 1865 or 1868–1924), was a British author, poet and journalist. He was born in Leeds on 21 July 1865 or 1868. He was an associate and friend of Lord Alfred Douglas, who was Oscar Wilde's lover. The bitter feud between Lord Alfred's father the Marquess of Queensberry and his son resulted in Wilde suing the Marquess for libel at Douglas's urging. Subsequently Wilde was charged with homosexuality after the Marquess produced evidence of Wilde's behaviour as justifying the libel. In 1895 Wilde was found guilty and imprisoned. After the trial"
"criminal libel for asserting (in writing on a calling card left at Wilde's club) that Wilde was a ""posing somdomite"" (sodomite). The charge against Queensberry was urged by Queensberry's son Lord Alfred Douglas, who reluctantly fled to France at the time to avoid possible arrest. Wilde was given the most severe sentence possible under the Act, which the judge described as ""totally inadequate for a case such as this"". Wilde was accused of having sex with over 12 young men between 1892 and 1894, and eventually he was sentenced to two years' hard labour. After prison, Wilde would condemn the"
"in ""Reynolds Newspaper"" linking their names attracted the attention of Douglas. When Garratt was imprisoned, solicitors acting for Douglas and Crosland visited him and attempted to convince him to admit to sexual relations with Ross. He initially refused, but later signed a statement to that effect, later claiming that he had been tricked. On learning of his relationship with Garratt, Ross dismissed Millard from his post as secretary. However, although his libel case was ultimately unsuccessful, Ross was impressed by Millard's loyalty in testifying despite the risk to himself and later reinstated him. In 1916, to avoid a second charge"
"In 1911, he became private secretary to Robbie Ross In 1914 he gave testimony on Ross' behalf in a libel suit against Lord Alfred Douglas and Thomas William Hodgson Crosland who were charged with conspiring to falsely accuse Ross with acts of gross indecency with a young man called Charles Garratt. Millard had met Garratt in 1913 and been intrigued by his ""Votes for Women"" badge. Garratt later visited him at his flat and they began a sexual relationship. When Garratt was arrested for importuning, Millard appeared in court to speak on his behalf and a report of the trial"
"adultery of the couple in the ecclesiastical Court of High Commission. However, as her first biographer points out, “The prosecution of Lady Purbeck was pretty clearly at the instigation of Buckingham and not of Purbeck.” In fact, the Duke seems to have become obsessed with his sister-in-law’s behaviour and appears to have accused her not only of adultery but also of witchcraft. In February 1625, he urged the Lord Chief Justice to imprison both her and Sir Robert Howard. Howard was confined in the Fleet Prison and Frances put under house arrest at the home of a London alderman. In"
"of life, including clothes, for him upon his release. Adey was also a partner of Lord Alfred Douglas in 1895, and a close friend of the poet from the 1890s until 1913. Douglas's biographer, Rupert Croft-Cooke, refers to Adey as ""a homosexual of what, among his fellows, was and is, called the 'discreet' kind."" Adey also developed a professional relationship and 15-year life partnership with Wilde's other good friend, Robbie Ross. When Douglas and Ross faced each other in court in 1913 in the Arthur Ransome libel case, Adey testified in Ross's favor, which caused Douglas to sever his ties"
"father's estate, but because of his insanity he was placed under the care of his brother John. John and their other brother Claude, Abbot of Paisley kept Arran prisoner at Craignethan Castle, and though it was reported in August 1575 that if he were well-used and at liberty there was hope of recovery, he was never again allowed any freedom. His mother Margaret Douglas, and aunts Elizabeth Douglas (the wife of Regent Morton) and Janet or Beatrix Douglas wife of Lord Maxwell, his sister Anne (mother of the Earl of Huntly), and youngest brother David were all also affected by"
"sister ""Florrie"" (Lady Florence Douglas) and was heartbroken when she married a baronet, Sir Alexander Beaumont Churchill. In 1885, Lord James tried to abduct a young girl, and after that became ever more manic; in 1888, he made a disastrous marriage. Separated from Florrie, James drank himself into a deep depression, and in 1891 committed suicide by cutting his throat. Another of his uncles, Lord Francis Douglas (1847–1865) had died in a climbing accident on the Matterhorn. His uncle Lord Archibald Edward Douglas (1850–1938), on the other hand, became a clergyman. Alfred Douglas's aunt, Lord James's twin Lady Florence Dixie"
"of the Earl of Morton. The Marshall of Berwick and diplomat Sir William Drury regretted his arrest because he had plotted with Douglas to kidnap George, Lord Seton, who was negotiating for Mary with the Duke of Alba, and their plan did not take effect. He was warded (held under house arrest) at Stirling Castle (another source says Loch Leven Castle). He appears to have lived, if not in prison, at least in privacy, during the Regency of Morton, but was, on 11 November 1578, restored to his former place on the bench, following a request letter from King James"
"31 December 1703. However, the Duke, being a true Gordon, could not stay out of trouble for very long. In March 1707, he was arrested along with other Jacobite Lords and was confined to Edinburgh Castle for being implicated in the aborted Jacobite invasion. For his long-suffering Duchess, this was the final straw, and she obtained a deed of separation from her husband. The historian Macky, in his book ""Characters"", observed the Duke and said that ""he hath a great many links, but they do not make a complete chain; is certainly a very fine gentleman and understands conversation and"
"to England in 1675, ostensibly to pay homage to Queen Elizabeth, but in reality to smuggle letters to the imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots from the then Scottish Regent, James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton. This was achieved successfully, and, as a result of his part in this exploit he found favour with the teenage King James VI. Yet in an era of plotting and conspiracy and vaccillating political loyalty he had been suspected of involvement in the 1591 plot against the King by Francis Stewart 5th Earl of Bothwell. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle then Dumbarton Castle before"
"appear, he was denounced as a rebel. He engaged with Huntly and Crawford in a rebellion in the north of Scotland, but their forces surrendered at Aberdeen on the arrival of the king in April; and in July, Erroll gave himself up to James, who leniently refrained from exacting any penalty. In September of the same year he entered into a personal bond with Huntly for mutual assistance; and in 1590 displeased the king by marrying, in spite of his prohibition, Lady Elizabeth Douglas, daughter of the William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton. Erroll was imprisoned on suspicion of complicity"
"Battle of Flodden, as was his cousin, John, Baron of Easter Moncreiffe. His son was William Moncreiffe the tenth Laird who supported the Douglas Earl of Angus and in 1532 was fined for refusing to attend the Court that condemned Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis to be burned to death as a witch, when her only crime was that of being a Douglas by birth. William Moncreiffe was later captured at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542 and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. When he was released he embraced the Protestant religion and was one of the barons"
"with Douglas and another Scottish prisoner Thomas de Morham; both were later committed to the Tower of London on 12 October 1297 with Douglas meeting his end there in 1298 due to mistreatment. William the Hardy was twice married and had three sons. By Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland: By Eleanor de Lovaine of Groby, daughter-in-law of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby and great-great-granddaughter of Godfrey III of Leuven: William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas Sir William Douglas """"le Hardi"""" (""the Bold""), Lord of Douglas (1255 – January 24, 1298) was a Scottish"
"and estates in 1591, and though in 1592 he was disgraced for his complicity in Lord Bothwell's plot, he was soon liberated and performed useful services as the King's Lieutenant in the north of Scotland. In July 1592, however, he was asking for help from Queen Elizabeth in a plot with Erroll and other lords against Sir John Maitland, the Chancellor, and protesting his absolute rejection of Spanish offers, but in October he signed the Spanish Blanks, and upon the discovery of this treason was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle on his return in January 1593. Douglas succeeded on the 13th"
"third time to the second daughter of Charles Dormer, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon, Lady Elizabeth Dormer, who finally provided him with two sons. According to Samuel Pepys, Chesterfield was a ladies' man, and had been one of the many lovers of Barbara Villiers, the most notorious mistress of King Charles II. His second wife, tired of his neglect, began flirting with the king's brother, the Duke of York, and also with James Hamilton. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London for wounding Captain John Whalley in a duel (1658) and on suspicion of involvement in Sir George Booth's rising"
"letter by Anna she says in reply to news about Douglas, ""I trust that he has forsaken his treasonable opinions, and that he is content."" Douglas recovered from this romance and eloped with a Lanarkshire heiress, Elizabeth Clerk of Glenboig. They married in Edinburgh in 1706. Douglas's political beliefs forced him into exile. He became a mercenary soldier and sold his estate at Fingland in the 1720s, though eventually he received a pardon. In Edinburgh on 29 August 1709 Anna married Alexander Fergusson, 14th Laird of Craigdarroch. (Early editions of ""Brewer's"" are in error claiming her husband was James Ferguson,"
"the enmity of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 and his powerful ally Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, both of whom had great influence with Charles I. Williams's liberal attitudes toward the Puritans led to a legal battle with the Court of the Star Chamber. Laud's biographer refers to the original charge against him, of revealing State secrets, as frivolous; but Williams, in his efforts to clear himself, laid himself open to a charge of subornation of perjury, which was proved, and he was suspended from his benefices in 1636, fined, and imprisoned in the Tower of London"
"the result of his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas. Oscar Wilde alluded to the scandal in ""The Picture of Dorian Gray"", first published in 1890. Reviews of the novel were hostile; in a clear reference to the Cleveland Street scandal, one reviewer called it suitable for ""none but outlawed noblemen and perverted telegraph boys"". Wilde's 1891 revision of the novel omitted certain key passages, which were considered too homoerotic. In 1895, Wilde unsuccessfully sued Lord Alfred's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, for libel. Sir Edward Carson, Lord Queensberry's counsel, used quotes from the novel against Wilde and questioned him about"
"Robert Maclellan, 1st Lord Kirkcudbright Robert Maclellan, 1st Lord Kirkcudbright (died 1641) was Provost of Kirkcudbright in 1607 and was best known for his riotous (and violent) behavior. . Robert was a direct descendant of the Laird of Bombie, Patrick Maclellan whom the 8th Earl of Douglas had murdered. The son of Sir Thomas Maclellan, Robert in his youth, found himself imprisoned in Blackness Castle, as punishment for his part in an affray caused along the Kirkcudbright High Street. He was likewise imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle for shooting a relative of the Minister of the Church of Kirkcudbright, the consequence"
"into the world, and unwittingly committed such a crime... You must be demented"". When Douglas's eldest brother Francis Viscount Drumlanrig died in a suspicious hunting accident in October 1894, rumours circulated that he had been having a homosexual relationship with the Prime Minister, Lord Rosebery, and that the cause of death was suicide. The Marquess of Queensberry thus embarked on a campaign to save his other son, and began a public persecution of Wilde. Wilde had been openly flamboyant, and his actions made the public suspicious even before the trial. He and a minder confronted the playwright in his own"
"near neighbours, Sir John and Lady Douglas, who claimed that Caroline had sent them obscene and harassing letters. Lady Douglas accused Caroline of infidelity, and alleged that William Austin was Caroline's illegitimate son. In 1806, a secret commission was set up, known as the ""Delicate Investigation"", to examine Lady Douglas's claims. The commission comprised four of the most eminent men in the country: Prime Minister Lord Grenville, the Lord Chancellor Lord Erskine, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord Ellenborough and the Home Secretary Lord Spencer. Lady Douglas testified that Caroline herself had admitted to her in 1802"
"Douglas family relationships; the Magnum material is included in Volume 25b. It is concerned mainly with Queen Mary's imprisonment at Loch Leven Castle in 1567, her escape, and her defeat. Parallel to this is the romance of Roland Graeme, a dim-witted but spirited youth. He is brought up at the castle of Avenel by Mary Avenel and her husband, Halbert Glendinning. Roland is sent by the Regent Murray to be page to Mary Stuart with directions to guard her. He falls in love with Catherine Seyton, who is one of the ladies-in-waiting to the queen. He is found later to"
"the ""Red Douglases"". In 1397, George Douglas married Princess Mary Stewart, daughter of King Robert III of Scotland, allying the Red Douglases with the Royal House of Stewart. From 1425 to 1433, Isabella, Countess of Lennox, the widow of the executed Duke of Albany, was warded at Tantallon. In 1429, another royal enemy, Alexander, Lord of the Isles, was held at Tantallon until his reconciliation with King James I two years later. The 3rd Earl of Angus (1426–1446) made Tantallon his main residence, and was in rebellion from 1443 until his death. He raided the Black Douglas lands of Abercorn,"
"homosexual relationship with his son, Lord Alfred Douglas, had left his calling card at Wilde's club with an inscription accusing Wilde of being a ""posing somdomite"" . Wilde retaliated with a libel action, as homosexuality was, at the time, illegal. Kevin Myers states that Carson's initial response was to refuse to take the case. Later, he discovered that Queensberry had been telling the truth about Wilde's activity and was therefore not guilty of the libel of which Wilde accused him. Carson and Wilde had known each other when they were students at Trinity College, Dublin, and, when he heard that"
"Walter Sholto Douglas, ostensibly the spouse of Isabella Robinson Douglas, and was a friend of Mary Shelley. Correspondence between Dods and Jane Williams in the mid-1820s suggests that they too had a close relationship. In 1827 Shelley helped the two obtain false passports, enabling them to travel to Paris under the identities of Mr and Mrs Douglas. Mr Douglas ended up in a debtor's prison and is thought to have died of his ailments between November 1829 and November 1830. Towards the end of the 20th century, the lack of biographical information for Lyndsay and Douglas was noticed by American"
"libel by Lord Alfred Douglas; a trial in April 1913 which in a way was ""a re-run of the trial(s) of Oscar Wilde"". The trial resulted from Douglas's rivalry with Robbie Ross for Wilde (and his need for money). Douglas lost; De Profundis which was read in part at the trial disproved his claims. Biographies of Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde's colourful life and disappointing end have made him a continual fascination for biographers, beginning soon after his death by people known to him. Lord Alfred Douglas wrote two books about his relationship with Wilde: ""Oscar Wilde and Myself"" (1914), largely"