William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas

William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas (c.1424–24 November 1440), was a short lived Scottish nobleman. He was the eldest son of Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas and Eupheme Graham.

He married Janet Lindsay, daughter of David Lindsay, 3rd Earl of Crawford, and succeeded to the earldom on the death of his father, who had served as regent of James II. Following Douglas' death, Sir William Crichton, Sir Alexander Livingston of Callendar, and James Douglas, Earl of Buchan shared power. Together they conspired to break the power of the late Earl's family, and summoned William and his younger brother David to Edinburgh. The so-called 'Black Dinner' which followed saw the two boys summarily beheaded on trumped up charges, in the presence of the young King.

The lordships of Annandale and Bothwell fell to the crown, Galloway to Margaret Douglas, the 6th Earl's sister, and the Douglas lands and earldom passed to William's great-uncle James Douglas, the Earl of Buchan, who was accordingly seen later as the main perpetrator.

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• thepeerage.com