Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas

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<tr style="text-align: center;"> <th colspan="2">Earl of Douglas</th> </tr><tr> <th style="border-bottom: none; text-align: center;" colspan="2">In office</th> </tr><tr> <td style="border-top: none; text-align: center;" colspan="2">1424 – 1439</td> </tr><tr> <th>Preceded by</th><td>Archibald Douglas</td> </tr><tr> <th>Succeeded by</th><td>William Douglas</td> </tr><tr> <th>Died</th> <td>June 29, 1439
Restalrig</td> </tr><tr> <th>Residence</th> <td>Image:Flag of Scotland.svg Scotland</td> </tr><tr> <th>Constituency</th> <td>Douglas
South Lanarkshire</td> </tr><tr style="text-align: center;"> <th colspan="2">Count o f Longueville</th> </tr><tr> <th style="border-bottom: none; text-align: center;" colspan="2">In office</th> </tr><tr> <td style="border-top: none; text-align: center;" colspan="2">1421 – 1439</td> </tr><tr> <th>Spouse</th> <td>Eupheme Graham</td> </tr><tr> <th>Children</th> <td>William
Margaret
David</td> </tr>

Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas
Born	Circa 1390 Douglas

Archibald Douglas (1390–26 June 1439), was a Scottish nobleman, son of Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas and Joan Moray. He was Earl of Douglas and Wigtown, Lord of Galloway, Lord of Bothwell, Selkirk and Ettrick Forest, Eskdale, Lauderdale, and Annandale in Scotland, and de jure Duke of Touraine, Count of Longueville, and Sire of Dun-le-roi in France.

He fought with the French at Baugé in 1421, and was made count of Longueville in Normandy. He succeeded to his father's English and Scottish titles in 1424, though he never drew on his father's French estates of the Duchy of Touraine. Douglas served as ambassador to England in 1424, during the ransoming of James I. He held the office of Regent of the Kingdom, during the minority of James II from 1437 to 1439. Douglas died from a fever in Restalrig, Midlothian, and was buried at Douglas.

[edit] Marriage and issue

Between 1423 and 1425 he married Eupheme Graham (before 1413–1468), daughter of Patrick Graham, de jure Earl of Strathearn. They had three children.

William Douglas (c.1424–24 November 1440), who briefly succeeded as 6th Earl
Margaret Douglas (before 1435–1475) the 'Fair Maid of Galloway', who married first William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas, second James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas, third John Stewart, 1st Earl of Atholl
David Douglas (before 1439–24 November 1440)

Both sons were summarily beheaded at Stirling on trumped up charges, in the presence of the young King James II. The so-called 'Black Dinner' thus broke the power of the 'Black' Douglases. The lordships of Annandale and Bothwell fell to the crown, Galloway to Margaret Douglas, and the Douglas lands and earldom passed to William's great-uncle James Douglas, Earl of Avondale, who was himself implicated, with Sir William Crichton, in the murder of the young earl.