Talk:James Douglas (soldier)

Why do we feel the need to hide the physical descriptions of the Good Sir Douglas? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Parrish Smith (talk • contribs)

What is Sir James Douglas' Gaelic name? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.226.110.226 (talk • contribs)

I'd wager something like "Seumas Dubhglas". I'm not so sure about that, though. -- Ashmodai 07:16, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Coat of Arms

Should we put Sir James Douglas' coat of arms on this page? It seems to be something like [1]. The heart was only added after he received the heart of Bruce, but can be found in most coats of arms that are based on Sir James Douglas'. I could throw something together in Paint Shop Pro, but I'm not sure whether there are any Wikipedia guidelines for that. -- Ashmodai 07:16, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Black and White

This is a poor, badly paced article about one of the most significant soldiers-and guerilla fighters-in Scottish history. Too much space is devoted to his experience in Spain and not nearly enough on his early career. In general it requires a wholesale rewrite to let the world understand his true significance, but for the time being I have confined myself to correcting several highly irritating errors and misconceptions. For those who wish to follow the path these are as follows:

DOUGLAS LARDER. Warfare at this time was barbaric by its very nature, and it is pointless to make specific reference to it, or to explain, or to excuse. The point about the 'Douglas Larder' was not that it was 'barbaric' but that it was unique, and therefore far from being 'common practice.'

CHAPTER OF MYTON. Bruce did not send Douglas and Moray to 'lift' the siege by direct attack, as the wording of this piece implied; he had much better military sense than that. The two commanders were sent on a diversionary raid into Yorkshire, intended to draw the English away from Berwick. How Douglas was able to 'see' that that most of the English army was from the north is beyond my comprehension (do northeners look different?). There was no 'Archbishop of Melton'. William Melton was Archbishop of York. Melton most certainly did not form an army of 'prelates' (where did all those bishops come from?), but an army in part made up of priests, monks friars and other minor clerics.

OLD BYLAND. Edward III did not 'lead' the army of 1322 into Scotland for the simple reason that he did not come to the throne until five years later (Prince Edward was only ten years old in 1322). I would have excused-and corrected- this as a simple typo, but it appears again a little later, and even more absurdly. The army of 1322 was, of course, led by his father, Edward II, who was not present at and therefore did not 'flee' from the battle of Old Byland.

WEARDALE. The reference to the near capture of Edward III is hopelessly out of place and under narrated. This incident occured in the Weardale campaign of 1327, which deserves much fuller treatment, and is infinitely more important than some of the other incidents alluded too here. The English army was never sent specifically to capture Douglas. This should not need saying; but it clearly does. Rcpaterson 01:29, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Should something be added about the Logan clan with the heart of the Bruce thing? Highlandlord 18:25, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Systematic rewrite now underway. Rcpaterson 02:52, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Finished, saving any minor amendments. Rcpaterson 00:27, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Move

If there are no complaints, this article is being moved to Sir James Douglas. He was possibly the first and certainly the most famous to take this article name. Even tho' he was known as the Black Douglas to his enemies, it was only his great nephews that differentiated between Black and Red. Brendandh 02:51, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

There is an objection, namely WP naming conventions concerning honorifics in titles (Wikipedia:Naming conventions (names and titles)#Other non-royal names). Unfortunately, I moved it to the wrong name - I wasn't aware it had a previous name, but was acting on the discussion in James Douglas (disambiguation). I will re-move to its former title. fishy 21:45, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Moved to James Douglas, Lord of Douglas Brendandh 23:32, 4 June 2007 (UTC)