Douglas - St Bride

Douglas developed around Douglas Castle, the ancestral seat of the black line of the influential Clan Douglas and the Earls of Douglas. They were friends to Robert the Bruce and one of the most powerful noble families in 1300s Scotland. This position brought them in conflict with the Stewart King James II and in 1455 they were overthrown.

A church was mentioned on the site as early as the 12th century. The current St Bride's Church probably dates from the 14th century. Archibald ‘the Grim’, 3rd earl of Douglas, modified the church as a resting-place for his father, Sir James of Douglas, who died in 1330, and so the church became the mausoleum of the Black Douglases`.
The effigies of James Stewart and his wife Lady Beatrix Sinclair

James Stewart (+ 1443),
Seventh Earl of Douglas, First Earl of Avondale, surnamed "the Gross"

Beatrix Sinclair
Daughter of Henry II Sinclair, Earl of Orkney

-
When William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas, the son of his nephew Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas, was executed in 1440, James succeeded him as 7th Earl of Douglas.