Taking their name from Douglas in Lanarkshire, their leaders gained vast territories throughout the Borders, Angus, Lothian, Moray, and also in France and Sweden.

[5] The Swedish branch is descended from Field Marshal Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge, and has been one of Sweden's most prominent noble families since the 17th century.

[3] Douglas was captured and was released only after he had agreed to accept the claim of the Edward I of England to be overlord of Scotland.

[3] He subsequently joined William Wallace in fighting for Scottish independence, but was captured and taken to England, where he died in 1298, a prisoner in the Tower of London.

But for both men these setbacks provided a valuable lesson in tactics: limitations in both resources and equipment meant that the Scots would always be at a disadvantage in conventional medieval warfare.

[4][5][12] John Barbour recounts that the English called Sir James "The Black Douglas"[15][16] for what they considered his dark deeds.

Douglas appears only in English records as "The Black" – Scots chronicles almost always referred to him as "The Guid" or "The Good".

[4][5] King Robert the Bruce had requested that Douglas, latterly his most esteemed companion in arms, should carry his heart to the Holy Land, as atonement for the murder of John III Comyn.

[3] In 1330 Douglas, en route to the East with a company of Scots men-at-arms, joined the forces of Alfonso XI of Castile, Edward III of England's cousin by his mother Queen Isabella [citation needed], to fight against the Moors of Granada at the siege of Teba.

[4][12] By 1333 King Robert's 'bloody heart' was incorporated in the arms of Sir James' son, William, Lord of Douglas.

The Scottish army that fought and lost the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333 was led by James' youngest brother who had been elected Regent of Scotland in late March 1333.

He was mentioned in Barbour's The Brus for his great victory during the Weardale campaign; leading the Scottish army further south into County Durham he devastated the lands and took much booty from Darlington and other nearby towns and villages.

In 1412, the 4th Earl had visited Paris, when he entered into a personal alliance with John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and in 1423, he commanded a contingent of 10,000 Scots sent to the aid of Charles VII of France against the English.

He was made lieutenant-general in Joan of Arc's French army, and received the title Duke of Touraine,[4][12] with remainder to his heirs-male, on 19 April 1424.

The newly created French duke was defeated and slain at Battle of Verneuil on 17 August 1424, along with his second son, James, and son-in-law John Stewart, Earl of Buchan.

[3] Over the protests of the young King James II, the two brothers were then dragged out to Castle Hill, given a mock trial and beheaded.

In 1448, Hugh Douglas, Earl of Ormond led a Scottish force to victory against an English army at the Battle of Sark.

[4] After the battle an act of parliament gave the Earl of Angus the lordship of Douglas with the original possessions of his ancestors in Douglasdale.

The 9th Earl of Douglas was later defeated by the forces of King James III of Scotland at the Battle of Lochmaben Fair in 1484.

The joust was apparently fought with such fury that Charteris' sword was broken and the king had to send his men-at-arms to part the combatants.

[12] Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus held the post of Lord Chancellor and became guardian of James V of Scotland by marrying his widowed mother, Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, with whom he had a daughter, Margaret Douglas, mother of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.

In many respects Morton was an energetic and capable ruler, but he was brutal in crushing factions still loyal to Queen Mary.

Also at that fight was the Duke's young cousin, Archibald Douglas, 2nd Earl of Forfar, colonel of the 3rd Regiment of foot, and who died of wounds taken there shortly afterward.

[citation needed] During World War I, Hamilton Palace, the main family seat, was used as a hospital with his blessing.

His son, Angus Douglas-Hamilton, 15th Duke of Hamilton was also in the Royal Air Force and achieved the rank of flight lieutenant during his service in the Cold War.

His grandson, the Scottish-born Robert Douglas (1611–1662), transplanted this branch of the Scottish clan to Sweden when in 1627 he became an officer in the Thirty Years' War; In 1657 he became field marshal.

[25][26][7] Through a marriage in 1848 to Countess Louise von Langenstein und Gondelsheim, an illegitimate daughter of Louis I, Grand Duke of Baden, the Swedish Count Carl Israel Wilhelm Douglas (1824–1898) came into possession of Langenstein Castle in Baden, near Lake Constance.

In 1906, the grandson, Count Karl Robert (1880-1955), second husband of Augusta Victoria of Hohenzollern, titular Queen consort of Portugal, took up his main residence at Langenstein Castle, which his descendants still live in today.

The Black Dinner served as inspiration for the events of the Red Wedding depicted in A Storm of Swords, the third book of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Material based on the Red Wedding was included in the episode "The Rains of Castamere" of the HBO drama Game of Thrones which aired on 2 June 2013 in the United States.