[1] Nevertheless, Douglas succeeded to his father's titles and estates in 1591, and though in 1592 he was disgraced for his complicity in Lord Bothwell's plot, he was soon liberated and performed useful services as the King's Lieutenant in the north of Scotland.

Angus was again included in the Privy Council, and in June 1598 was appointed the King's Lieutenant in southern Scotland, in which capacity he showed great zeal and conducted the "Raid of Dumfries," as the campaign against the Johnstones was called.

[1] At Christmas time in 1598 the English diplomat George Nicholson heard that people were saying Angus wore a jewel resembling a cross in his hat (which might be taken a sign of Catholicism), but the king said it was not and laughed at their daftness.

[6] From The Scottish Nation: William, ..., tenth earl, was well versed in the antiquities and history of his country, and wrote a chronicle of the Douglases.

Becoming a Roman Catholic, he, in 1592, engaged with the earls of Errol and Huntly in the treasonable plot of obtaining the King of Spain's assistance for the reestablishment of popery in Scotland, and on the 1st of the following January he was seized and committed to the castle of Edinburgh.

On the 26th November, it was determined that they and their associates should be exempted from all farther inquiry or prosecution on account of their correspondence with Spain, and that before the 1st of February 1594, they should either submit to the church, and renounce popery, or remove out of the kingdom.

After the battle of Glenlivet, 3d October of the same year, in which, however, he was not present, Angus retired to the continent, and spent the remainder of his life in acts of devotion.

He died at Paris 3d March 1611, in the 57th year of his age, and was buried in the church of St. Germain de Prez, where a magnificent monument was erected to his memory, the inscription on which is printed at length in the Scots Magazine for 1767.