15 Facts About Gavin Douglas

Gavin Douglas's main pioneering achievement was the Eneados, a full and faithful vernacular translation of the Aeneid of Virgil into Scots, and the first successful example of its kind in any Anglic language.

Gavin Douglas chiefly studied Aristotle's Logic, Physics, Natural Philosophy, and Metaphysics.

Gavin Douglas argued that these marriages helped to make peace in Scotland, and the long delay in receiving a dispensation from Rome in each case, which was a formality, was inconvenient and unnecessary.

Gavin Douglas asked to be allowed to conduct ten such marriages over four years.

In those deliberations Gavin Douglas took an active part, and for this reason stimulated the opposition which successfully thwarted his preferment.

Gavin Douglas became heavily involved in affairs of state, seeking a dominant role as one of the Lords of Council and bidding to attain one or more of the many sees, including the archbishopric of St Andrews, left vacant in the destructive aftermath of the Scottish defeat.

Gavin Douglas finally obtained the bishopric of Dunkeld in 1516, but only after a bitter struggle.

In 1517, in his more settled public position, Gavin Douglas was one of the leading members of the embassy to Francis I which negotiated the Treaty of Rouen, but his role in the volatile politics of the period, mainly centring on control over the minority of James V, was deeply contentious.

Gavin Douglas's career was cut short when he died suddenly during a brief period in exile in London.

The issue of this plot was the well-known fight of Cleanse the Causeway, in which Gavin Douglas's part stands out in picturesque relief.

Gavin Douglas made free with the Queen's rents and abducted Lord Traquair's daughter.

From this retreat Gavin Douglas was sent by the earl to the English court, to ask for aid against the French party and against the Queen, whom he reported to be the mistress of the Regent.

Meanwhile, Gavin Douglas was deprived of his bishopric and forced, for safety, to remain in England, where he effected nothing in the interests of his nephew.

In 1522 Gavin Douglas was stricken by the plague which raged in London, and died at the house of his friend Lord Dacre.

Gavin Douglas was buried in the church of the Savoy, where a monumental brass still records his death and interment.