William Douglas's Blog – March 2011 Archive (4)

This sword blade, depicting the Douglas heart, was allegedly given to Sir James Douglas by Robert the Bruce.

However, as Bruce would still have had his heart had he been alive when he gave it, then the heart would not have featured!

So, whose sword is it?

Can anyone make out the verse inscribed on the…

Do use Scotland's People for your research? One of my frustrations is the time limit on using 'credits'. 

The price for 30 credits will go up from £6 to £7 starting April 1. But also with this change, the credits will no longer expire after 90 days. They will now be good for one year.

Why is there any time limit?

There is a bit of a spat between Wikipedians over the introduction of Douglas into the Hamilton name.

Who was the first Douglas-Hamilton?  And which Duke was the first to use the double barrelled name?

To see what is going on behind the scenes, one must look at the 'View history' and talk pages.  You can see who is editing the article, and look at their talk pages.

The earliest date that I can find for a Douglas-Hamilton is 1874. Does anyone know better?

Contessa della Rena was the wife of a Florentine wine merchant, who became mistress of various members of the English aristocracy. By 1759 she was in England under the protection of William Douglas, Earl of March, a notorious rake whose main interests were horse-racing, dancing girls and opera. In the last of these, March and his mistress would have come into contact with Giardini, whose forays into production of the Italian opera [was noted previously].

La Rena sat to…