tried to recapture the island of Inchcolm from the English with five ships. However, he kept up a secret correspondence with Andrew Dudley, the English commander at Broughty Castle, and wrote that he had made excuses to Regent Arran and prevented his retainers from joining the siege of Broughty. In February 1548 an attempt to capture him and punish him for his duplicity failed. His son-in-law, the Earl of Lennox, and the English border warden Thomas Wharton marched from Dumfries to intercept Angus at Drumlanrig Castle. Angus surprised and cut off a part of the force led by Wharton's son Henry while they were burning Durisdeer. Wharton claimed that when his forces were reunited they killed 500 men, some drowned in the Nith. Meanwhile, his stores at Dumfries were robbed and spoiled, and he was driven back to Annan and back to Carlisle. Angus escaped his English would-be captors again after the capture of Dalkeith Palace by Grey of Wilton in June 1548. He sailed from Tantallon Castle to Edinburgh, while George Douglas of Pittendreich escaped by a secret way with only a single companion. Death Under the regency of queen Mary of Guise his restless and ambitious character and the number of his retainers gave cause for frequent alarms to the government. On 31 August 1547 he resigned his earldom, obtaining a re-grant, sibi et suis haeredibus masculis et suis assignatis quibuscumque ("to him and his male heirs and their assignees"). His career was a long struggle for power and for the interests of his family, to which national considerations were completely subordinate. He died in January 1557 at Tantallon Castle, Scotland, from erysipelas. He was buried at Abernethy, Perthshire, Scotland. Children and royal grandchild By Margaret Tudor he had Margaret, his only surviving legitimate child, who married Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, and was the mother of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley who was the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Angus outlived his illegitimate daughter Janet Douglas who died around 1552. Janet had married Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord Ruthven and produced several children and the main Ruthven line. Angus also had an illegitimate son George Douglas, who became Bishop of Moray. Since his only legitimate son, James Douglas, by his wife Margaret Maxwell died young, he was succeeded by his nephew David, the son of George Douglas of Pittendreich. In popular culture Angus is the subject