Marches and Lieutenant-General on the Border, with a force of 100 horsemen and 100 foot soldiers, and their officers, drummers and pipers, and "furriers" or quartermasters. He performed good services in restoring order; but he was unable to overcome the king's hostility to the establishment of Presbyterian government. Death In July 1588 it was reported that he had travelled from the west of Scotland "sick of the flux and burning ague." He died on 4 August 1588 at Smeaton, near Dalkeith Palace. He was buried at Aberdour in Fife. As reported in the Newes from Scotland tract of 1591, his death was said to have been caused by witchcraft. His physician found his illness strange and there was no cure or remedy, causing him to languish until his death. During the North Berwick witch trials, Gilles Duncan accused Barbara Napier of causing his death by witchcraft. Euphame MacCalzean, Agnes Sampson, and Richard Grierson were also accused. The Earl of Bothwell admitted that he had sent the cunning man Richie Graham to attend the earl. Family The Earl of Angus was married three times: (1) on 13 June 1573 at the Church of the Holy Rude, Mary Erskine, a daughter of the Earl of Mar and Annabell Murray. Her "tocher" or dowry was 8,000 merks; (2) 25 December 1575 at Cupar, (divorced 1587) Margaret, a daughter of George Leslie, 4th Earl of Rothes; (3) 29 July 1587 Jean Lyon, a daughter of John Lyon, 8th Lord Glamis, with whom he had a daughter Margaret, who died unmarried aged 15. Angus began proceedings to divorce Margaret Leslie in August 1586, which were strongly opposed by the Earl of Rothes who considered he had been Angus's ally during his banishment. A French diplomat in Edinburgh, Camille de Preau, sieur de Courcelles, heard that Angus claimed she had flirted with a stableboy, which was thought unlikely, and the Earl of Bothwell joked he would divorce his wife Margaret Douglas for the same. She was Angus's sister. He was succeeded in the Earldom of Angus by his cousin William, a descendant of the 5th earl. A closer line of the Douglas family to the former Earls of Morton inherited the Earldom of Morton. For the Morton title, see James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton and William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton. References Balfour Paul, Sir James -Scots Peerage IX vols. Edinburgh 1906. Burke, Messrs. John