five English knights in single combat for her hand. The Lady of Bothwell and heiress to the de Moravia dynasty, Joanna brought with her large estates and lordships throughout Scotland, which Archibald claimed de jure uxoris. This included the semi-ruined Bothwell Castle, which he promptly started to rebuild. The marriage was a device of the king to ensure that the Moray inheritance would be passed into safe (and loyal) hands. Since the death of Joanna's first husband, Sir Thomas de Moravia, the Lord of Bothwell, in 1361, she and her widowed mother had been wards of the court. Joanna was declared to be not only heiress of her father's unentailed lands, but also those of her first husband. The estates stretched from Aberdeenshire, Moray and Ross in the north, to Lanarkshire and Roxburghshire in the south. Although Douglas did not inherit his wife's father's Earldom of Strathearn, Douglas would be able to use his newfound kindred ties to the advantage of the king in the centre of the kingdom. Embassies Archibald was sent on two embassies to France, in 1369 and 1371. The first of these was to protest against the appeal launched by the newly divorced Queen Margaret at the court in Avignon of Pope Urban V. The second embassy was to Paris, with a view to renewing the Auld Alliance. This embassy was ordered by the new Stewart king, Robert II, three days after his accession. The result of this diplomacy resulted in the Treaty of Vincennes, the first ratification of the alliance since the Treaty of Corbeil, 55 years before. Lord of Galloway In 1369, Archibald had been appointed Lord of Galloway by King David, "becaus he tuke git trawell to purge the cuntrey of Englis blude". Galloway was a difficult fiefdom to rule. Prior to his assumption of the title, it had been the patrimony of the Balliols, both the ousted King John and his pretender son Edward Balliol. The Balliols had inherited it through King John's mother Dervorguilla of Galloway, daughter and heiress of Alan, Lord of Galloway, the last of the Norse-Gaelic kings of Galloway. The Galwegians had distinctive laws and customs and, as with the Kingdom of the Isles, did not feel subservient to the Scottish crown, but rather to their ancient kings, of which they viewed the Balliols as representing. In 1353, Earl William had succeeded in bringing the eastern part of