Robert Douglas, 1st Viscount Belhaven PC (1573 – 14 January 1639), was a Scottish courtier.
Family background The second son of Malcolm Douglas of Mains (executed 1584), by Janet Cunningham, daughter of John Cunningham, of Drumquhassil.
Career His older brother fought a duel with the brother of Oliver Leigh of Addington, who was avener of the royal stables, and was killed.Maurice Lee, Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain, 1603-1624 (Rutgers UP, 1972). Robert Douglas was given his brother's place at court, and became Master of the Horse to Prince Henry,John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, 2 (London, 1828), p. 245. a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to James VI and I and Charles I and Master of the Household to Charles I.
Douglas was sent with to France with a gift of horses in July 1607.HMC 9 Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 19 (London, 1965), p. 197: Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer of the Reign of James I, London (1836), p. 71. He was knighted on 7 February 1609, and took a letter to Prince Henry's friend, John Harington, who was in Italy.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, 2 (London, 1828), p. 245. He led the horse of state at Prince Henry's funeral in December 1612.Thomas Birch, Life of Prince Henry (London, 1760), pp. 352, 114, 448. In July 1616 he went to France with Lord Hay.John Maclean, Letters of George Carew to Thomas Roe (London, 1860), p. 38.
He was sworn of the Scottish Privy Council. In 1633, on the coronation of Charles I, he was raised to the Peerage of Scotland as Viscount of Belhaven, in the County of Haddington.
Family
Lord Belhaven married Nicola Moray, daughter of Robert Murray of Abercairny, in June 1610. She died in childbed in November 1611.
Belhaven had two children by his mistress, Elizabeth Whalley the sister of Edward Whalley, who was subsequently to be a regicide. They were both legitimised by Act of Parliament when he became a viscount at Charles I's coronation in 1633.
His son John is assumed to have predeceased him, but his daughter Susanna Douglas married her cousin, Robert Douglas of Blackerston. On his death, his estate including the Gorbals Mansion House passed to his nephew and son-in-law. Lord Belhaven died at Edinburgh in January 1639 and was buried in Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh where his monument remains today.University of Strathyclyde Electronic Library Accessed on 4 August 2010 As he had no sons the viscountcy died with him.
References
External links Portrait of Lord Belhaven at douglashistory.co.uk