Douglas Cause

E295957

The Douglas Cause was an 18th-century Scottish legal battle over the inheritance of the Douglas estates that became one of the most famous and politically charged court cases of its time.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Surface forms Statements Referenced by

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Douglas Cause canonical 8

Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf 18th-century court case
Scottish legal case
inheritance dispute
country Scotland
decisionBy House of Lords
decisionDate 1769-02-27
describedAs “the cause of the century” in Scotland
endTime 1769
fieldOfWork Scots law
followedBy reversal of Court of Session judgment by House of Lords
genre civil litigation
hasCause allegations of child substitution in Paris
disputed birth of Archibald Douglas
hasEffect heightened tensions between Scottish political factions
public debate on judicial independence in Scotland
hasPart Hamilton v. Douglas
involves Douglas estates in Lanarkshire and elsewhere in Scotland
languageOfRecord English
Scots
legalAction challenge to legitimacy of Archibald Douglas
challenge to succession to the Douglas estates
legalSystem Scots law (to a limited extent)
surface form: Scots law
location Court of Session Outer House
surface form: Court of Session, Edinburgh

Palace of Westminster
surface form: House of Lords, London
mainSubject inheritance of the Douglas estates
notableWork Boswell’s Account of the Douglas Cause
opponent Douglas supporters
Hamilton family
participant Alexander Wedderburn
Archibald Douglas
Charles Yorke
Duchess of Douglas
Duke of Hamilton
James Boswell
Baron Camden
surface form: Lord Camden

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield
surface form: Lord Mansfield

Lord President Dundas
politicalAlignment Tory and Jacobite-leaning supporters of Douglas
Whig supporters of Hamilton
precededBy Auchterarder case
surface form: Court of Session judgment in favour of Hamilton
result Archibald Douglas confirmed heir to the Douglas estates
significance landmark in Scots law of evidence
major political controversy in Britain
one of the most famous Scottish legal cases of the 18th century
significantEvent House of Lords judgment of 27 February 1769
startTime 1761
timePeriod 18th century

Referenced by (8)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.