Lord Alfred Douglas to him in an article on Wilde. Douglas was either plaintiff or defendant in several trials for civil or criminal libel. In 1913 he was charged with libelling his father-in-law. Also in 1913 he accused Arthur Ransome of libelling him in his book "Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study". He saw this trial as a weapon against his enemy Ross, not understanding that Ross would not be called to give evidence. The court found in Ransome's favour and Douglas was bankrupted by the failed libel suit. Ransome did remove the offending passages from the second edition of his book. In the
Hugh the Dull, Lord of Douglas the Borders and had styled himself Lord of Liddesdale. It is assumed that the Lord of Douglas, no warrior, had given executive control of the Douglas territories in the south to him. In 1342, Liddesdale, hankering after formal power, coerced the Lord of Douglas into resigning the majority of the rest of the Douglas territories over to him with all administrative powers pertaining. Hugh of Douglas resigned his lordship in favour of his nephew William, still in France, making him Ward of Liddesdale. Douglas dedicated a church to St John the Baptist at Crookboat, three miles south of Lanark, where