Lord Francis Douglas Marquess of Queensberry; a younger brother, Lord Archibald Edward Douglas (1850–1938), who became a clergyman; and a younger brother and sister, the twins Lord James Douglas (d. 1891) and Lady Florence Douglas (1855–1905), who married Sir Alexander Beaumont Churchill Dixie, 11th Baronet. He was an uncle of Oscar Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas, and a younger brother of John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry. In 1858, Douglas's father, Lord Queensberry, died in what was reported as a shooting accident, but his death was widely believed to have been suicide. In 1862, his mother, Lady Queensberry, converted to Roman Catholicism and
Lord Alfred Douglas true, but that there was also some public interest in having made the charge publicly. Edward Carson, Queensberry's lawyer, accordingly portrayed Wilde as a vicious older man who habitually preyed upon naive young boys and, with extravagant gifts and promises of a glamorous lifestyle, seduced them into a life of homosexuality. Several highly suggestive erotic letters that Wilde had written to Douglas were introduced into evidence; Wilde claimed they were works of art. Wilde was closely questioned about the homoerotic themes in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and in "The Chameleon", a single-issue magazine published by Douglas to which Wilde