| John Douglas | |
|---|---|
Lord Queensberry in 1896 |
|
| Born | 20 July 1844 Florence, Italy |
| Died | 31 January 1900 (aged 55) London, England |
| Alma mater | Magdalene College, Cambridge University of Cambridge |
| Title | Marquess of Queensberry |
| Term | 6 August 1858 - 31 January 1900 (41 years, 178 days) |
| Spouse | Sibyl Montgomery (m.1866-1887) Ethel Weeden (m.1893-1894) |
| Children | Francis Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig & Baron Kelhead Percy Douglas, 10th Marquess of Queensberry Lord Alfred Douglas |
| Parents | Archibald Douglas, 8th Marquess of Queensberry |
John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry GCVO (20 July 1844 – 31 January 1900) was a Scottish nobleman, remembered for lending his name and patronage to the "Marquess of Queensberry rules" that formed the basis of modern boxing, for his outspoken atheism, and for his role in the downfall of author and playwright Oscar Wilde.
Contents |
Douglas was born in Florence, Italy, the eldest son of Scottish Conservative Party politician Archibald, Viscount Drumlanrig, who was the heir of the 7th Marquess of Queensberry. He was briefly styled Viscount Drumlanrig following his father's succession in 1856, and on his father's death in 1858 he inherited the Marquessate of Queensberry. The 9th marquess was educated at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, becoming a midshipman at the age of twelve and a lieutenant in the navy at fifteen. In 1864 he entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, which he left two years later without taking a degree.[1] He married Sibyl Montgomery in 1866. They had four sons and a daughter, but divorced in 1887. Queensberry married Ethel Weeden in 1893, but the marriage was annulled the following year. He died in London, aged 55, nearly a year before Oscar Wilde's death. Although he wrote a poem starting with the words "When I am dead cremate me," he was buried in Scotland.
His eldest son and heir apparent was Francis, Viscount Drumlanrig, who was rumoured to have been engaged in a relationship with the Liberal Prime Minister, Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery. He died unmarried and without issue.
Douglas' second son, Lord Percy Douglas (1868–1920), succeeded to the peerage instead.[2] Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, the third son, was the close friend and reputed lover of the famous author and poet Oscar Wilde. Douglas' efforts to end their relationship led to his famous dispute with Wilde and the latter's bankruptcy and exile.
Queensberry was a patron of sport and a noted boxing enthusiast. In 1866 he was one of the founders of the Amateur Athletic Club, now the Amateur Athletic Association of England, one of the first groups that did not require amateur athletes to belong to the upper-classes in order to compete. The following year the Club published a set of twelve rules for conducting boxing matches. The rules had been drawn up by John Graham Chambers but appeared under Queensberry's sponsorship and are universally known at the "Marquess of Queensberry rules".[3][4] Queensberry, a keen rider, was also active in fox hunting and owned several successful race horses.
In 1872, Queensberry was chosen by the Peers of Scotland to sit in the House of Lords as a representative peer. He served as such until 1880, when he was again nominated but refused to take the religious oath of allegiance to the Sovereign. An outspoken atheist, he declared that he would not participate in any "Christian tomfoolery" and that his word should suffice. As a consequence neither he nor Charles Bradlaugh, who had also refused to take the oath after being elected to the House of Commons, were allowed to take their seats in Parliament. This prompted an apology from the new Prime Minister, William Gladstone. Bradlaugh was re-elected four times by the constituents of Northampton until he was finally allowed to take his seat in 1886, but Queensberry was never again sent to Parliament by the Scottish nobles.
In 1881, Queensberry accepted the presidency of the British Secular Union, a group that had broken away in 1877 from Bradlaugh's National Secular Society. That year he published a long philosophical poem, The Spirit of the Matterhorn, which he had written in Zermatt in 1873 in an attempt to articulate his humanistic views. In 1882, he was ejected from the theatre after loudly interrupting a performance of the play The Promise of May by Lord Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, because it included a villainous atheist in its cast of characters. Under the auspices of the British Secular Union, Queensberry wrote a pamphlet entitled The Religion of Secularism and the Perfectibility of Man. The Union, always small, ceased to function in 1884.
His divorces, atheism, and association with the boxing world made Queensberry an unpopular figure in London high society. In 1893 his eldest son, Francis, Viscount Drumlanrig, was created Baron Kelhead in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, thus giving the son an automatic seat in the House of Lords, from which the father was excluded. This caused a bitter dispute between Queensberry and his son, and also between Queensberry and Lord Rosebery, the patron who had promoted Lord Drumlanrig's ennoblement and who shortly thereafter became Prime Minister. Drumlanrig was reported to have been killed in a hunting accident in 1894, but his death may have been a suicide.
Queensberry sold the family seat of Kinmount in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, an action which further alienated him from his family.
In March 1895, Queensberry was arrested and sued for criminal libel by Oscar Wilde, whom he had publicly accused of "posing [as a] somdomite" (sic). Libel charges could be brought as homosexuality was a crime. Queensberry made the allegation because he was angered by Wilde's apparent ongoing homosexual relationship with his son, Lord Alfred Douglas.
Queensberry's lawyers, headed by barrister Edward Carson, portrayed Wilde as a vicious older man who seduced innocent young boys into a life of degenerate homosexuality. Wilde dropped the libel case when Queensberry's lawyers informed the court that they intended to call several male prostitutes as witnesses to testify that they had had sex with Wilde. According to the Libel Act 1843, proving the truth of the accusation and a public interest in its exposure was a defense against a libel charge, and Wilde's lawyers concluded that the prostitutes' testimony was likely to do that.
Queensberry won a counterclaim against Wilde for the considerable expenses he had incurred on lawyers and private detectives in organising his defence. Wilde was left bankrupt; his assets were seized and sold at auction to pay the claim. Queensberry then sent the evidence collected by his detectives to Scotland Yard, which resulted in charges of sodomy and "gross indecency" against Wilde, who was convicted of gross indecency under the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 and sentenced to two years' hard labour. His reputation destroyed, Wilde went into exile in France and died at the Hotel d'Alsace in Paris.
The conjecture that Queensberry's son Francis may have had a relationship with Rosebery is dramatised in Richard Woulfe "His Most Obedient Servant"
| Peerage of Scotland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Archibald Douglas |
Marquess of Queensberry 1858 – 1900 |
Succeeded by Percy Douglas |