Douglas was set to share in Bruce's early misfortunes, being present at the defeats at Methven and Dalrigh. William Le Hardi's son, James Douglas, "The Good Sir James", was the first to take the epithet "Black". He subsequently joined William Wallace in fighting for Scottish independence, but was captured and taken to England, where he died in 1298, a prisoner in the Tower of London. Douglas was captured and was released only after he had agreed to accept the claim of the English king to be overlord of Scotland. During the Wars of Scottish Independence, Sir William Douglas the Hardy, Lord of Douglas was governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed when the town and Berwick Castle were besieged by the forces of Edward I of England. In 1179 William Douglas was Lord of Douglas and it seems likely that he was Theobald the Flemming's son and the first to take the surname Douglas.
The true progenitor of Clan Douglas was almost certainly "Theobaldus Flammatius" (Theobald the Flemming), who received in 1147 the lands near Douglas Water in Lanakshire in return for services for the Abbot of Kelso. The family’s ambition and assets allowed them to marry into the Scottish royal lines and in time assert themselves as heirs to the throne. He came from Normandy with Henry I around 1100, and by 1103 had acquired some or all of the family's holdings in Yorkshire, which he increased over the following years. Robert de Brus (known as Robert le Meschin, or 'the Cadet') was the first of the family to be connected with Scotland. Soon after the accession of David I of Scotland to the throne, Robert visited the monarch and obtained from him the lordship of Annandale. Robert left a son also called Robert who founded a priory at Gysburn. Before the end of William the Conqueror's reign, Brus owned no less than 94 lordships in Yorkshire.
After the victory over King Harold in 1066, at the Battle of Hastings William sent Robert to the northern parts of England.
The first of this family on record, in Great Britain, was Robert de Brus, a knight of Normandy who came to England with William the Conqueror. The name Bruce comes from the French 'de Brus' or 'de Bruis', a land now called Brix, situated between Cherbourg and Valognes in Normandy, France.
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