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Remarkable Rings: Douglas

The supposition seems to be that the ring may have belonged to some person of the family of Douglas by whom St. Francis was held in special veneration, and that hence the cordelière was introduced upon it. There existed at Dundee a Franciscan convent, which appears to have received support from the Douglas family.

A relic of Flodden Field (1513), a ring, was found in 1783, on the site of the battle. It bore the following inscription in Norman-French: 'On est mal loiauls amans qui se poet garder des maux disans' (no lovers so faithful as to be able to guard themselves against evil-speakers). Between every two words, and at the beginning of each line, is a boar's head. This being the crest of the Campbells, it is not improbable that the ring was that of the Argylls, and might have belonged to Archibald Campbell, the second Earl of Argyll, who was killed while commanding the van of the army at the fatal battle of Flodden Field, - Where shiver'd was fair Scotland's spear, And broken was her shield.