James Douglas, 3rd Marquess of Queensberry

Who was James Douglas, 3rd Marquess of Queensberry?

James Douglas, 3rd Marquess of Queensberry, known until 1711 as James Douglas, Earl of Drumlanrig, was a Scottish nobleman, the eldest son to survive infancy of James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry.

Stories describe him as an "imbecile" and violently insane. He was kept under lock and key from childhood at Queensberry House in Edinburgh, now part of the Scottish Parliament complex.

It is reported that when the Act of Union was signed in 1707, the disruption from either the festivities or the riots resulted in his escape. Drumlanrig, then around ten years old, slaughtered a young scullion in the house's kitchen, roasting him alive on a spit, and began to eat him before he was discovered and apprehended. He was afterwards known as 'The Cannibalistic Idiot'. The oven that he used can be seen in a room in the basement of Queensberry House, which housed the Parliament's Allowances Office until 2012, when it became a private bar for MSPs and their guests.

A charter of novodamus had been made out for his father's titles, excepting the marquessate of Queensberry in 1706, to remove James Douglas from the succession. He died on 24 January 1715 and was buried on 17 February.