In 1885, Lord James tried to abduct a young girl, and after that became ever more manic in 1888, he made a disastrous marriage. One of his uncles, Lord James Douglas, was deeply attached to his twin sister "Florrie" ( Lady Florence Douglas) and was heartbroken when she married a baronet, Sir Alexander Beaumont Churchill Dixie. In 1862, his widowed grandmother, Lady Queensberry, converted to Roman Catholicism and took her children to live in Paris. In 1858 his grandfather, Archibald Douglas, 8th Marquess of Queensberry, had died in what was reported as a shooting accident, but was widely believed to have been suicide.
In 1893, Douglas had a brief affair with George Ives. Their relationship had always been a strained one and, during the Queensberry-Wilde feud, Douglas sided with Wilde, even encouraging Wilde to prosecute the Marquess for libel. At Oxford, he edited an undergraduate journal, The Spirit Lamp (1892–3), an activity that intensified the constant conflict between him and his father. The Marquess later married Ethel Weeden in 1893 but the marriage was annulled the following year.ĭouglas was educated at Wixenford School, Winchester College (1884–88) and Magdalen College, Oxford (1889–93), which he left without obtaining a degree. His mother successfully sued for divorce in 1887 on the grounds of his father's adultery. He was his mother's favourite child she called him Bosie (a derivative of "boysie", as in boy), a nickname which stuck for the rest of his life. The phrase " The love that dare not speak its name" appears in one, ( Two Loves), though it is widely misattributed to Wilde.Įarly life and background His father, The 9th Marquess of Queensberryĭouglas was born at Ham Hill House in Powick, Worcestershire, the third son of John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry and his first wife, Sibyl Montgomery. Douglas wrote several books of verse, some in a homoerotic Uranian genre. He was jailed for libelling Winston Churchill over claims of World War I misconduct. On converting to Roman Catholicism in 1911, he repudiated homosexuality, and in a high Catholic magazine, Plain English, expressed openly anti-Semitic views, but rejected the policies of Nazi Germany. Douglas married a poet, Olive Custance, in 1902 and had a son, Raymond. On his release, he briefly lived with Douglas in Naples, but they had separated by the time Wilde died in 1900. Wilde sued him for criminal libel, but some intimate notes were found and Wilde was later imprisoned.
Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, abhorred it and set out to humiliate Wilde, publicly accusing him of homosexuality. At Oxford he edited an undergraduate journal, The Spirit Lamp, that carried a homoerotic subtext, and met Wilde, starting a close but stormy relationship. Carroll & Graf, 2007.Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 – 20 March 1945), also known as Bosie Douglas, was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions. United States, Brentano's, 1916. The two reunited in August 1897 in Rouen, but parted ways for good a few months later. Yet, Wilde continued to write letters to Lord Douglas throughout the years.
Oscar Wilde's trials in 1895 caused a rift in their relationship as Wilde was imprisoned and spent a few years abroad after he was released. Wilde responded to Queensberry's words by accusing the Marquess of libel and sparking legal trials. When he sent Wilde a note calling Wilde a "posing Somdomite," which is a misspelling of Sodomite. The 9th Marquess of Queensberry knew of Wilde and his son's closeness and repeatedly sent threats. One of the products of this time would eventually become The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde began writing more frequently to try and make up his debt due to the expensive relationship. In January 1895, they went to Algiers together. The two would often meet up together and would even go on trips. As both were literary talents, they were drawn to each other and started an affair.ĭespite Lord Douglas's position as a noble, Wilde would indulge in his lover, eventually outspending the amount that he made. Lord Douglas was the third son of the 9th Marquess of Queensberry and an undergraduate student at Oxford at their first meeting. In June of 1891, Wilde met Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas.
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