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|image = Lord Alfred Douglas by George Charles Beresford (1903).jpg
|imagesize =
|caption =
|pseudonym =
|birth_name = Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas
|birth_date = {{birth date|1870|10|22|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Powick]],
|death_date = {{death date and age|1945|
|death_place = [[Lancing, West Sussex|Lancing]],
|resting_place = [[Friary Church of St Francis and St Anthony, Crawley]]
|occupation = Poet
|nationality = British
|spouse = {{marriage|[[Olive Custance]]|1902|1944|end=d}}
|parents = [[John Douglas,
|period =
|genre =
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|influenced =
|website =
|education = {{plainlist|
*[[Winchester College]] *[[Wixenford School]] }}
|alma_mater = [[Magdalen College, Oxford]]
}}
'''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]]. At [[Oxford University|Oxford]] he edited an undergraduate journal, ''The Spirit Lamp'', that carried a [[homoeroticism|homoerotic]] subtext, and met Wilde, starting a close but stormy relationship. Douglas's father, the [[John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry|Marquess of Queensberry]], abhorred it and set out to humiliate Wilde, publicly accusing him of homosexuality. Wilde sued him for criminal [[libel]], but some intimate notes were found and Wilde was later imprisoned. On his release, he briefly lived with Douglas in Naples, but they had separated by the time Wilde died in 1900. Douglas married a poet, [[Olive Custance]], in 1902 and had a son, Raymond.▼
▲'''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]]. At [[Oxford University
On converting to [[Roman Catholicism]] in 1911, he repudiated homosexuality, and in a [[High church|high Catholic]] magazine, ''Plain English'', expressed openly [[anti-Semitic]] views, but rejected the policies of [[Nazi Germany]]. He was jailed for libelling [[Winston Churchill]] over claims of [[World War I]] misconduct. Douglas wrote several books of verse, some in a homoerotic [[Uranians|Uranian]] genre. The phrase "[[The love that dare not speak its name]]" appears in one, ([[s:Two Loves (1894 poem)|''Two Loves'']]), though it is widely misattributed to Wilde.▼
▲On converting to [[
==Early life and background==
[[File:
Douglas 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.
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Douglas was educated at [[Wixenford School]],<ref>{{Cite book |first=Rupert |last=Croft-Cooke |title=Bosie: The Story of Lord Alfred Douglas, His Friends and Enemies |publisher=[[Bobbs-Merrill Company]] |location=Indianapolis, Indiana |date=1963 |isbn=978-1299419407 |page=33}}</ref> [[Winchester College]] (1884–88) and [[Magdalen College, Oxford]] (1889–93), which he left without obtaining a degree. At [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], he edited an undergraduate journal, ''The Spirit Lamp'' (1892–3), an activity that intensified the constant conflict between him and his father. 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. In 1893, Douglas had a brief affair with [[George Cecil Ives|George Ives]].
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.<ref>Linda Stratmann, The Marquess of Queensberry: Wilde's Nemesis, Yale University Press 2013 p. 25</ref><ref>Neil McKenna, ''The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde'', Random House 2011 p. 427.</ref> In 1862, his widowed grandmother, Lady Queensberry, converted to [[Catholic Church|
==Relationship with Wilde==
[[File:Wilde Douglas British Library B20147-85.jpg|thumb|[[Oscar Wilde]] and Lord Alfred Douglas, May 1893]]
In 1891,
Douglas has been described as spoiled, reckless, insolent and extravagant.<ref name="Ellmann"/> He would spend money on boys and gambling and expected Wilde to contribute to funding his tastes. They often argued and broke up, but would always be reconciled.
Douglas had praised Wilde's play ''[[Salome (play)|Salome]]'' in the Oxford magazine ''The Spirit Lamp'', of which he was editor. Wilde had originally written ''Salomé'' in French, and in 1893 he commissioned Douglas to translate it into English. Douglas's French was very poor and his translation was highly criticised; for example, a passage that runs "''On ne doit regarder que dans les miroirs''" ("One should look only in mirrors") he rendered "One must not look at mirrors". Douglas was angered at Wilde's criticism, and claimed that the errors were in fact in Wilde's original play. This led to a hiatus in the relationship and a row between the two, with angry messages being exchanged and even the involvement of the publisher [[John Lane (publisher)|John Lane]] and the illustrator [[Aubrey Beardsley]] when they themselves objected to the poor standard of Douglas's work. Beardsley complained to [[Robbie Ross]]: "For one week the numbers of telegraph and messenger boys who came to the door was simply scandalous". Wilde redid much of the translation himself, but in a gesture of reconciliation suggested that Douglas be dedicated as the translator rather than be credited, along with him, on the title page. Accepting this, Douglas
In 1894, Douglas came and visited Oscar Wilde in [[Worthing]], to the consternation of the latter's wife Constance.<ref>Antony Edmunds, ''Oscar Wilde's Scandalous Summer;'' p. 26 [http://www.oscarwilde.org.uk/chapter-1.html] {{Webarchive
On another occasion, while staying with Wilde in [[Brighton]], Douglas fell ill with [[influenza]] and was nursed by Wilde, but failed to return the favour when Wilde himself fell ill having caught influenza in consequence. Instead Douglas moved to the luxurious [[Grand Hotel (Brighton)|Grand Hotel]] and on Wilde's 40th birthday sent him a letter informing him that he had charged Wilde with the hotel bill. Douglas also gave his old clothes to male prostitutes, but failed to remove from the pockets incriminating letters exchanged between him and Wilde, which were then used for [[blackmail]].<ref name="Ellmann">''Oscar Wilde'' by Richard Ellman, published in 1987.</ref>
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In answer Queensberry wrote to Alfred (whom he addressed as "You miserable creature") that he had divorced Alfred's mother so as not to "run the risk of bringing more creatures into the world like yourself" and that when Alfred was a baby, "I cried over you the bitterest tears a man ever shed, that I had brought such a creature into the world, and unwittingly committed such a crime.... You must be demented."
Douglas's eldest brother [[Francis Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig|Francis Viscount Drumlanrig]] died in a suspicious hunting accident in October 1894, as rumours circulated that he had been having a homosexual relationship with the Prime Minister, [[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|Lord Rosebery]], and that the cause of death was suicide. The Marquess of Queensberry thus embarked on a campaign to save his other son and began a public persecution of Wilde. Wilde had been openly flamboyant and his actions made the public suspicious even before the trial.<ref>Ellmann (1988:101)</ref> The Marquess and a bodyguard confronted
Queensberry then publicly insulted Wilde by leaving at the latter's club a [[visiting card]] on which he had written, "For Oscar Wilde posing as a somdomite {{sic}}". The wording is in dispute – the handwriting is unclear – although Hyde reports it as this. According to [[Merlin Holland]], Wilde's grandson, it is more likely "Posing somdomite", while Queensberry himself claimed it to be "Posing as somdomite". Holland suggests that this wording ("posing [as] ...") would have been easier to defend in court.
==1895 trials==
{{Main|Oscar Wilde#
[[File:Somdomite.jpg|thumb|The calling card, labelled Exhibit A in the trial (bottom left corner)|left]]
Queensberry's attorney announced in court that he had located several male prostitutes who were to testify that they had had sex with Wilde. Wilde's lawyers advised him that this would make a conviction on the libel charge very unlikely; he then dropped the libel charge, on his lawyers' advice, to avoid further pointless scandal. Without a conviction, the libel law of the time left Wilde liable to pay Queensberry's considerable legal costs, leaving him [[bankruptcy|bankrupt]]. Based on the evidence raised during the case, Wilde was arrested the next day and charged with committing criminal [[sodomy]] and "[[gross indecency between men|gross indecency]]", a crime capable of being committed only by two men, which might include sexual acts other than sodomy.
Douglas's September 1892 poem "[[s:Two Loves (1894 poem)|Two Loves]]" (published in the Oxford magazine ''The Chameleon'' in December 1894) was used against Wilde at the latter's trial. It ends with the famous line that calls homosexuality ''[[the love that dare not speak its name]]'', which is often attributed wrongly to Wilde. Wilde gave an eloquent but counter-productive explanation of the nature of this love on the witness stand. The trial resulted in a [[hung jury]].
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In 1895, when Wilde was released on bail during his trials, Douglas's cousin [[Sholto Johnstone Douglas]] stood [[surety]] for [[pound sterling|£]]500 of the bail money.<ref>Maureen Borland, ''Wilde's Devoted Friend: A Life of Robert Ross, 1869–1918'' (Lennard Publishing, 1990) [https://books.google.com/books?id=j2lnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Sholto+Johnstone+Douglas%22 p. 206] at books.google.com, accessed 22 January 2009.</ref> The prosecutor opted to retry the case. Wilde was convicted on 25 May 1895 and sentenced to two years' [[hard labour]], first at [[HM Prison Pentonville|Pentonville]], then [[HM Prison Wandsworth|Wandsworth]], then famously in [[HM Prison Reading|Reading Gaol]]. Douglas was forced into exile in Europe.
While in prison, Wilde wrote Douglas a long and critical letter
==Naples and Paris==
The meeting in Rouen was disapproved of by the friends and families of both men. During the later part of 1897, Wilde and Douglas lived together in Naples, but they separated due to financial pressures and for other personal reasons. Wilde spent the rest of his life mainly in Paris; Douglas returned to Britain in late 1898. The cohabitation period in Naples later became controversial. Wilde claimed Douglas had offered a home, but had no funds or ideas. When Douglas eventually gained funds from his late father's estate, he refused to grant Wilde a permanent allowance, although he gave him occasional sums. Wilde was still bankrupt when he died in 1900. Douglas served as chief mourner, but there was reportedly a graveside altercation between him and Robbie Ross that developed into a feud and foreshadowed the later litigation between the two former lovers of Wilde.<ref>{{Cite book |title=World Review |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QvwIAQAAIAAJ |year=1970 |publisher=E. Hulton}}</ref>
==Marriage==
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After Wilde's death, Douglas made a close friendship with [[Olive Custance]], a [[bisexual]] heiress and poet.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Parker |first1=Sarah |title='A Girl's Love': Lord Alfred Douglas as Homoerotic Muse in the Poetry of Olive Custance |journal=Women: A Cultural Review |publisher=[[Taylor and Francis]] |location=London, England |date=September 2011 |volume=22 |issue=2–3 |pages=220–240 |doi=10.1080/09574042.2011.585045 |s2cid=191468238 |url=https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/22672}}</ref> They married on 4 March 1902. Olive Custance was in a relationship with the writer [[Natalie Clifford Barney|Natalie Barney]] when she and Douglas first met.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Parker |first1=Sarah |title=The lesbian muse and poetic identity, 1889–1930 |date=2013 |publisher=Pickering & Chatto |location=London |isbn=978-1848933866 |pages=71–100}}</ref> Barney and Douglas eventually became close friends and Barney was named godmother to their son, Raymond Wilfred Sholto Douglas, born on 17 November 1902.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Adams |first=Jad |date=2018 |title=Olive Custance: A Poet Crossing Boundaries |journal=English Literature in Transition |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=35–65}}</ref>
The marriage grew stormy after Douglas became a [[
==Repudiation of Wilde==
In 1911, Douglas embraced
Douglas also contributed to Billing's journal ''Vigilante'' as part of his campaign against Robbie Ross. He had written a poem calling [[Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith|Margot Asquith]] one "bound with Lesbian fillets", while her husband Prime Minister [[H. H. Asquith|Herbert]] gave Ross money.<ref>Philip Hoare. (1999). ''Oscar Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy, and the Most Outrageous Trial of the Century''. Arcade Publishing, p. 110.</ref> During the trial he called Wilde as "the greatest force for evil that has appeared in Europe during the last three hundred and fifty years", adding that he intensely regretted having met Wilde and helped him with the French translation of ''Salome'', which he called "a most pernicious and abominable piece of work".
==''Plain English''==
In 1920 Douglas founded a [[Far-right politics|right-wing]], Catholic, and deeply
From August 1920 (issue No 8) ''Plain English'' began publishing a long series of articles called "The Jewish Peril" by [[Arthur Cherep-Spiridovich|Major-General Count Cherep-Spiridovitch]], whose title was taken from the fore-title of [[George Shanks]]'s version of a fraudulent work, ''[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]''. ''Plain English'' advertised from issue 20 [[The Britons]]' second edition of Shank's version of the ''Protocols''. Douglas challenged the ''Jewish Guardian'', published by the [[League of British Jews]], to take him to court, suggesting they refrained from doing so because they were "well aware of the absolute truth of the allegations which we have made."<ref>The "Jewish Guardian" Again, ''Plain English'' No 21, 27 November 1920</ref> The magazine suggested in 1921, "We need a [[Ku Klux Klan]] in this country,"<ref>Lies, ''Plain English'' No 66, 8 October 1921</ref> but a promotion for ''[[Ostara (magazine)|Ostara]]'' magazine was generally not well received by readers.
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Douglas was plaintiff or defendant in several trials for civil or [[criminal libel]]. In 1913 he was charged with libelling his father-in-law. That same year he accused [[Arthur Ransome]] of libelling him in his book ''Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study''. He saw the trial as a weapon against his enemy Ross, not understanding that Ross would not be called to give evidence. The court found in Ransome's favour and Douglas was bankrupted by the failed libel suit.<ref>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/12530/page/77 The Edinburgh Gazette Publication date:17 January 1913 Issue: 12530, Page 77].</ref> Ransome removed the offending passages from the second edition.<ref>Ransome, Arthur, ''Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study'', 2nd ed., Methuen, 1913.</ref>
The prime case was brought by the Crown on [[Winston Churchill]]'s behalf in 1923. Douglas was found guilty of libelling Churchill and sentenced to six months in prison. Churchill had been accused as cabinet minister of falsifying an official report on the [[Battle of Jutland]] in 1916, when although suffering losses, the Royal Navy drove the German battle fleet off the high seas. Churchill was said to have reported that the British Navy had in fact been defeated, the supposed motive being that when the news was flashed, British security prices would tumble on the world's stock exchanges, allowing a group of named Jewish financiers to snap them up cheaply. Churchill's reward was a houseful of furniture valued at [[Pound sterling|£]]40,000. The allegations were made by Douglas in ''Plain English'' and later at a public meeting in London. A false report of a crushing British naval defeat had indeed been planted in the New York press by German interests, but by this time (after the failure of his [[Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign|Dardanelles Campaign]]) Churchill was unconnected with the Admiralty. As the attorney general noted in court on Churchill's behalf, there was "no plot, no phoney communiqué, no stock market raid and no present of fine furniture".<ref>[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,727630,00.html accessed 10/2/2017].</ref><ref>[http://www.jta.org/1923/12/13/archive/churchill-wins-libel-suit-against-douglas accessed 10/2/2017].</ref>
In 1924, while in prison, Douglas echoed Wilde's composition of ''De Profundis'' (From the Depths) during his incarceration and wrote his last major poetic work, ''In Excelsis'' (In the Highest) in 17 [[canto]]s. Since the prison authorities would not allow Douglas to take the manuscript with him on his release, he had to rewrite the work from memory. Douglas maintained that his health never recovered from his harsh prison ordeal, which included sleeping on a plank bed without a mattress.
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[[Harold Nicolson]] described his impression of Douglas after meeting him at a lunch party in 1936: {{blockquote|There is a little trace of his good looks left. His nose has assumed a curious beaklike shape, his mouth has twisted into shapes of nervous irritability, and his eyes, although still blue, are yellow and bloodshot. He makes nervous and twitching movements with freckled and claw-like hands. He stoops slightly and drags a leg. Yet behind this appearance of a little, cross, old gentleman flits the shape of a young man of the 'nineties, with little pathetic sunshine-flashes of the 1893 boyishness and gaiety. I had fully expected the self-pity, suspicion and implied irritability, but I had not foreseen that there would be any remnant of merriment and boyishness. Obviously the great tragedy of his life has scarred him deeply. He talked very frankly about his marriage and about his son, who is in a home at [[Northampton]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Harold Nicolson Diaries & Letters 1930–39 |author=Harold Nicolson |publisher=Collins |year=1966 |page=261}}</ref>}}
In the book, ''Secret Historian'', Samuel Steward (a professor, poet, and novelist) wrote in his diary that he met Lord Alfred Douglas when Douglas was 67; Steward was 27. Lord
Douglas's only child, Raymond, was diagnosed in 1927, at the age of 24, with [[schizoaffective disorder]]
==Death==
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Douglas died of [[congestive heart failure]] in [[Lancing, West Sussex]], on 20 March 1945 at the age of 74. He was buried on 23 March at the [[Friary Church of St Francis and St Anthony, Crawley|Franciscan Friary]], [[Crawley]], alongside his mother, who had died on 31 October 1935 at the age of 90. They share a gravestone.<ref name="Bastable1983-147">{{Cite book |last=Bastable |first=Roger |title=Crawley: A Pictorial History |publisher=Phillimore & Co |location=Chichester |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-85033-503-3 |page=§147|no-pp=y}}</ref>
The elderly Douglas, living a reduced life in [[Hove]] in the 1940s, appears in the diaries of [[Henry Channon]] and in the first autobiography of [[Donald Sinden]], whose son [[Marc Sinden]] claimed his father was one of only two people at the funeral.<ref>Libby Purvis interviews Freddie Fox. ''The Times'', 17 January 2013, p. 8.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Sir Donald Sinden: Legendary actor dies aged 90 |publisher=BBC News |date=12 September 2014 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29170107 |access-date=12 September 2014}}</ref> In fact the funeral report in ''[[The Times]]'' named some 20 mourners, including Sinden, with "other friends".<ref>"Funeral: Lord Alfred Douglas", ''The Times'', 24 March 1945, p. 7.</ref> He died at the home of Edward and Sheila Colman, who were the main beneficiaries in his will, inheriting the copyright to his work.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/4266970/World-of-books.html A. N. Wilson in ''The Telegraph'' 26 November 2001]</ref>
==Writings==
Douglas published several volumes of poetry and two books about his relationship with Wilde, ''Oscar Wilde and Myself'' (1914, largely ghost-written by [[Thomas William Hodgson Crosland|T. W. H. Crosland]], assistant editor of
Douglas edited ''The Academy'' from 1907 to 1910, during which time he had an affair with the artist [[Romaine Brooks]], who was also [[bisexual]]. The main love of her life, [[Natalie Clifford Barney]], also had an affair with Wilde's niece [[Dorothy Wilde|Dorothy]] and even, in 1901, with Douglas's future wife [[Olive Custance]], the year before the couple married.
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*Preface to ''Wartime Harvest'' by Marie Carmichael Stopes (1944)
==
In the films ''[[Oscar Wilde (film)|Oscar Wilde]]'' and ''[[The Trials of Oscar Wilde]]'', both released in 1960, Douglas was portrayed by [[John Neville (actor)|John Neville]] and [[John Fraser (actor)|John Fraser]] respectively. In the 1997 British film ''[[Wilde (film)|Wilde]]'', Douglas was portrayed by [[Jude Law]]. In the 2018 film ''[[The Happy Prince (2018 film)|The Happy Prince]]'', he was portrayed by [[Colin Morgan]].
In the BBC drama ''[[Oscar (TV serial)|Oscar]]'' (1985) he was portrayed by [[Robin McCallum|Robin Lermitte]] (credited as Robin McCallum); [[Michael Gambon]] played Wilde.
The queer history podcast [[Bad Gays (podcast)|Bad Gays]] covered Douglas in Episode 2 of their first season.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 2019 |title=Episode Archive |url=https://badgayspod.com/listen |access-date=August 4, 2024 |website=Bad Gays Podcast}}</ref>
==Notes==
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*Douglas Murray, ''Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas'' (2000) {{ISBN|0-340-76771-5}}
*Trevor Fisher, ''Oscar and Bosie: A Fatal Passion'' (2002) {{ISBN|0-7509-2459-4}}
*[http://www.mmkaylor.com Michael Matthew Kaylor, ''Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde'' (2006)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604143426/http://mmkaylor.com/ |date=4 June 2023 }}, a 500-page scholarly volume that considers the Victorian writers of [[Uranian poetry]] and prose, such as Douglas
*Timothy d'Arch Smith, ''Love in Earnest. Some Notes on the Lives and Writings of English 'Uranian' Poets from 1889 to 1930.'' (1970) {{ISBN|0-7100-6730-5}}
*[[Caspar Wintermans]], ''Alfred Douglas: A Poet's Life and His Finest Work'' (2007) {{ISBN|978-0-7206-1270-7}}
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[[Category:Antisemitism in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Bisexual male writers]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Uranians]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:English
[[Category:Muses (persons)]]
[[Category:Oscar Wilde]]
[[Category:People educated at Winchester College]]
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[[Category:English conspiracy theorists]]
[[Category:People from Lancing, West Sussex]]
[[Category:19th-century English LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:20th-century English LGBTQ people]]
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