 gavin douglas (c. 1474 â september 1522) was a scottish bishop, makar and translator. although he had an important political career, it is for his poetry that he is now chiefly remembered. his principal pioneering achievement was the eneados, a full and faithful vernacular translation of the aeneid of virgil and the first successful example of its kind in any anglic language. other extant poetry includes his palice of honour and possibly king hart. ==life and career== ===early life=== gavin (or gawin, gawane, gawain) douglas was born c. 1474â1476, at tantallon castle, east lothian, the third son of archibald, 5th earl of angus by his second wife elizabeth boyd. a vatican register records that gavin douglas was 13 in 1489, suggesting he was born in 1476. an application had been lodged to award gavin the right to hold a church canonry or prebend and enjoy its income. another appeal to rome concerning church appointments made in february 1495 states his age as 20.bawcutt, p., in, renaissance in scotland, brill (1994), pp.95-6 (bawcutt is unclear if these are 'old style' dates.) the 1495 register refers to douglas as a glasgow m.a., which may be a confusion with a namesake contemporary, gavin douglas son of laird of drumlanrig. he was a student at st andrews, 1489â1494, and thereafter, it is supposed, at paris. in 1496 he obtained the living of monymusk, aberdeenshire, and later he became parson of lynton (mod. east linton) and rector of hauch (mod. prestonkirk), in east lothian; and about 1501 was preferred to the deanery or provostship of the collegiate church of st giles, edinburgh, which he held with his parochial charges.balfour paul, vol i, p 185 ===early career=== until the battle of flodden in september 1513, gavin douglas appears to have been occupied with his ecclesiastical duties and literary work. indeed all the extant writings by which he has earned his place as a poet and translator belong to this period. after the disaster a
1470s_births 1522_deaths 16th-century_Scottish_writers 16th-century_deaths_from_plague_(disease) 16th-century_poets Abbots_of_Arbroath Alumni_of_the_University_of_St_Andrews Bishops_of_Dunkeld Court_of_James_IV_of_Scotland Infectious_disease_deaths_in_England Keepers_of_the_Great_Seal_of_Scotland Middle_Scots_poets People_from_Angus Pre-Reformation_bishops_in_Scotland Scots_Makars Scottish_Renaissance_writers Scottish_translators