Power in Scotland, after the death of the regent Douglas in 1439, and with a general lack of high-status earls because of deaths, forfeiture or youth, becomes shared uneasily between William, 1st Lord Crichton, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and Sir Alexander Livingston of Callendar, who has possession of the young king as the warden of the stronghold of Stirling Castle.

A dynastic feud now erupts over possession of the Scottish crown.

William Douglas, the eldest son of Archibald Douglas and Eupheme Graham, had become 6th Earl of Douglas on his father’s death and married Janet Lindsay, daughter of David Lindsay, 3rd Earl of Crawford.

Crichton and Livingston, together with James Douglas the Gross, Earl of Avondale, conspire to break the power of the late Earl's family, and in November 1440 summon William and his younger brother David to Edinburgh Castle.

The so-called 'Black Dinner' that ensues sees the two boys summarily beheaded on trumped up charges, in the presence of the young King.

The family estates are divided between Avondale, who is the son of the third earl (Archibald the Grim) and Margaret, the sixth earl's sister.

Commentators tend to place the blame for the Black Dinner at the feet of Crichton, Livingston and particularly Avondale, as Douglas's death brings him the earldom of Douglas (as 7th earl of Douglas), and the position of the most powerful magnate in Scotland.