May, 1524.

No sooner had Albany disappeared from the scene than Margaret entered
into a new intrigue with the Earl of Arran; it had one important result,
the "erection" of the young king, who now, at the age of twelve years,
became the nominal ruler of the country. This manoeuvre was executed
with the connivance of the English, to whose side Margaret had again
deserted. For some time Arran and Margaret remained at the head of
affairs, but the return of the Earl of Angus at once drove the
queen-mother into the opposite camp, and she became reconciled to the
leader of the French party, Archbishop Beaton, whom she had imprisoned
shortly before. Angus, who had been the paid servant of England
throughout all changes since 1517, assumed the government. The alliance
between England and France, which followed the disaster to Francis I at
Pavia, seriously weakened the supporters of French influence in
Scotland, and Angus made a three years' truce in 1525. In the next year,
Arran transferred his support to Angus, who held the reins of power till
the summer of 1528. The chief event of this period is the divorce of
Queen Margaret, who immediately married a youth, Henry Stewart, son of
Lord Evandale, and afterwards known as Lord Methven.

The fall of Angus was brought about by the conduct of the young king
himself, who, tired of the tyranny in which he was held, and escaping
from Edinburgh to Stirling, regained his freedom. Angus had to flee to
England, and James passed under the influence of his mother and her
youthful husband. In 1528 he made a truce with England for five years.
During these years James showed leanings towards the French alliance,
while Henry was engaged in treasonable intrigues with Scottish nobles,
and in fomenting border troubles. But the truce was renewed in 1533, and
a more definite peace was made in 1534. Henry now attempted to enlist
James as an ally against Rome, and, by the irony of fate, offered him,
as a temptation to become a Protestant, the hand of the Princess Mary.
James refused to break with the pope, and negotiations for a meeting
between the two kings fell through--fortunately, for Henry was prepared
to kidnap James. The King of Scots arranged in 1536 to marry a daughter
of the Duc de Vendome, but, on seeing her, behaved much as Henry VIII
was to do in the case of Anne of Cleves, except that he definitely
declined to wed her at all. Being in France, he made a proposal for the
Princess Madeleine