[5][2] Margaret in response attempted to use her influence with her brother King Henry VIII, the absent Regent Albany and her husband's rival Arran to improve her situation.

Arran had entered Edinburgh at the head of his retinue of around 500 armed footmen and had based himself at the house of James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow at the foot of Blackfriars Wynd in the east of the city,[1] intent on arresting Angus.

[1] Tensions were high between the rival factions as a Douglas follower, John Somerville, had recently attacked a party of Hamiltons on the highway and had killed 5 of them, seized 30 of their horses and forced the remainder to flee.

On hearing of Arran's plan to arrest him, Angus sent his uncle Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, to mediate with his opponent and "to caution them against violence, and to inform them that if they had anything to allege against him he would be judged by the laws of the realm, and not by men who were his avowed enemies[1]".

[1] Arran himself and his illegitimate son James Hamilton of Finnart managed to fight their way out of the mêlée and escape down one of the steep, narrow closes on the north of the High Street to the marshy edges of the Nor Loch.

The Archbishop of Glasgow fled to his church at Blackfriars where he was apprehended from behind the altar by the victorious Douglases, but was spared upon the intervention of Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld[1] and allowed to flee on foot to Linlithgow, 16 miles distant.

[4] A tit-for-tat struggle continued between the Douglases and Hamiltons until Regent Albany returned from France the following year and retook control of Scotland and its young king.

In 1525, Angus returned with the backing of Henry VIII of England and was able to forcefully have himself readmitted to the council of regency, take control of King James, and hold him virtual prisoner and rule on his behalf.