[3] He promoted the act permitting the reading of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, and was one of the commissioners appointed to arrange a marriage treaty between the little queen and the future Edward VI.
However, David Beaton "loved him worst of all," and when Arran went over to the priestly party, Balnaves was deprived of his offices and imprisoned in Blackness Castle in November 1543.
She had become Regent of Scotland, and Balnaves offered to support her regime with secret legal advice regarding crown incomes.
He expressed confidence in her rule and mentioned she had shown kindness to his wife, Christina Scheves;"Your Heighnes' maist gentill and gracious clemencie schawin to me, undeservit, and to the pure woman my wiff, quha hes no other help bot your grace, and the hope I have in your heighness, compellis me seik and preis forward to your grace' service, and to pretermit (avoid) na thyng, when occasion is gevin to me, that I can do to your contentation and pleasour.
The accession of Queen Elizabeth I changed the situation, and Mary of Guise had reasons for accusing him of "practices out of England".
He took, in fact, an active part in the rising of 1559 and was commissioned by the Congregation to solicit the help of the English government through Sir Ralph Sadleir at Berwick.
[1] He has been claimed as a Scots bard on the strength of one ballad, "O gallandis all, I cry and call," which is printed in Allan Ramsay's Evergreen (2 vols.