Chronicle accounts allege that his influence over the king incurred the wrath of the old aristocracy, culminating in a coup at Lauder in which James III was arrested and Cochrane was executed.

Despite his limited presence in the contemporary record, Cochrane's career as a royal favourite and man who encouraged the king's interest in unmanly pursuits not deemed appropriate for a monarch has dominated accounts of James III's reign until the present day.

[1] Sixteenth-century accounts such as those provided by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, John Lesley and George Buchanan portray James III as a weak king and a dilettante who surrounded himself with a group of talented but low-born "familiars" or favourites.

[3] Although the king was alleged in chronicle accounts to have given Cochrane the title of Earl of Mar after his brother's death, no contemporary record of such a grant survives.

A cabal of aristocrats sympathetic to Albany's objectives, including Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus, took the opportunity afforded by a gathering of the Scottish host at Lauder Bridge intended to launch a counterattack to the English invasion to arrest James III and execute Cochrane and other alleged favourites.

[6] Angus was much later reported to have been given the nickname "Bell the Cat" by David Hume of Godscroft, reflecting an account of him stepping forward to put the execution of the James III's favourites into effect.