Douglas (1482) brought him to England, where he swore allegiance to Edward IV., under whom, like Edward Balliol, he would hold Scotland if crowned.  He was advancing on the Border with Edward’s support and with the Duke of Gloucester (Richard III.), and James had gone to Lauder to encounter him, when the Earl of Angus headed a conspiracy of nobles, such as Huntly, Lennox, and Buchan, seized Cochrane and other favourites of James, and hanged them over Lauder Bridge.  The most tangible grievance was the increasing debasement of the coinage.  James was immured at Edinburgh, but, by a compromise, Albany was restored to rank and estates.  Meanwhile Gloucester captured Berwick, never to be recovered by Scotland.  In 1483 Albany renewed, with many of the nobles, his intrigues with Edward for the betrayal of Scotland.  In some unknown way James separated Albany from his confederates Atholl, Buchan, and Angus; Albany went to England, betrayed the Castle of Dunbar to England, and was only checked in his treasons by the death of Edward IV. (April 9, 1483), after which a full Parliament (July 7, 1483) condemned him and forfeited him in his absence.  On July 22, 1484, he invaded Scotland with his ally, Douglas; they were routed at Lochmaben, Douglas was taken, and, by singular clemency, was merely placed in seclusion in the Monastery of Lindores, while Albany, escaping to France, perished in a tournament, leaving a descendant, who later, in the minority of James V., makes a figure in history.

The death of Richard III. (August 18, 1485) and the accession of the prudent Henry VII. gave James a moment of safety.  He turned his attention to the Church, and determined to prosecute for treason such Scottish clerics as purchased benefices through Rome.  He negotiated for three English marriages, including that of his son James, Duke of Rothesay, to a daughter of Edward IV.; he also negotiated for the recovery of Berwick, taken by Gloucester during Albany’s invasion of 1482.  After his death, and before it, James was accused, for these reasons, of disloyal dealings with England; and such nobles as Angus, up to the neck as they were in treason and rebellion, raised a party against him on the score that he was acting as they did.  The almost aimless treachery of the Douglases, Red or Black, endured for centuries from the reign of David II. to that of James VI.  Many nobles had received no amnesty for the outrage of Lauder Bridge; their hopes turned to the heir of the Crown, James, Duke of Rothesay.  We see them offering peace for an indemnity in a Parliament of October 1487; the Estates refused all such pardons for a space of seven years; the king’s party was manifestly the stronger.  He was not to be intimidated; he offended Home and the Humes by annexing the Priory of Coldingham (which they regarded as their own) to the Royal Chapel at Stirling.  The inveterate Angus, with others, induced Prince James to join them under arms.  James took the Chancellorship from Argyll and sent envoys to England.