In 1522 the boy James V. was placed under the care of Lord Erskine, who at the same time received the appointment of keeper of Stirling Castle. Strict precautions were taken to prevent the young monarch from being seized and carried off like his great-grandfather, James II. Twenty footmen were commissioned to be the nightly watch, taking turn by fours to guard the door of the royal chamber; and when the King rode out to the park he was to be preceded by six or eight horsemen and accompanied by a bodyguard. Only in “right fair and soft weather” was James to be allowed to take his sport.[30] The King was thought to be old enough in 1524 to do without Lord Erskine’s guidance. Margaret, consequently, took her son from Stirling to Edinburgh, where the nobles acknowledged the lad as an independent sovereign. His enjoyment of freedom did not last long, however, for in 1525 the Earl of Angus asserted himself, and by obtaining possession of the person of the King ruled the country for several years in his own and the English monarch’s interests. Two unsuccessful attempts were made to rescue James from the Douglases’ guardianship, but in 1528 he escaped to Stirling Castle by night, most probably from Falkland, as Pitscottie has it, although some have thought that the flight must have been from Edinburgh. The ambitious family was now to suffer for its insolent treatment of the King. Sentence of forfeiture was passed on the leading members of the house, and although Angus was for some time able to set his sovereign at defiance, he was at length compelled to retire for safety to England. Archibald of Kilspindie was a Douglas who suffered banishment when his kinsmen fell into disgrace. Tiring of an exile’s life in England, however, he resolved to throw himself on James’s clemency. In 1534, accordingly, he made his way to Stirling, where he waited in the Royal Park as the King was returning from the chase. The monarch recognised the powerful figure of his old acquaintance, but did not stop to favour him with so much as a look of acknowledgment. Kilspindie ran by the side of the King, keeping pace with the horse up the hill towards the castle, but when they came to the entrance James rode straight on, leaving the breathless Douglas at the gate. The unhappy man’s desire to spend his remaining years in Scotland was not fulfilled, for the King first sent him to Leith with Robert Barton, and afterwards commanded him to cross the sea to France.[31]