Lennox and another rising favourite, James Stewart, together worked for the hated Morton’s fall, and as the King was completely in their hands and bore no love to the stern ex-regent, the Earl was condemned to death in 1581, for being “art and part” in the murder of Darnley. Yet not much more than a year after Morton’s death, Lennox’s ascendency came to an end. A number of nobles--Mar, Gowrie, Lindsay and others--seized the King at Ruthven Castle, near Perth, and virtually held him a prisoner, while Lennox was ordered to leave the country--a step which at last he reluctantly took. James was brought back to Stirling, and, although chafing at the restraint, was compelled to announce that he was a free King and that he desired to reside in the castle. But the Ruthven Raiders were unable to keep their sovereign for more than ten months in their hands. In June, 1583, a plot for the recovery of his freedom was formed, and he escaped from Falkland Palace to St. Andrews, where he threw himself into the castle. Their inability to hold the King in their power was disastrous to the leaders of the Raid of Ruthven; consequently they lost little time in arranging a scheme to place themselves again in command. The Earl of Mar and the Master of Glamis had retired to the north of Ireland, but in the spring of 1584 they stealthily crossed the Channel, and on the 17th of April, with five hundred horse, they seized the Castle of Stirling. James at once raised an army in Edinburgh and marched to attack the rebels. No fighting of any sort took place, however, for the insurgent lords, taken aback by the King’s swift action and disappointed in the support of their friends, fled towards the Border before the royal army appeared. The small garrison which they left to guard the fortress surrendered at once to the King. The constable and three of the men were hanged as a sign of the royal displeasure.[58] On the failure of the conspiracy, the Earl of Gowrie, who had come to be regarded with distrust by both parties, was tried at Stirling and executed almost beneath the walls of the castle.