"If God gives me but a dog's life," he said, "I will make the key keep the castle and the bracken bush keep the cow." Before his first Parliament, in May 1424, James arrested Murdoch's eldest son, Sir Walter Fleming of Cumbernauld, and the younger Boyd of Kilmarnock.

The Parliament left a Committee of the Estates ("The Lords of the Articles") to carry out the royal policy.

Taxes for the payment of James's ransom were imposed; to impose them was easy, "passive resistance" was easier; the money was never paid, and James's noble hostages languished in England.

He next arrested the old Earl of Lennox, and Sir Robert Graham of the Kincardine family, later his murderer.
These were causes of unpopularity.

During a new Parliament (1425) James imprisoned the new Duke of Albany (Murdoch) and his son Alexander, and seized their castles.