to 1601, England was engaged in a series of conspiracies against the persons of the princes of Scotland.

The Catholics of the south of Scotland now lost Lord Maxwell, slain by a "Lockerby Lick" in a great clan battle with the Johnstones at Dryfe Sands.
In 1595, James's minister, John Maitland, brother of Lethington, died, and early in 1596 an organisation called "the Octavians" was made to regulate the distracted finance of the country.

On April 13, 1596, Walter Scott of Buccleuch made himself an everlasting name by the bloodless rescue of Kinmont Willie, an Armstrong reiver, from the Castle of Carlisle, where he was illegally held by Lord Scrope.

The period was notable for the endless raids by the clans on both sides of the Border, celebrated in ballads.
James had determined to recall the exiled Catholic earls, undeterred by the eloquence of "the last of all our sincere Assemblies," held with deep emotion in March 1596.

The earls came home; in September at Falkland Palace Andrew Melville seized James by the sleeve, called him "God's silly vassal," and warned him that Christ and his Kirk were the king's overlords.