As a boy, he had been seized by the murderers of Cardinal Beaton, and held as a hostage in the Castle of St.Andrews.

Was he there converted to the Reformers' ideas by the eloquence of Knox?
We know not, but, as heir to his father's French duchy of Chatelherault, he had been some years in France, commanding the Scottish Archer Guard.

In France too, perhaps, he was more or less a pledge for his father's loyalty in Scotland.

He was now a Protestant in earnest, had retired from the French Court, had refused to return thither when summoned, and fled from the troops who were sent to bring him; lurking in woods and living on strawberries.

Cecil despatched Thomas Randolph to steer him across the frontier to Zurich.