He was a piece in the game much more valuable than his father, whose portrait shows us a weak, feebly cunning, good-natured, and puzzled-looking old nobleman.
Till Arran returned to Scotland, the Hamiltons, it was certain, would be trusty allies of neither faith and of neither party.

When the Perth tumult broke out, Lord James rode with the Regent, as did Argyll.

But both had signed the godly Band of December 3, 1557, and could no more be trusted by the Regent than the Hamiltons.
Meanwhile, the gentry of Fife and Forfarshire, with the town of Dundee, joined Knox in the walled town of Perth, though Lord Ruthven, provost of Perth, deserted, for the moment, to the Regent.

On the other hand, the courageous Glencairn, with a strong body of the zealots of Renfrewshire and Ayrshire, was moving by forced marches to join the brethren.

On May 24, the Regent, instead of attacking, halted at Auchterarder, fourteen miles away, and sent Argyll and Lord James to parley.