The Hepburns rose to the earldom of Bothwell on the death of Ramsay, a favourite of James III., who (1491) had arranged to kidnap James IV.

with his brother, and hand them over to Henry VII., for 277 pounds, 13s.

4d.! Nothing came of this, and a truce with England was arranged in 1491.

Through four reigns, till James VI.

came to the English throne, the Tudor policy was to buy Scottish traitors, and attempt to secure the person of the Scottish monarch.
Meanwhile, the Church was rent by jealousies between the holder of the newly-created Archbishop of Glasgow (1491) and the Archbishop of St Andrews, and disturbed by the Lollards, in the region which was later the centre of the fiercest Covenanters,--Kyle in Ayrshire.