King Robert resolved to send his son James for training to the court of France, but the boy was driven to the English coast by a storm and Henry refused to release him.

Had the Scots been friends, the king jested, they would have sent James to him for education, as he knew the French tongue quite as well as King Charles.

Robert died of grief at the news; and Scotland fell into the hands of his brother, the Duke of Albany, whose one aim was that his nephew should remain a prisoner.

James grew up at the English Court; and, prisoner though he was, the excellence of his training was seen in the poetry and intelligence of his later life.
But with its king as a hostage Scotland was no longer to be dreaded as a foe.

France too was weakened at this moment; for in 1405 the long-smouldering jealousy between the Dukes of Orleans and of Burgundy broke out at last into open strife.