Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the Great Seal and the jewels and Honours of Scotland, retiring for a while to Lochleven Castle, where he busied himself in laying out gardens. On 10 March, James VI issued a proclamation recognising that many in Scotland 'misliked' the regiment of Morton, who had now resigned, and James would now accept the burden of the administration. The King was eleven years old. Queen Elizabeth wrote to her agents in Scotland expressing her astonishment and displeasure because, as she was convinced her influence had brought Morton to the regency, his forced resignation reflected badly on her. If Morton was now to be accused of bad government, she instructed her diplomats Thomas Randolph and Robert Bowes to defend him by saying that his accusers should have first appealed to England to pressure Morton to reform his administration. President of the Privy Council and arrest On 27 April 1578, by the action of John Erskine (son of Regent Mar) and his brothers, the Commendators of Cambuskenneth and Dryburgh, Morton gained possession of Stirling Castle and the person of the king, regaining his ascendancy. On 12 August 1578, the forces of his opponents faced his army at Falkirk, but a truce was negotiated by two Edinburgh ministers, James Lawson and David Lindsay, and the English resident Robert Bowes. A nominal reconciliation was effected, and a parliament at Stirling introduced a new government. Morton, who secured an indemnity, was president of the council, but Atholl remained a privy councillor in an enlarged council with the representatives of both parties. Shortly afterwards Atholl died (allegedly of poison) and suspicion pointed to Morton. His return to power was brief, and the only important event was the prosecution of the two Hamiltons who still supported Mary. In the spring of 1579, the Scottish government's forces moved to crush the power of the Hamilton family in the west, and Claude Hamilton and his brother John Hamilton fled to England. Morton would later deny that this was his initiative. The final fall of Morton came from an opposite quarter. In May 1579, at St Andrews, an eccentric called Skipper Lindsay publicly declared to Morton in the King's presence during the performance of a play that his day of judgement was at hand. In September, Esmé Stewart, Sieur d'Aubigny, the king's cousin, came to Scotland from France, gained the favour of James by his courtly manners,