Edinburgh, on 17 Nov., rejected this proposal, and new guardians, one the Frenchman Gonzolles, now captain of Dunbar, were appointed for the king. The king was to remain at Stirling, where his mother's visits were carefully regulated. Leave of absence was readily granted to Albany on condition that if he did not return in four months he should forfeit the regency. Gonzolles was nominated treasurer, but it is doubtful whether he ever exercised the office.
Albany sailed from Dumbarton on 20 May 1524, and never saw Scotland again. On 30 July, before the expiry of the four months, James V, now a boy of twelve, was, in Scottish phrase, erected king at Holyrood, and an instrument signed by the leading nobles and prelates which annulled Albany's regency. The parliament which met on 14 Nov. passed an act declaring that he had broken his promise to return, and thereby forfeited the office of tutor and governor. Albany lived for twelve years after his departure from Scotland. Though he continued a not unimportant factor in continental politics, he never attained the same position as when governor of Scotland. Shortly after his return he accompanied Francis I in the campaign of Italy against Charles V which ended in the disaster of Pavia on 24 Feb. 1525, where Francis was taken prisoner. He had been detached at Milan from the main army, and sent with two hundred lances, six hundred light horse, and eight thousand infantry to make a diversion against the Spaniards in Naples. In the middle of February he was stopped by an illness, and the capture of Francis I put an end to the expedition. Albany retreated to the papal territory, where his presence in Rome led to fights between the faction of the Colonna who favoured the emperor, and the papal faction of the Orsini. Albany and his troops went to the coast, and were soon after recalled by the queen regent, in June 1525. His appointment to this important command shows that in the opinion of Francis I he was not an incompetent general. The French ambassador in England at this time engaged that Albany should not return to Scotland during the minority of James V, but he had no wish go thither. Through his influence with Clement VII he was instrumental in obtaining, on 11 March 1527, the decree for Margaret's divorce from Angus. He paid the cost of the divorce, which her agent, Duncan, at Rome assured him would amount to not less than six hundred ducats. The English court and Henry VIII himself in 1527 revived the rumour that Margaret desired to marry Albany, but in March 1528 she declared her secret marriage to Henry Stewart, brother of Lord Avandale, with whom she had already had an illicit amour.
Between 1530 and 1533 Albany, as we learn from the Spanish state papers, several times visited Rome as French ambassador. He was narrowly watched by the envoys of the emperor, who suspected, not without reason, that the chief object of his diplomatic activity was to get a footing again for the French in Italy, and renew the league against the emperor. But the only result achieved was the marriage of his wife's niece Catherine to the Duke of Orleans, which gave the pope a family interest in the French royal succession. When absent from Italy Albany carried on an active correspondence with M. d'Inteville, the French ambassador who succeeded him at Rome; Strozzi, the pope's ambassador in France, and more than one cardinal. This correspondence, which is in the French archives, has not yet been published. It probably related to the expenses of the divorce, and to the marriage of his wife's niece, Catherine de' Medici, with Henry, duke of Orleans, the second son of Francis I, which was celebrated at Marseilles by the pope on 28 Oct. 1534, and the arrangements prior to this marriage as to the inheritance of Auvergne and Boulogne between Albany, the Duke of Orleans, and Catherine de' Medici. Albany was selected by Francis I to conduct Catherine to France, probably on account of his office as high admiral as well as his relationship. When in Italy he obtained a cardinal's hat for his uterine brother, Philip de la Chambre.
Another matter in which Albany took a leading part was the institution of the court of session in Scotland, and the endowment of its judges out of the revenues of the Scottish bishops, which required the sanction of the pope. He had started this project while regent, but the bull of Clement VII was not issued till 15 Sept. 1531, the court was not instituted till 1532, and the bull for its endowment was not procured till 1535. Albany was also largely concerned in the negotiations for the marriage of James V. The marriage of James to a French princess had been agreed to by the treaty of Rouen, which Albany had negotiated in 1517. It was naturally renewed when James became of a marriageable age, and the bride first selected was Madeline, daughter of Francis I. Eventually, however, in 1534 the choice of the Scottish ambassadors, David Beaton and John, lord Erskine, fell on Marie de Bourbon, daughter of the Duc de Vendôme, with whom a contract of marriage was entered into at Crémieux in Dauphiné on 6 March 1536.
