The return of the regent was followed by the banishment of Angus, and by a desultory warfare with England, carried on with mutual incursions. Two gallant armies, levied by Albany, were dismissed without any exploit worthy notice, while Surrey, at the head of ten thousand cavalry, burnt Jedburgh, and laid waste all Tiviotdale. This general pays a splendid tribute to the gallantry of the Border chiefs. He terms them, "The boldest men and the hottest, that ever I saw in any nation."

Disgraced and detested, Albany bade adieu to Scotland for ever. The queen-mother and the Earl of Arran for some time swayed the kingdom. But their power was despised on the Borders, where Angus, though banished, had many friends. Scott of Buccleuch even appropriated to himself domains belonging to the queen, worth 400 merks yearly; being probably the castle of Newark, and her jointure lands in Ettrick forest. This chief, with Kerr of Cessford, was committed to ward, from which they escaped, to join the exiled Angus. Leagued with these, and other Border chiefs, Angus effected his return to Scotland, where he shortly after acquired possession of the supreme power, and of the person of the youthful king. ‘The ancient power of the Douglasses’ says the accurate historian whom I have so often referred to, ‘seemed to have revived; and, after a slumber of near a century, again to threaten destruction to the Scottish monarchy.’ – Pinkerton, vol. Ii p.277

In fact, the time now returned, when no one durst strive with a Douglas, or with his follower. For, although Angus used the outward pageant of conducting the King around the country, for punishing thieves and traitors, ‘yet,’ says Piscottie, ‘none were found greater than were in his own company.’ The high spirit of the young King was galled by the ignominious restraint under which he found himself; and, in a progress to the Border, for repressing the Armstrongs, he probably gave such signs of dissatisfaction, as excited the Laird of Buccleuch to attempt his rescue.

This powerful baron was the chief of a hardy clan, inhabiting Ettrick Forest, Eskdale, Ewsdale, the higher part of Tiviotdale, and a portion of Liddesdale. In this warlike district he easily levied a thousand horse, comprehending a large body of Elliots, Armstrongs, and other broken clans, over whom the Laird of Buccleuch exercised an extensive authority being termed, by Lord Dacre, ‘chief maintainer of all misguided men on the Borders of Scotland.’ – Letter to Wolsey, July 18, 1528. The Earl of Angus, with his reluctant ward, had slept at Melrose, and the clans of Home and Kerr, under the Lord Home, and the Barons of Cessford and Fairnihirst, had taken their leave of the King, when in the gray of the morning, Buccleuch and his band of cavalry were discovered hanging, like a thunder-cloud, upon the neighbouring hill of Haliden. A herald was sent to demand his purpose, and to charge him to retire. To the first point he answered, that he came to show his clan to the King, according to the custom of the Borders; to the second, that he knew the King’s mind better than Angus. When this haughty answer was reported to the Earl, ‘Sir,’ said he to the King, ‘yonder is Buccleuch, with the thieves of Annandale and Liddesdale, to bar your grace’s passage. I vow to God they shall either fight or flee. Your grace shall tarry on this hillock with my brother George; and I will either clear your road of yonder banditti, or die in the attempt.’ The Earl, with these words, alighted, and hastened to the charge; while the Earl of Lennox ( at whose instigation Buccleuch made the attempt) remained with the King, an inactive spectator. Buccleuch and his followers likewise dismounted and received the assailants with a dreadful shout, and a shower of lances. The encounter was fierce and obstinate but the Homes and Kerrs, returning at the noise of the battle, bore down and dispersed the left wing of Buccleuch’s little army. The hired banditti fled on all sides; but the chief himself, surrounded by his clan, fought desperately in the retreat. The Laird of Cessford, chief of the Roxburgh Kerrs, pursued the chase fiercely; till, at the bottom of a steep path, Elliot of Stobs, a follower of Buccleuch, turned, and slew him with a stroke of his lance. When Cessford fell, the pursuit ceased. But his death, with those of Buccleuch’s friends, who fell in the action, to the number of eighty, occasioned a deadly feud betwixt the names of Scott and Kerr, which cost much blood upon the Marches."