Gloucester, not unnaturally, remonstrated, and, after some diplomatic fencing, it was agreed between Gloucester and Albany, on 24 Aug., that there should be a truce till 8 Sept. 1483, and that Berwick should be rendered to the English, which was at once done. Gloucester waived, until he could communicate with his royal master, consideration of a third article that the debatable land should remain in statu quo. Meantime the provost and council of Edinburgh had, by Albany's desire, written on 4 Aug. to the English, offering either to stand by the proposal for the marriage of the prince of Scotland to Princess Cecilia, or to repay the instalments of her dowry, already paid in advance. Edward, with apparent hesitation, accepted the latter alternative, and this was announced by Garter king-of-arms, who came to Edinburgh on 27 Oct. James was released from Edinburgh Castle on 29 Sept., and in token of their amity the two brothers rode together from the castle to Holyrood, it was said on the same horse, and slept in the same bed. Albany was not only restored to his estates, but created Earl of Mar and Garioch; and the town of Edinburgh, in return for its services in aiding Albany in liberating James, received a charter, with an ample grant of privileges, on 14 Nov.
In the same month James obtained a safe-conduct from the English king to enable him to make a pilgrimage to Amiens. This was probably a suggestion of Albany's, which the king was prudent enough not to carry out; for had he left the kingdom Albany would have seized the crown. On 2 Dec. a parliament, over which Albany presided in the king's absence, met at Edinburgh, in which new officers of state appear who were all in Albany's interest. It requested the king to ask Albany to act as lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and ordered preparations for its defence, but urged that peace should, if possible, be made with England. About Christmas Albany seems to have attempted to seize the person of the king, but, failing through the king's return to the castle under the protection of some of his nobles, himself went to Dunbar. From Dunbar he sent Angus Gray and Sir James Liddel of Hetherston as his special envoys, on 12 Jan. 1483, to treat with Edward concerning what had been formerly agreed between them, and they, having met the Earl of Northumberland, Lord Grey, and Sir William Parr, Edward's commissioners, entered into a new treaty on 11 Feb. at Westminster, which enlarged the articles of Fotheringay. The Duke agreed, as soon as he obtained the Scottish crown, to become the liegeman of the king of England, to dissolve the alliance with France, and assist the king of England in its conquest; to cede Berwick; to aid the Earl of Douglas in recovering his Scottish estates, and to marry a daughter of Edward IV. Two days later a warrant for a safe-conduct to the Earl of Douglas was issued to the chancellor.
Albany, however, whose duplicity at this period exceeded even the limits of the diplomacy of that age, within little more than a month, on 19 March 1483, entered into an indenture at Dunbar with his brother, by which he resigned his office of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, retaining that of warden of the marches; declared false the rumour that there had been an attempt to poison him, and promised not to come within six miles of the king without leave. He received in return a remission of all charges of treasonable intrigue with England. The treasonable plot with England, the full details of which were unknown at the time in Scotland, or by any Scottish historian until last century, was shattered by the death of Edward IV on 9 April 1483, and on 22 June Gloucester, after slaying his nephews in the Tower, seized the English throne. Only five days after, on 27 June, Albany was indicted, and on 8 July condemned in absence for treason, and his life, lands, and offices forfeited. Soon afterwards he returned to England, having given over Dunbar to an English garrison. Next year, on 22 July, along with Douglas, he made a daring raid on Lochmaben with five hundred horse; but the country rose, Douglas was captured and sent to Lindores, where he became a monk. Albany escaped by the swiftness of his horse over the border, but before long returned to France, where he was killed in 1485 by misadventure by a splinter from a lance when a spectator at a tournament between the Duke of Orleans and a knight. He was buried in the choir of the church of the Celestines in Paris, near the tomb of Leo, king of Armenia; the dukes of Orleans and Lorraine and other princes attending his obsequies.
Albany was brave, but equally faithless in love and war. A traitor both to his brother and his country, he does not seem to have deserved the popularity which he had at one time in Scotland and till his death in France. No portrait of him is known, but Pitscottie has described his person in vivid colours: ‘For this Alexander was ane man of mid stature, braid scholderit, and weill proportionat in all his memberis, and in special in his face, that is to say, braid facit, raid nosit, great eyit, and verie awful countenance quhen he pleisit to schew himself unto his unfrendis.’
