James was determined to bring the Highlanders to submission, and
Fordun relates a characteristic anecdote in which the King pointedly
declared his resolution. When the excesses in the Highlands were
first reported to him by one of his nobles, on entering Scotland,
he thus expressed himself: "Let God but grant me life, and there
shall not be a spot in my dominions where the key shall riot keep
the castle, and the furze bush the cow, though I myself should lead
the life of a dog to accomplish it"; and it was in this frame of
mind that he visited Inverness in 1427, determined to establish
good government and order in the North, then in such a state of
insubordination that neither life nor property was secure. The
principal chiefs, on his order or invitation met him, from what
motives it is impossible to determine - whether hoping for a
reconciliation by prompt compliance with the Royal will, or from
a dread, in case of refusal, to suffer the fate of the Southern
barons who had already fallen victims to his severity. The order
was in any case obeyed, and all the leading chiefs repaired to
meet him at the Castle of Inverness. As they entered the hall,
however, where the Parliament was at the time sitting, they were,
one by one, by order of the King, arrested, ironed, and imprisoned
in different apartments, and debarred from having any communications
with each other, or with their followers.

Fordun says that James displayed marks of great joy as these
turbulent and haughty spirits, caught in the toils which he had
prepared for them, came voluntarily within reach of his regal
power, and that he "caused to be arrested Alexander of the Isles,
and his mother, Countess of Ross, daughter and heiress of Sir
Walter Lesley, as well as the more notable men of the north, each