During the war of the Rough Wooing, Patrick, Master of Ruthven, aided the English cause. In 1548 the English commander Grey of Wilton noted that he had been at the English-held Yester Castle with his servants in their "jacks" wearing red scarves. He wanted to profit by delivering Perth to the English. His father was provost of the town, and Patrick offered it to Sir Andrew Dudley, a brother of the Duke of Northumberland, who occupied Broughty Castle. After this war with England was concluded, in March 1551 he was in Paris and wrote to Mary of Guise asking for money she had promised him. Patrick also asked for political preferment: