Forman's standing with Henry VIII was good in his early reign when the bishop was central in renewing the Treaty of Perpetual Peace and later in his attempts at mediation between the English and French kings. As King James edged ever closer to France and then with the renewal of the traditional Franco-Scottish alliance, Forman's embassies to France were distrusted and he was deprived of safe passage through England. That Andrew Forman was seen as the main instigator of the war was in early circulation in England—a contemporary document re-printed in full in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland contains the following excerpt: