Despite this, King James via his general council, nominated Aberdeen's aged Bishop Elphinstone to the position. Gavin Douglas, provost of the collegiate church of St Giles in Edinburgh was recommended to the pope by both Margaret, the queen-mother and the English King Henry, and took possession of the archbishop's palace which was also St Andrews castle. John Hepburn, who still regarded himself as a contender for the vacancy, dislodged Douglas by force from the castle. The council met in St Andrews on 2 March 1514 at which Hepburn also attended and argued for the council to appeal to the pope to disregard all letters of support for Forman. Hepburn had successfully engineered the council's support as a letter dated 4 March from the king to the pope accused Forman of having a lot of blame for his father's death at Flodden — the letter also stated that Forman was now an exile and a rebel and intimated that his positions and benefices had been taken from him and called for Forman to be disregarded for the vacancy. Forman was not to be deprived as was confirmed in a letter that Leo wrote to Albany on 11 April and named the bishop of Moray for St Andrews. On 13 November, Leo formally provided Forman to St Andrews and followed up by making him legatus a latere on 11 December—the bulls were published in January 1515. In time, both Douglas and Hepburn, unable to secure the backing of Albany and the pope gave up the contest.