PARLIAMENT AND THE CROWN.


With the coming of a dynasty which endured for three centuries, we must
sketch the relations, in Scotland, of Crown and Parliament till the days
of the Covenant and the Revolution of 1688. Scotland had but little of
the constitutional evolution so conspicuous in the history of England.
The reason is that while the English kings, with their fiefs and wars in
France, had constantly to be asking their parliaments for money, and
while Parliament first exacted the redress of grievances, in Scotland the
king was expected "to live of his own" on the revenue of crown-lands,
rents, feudal aids, fines exacted in Courts of Law, and duties on
merchandise. No "tenths" or "fifteenths" were exacted from clergy and
people. There could be no "constitutional resistance" when the Crown
made no unconstitutional demands.

In Scotland the germ of Parliament is the King's court of vassals of the
Crown. To the assemblies, held now in one place, now in another, would
usually come the vassals of the district, with such officers of state as
the Chancellor, the Chamberlain, the Steward, the Constable or Commander-
in-Chief, the Justiciar, and the Marischal, and such Bishops, Abbots,
Priors, Earls, Barons, and tenants-in-chief as chose to attend. At these
meetings public business was done, charters were granted, and statutes
were passed; assent was made to such feudal aids as money for the king's
ransom in the case of William the Lion. In 1295 the seals of six Royal
burghs are appended to the record of a negotiation; in 1326 burgesses, as
we saw, were consulted by Bruce on questions of finance.