The Scottish Parliament Before the Union of the Crowns

by Robert S. Rait

While, then, the Parliament of 1560 was in some sense the creature of the Assembly, and though its resolutions were conditioned by the wishes of the nobility, it occupies a very important position in Scottish constitutional history. We do not lay much stress on its opposition to the sovereigns. That, in itself, was neither novel nor remarkable in any way. It was obedient to the powers of the day. But it is the first Parliament where the burgesses and the smaller barons attended and voted in accordance with their own feeling. They were Protestants and they were in complete agreement with those who were guiding the meeting of Estates. It is also the first Parliament which had the consciousness of power. They and their leaders were making a great national change. The people were beginning to learn what possibilities they possessed. The Parliament of 1560 was the first step towards a constitutional theory for Scotland.

This meeting of the Estates has still another aspect. It was significant that an assembly of ecclesiastics drew up the acts by which the Parliament became famous, for we have here the first appearance in constitutional history of a greater than the Parliament. Into the General Assembly of the Church there soon drifted those principles and aspirations that might have given life to the Estates. We shall have occasion to notice the part taken by the Assembly in the coming struggles; but it may be well here to indicate its claims. These claims were not formulated in 1560. They were of gradual growth. We find them implicit in the writings of Knox; but they were first definitely advanced by a man of no less intellect than the rugged reformer—Andrew Melville, the antagonist of James VI. Melville, in his frequent interviews with the king, "talkit all his mynd in his awin manner, roundly, soundly, fully, freely, and fervently." But he never stated his view in more explicit terms than on the memorable day when, after calling King James "God's sillie vassal," he addressed him thus:

And thairfor, Sir, as divers tymes befor, sa now again, I mon tell yow, thair is twa Kings and twa Kingdomes in Scotland. Thair is Chryst Jesus the King, and his Kingdom the Kirk, whase subject King James the Saxt is: and of whase Kingdom nocht a King, nor a lord, nor a heid, bot a member.[112]

Knox, in his interviews with James's mother, had taken lower ground. But Melville was not using idle words. There was no power in the land that could cope with the Church. From 1567 the Assembly met some days before the opening of Parliament, and prepared Church business, which was generally the principal item on the parliamentary list of agenda.[113] As early as 1565 it sent Queen Mary an overture against "the papisticall and blasphemous masse ... not only in the subjects, but also in the Queen's Majestie's awin person," and Mary's reply was couched in sufficiently humble terms.[114] Two years later it issued instructions to the Parliament about the ratification of the Acts of 1560, the question of the Darnley murder, and the treatment of the young prince.[115] It claimed the old ecclesiastical jurisdiction in all questions of morality, religion, education, and marriage.[116] It imprisoned offenders, and it informed magistrates how they were to act and threatened them with the censure of the Kirk. Its sentence of the Greater Excommunication involved the cessation of human intercourse[117] and the forfeiture of legal rights. The presbyterian system of Church government, with its careful distribution of authority, was able to make such a sentence a terrible reality. Not only the General Assembly, but the Synod or the Presbytery or the Kirk Session, was a court of justice. The records which have been published show with what vigour their power was used. Men of position and influence quailed before those stern judges. The old Church had often been powerful, under a strong bishop. But the secular forces gained strength while a see was vacant, and sometimes secured the appointment of a lay figure. A Presbytery never died: its members might change, but it continued its work, calmly and relentlessly, "grinding exceeding small."

Nor was the power of the Church confined to criminal jurisdiction. Two instances will serve to show the extent of its influence. In 1594, King James asked the presbytery of Edinburgh to "procure the leveing of six hundreth footmen, and four hundreth horsemen" to suppress a rebellion; and the presbytery complied with his request.[118] At the meeting of the General Assembly in March, 1596, King James was present. "He urged a contribution of the whole realme, not to be lifted presentlie, but when need sould require," and, to gain the sympathetic consideration of the Assembly, he promised that "his chamber doors sould be made patent to the meanest minister of Scotland, there sould not be anie meane gentleman in Scotland more subject to the good order and discipline of the Kirk than he would be."[119] It would be easy to multiply examples.

It was no case of ecclesiastical tyranny. The leaders of the Church might well apply to themselves the promise, "a willing people in the day of thy power." Modern democrats have denounced the Assembly as the oppressors of a priest-ridden populace. But the Assembly had made possible the existence of a public opinion in Scotland, and the public opinion of Scotland was with the Assembly. It is true that the documents to which assent was required appear to us crowded with metaphysical subtleties, to some of which no man who valued his freedom of thought could subscribe; but it must be remembered that these cast-iron theories registered the results to which that generation had attained. Moreover, it was in the Church courts, first of all, that Scotsmen learned the value and the power of debate. The Church did for Scotland what the Parliament accomplished for England. The Assembly was not a meeting of ecclesiastics alone. The strength of the Church lay in the presence of lay members in her courts,[120] to which there came earls, lords, and barons, and commissioners from provinces and universities. Each member, be he lord or peasant, the minister of St. Giles, or a Glasgow baillie, had equal right to speak, and no man's vote counted for more than that of his neighbour. The history of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution is the history of the General Assembly. The motto which it shared with other reformed churches is the story of the seventeenth century. Nec tamen consumebatur. Yet the flames burned fiercely enough.

From what we have said of the Assembly, the inference as to the Parliament is clear. It follows that its history between the year of Queen Mary's return and the day when Andrew Melville addressed King James in the words we have quoted is one rather of retrogression than of progress; nor did it, at any subsequent period, overawe the General Assembly. Further than this point we cannot go in any detail. The history of Scotland between 1567 and 1707 is so intricate, and has been so thoroughly expounded, that only a brief concluding sketch is necessary in a thesis of the present nature, however essential to a constitutional history of Scotland. In 1560 it was, to some extent, a free parliament, as Knox said, and it could claim to represent popular opinion. During the reign of Mary, as we have already seen, it relapsed into its old position of ratifying the acts of the privy council. Nor was the Parliament which met in December, 1567, while the hapless queen was spending at Lochleven her first year of captivity, in much better case. The country was divided between "king's men" and "queen's men." The Estates did what Murray and Morton wished to be done. There is one provision which, though in conformity with Murray's views, does not bear the impress of his hand. It reminds us that the author of the First Blaste against the Monstrous Regiment of Women was present as an assessor in the Parliament when we read: "Als it is thocht expedient that in na tymes cuming ony wemen sal be admittit to the publict autoritie of the realme or functioun in publict government within the same." It was not a deliberate attempt to alter the succession: it was merely an additional illustration of bad feeling towards the captive queen.[121] Until the "Black Acts" there is little in the proceedings of the Parliament which calls for remark. The meetings were largely occupied with the usual sentences of forfeiture. Sometimes the queen's party held rival parliaments, and on such occasions everybody in Scotland of any importance was declared a traitor by one side or the other. A considerable amount of valuable work was done. Murray, whatever his personal character, was a statesman, and he left the impression of "a still strong man" upon those who survived him. His policy and that of his successors was guided by their dependence upon Elizabeth and by their associations with the Assembly. Parliament was largely occupied with the settlement of the Church, but it found time to regulate matters of police and trade. The influence of the Assembly continued to be paramount till 1584, when, for the first time, King James was able to assert his personality. The "Black Acts" of that year included a declaration of the king's royal power over all subjects, the supremity of Parliament, the illegality of conventions or assemblies not sanctioned by the king, and the subjection of ministers of the Church to the civil courts. No weight whatever can be given to the phrase "supremity of Parliament." It meant only that the king knew that he could use the Parliament as he liked, while the Assembly was as yet beyond his control. We do not intend to enter into the complicated story of the conflict between the king and the Church. But from 1584 the Parliament was generally at the disposal of the king. Still more is this the case after the year 1603. The Parliament became the mere shadow of the royal power. It declared in 1606—the year after the defiance of the king by the Aberdeen assembly—"our soverane monarche, absolute prince, Judge, and governor over all persones, Estaittis, and causis, baith spirituall and temporall, within his said realme." Only twelve years had elapsed since Andrew Melville's speech. The union with England meant that the king had power to coerce Scotland. The same obsequious Parliament outraged the national sentiment by the first establishment of episcopacy, although the assembly was still so strong that the bishops protested that there was no design to alter the discipline of the Kirk, "and submitted themselves in all time comeing to the judgement of the General Assemblie." Parliament was governed by the Lords of the Articles, and they were the creatures of the king. James did not exaggerate when he said:[122] "Here I sit and governe it [Scotland] with my pen, I write and it is done, and by a Clearke of the Councell I governe Scotland now, which others could not do by the sword." The satirist who accompanied King James on his visit to Scotland in 1617 gave vent to a merited sneer at the three Estates. "Their parliaments," he wrote, "hold but three days; their statutes are but three lines."[123] The anonymous apologist who replied made no effort to meet the accusation. It might have been King James himself that wrote: "For the brevitie of your parliaments ye are beholden to your wisdom, for the brevitie of your statutes to your justice."[124]

The conduct of affairs in Scotland remained, at first, unchanged by the death of James VI. The few parliaments of the reign are occupied with taxation, ratification, and other formal business. James had been statesman enough to fear the influence of Laud in Scotland.[125] Charles allowed a meddling ecclesiastic to stretch too far the allegiance of his people to their ancient House. The Parliament of 1628-30 is of no importance in the history of Scotland. It was poorly attended, and its deliberations were a foregone conclusion. The Parliament of 1639 was crowded, and it began its work with a protest against the method of electing the Lords of the Articles. The protest was feeble enough to be the first faint symptom of a revolution; but the revolution had already taken place. The people were led as before, not by the Parliament, but by the Assembly. The Glasgow Assembly of 1638, which continued to meet in spite of its "dissolution" by the king's commissioner, was the means by which a fatal blow was given to the first régime of episcopacy and absolute monarchy. It rendered possible the revolutionary Parliament of 1640. We have already noticed the more important of its proceedings. It continued to look for support to the Assembly. It grounded its resolution against the presence of prelates in Parliament on the Act of Assembly abolishing episcopacy. In 1641 it beseeched the assembly to sit in Edinburgh instead of in St. Andrews, sending "some of everie estait to represent" its sense of "the great necessitie at this tyme of the concurring advyse of both the Assemblie and Parliament," and promising "to sett down ane solid course for the beiring of the chairges of the Commissioners to your yeirlie Generall Assemblies."[126] From 1641 to 1650 Scotland was ruled by the Scottish Parliament, in conjunction with the Assembly. The Estates undertook the management of the war, carried out the negotiations with the English Parliament, and with the king, and were at the same time able to give due attention to the minutest local details. Like the Reformation Parliament of 1560, the Covenant Parliament of 1640 marks a distinct stage in Scottish constitutional history. After we make all allowance for the revolutionary nature of the time, and for its dependence on the Assembly, it remains true that it grew to occupy a position different from that of any of its predecessors. It had learned much from England. Not for the first time, but more emphatically than ever before, do we find the Estates adopting the language of the English parliamentary opposition. On the other hand, the Scottish Parliament was in some ways in advance of its English sister. When Charles I paid his second visit to Scotland, in 1641, he found himself a puppet in the hands of his erstwhile obedient Estates. As we have seen, the Lords of the Articles became open committees of Parliament, and they were jealously watched by their colleagues. Parliament claimed the appointment of the privy council, and all the officers of state.[127] The reader will note with surprise the large amount of space occupied by the proceedings of Parliament during these years. Much is merely the record of judicial acts, and much was done by Parliament that we should regard as pertaining to the executive. For our present purpose it is unnecessary to descend to particulars. Our main contention is that the supersession of the royal power was rendered the more easy and the less significant because of the official character of the normal parliamentary procedure. The Estates, having the power to defy the king, could point to their own history as good warrant for their use of it. The sovereign had never dared to prorogue them against their will, they argued. Charles knew that they spoke the truth, and he could but accept the position. If the record of the Estates was one long submission, it did not contain a defeat, and it was capable of two interpretations. So, after the death of the king, the men who had just executed Huntly sent to offer terms to Charles II. It is significant that there were four representatives of the Estates, and three of the Assembly. The power was still conjoint, although Parliament during these years of struggle had learned to act. When the young king came to Scotland he found himself little more than a prisoner in the hands of the grim, staunch fearless men who surrounded him. He was forced to sign the most humiliating confessions of the sins of his family, and he abjured "Prelacy and all errors, schism, and profaneness." Cromwell's victory changed the aspect of affairs,[128] and ended, for the time, the history of the Parliament of Scotland. The short-lived "union" did not take effect till 1654, but from the date of the battle of Dunbar both Assembly and Estates had to acknowledge their master. In 1653 the General Assembly was reduced to plead "that we were ane Ecclesticall synod, ane spirituall court of Jesus Christ, which medled not with anything civile."[129] But the Assembly ceased to meet: and the Government of Scotland was neither ecclesiastical nor civil, but martial. The Parliament agreed to the union: once again because it was ordered so to do.

The story of the Cromwellian parliaments is no part of our subject. Scottish counties and burghs were represented, and an elaborate scheme was prepared to adjust the proper proportions—a scheme which afterwards was the model for further developments.[130] Two acts were passed by the united Parliament which affected the current of Scottish history—the establishment of free trade with England and the abolition of feudality.

The Commonwealth passed away, and Scotland had once more its Covenanted King. The irony of fate used the Committee of Estates, the body which Charles I had known as an enemy, to deliver the country to an absolute monarchy. The Committee of Estates was followed, when the king's commissioner arrived, by the meeting of the Restoration Parliament. The main difficulty was the religious one. Parliament was reduced to the position it had occupied before 1638. In 1661 it passed an act which rescinded all its own statutes since 1640. It humbly confessed the king's right to choose all officers of state, and members of the privy council; it acknowledged his right to call and prorogue Parliament; it re-established the tyranny of the Lords of the Articles. It recalled bishops to Parliament, and proscribed the national religion. Even when the English Parliament had recovered from its emotional loyalty, and begun to resume its old attitude to the king, the Scottish Estates remained absolutely at his disposal. When, later still, the succession was disputed in England, an act was passed in Scotland to declare that it could not be altered "without involving the subjects in perjury and rebellion." When Charles II died, Parliament addressed James VII in terms ludicrously obsequious. "The death of that our excellent monarch is lamented by us to all the degrees of grief that are consistent with our great joy for the succession of your sacred majesty." Between 1660 and 1689 the Scottish Parliament was once more the merest instrument for official sanction. A contemporary has left us his impressions of the time. He tells us that the methods of the Lords of the Articles were not quite so secret as they used to be.