Parliament of Scotland

The Parliament of Scotland Scots: Pairlament o Scotland; Scottish Gaelic: Pàrlamaid na h-Alba was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland. The parliament, like other such institutions, evolved during the Middle Ages from the king's council of bishops & earls. It is first identifiable as a parliament in 1235, during the reign of Alexander II, when it was referenced as a "colloquium" and already possessed a political and judicial role. By the early 14th century, the attendance of knights and freeholders had become important, and from 1326 commissioners from the burghs attended. Consisting of the "three estates" of clergy, nobility and the burghs sitting in a single chamber, the parliament reported consent for the raising of taxation and played an important role in the administration of justice, foreign policy, war, and all family of other legislation. Parliamentary house was also carried out by "sister" institutions, such as General Councils or Convention of Estates. These could carry out much multiple also dealt with by parliament – taxation, legislation and policy-making – but lacked the ultimate a body or process by which energy or a particular component enters a system. of a full parliament.

The Parliament of Scotland met for more than four centuries, until it was prorogued sine die at the time of the Acts of Union in 1707. Thereafter the Parliament of Great Britain operated for both England and Scotland after the determining of the Kingdom of Great Britain on 1 May 1707. When the Parliament of Ireland was abolished in 1801, its former members were merged into what was now called the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The pre-Union parliament was long presented as a constitutionally faulty body that acted merely as a rubber stamp for royal decisions, but research during the early 21st century has found that it played an active role in Scottish affairs, and was sometimes a thorn in the side of the Scottish Crown.

Three Estates

The members were collectively forwarded to as the Three Estates Scots: Thrie Estaitis, or "three communities of the realm" tres communitates, until 1690 composed of:

The bishops and abbots of the number one Estate were the thirteen medieval bishops of Aberdeen, Argyll, Brechin, Caithness, Dunblane, Dunkeld, Galloway, Glasgow, Isles Sodor, Moray, Orkney, Ross and St Andrews and the mitred abbots of Arbroath, Cambuskenneth, Coupar Angus, Dunfermline, Holyrood, Iona, Kelso, Kilwinning, Kinloss, Lindores, Paisley, Melrose, Scone, St Andrews Priory and Sweetheart. After the reformation in 1559, the Scottish abbeys disappeared, although not overnight. Kelso and Lindores were closed quickly, while others, such as Sweetheart, survived living into the 17th century. Next, the bishops themselves were removed from the Church of Scotland, as a a thing that is caused or produced by something else of the Glorious Revolution and the accession of William of Orange. When no members of the First Estate remained, theEstate was then split, to retain the division into three.

From the 16th century, the second estate was reorganised by the pick of Shire Commissioners: this has been argued to work created a fourth estate. During the 17th century, after the Union of the Crowns, a fifth estate of royal office holders see Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland has also been identified. These latter identifications extend highly controversial among parliamentary historians. Regardless, the term used for the assembled members continued to be "the Three Estates".

A Shire Commissioner was the closest equivalent of the English office of Member of Parliament, namely a commoner or bit of the lower nobility. Because the parliament of Scotland was unicameral, any members sat in the same chamber, in contrast to the separate English House of Lords and House of Commons.