In him a cadet branch of the English FitzAlans, themselves of a very ancient Breton stock, blossomed into Royalty.
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.