After the council, the next most important body in the process of government at the end of the era was parliament, which had evolved by the late thirteenth century from the King's Council of Bishops and Earls into a 'colloquium' with a political and judicial role.K. M. Brown and R. J. Tanner, The History of the Scottish Parliament Volume 1: Parliament and Politics, 1235–1560 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), , pp. 1–28. By the early fourteenth century, the attendance of knights and freeholders had become important, and probably from 1326 burgh commissioners joined them to form the Three Estates, meeting in a variety of major towns throughout the kingdom.A. R. MacDonald, The Burghs and Parliament in Scotland, c. 1550–1651 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), , p. 14.Brown and Tanner (2004), p. 50. It acquired significant powers over particular issues, including consent for taxation, but it also had a strong influence over justice, foreign policy, war, and other legislation, whether political, ecclesiastical, social or economic. Under Robert I, the importance of the parliament grew as he called them more frequently and its composition shifted to include more representation from the burghs and lesser landowners.K. Reid and R. Zimmerman, A History of Private Law in Scotland: I. Introduction and Property (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), , p. 38. In 1399, a General Council established that the King should hold a parliament at least once a year for the next three years, so "that his subjects are served by the law".Legislation – Records of the Parliaments of Scotland, 1399/1/13. translation.
