=3. Peace of Northampton=.--As by this time Robert's title had, after much strife, been recognized by the Pope and other foreign powers, the English saw that they must acknowledge it too. Therefore a treaty was confirmed at _Northampton_ in 1328 between _Robert, King of Scots_, and the English King. The terms of this treaty were, that Scotland as far as the old boundary lines should be perfectly independent; that the two Kings should be faithful allies, and that neither should stir up the troublesome _Celtic_ subjects of the other, either in _Ireland_ or in the _Highlands_. As a further proof of good will, _Joan_, Edward's sister, was betrothed to Robert's infant son. By this treaty the original Commendation of 924, and all the subsequent submissions to England, whether real or pretended, were done away with. It placed the kingdom on quite a new footing, for now _Lothian_ and _Strathclyde_ were as independent of England as the real _Scotland_ had originally been. The long time of common suffering and common struggles had done for the nation what the good time before it had failed to do. It had knit together the three strands of the different races into one cord of national unity too strong for any outer influence again to sever. But during the long war there had also arisen that intense hatred of everything English which warped the future growth of the nation. This hatred drove Scotland to seek in France the model and ally that she had hitherto found in England, and the influence of France can from this period be distinctly traced in the laws, the architecture, and the manners of the people. Robert's treaty with France was the beginning of the future foreign policy of Scotland. This was to make common cause with France against England, which country Scotland pledged herself to invade whenever France declared war against it. =4. Robert's Parliaments.=--Two of the meetings of the Estates or Parliaments of this reign deserve notice. That of 1318 settled the succession to the crown: first, on the direct male heirs in order of seniority; next on the direct female heirs; failing both, on the next of kin. An Act was also passed by this parliament forbidding all holders of estates in Scotland from taking the produce or revenues of these lands out of the kingdom. This law acted as a sentence of forfeiture on the so-called Scottish barons who had larger estates in England than in Scotland, and who preferred living in the richer country. In the parliament of 1326, held at _Cambuskenneth_, the _third Estate_, that is, the members from the _burghs_, was first recognized as an essential part of the _National Assembly_.