The relations of the Estates to the Crown were in an unsatisfactory condition. In times of stress the Parliament had no hesitation in appointing its own president. Randolph, in his letter to Cecil,[45] mentions that, in 1560, Lethington was "chosen harangue-maker." In 1640, again, Robert, Lord Burley, was elected "president of this court and session of Parliament, in the absence of the king's commissioner." In strict legal theory both of these meetings were probably invalid. It is difficult to understand how far the royal assent was necessary to the validity of acts. In ordinary circumstances, a necessary condition of a valid parliament was the presence of the regalia, and the king gave his approval by touching the bills or "articles" with the sceptre, whereupon they became acts of parliament. The want of constitutional life prevented the question from arising in a definitely constitutional manner. When the difficulty did appear, it was, like the similar problem of the presidency, settled without any debate; and we have no instance except in times of revolution. There is an interesting passage in Knox's _History_[46] in which he discusses the matter in connection with the great Parliament of 1560, which established the Protestant faith, and which did not receive the royal consent till it was ratified in 1567, when the Earl of Murray had assumed the regency for the infant whom he had made James VI. The historian tells us that Francis and Mary withheld their consent. "But that we litill regarded or yit do regarde; for all that we did was rather to schaw our debtfull obedience, than to beg of thame any strength to our Religion." The point is thus contemptuously dismissed, but Knox considered it necessary to give more attention to a possible objection that the Parliament was not legally summoned in the first instance. "But somewhat most we answer to suche as since hes whispered, that it was bot a pretended parliament." He solved the matter by a legal quibble, and proceeded to affirm, in addition, that it was the only free parliament which had been held: "In it, the votes of men were free and gevin of conscience; in otheris thai war bought or gevin at the devotioun of the prince." Such sentiments as these can scarcely be said to represent any advance in constitutionalism. We may place alongside of them the views of King James VI, as he expressed them to his English Parliament in 1607.[47]