The leprosy-stricken age of King Robert was cheered by two important events--the birth of an heir, and the acknowledgment of the national independence. When he sank into the grave, he left the heritage of the nation's freedom, and the guardianship of his son, to the loyalty of the nobles. It was an opportunity for Parliament to make good its position. But, as we have already seen, the precedent of 1326 was assumed to be valid only for the raising of money, and the "Parliament" was, at first, only the old council. The political events of the beginning of the reign relate chiefly to the attempt made by England to place Edward Balliol on the Scottish throne, as a vassal-king. When that design had been, not without some difficulty, defeated, we find the Parliament, without the burgesses, conducting all the affairs of the kingdom, and acting, for almost the only time in Scottish history, as the executive. It granted lands and charters; passed ordinances regarding the Staple; arranged (with the co-operation of the burghs) the treaty of peace with England and the ransom of the king; settled the privileges of the church and of the burghs, with which the king had been tampering; made provisions for the Highlands and Islands; and decided the mode of succession. This, however, is not parliamentary government, though it is more like it than anything else in Scottish history before the revolution of 1640. The king was at the first an infant, and afterwards a prisoner, and his character was at all times weak and contemptible. The nobles were divided by feuds. Nobody was strong enough to make himself supreme. The country was governed by a committee of the nobles. Still, the reign of David II made two contributions to such constitutional theory as Scotland possessed. One of these is an emphatic reiteration of what had been done in the preceding reign. After his return from England, David, in pursuance of a private agreement with Edward III, attempted to persuade the Estates to acknowledge Prince Lionel of England as his heir. The account given of the affair by Wyntoun[87] is notable as the first report of a debate in the Parliament of Scotland: "That ilke yere quhen that wes don, A Parliament gart he hald at Scone. Thare til the Statis of his land, That in counsal ware sittand, He movit and said, He wald that ane Off the Kyng Edwardis sonnys were tane To be king in to his sted Off Scotland, eftyr that he ware dede. Til that said all his lieges, nay; Na thair consent wald be na way, That ony Ynglis mannys sone In [to] that honour suld be done, Or succede to bere the Crown, Off Scotland in successione, Sine of age and off wertew there The lauchfull airis apperand ware. Quhen this denyit was utraly, The King wes rycht wa and angry; Bot his yarnyng nevyrtheles Denyit off al his liegis wes." The words of the original Act are quite as emphatic.