The Parliament of 1326 had declared that any personal remission of taxation by the king would render the whole grant null and void. The Parliament of 1369 went much further. It enacted that no remission granted by the king to a convicted offender should have any force, and it asserted that any writ of the king was invalid which contradicted any statute or was not in accordance with the common law of the realm. This constitutional statement marks the "highest" doctrine propounded by the Scottish Parliament till the seventeenth century. While it is necessary to guard against laying too much stress on the history of the reign of David II as illustrating the growth of strictly constitutional and parliamentary principles, it would be erring on the other side to deny that here we have a distinct assertion of principle. We have been forced to discount much of the recorded action of Parliament, on the ground that it is merely an instance of a number of nobles uniting to do what none of them was powerful enough to do alone. But the Parliament of 1369 contained burgesses (at least on the roll of its members); and the wording of its resolution is distinctly suggestive of the existence of some constitutional feeling.[88] The weakness and unpopularity of the king must be allowed due weight on the other hand; and the tone of the record suggests a jealous interference with the personal schemes of the king rather than any broader view of rights. With the ignominious reign of David II the direct line of King Robert the Bruce came to an end. The question of the succession had already been settled by the Parliament in favour of King Robert's grandson, Robert, the High Steward of Scotland, son of Marjory Bruce and Walter the Steward. We know that Robert had been a prominent figure during the reign of his uncle, and that David II regarded him with no good will. The reign of Robert II is one of the periods of Scottish history which stand in need of more thorough investigation. We possess no account of it that is in any way satisfactory. There are wars and rumours of wars; vague traditions of conspiracies; dim hints of a constitutional conflict between the Estates and the King. No figure stands out pre-eminently from the crowd; no man of the time left any impression on succeeding generations. The one event that has given significance to the name of Robert II is the "hontynge of the Cheviot," the battle where the dead Douglas won the field. Two points demand notice from a constitutional stand-point. The family difficulties of the king led to the establishment of the succession by the Estates.[89] But the crown was entailed in accordance with the king's wish, and the fact affords no indication of the power of Parliament. In the second place the early years of the reign mark the renewal of a definite alliance with France, of the circumstances of which we know but little. The instructions to the ambassadors contain a mention of the consent of the