Parliament claimed the appointment of the privy council, and all the officers of state.[127] The reader will note with surprise the large amount of space occupied by the proceedings of Parliament during these years. Much is merely the record of judicial acts, and much was done by Parliament that we should regard as pertaining to the executive. For our present purpose it is unnecessary to descend to particulars. Our main contention is that the supersession of the royal power was rendered the more easy and the less significant because of the official character of the normal parliamentary procedure. The Estates, having the power to defy the king, could point to their own history as good warrant for their use of it. The sovereign had never dared to prorogue them against their will, they argued. Charles knew that they spoke the truth, and he could but accept the position. If the record of the Estates was one long submission, it did not contain a defeat, and it was capable of two interpretations. So, after the death of the king, the men who had just executed Huntly sent to offer terms to Charles II. It is significant that there were four representatives of the Estates, and three of the Assembly. The power was still conjoint, although Parliament during these years of struggle had learned to act. When the young king came to Scotland he found himself little more than a prisoner in the hands of the grim, staunch fearless men who surrounded him. He was forced to sign the most humiliating confessions of the sins of his family, and he abjured "Prelacy and all errors, schism, and profaneness." Cromwell's victory changed the aspect of affairs,[128] and ended, for the time, the history of the Parliament of Scotland. The short-lived "union" did not take effect till 1654, but from the date of the battle of Dunbar both Assembly and Estates had to acknowledge their master. In 1653 the General Assembly was reduced to plead "that we were ane Ecclesticall synod, ane spirituall court of Jesus Christ, which medled not with anything civile."[129] But the Assembly ceased to meet: and the Government of Scotland was neither ecclesiastical nor civil, but martial. The Parliament agreed to the union: once again because it was ordered so to do. The story of the Cromwellian parliaments is no part of our subject. Scottish counties and burghs were represented, and an elaborate scheme was prepared to adjust the proper proportions--a scheme which afterwards was the model for further developments.[130] Two acts were passed by the united Parliament which affected the current of Scottish history--the establishment of free trade with England and the abolition of feudality.