An diofar eadar na mùthaidhean a rinneadh air "Rìoghachd na h-Alba"

[[File:Alexander III and Ollamh Rígh.JPG|thumb|left|Crùnadh [[Alasdair III na h-Alba|Alasdair III]] air [[Tom a' Mhòid]], [[Sgàin]], le [[Morair Shrath Èireann|Morairean Shrath Èireann]] agus [[Morair Fhìobha]] ri thaobh fhad ’s a tha am bàrd rìoghail a’ sloinntearachd freumh Alasdair.]]

 

 

The Scottish crown adopted the conventional offices of western European courts, including [[Steward of Scotland|steward]], [[Chamberlain of Scotland|chamberlain]], [[Constable of Scotland|constable]], [[Marischal of Scotland|marischal]] and [[Chancellor of Scotland|chancellor]].<ref name=Barrow1965pp11-12>G. W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce (Berkeley CA.: University of California Press, 1965), pp. 11-12.</ref> The King's Council emerged as a full-time body in the fifteenth century, increasingly dominated by laymen and critical to the administration of justice.<ref name="Wormald1991pp22-3">J. Wormald, ''Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), ISBN 0748602763, pp. 22-3.</ref> The [[Privy council of Scotland|Privy Council]], which developed in the mid-sixteenth century,<ref name=Goodacre2004pp35&130>J. Goodacre, ''The Government of Scotland, 1560-1625'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), ISBN 0199243549, pp. 35 and 130.</ref> and the great offices of state, including the chancellor, secretary and [[Treasurer of Scotland|treasurer]] remained central to the administration of the government, even after the departure of the Stuart monarchs to rule in England from 1603.<ref name=Goodacre2004pp150-1>J. Goodacre, ''The Government of Scotland, 1560-1625'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), ISBN 0199243549, pp. 150-1.</ref> However, it was often sidelined and was abolished after the [[Acts of Union 1707|Act of Union of 1707]], with rule direct from London.<ref>J. D. Mackie, B. Lenman and G. Parker, ''A History of Scotland'' (London: Penguin, 1991), ISBN 0140136495, p. 287.</ref> Parliament also emerged as a major legal institution, gaining an oversight of taxation and policy.<ref>K. M. Brown and R. J. Tanner, ''The History of the Scottish Parliament volume 1: Parliament and Politics, 1235-1560'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), pp. 1-28.</ref> By the end of the Middle Ages it was sitting almost every year, partly because of the frequent minorities and regencies of the period, which may have prevented it from being sidelined by the monarchy.<ref name="Wormald1991p21">J. Wormald, ''Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), ISBN 0748602763, p. 21.</ref> In the early modern era was also vital to the running of the country, providing laws and taxation, but it had fluctuating fortunes and never achieved the centrality to the national life of its counterpart in England before it was disbanded in 1707.<ref>R. Mitchison, ''A History of Scotland'' (London: Routledge, 3rd edn., 2002), ISBN 0415278805, p. 128.</ref>