[1404/1]¹

Legislation

Concerning the power of the Duke of Albany

In the general council of our [lord] king Robert III held at Linlithgow and begun on Monday 28 April AD 1404 and in the fifteenth year of our lord the king's reign, with continuation of subsequent days; the lord king and [Robert Stewart, 1st] duke of Albany, his lieutenant, being present, and [Albany] presiding.

[1404/2]²

Present from the clergy [Henry Wardlaw] bishop of St Andrews, [Matthew Glendinning] bishop of Glasgow, [Robert Cardney] bishop of Dunkeld, [Gilbert Greenlaw] bishop of Aberdeen, chancellor of Scotland, [Finlay Colinson]³ bishop of Dunblane, [James Biset] prior of St Andrews, [John de Torry] abbot of Dunfermline, [David Binning] abbot of Melrose, the abbot of Scone,⁴ [John Geddie] abbot of Arbroath, [John de Leith] abbot of Holyrood of Edinburgh, [John de Peebles] abbot of Culross, [Patrick de Callendar] abbot of Cambuskenneth, [John de Hailes]⁵ abbot of Balmerino, and many others from the clergy.

[1404/3]⁶

From the barons: [Walter Stewart] earl of Atholl and Caithness, brother of the king, [David Lindsay, 1st] earl of Crawford, Sir David Fleming, Sir John Stewart, lord of Lorn, Sir James de Douglas, lord of Dalkeith, Sir William Graham, Sir William de Douglas de Bothwell, Sir William de Cunningham, Sir William de Borthwick, Sir Adam Forrester, Sir John de Maxwell, Sir John de Dalziel, Sir William de Hay de Loquhariot, Sir John de Drummond, Sir John de Ross, Sir Walter de Tulloch, Sir Robert Normanville, Sir Robert de Erskine, Sir Nicholas de Erskine, Sir Patrick Gray, Sir Alexander de Cockburn, Sir John de Cockburn, knights, James de Douglas, brother of the earl [of Douglas], Walter de Haliburton, Alexander de Ogilvy, John Stewart, brother of the king, John Stewart of Darnley, John de Park, William de Cockburn. Burgesses with commissions from Edinburgh, Haddington, Linlithgow, Stirling, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, Crail and a multitude of others.

[1404/4]⁷

The council having been continued, the lord king considering his [health/great age]⁸ and infirmity, ordained that his brother Sir Robert [Stewart, 1st] duke of Albany, be his lieutenant generally through the kingdom, giving him the power of doing all that he might do for the rule and governance of the people, for the defence of those who are enemies of the people of England, and for the suppression of transgressors within [the kingdom], and for all and singular things, both in peace and in war, which it pertained to the lord king to do. And upon this he commanded the chancellor to give a sufficient commission to him to endure for two years from the feast of Whitsun [18 May 1404] next to come.

[1404/5]⁹

In addition he ordained and it was ordained that there should be justiciars both on the south and north sides of the River Forth, that they should hold their courts and justice ayres in each of their sheriffdoms twice a year, unless this shall be disregarded for a great and notable cause. And a justiciar who shall fail to hold his court, lacking a notable and reasonable impediment, shall lose his fee proportionally in the sheriffdom in which he failed.

[1404/6]¹⁰

Item, it was ordained that the processes upon the causes carried in presence of the justiciar should be shortened in this way, namely that concerning all causes (except that of fee and heritage) in which four days was accustomed to be the peremptory term, the second court and days should be the peremptory term and final days, and a contumacious party in the second court should be in such standing, either in person or otherwise, as he was accustomed to be in the fourth and peremptory court in the old courts.

[1404/7]¹¹

Similarly it was ordained that in each sheriffdom there should be one adequate sheriff who should cause justice to the king's subjects and hold courts at the due times and continue them, so that the process begun before the sheriff should not be [delayed] by his negligence, injustice or deceit.

[1404/8]¹²

Furthermore that delays and processes before the sheriff should be shortened as [those] before the justiciar in all cases except fee and heritage [and] wrong and unlaw, so that in other processes the second day should be the peremptory and final day.

[1404/9]¹³

Item, it was ordained that lords having regalities should hold justice ayres similarly twice a year, and shorten their processes in all ways just as was ordained above concerning the king's justiciars.

[1404/10]¹⁴

Item, that other barons having their courts in criminal matters shall challenge sheriffs and other ministers of the king and take cognisance [concerning] how they have conducted and borne themselves in exercising the office, and [if] they shall find a defect [in] anyone, they should remove him from his office until the next parliament, and he should lose the fee of the office for that year. And in addition the justiciar should take surety under certain penalties that he will compear in the next parliament for undergoing the determination and proclamation of parliament for his fault, and he shall not be restored unless it seems expedient to this parliament.

[1404/11]¹⁵

Item, that when the justiciar shall have had someone removed from his office, he shall put another in place who is able to perform the said office and diligently serve the people concerning the law.

[1404/12]¹⁶

Item, it was ordained that the lord king should hold his parliament each year, and that it should begin on 3 November.

[1404/13]¹⁷

Item, it was ordained that the chancellor should cause all that ordinance to be written out for the benefit of the sheriffs so that they may be able to publish it in their bailiaries, so also that the lords of regalities may know it and the others to whom notice of it may come, and cause it to be observed both in regalities and elsewhere, etc.

Here end the statutes of Robert III king of Scotland.¹⁸

[See RobIII/1 to RobIII/5 for acts concerning pleas of justiciary likely to have been made at this general council.]