In the middle of August 1641 Charles I reappeared in Scotland after eight years' absence. What restlessness had since pervaded the country from end to end! how completely altered was the position of the King! In the year 1633 he had begun to establish the monarchical and despotic system which he had in view: in 1641 he was obliged to accept and confirm maxims entirely contrary to it.

He assented to the acts of the Assembly at Glasgow and of the Parliament of 1640: he gave up the bishops in Scotland and submitted without further hesitation to those claims of parliamentary power against which he had striven so long and desperately: he ratified the treaty already concluded by touching it with his sceptre. But all was not yet over. On September 16 a new act was read, by which the nomination to the most important offices in the administration of the state and of justice was made dependent on the approval of Parliament. The King said that he accepted it in order to supply a need which the country might experience through his absence: he would in future let his Privy Council consist of a fixed number of members, never to be exceeded, according to the advice of the Estates: he would lay before them a list of those to whom he thought of confiding the great offices of state, and hoped that it would meet with their approval.