Representation in the Scottish parliament to 1707 and Scottish representation in the parliament of Great Britain to the 1832 Reform Act

The pre-1707 Scottish parliament (covering the period up to the 1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England) was a single chamber (unicameral) institution, unlike its English counterpart, with no separate House of Commons and House of Lords. It was a representative assembly based on the concept of estates: clergy (clerical estate), nobility (noble estate), barons (estate of barons, also referred to a shire commissioners), burghs (estate of burgesses) and officers of state (crown appointments). Different estates were represented at different times in Scotland's history, and several important constitutional settlements in the history of the Scottish parliament impacted on the representative nature of the estates.