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[ The Celts ] [ Picts & Scots ] [ The Declaration of Arbroath ] [ The Stone of Destiny ] [ Royal Dynasties ] [ Scottish Monarchy - Alpin ] [ Scottish Monarchy - Dunkeld ] [ The Interregnum ] [ Scottish Monarchy -Bruce ] [ Scottish Monarchy - Stewart ] [ Scottish Monarchy - Stuart I ] [ The Commonwealth ] [ Scottish Monarchy - Stuart II ] [ Scottish Heraldry ]
A note
on Gaelic pronunciation
 Often called "Scotland's
Declaration of Independence", the true significance of this
document written in Arbroath in 1320 is that it shows Scotland and the Scots to
have a well-formed sense of identity and self-worth, and the ability to form a
well-argued and elegantly-written case. The noble Latin in which it is composed
is held to be of the highest order for its time.
It was intended to impress Pope John XXII, and to ask for his intervention in the
ongoing blood-feud between Scots and English. In order that he would understand the difference
between the countries - at a time when the English King was claiming to exercise
natural sovereignty over the whole of the British Isles as a single people - it gave a brief history of the former.
Some history
It has to be said that the "history" it contains is fairly
specious. The eight Earls and forty-odd Barons who signed or sealed it were
mostly of Anglo-Norman ancestry and couldn't have been so self-deluded as to
believe the "mists of time" argument it propounds.
True, there had been twenty-five years of continuous war and the Scots strongly
identified themselves as a separate, independent nation. But they weakened their
case by basing it on the mythology of Scotland's founding ethnic grouping (the
Celts), already in a minority among the ruling classes. However, that minority
was well represented by a Cameron, a Campbell, a Fergusson, a MacDuff and a Murray.
But the pure fantasy of an origin in Sythia - based on the happy similarity
between "Scythi" and "Scoti" - via Tyrrhenia, the Pillars of
Hercules and a long sojourn among the Celtic tribes of Spain does no justice to
history. In their defence, they had little to go on but legend, but there are
interesting echoes of what we now know from archaeology about the arrival of the
Milesian Celts from Iberia to Ireland. They then went on to claim that
"they" had driven out the Britons, subjugated the Picts, fought off
various shades of Norsemen, kept the Angles and Danes of Northumbria at bay, and
after lived under "one-hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, the line unbroken by a single foreigner."
(See Picts & Scots)
This completely ignores the intermingling of Scot, Pict, Strathclyde Britain,
Berenician, Viking and Borders Anglo-Dane that really went into forging the
nation and started the popular trend - still in evidence - of dating Scotland
from the conquest of the land by Kenneth MacAlpin
in the 800s and the subsequent formation of the Kingdom of Alba.
The idea of tracing the Scots line back to Sythia is laughable. Claiming to
have driven out the Britons from Strathclyde and Lothian ignores the larger part
the Angles and Saxons played in that regrettable genocide. Nor did the Scots
obliterate the Picts, but rather the two groups intermingled genetically and
culturally over a couple of centuries. And the very idea that anyone - Scots or the English
- ever "defeated" the Vikings is only true in a few insignificant instances.
True, the Scots had a major victory over the Norwegians at Largs in 1263, but a
large part of Scotland was partly Danish or Norse by then anyway and the royal
houses of all the countries had intermarried. This was especially true
throughout the Western Isles and the northernmost part of Scotland around Caithness
and Sutherland. Nor can the "113 Kings" be taken seriously, especially
in the light of the problems which beset the House
of Dunkeld (see also Picts & Scots). But historical
accuracy is the first casualty of patriotism and none of this mattered to the
nobles and clan chiefs desirous of recognition as a separate, integrated,
homogeneous and long-established nation-state, the new Scots. It must be
remembered that it was written soon after the momentous victory in the war of
independence, culminating in the Battle of
Bannockburn in 1314 and a scant quarter-century after Edward Longshanks
(Edward I of England) had perpetrated the ultimate indignity on the Scots of
taking away their Stone of Destiny - the ancient coronation stone of Scottish
kings - and possibly the piece of the Holy Rood (Holy cross) brought to Scotland
by St Margaret some 140
years before.
Thus it was that descendants of Celts, Britons, Angles, Saxons, Normans, Norsemen
and even some Flemish came to compose and sign this "testament of the heart".
The sincere and passionate feeling of the author shines out from the language. They
were prepared to accept "nationalism" (a new concept) above the tribal
bickering, dynastic squabbles based on whose uncle had murdered whose granny and
the feudal obligations which had kept them divided in the previous century and
long before that. They truly held themselves to be blessed by Christ and St. Andrew,
and had enjoyed peaceful freedom "which no honest man gives up but with his life
itself", until it was taken from them by the English with their cruel massacres
pillaging and other outrages which "no one could describe nor fully imagine unless he had seen them with his own eyes."
This completely ignores the centuries of in-fighting and weak leadership which
had more than once beggared and riven the nation. And, of course, they now had a
human symbol of the the new nationhood in their "tireless Prince and King, the Lord
Robert", meaning The Bruce, whom they
portray as a modern Judas Maccabaeus.
However, there are three things which make the Declaration of Arbroath possibly the most important document in Scottish history.
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First, it put the will of the people above
that of the King, who maintained their freedom "both by law and by his merits"
and could be replaced if found unworthy. This went a step further than the
often-misinterpreted Magna Carta of a century earlier, which had really been
a Baron's charter rather than the People's manifesto is is often claimed to
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Second, it gave
recognisance
to the peculiarly Scottish nature of Bruce's kingship with its echoes of Celtic tradition
and the seven Earls, the Seven Sons of Cruithne the Pict
who wielded the ancient right of tanistry, the choosing of kings by
selection of the best rather than strict lineal descent. This relationship
between king and people was a strong influence on later history and climaxed in the Reformation and the
turbulent century after it, when James VI proclaimed the divine right of a
King to rule and church declared its independence from earthly monarchs and
bishops alike. |
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Third, the Declaration attested to the
right to freedom and to defend it to the death. This belief in equality and
brotherhood under the law wove itself into the national psyche - it can
still be felt today - and clearly influenced the many Scots descendants who
framed its direct descendant, the American Declaration of Independence, four
and a half centuries later in 1776. |
In any event, His Holiness the Pope
must have enjoyed a good yarn as much as the next man, since he granted them the
recognition they craved..
Who wrote it?
The actual author is unknown, though it is
said to have been the hand of Bernard de Linton, Abbot of Arbroath and then Chancellor of Scotland.
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The Declaration of
Arbroath (translated into English)
"To the most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord John, by divine providence Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Roman and Universal Church, his humble and devout sons Duncan, Earl of Fife, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, Lord of Man and of Annandale, Patrick Dunbar, Earl of March, Malise, Earl of Strathearn, Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, William, Earl of Ross, Magnus, Earl of Caithness and Orkney, and William, Earl of Sutherland; Walter, Steward of Scotland, William Soules, Butler of Scotland, James, Lord of Douglas, Roger Mowbray, David, Lord of Brechin, David Graham, Ingram Umfraville, John Menteith, guardian of the earldom of Menteith, Alexander Fraser, Gilbert Hay, Constable of Scotland, Robert Keith, Marischal of Scotland, Henry St Clair, John Graham, David Lindsay, William Oliphant, Patrick Graham, John Fenton, William Abernethy, David Wemyss, William Mushet, Fergus of Ardrossan, Eustace Maxwell, William Ramsay, William Mowat, Alan Murray, Donald Campbell, John Cameron, Reginald Cheyne, Alexander Seton, Andrew Leslie, and Alexander Straiton, and the other barons and freeholders and the whole community of the realm of Scotland send all manner of filial reverence, with devout kisses of his blessed feet.
Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today. The Britons they first drove out, the Picts they utterly destroyed, and, even though very often assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes and the English, they took possession of that home with many victories and untold efforts; and, as the historians of old time bear witness, they have held it free of all bondage ever since. In their kingdom there have reigned one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, the line unbroken a single foreigner.
The high qualities and deserts of these people, were they not otherwise manifest, gain glory enough from this: that the King of kings and Lord of lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, after His Passion and Resurrection, called them, even though settled in the uttermost parts of the earth, almost the first to His most holy faith. Nor would He have them confirmed in that faith by merely anyone but by the first of His Apostles -- by calling, though second or third in rank -- the most gentle Saint Andrew, the Blessed Peter's brother, and desired him to keep them under his protection as their patron forever.
The Most Holy Fathers your predecessors gave careful heed to these things and bestowed many favours and numerous privileges on this same kingdom and people, as being the special charge of the Blessed Peter's brother. Thus our nation under their protection did indeed live in freedom and peace up to the time when that mighty prince the King of the English, Edward, the father of the one who reigns today, when our kingdom had no head and our people harboured no malice or treachery and were then unused to wars or invasions, came in the guise of a friend and ally to harass them as an enemy. The deeds of cruelty, massacre, violence, pillage, arson, imprisoning prelates, burning down monasteries, robbing and killing monks and nuns, and yet other outrages without number which he committed against our people, sparing neither age nor sex, religion nor rank, no one could describe nor fully imagine unless he had seen them with his own eyes.
But from these countless evils we have been set free, by the help of Him Who though He afflicts yet heals and restores, by our most tireless Prince, King and Lord, the Lord Robert. He, that his people and his heritage might be delivered out of the hands of our enemies, met toil and fatigue, hunger and peril, like another
Maccabaeus or Joshua and bore them cheerfully. Him, too, divine providence, his right of succession according to or laws and customs which we shall maintain to the death, and the due consent and assent of us all have made our Prince and King. To him, as to the man by whom salvation has been wrought unto our people, we are bound both by law and by his merits that our freedom may be still maintained, and by him, come what may, we mean to stand.
Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth
not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.
Therefore it is, Reverend Father and Lord, that we beseech your Holiness with our most earnest prayers and suppliant hearts, inasmuch as you will in your sincerity and goodness consider all this, that, since with Him Whose
vice-regent on earth you are there is neither weighing nor distinction of Jew and Greek, Scotsman or Englishman, you will look with the eyes of a father on the troubles and privation brought by the English upon us and upon the Church of God. May it please you to admonish and exhort the King of the English, who ought to be satisfied with what belongs to him since England used once to be enough for seven kings or more, to leave us Scots in peace, who live in this poor little Scotland, beyond which there is no dwelling-place at all, and covet nothing but our own. We are sincerely willing to do anything for him, having regard to our condition, that we can, to win peace for ourselves.
This truly concerns you, Holy Father, since you see the savagery of the heathen raging against the Christians, as the sins of Christians have indeed deserved, and the frontiers of Christendom being pressed inward every day; and how much it will tarnish your holiness's memory if (which God forbid) the Church suffers eclipse or scandal in any branch of it during your time, you must perceive. Then rouse the Christian princes who for false reasons pretend that they cannot go to help of the Holy Land because of wars they have on hand with their neighbours. The real reason that prevents them is that in making war on their smaller neighbours they find quicker profit and weaker resistance. But how cheerfully our Lord the King and we too would go there if the King of the English would leave us in peace, He from Whom nothing is hidden well knows; and we profess and declare it to you as the Vicar of Christ and to all Christendom.
But if your Holiness puts too much faith in the tales the English tell and will not give sincere belief to all this, nor refrain from favouring them to our prejudice, then the slaughter of bodies, the perdition of souls, and all the other misfortunes that will follow, inflicted by them on us and by us on them, will, we believe, be surely laid by the Most
High to your charge.
To conclude, we are and shall ever be, as far as duty calls us, ready to do your will in all things, as obedient sons to you as His Vicar; and to Him as the Supreme King and Judge we commit the maintenance of our cause,
casting our cares upon Him and firmly trusting that He will inspire us with courage and bring our enemies to
naught.
May the Most High preserve you to his Holy Church in holiness and health and grant you length of days.
Given at the monastery of Arbroath in Scotland on the sixth day of the month of April in the year of grace thirteen hundred and twenty and the fifteenth year of the reign of our King aforesaid.
Endorsed: Letter directed to our Lord the Supreme Pontiff by the community of Scotland.
(Additional names written on some of the seal tags: John Durrant, John Inchmartin, Edward Keith, Alexander Lamberton, Thomas Menzies, Thomas Morham
and one illegible).
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