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For the 700th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, Billy Kay presents a major series on one of the most iconic moments in Scottish and world history. Here, he explores the history of the period of the Wars of Independence and the reason why the nobles, barons, freeholders and the community of the realm of Scotland felt compelled to create the document in 1320. Composed originally in elegant Latin prose it is addressed to Pope John XXII in Avignon who is asked by the Scots to support the cause of their nation鈥檚 independence in the face of an overweening, bullying English neighbour. In doing this, it pulls at the heart strings of patriots around the world.
鈥淔or, 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 鈥� for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.鈥�
Even more revolutionary is the Deposition Clause where they state that sovereignty lies with the Scottish people, and they can depose any King who refuses to defend their status as an independent nation. At a time when most believed in the concept of the Divine Right of Kings, this precociously democratic sounding rhetoric is quite remarkable: Yet if he should give up what he has begun, seeking to make us or our kingdom subject to the king of England or the English, we would strive at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own right and ours, and we would make some other man who was able to defend us our king.
Testimony to the declaration鈥檚 enduring international renown comes in a wonderful story of a Scot experiencing it being quoted in Russian by a Border Guard in the wilds of the Caucasus Mountains!