Declaration of Arbroath (April 6, 1320) during the reign of Robert the Bruce as King of Scotland, the yoke of English oppression was released from the land. The English, under Edward II had been defeated at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, and expelled from Scottish soil with the recapture of Berwick in 1319. But the English and Pope John XXII still refused to recognize Scotland as an independent country. In response, many of Scotland's leaders sat down in 1320 to write a plea of recognition to the Pope for Scotland.
The document was eventually successful, and is now named for the place of its writing, as the Declaration of Arbroath. Even though Robert the Bruce had won the battle for the territory that encompasses Scotland, it was essential during these times as a political and religious leader that he gain the approval of the Pope as a Christian King. Without such approval, Scotland and its King would be considered fair game by any country with a recognized (by the Roman Catholic Church) Christian King and any conqueror would be congratulated for bringing the Scots back into the fold. Robert the Bruce had been excommunicated for his part in the murder of John Comyn at Greyfriars' Church in Dumfries, Scotland.
He was considered nothing more than a rogue or fugitive originally. But his continued support by the nobles and the clergy of Scotland, and his continual defeat of the English forces, were cementing his right to rule the country. In 1319, Pope John recalled four Bishops of Scotland and accused them of rebellion against 'their' English King, Edward II. The Scots had no choice but to somehow convince Pope John XXII that Scotland was indeed a Christian country with a rightful King. A letter was composed in Latin by Bernard of Linton, the Abbot of the Abbey of Arbroath, and closed with the seals of 39 known Christian noblemen of Scotland.
As one can see from the actual wording of the document, this was quite a statement. The Scots declared their lineage as being of the tribes of Israel, and then asked the Pope to reprimand Edward for his crimes against them. They further state that they will never under any condition live under English rule, and would forsake any King of theirs who attempted to make them do so. In return, the Scots promised to be faithful servants of the Church and vowed to war in the Crusades for the Pope while implying that Edward should be doing the same instead of warring on them.
This Declaration was in effect a bombshell dropped in the lap of King Edward II of England by someone who had sneaked in through the back door. It is sure to have caused quite a stir with Pope John, although he did not initially respond. It was the continued Scottish victories against the English, and perhaps the lack of English support for the Crusades, that eventually won the day. In 1324, Pope John called Robert the Bruce King for the first time and also apparently wrote a letter to Edward asking for an end to the violence. But Edward II did not listen and continued his attempt at conquest. In 1327, Edward II was deposed as King and murdered. The matter now fell into the hands of Queen Isabella, mother of Edward III (a minor) and Roger Mortimer, her lover.
In 1328, due to the current weakness of England, the pair negotiated the Treaty of Northampton, which acknowledged Scotland as independent and Robert the Bruce as its King. In the fall of the same year, the Pope finally lifted his excommunication of Robert the Bruce and recognized him as a Christian King. Robert, however, never got the chance to fulfill his vow of service in the Crusades, as he died the following year; but his heart made the journey for him after his death.
The Declaration of Arbroath was in effect a Declaration of Independence for Scotland. It had a profound effect on the history of Scotland and its influence continues to be felt to this day. A similar document, by a group of men (many of them Scots) during the 18th Century, carries many of the themes encased in the original. That second document is The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.
The contents, translated into English, and dated April 6th, 1320 are as follows:
<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 of their own royal stock, the line unbroken by 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 for ever.
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 un- used to wars or invasions, came in the guise of a friend and ally to harass them as, in 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 cheer- fully. Him, too, divine providence, his right of succession according to our 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 his 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 privations 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 the 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 any 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 nought.
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.> 1320DA001
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Endnotes:
1320DA001. Declaration of Arbroath, April 6, 1320.