Declaration Of Arbroath Research Articles

The Declaration of Arbroath in print, 1680–1705

This article examines the circumstances in which the Declaration of Arbroath was first printed in 1680 by Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh and the original manuscript on which Mackenzie’s text was based (NRS SP13/7). It then traces its subsequent print history between the Revolution of 1689–90 and the Union of Parliaments in 1707 both in Latin and in an English translation that first appeared in 1689. It locates the Declaration within the broader context of whig propaganda that encompassed a defence not just of the Revolution Settlement but of Scottish sovereignty at the time of the Union, culminating in James Anderson’s new edition and translation of the text of 1705. An appendix further examines the earliest reference to the Declaration in print – in Archbishop John Spottiswoode’s History of the Church in Scotland (1655) – and Spottiswoode’s use of a manuscript copy of Walter Bower’s Scotichronicon.

Müller (ed.), Scotland and Arbroath 1320–2020. 700 years of Fighting for Freedom, Sovereignty, and Independence

The forty-third volume in the Scottish Studies International series published by the Scottish Studies Centre at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat in Mainz, Germany, has been brought out to commemorate the 700 SP th sp anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath Alasdair Allan, the only elected politician in the volume, reflects interestingly on the ways that the Declaration has been used both by the SNP and others in the constitutional debates of the last thirty years Public celebration of the 700 SP th sp anniversary of the Declaration on the 6 SP th sp April 2020 had to be abandoned because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and, although the National Records of Scotland hope that the public exhibition of the document can be rescheduled, there is no doubt that the anniversary has been a far more muted affair than it would otherwise have been [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Scottish Historical Review is the property of Edinburgh University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )

The Declaration of Arbroath and the Scottish Historical Review

The Declaration of Arbroath and the <i>Scottish Historical Review</i>

“Every County had more or lesse the civill warre within it selfe”1: the realities of war in Lucy Hutchinson’s Midland shires

IntroductionAs a historian of her own times, Lucy Hutchinson was shrewd enough to acknowledge that the warfare which comprises a major part of the memoir of her husband Colonel John Hutchinson was not simply an English Civil War. When she dealt with the first reverberations of the conflict which was then about engulf her family, she wrote:about the yeare 1639 the thunder was heard afarre of ratling in the troubled ayre, and even the most obscured woods were penetrated with some flashes, the forerunners of the dreadfull storme which the next yeare was more apparent.In writing this Lucy dated the beginning of the fall of the Stuart monarchy to 1639 - the year of the first Bishop's War.2 No doubt she and John, who seem, according to her account of the period some two years later, to have read newsbooks and discussed contemporary affairs together, were well aware that the trouble had begun two tumultuous years preceding the almost farcical first war in the four nations. The warning signs had been there even earlier when Charles I stage-managed his belated Scottish coronation in a way which symbolically turned the clock back to before the early-fourteenth-century Declaration of Arbroath by openly giving precedence to officials of the Church of England over the men of the Kirk. Serious trouble had begun in 1637 when the attempt to introduce a new prayer book, based upon the English Book of Common Prayer, into Scotland had provoked violence. This policy had firstly caused riots, and then secondly inspired the drafting of, and even more importantly, the mass subscription to a National Covenant creating a bond between the Scottish people and God in defence of the Kirk against the king's aggression. The king's provocative reaction in not seeking a compromise and being openly aggressive had pushed the Scots further. By the summer of 1639 the storm Lucy had alluded to had actually been underway for some time: by then Scotland had formed a new political structure and an executive which had not only circumvented the king in church and state but was able to manage a war effort to challenge him militarily. Mutual aggression led to the first war in the British Isles since the Nine Years' War and was later named by the victors after the archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud and his fellow Episcopalians both sides of the border: as the Bishops' War.Lucy's broad vision was not limited to her understanding that the war which broke out in England in 1642 had origins which lay beyond England's border; like her contemporary fellow historian, the royalist politician Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, she acknowledged that the war was an affair which absorbed the entirety of the British Isles. In her background narrative, Hutchinson spent some space in her text dealing with the three initial conflicts within the archipelagic-wide war which preceded the direct involvement of her husband and herself. The First Bishops' War of 1639 was brief and involved the English forces being chased ignominiously out of Scotland and a more serious fight between Scottish covenanters and anti-covenanters outside Aberdeen at the Bridge of Dee, which ironically occurred during the peace negotiations being held at Berwick upon Tweed. A second Bishops' War in 1640 was a more deadly and involved the Scottish Army of the Covenant invading England, defeating the king's forces and occupying northeast England for a year. The third war in the sequence sprang from the rebellion in Ireland which began on the night of 22 October 1641 and involved a rapidly developing crisis for the Dublin administration. An alternative national Irish government was established in Kilkenny which managed a structured war-effort that challenged armies sent from England, Wales and Scotland. It was this latter war which more than any other formed the backdrop to the Lucy and John's decision to throw themselves into the coming war against their king. The war in Ireland created an atmosphere of fear in Britain where the newly invigorated press and rapidly spreading rumours inspired a genuine fear that there was an imminent threat of an invasion by Roman Catholic forces from Ireland. …

Papal pronouncements on legitimate lordship and the formulation of nationhood in early fourteenth-century Scottish writings

Early fourteenth-century Scotland produced some of the period's clearest expressions of nationhood, most famously with the so-called Declaration of Arbroath of 1320. Despite the letter's fame, its conceptual language and that of related Scottish texts has not hitherto been entirely recognised. The present article demonstrates that these writings are closely informed by contemporary legal ideas concerning lawful jurisdiction and just war. Their use of legal ideas can be shown to have been inspired by the concerns and outlook of the papacy, particularly with regard to its temporal lordship in Italy. It is this inspiration that can explain the clarity and force with which the Scottish texts of these decades present the kingdom as specifically Scottish and the nation as a political force, for which they have since become renowned.

A Manuscript Copy of the Declaration of Arbroath from the Roman Archives of Fr Luke Wadding (1588–1657)

A Manuscript Copy of the Declaration of Arbroath from the Roman Archives of Fr Luke Wadding (1588–1657)

&lt;i&gt;Scotland’s Historic Heraldry&lt;/i&gt; (review)

Reviewed by: Scotland’s Historic Heraldry Katie Stevenson Scotland’s Historic Heraldry. By Bruce A. McAndrew. Pp. 632. ISBN: 9781843832614. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. 2006. £90.00. The study of Scottish heraldry is, at present, undergoing something of a revival. Scholars in the United Kingdom and further afield are turning to Scotland’s rich heraldic heritage as a source for understanding her past. Not since the previous revival of the 1970s (notable especially for the foundation of the Heraldry Society of Scotland) has there been such a keen interest in Scots heraldry. This resurgence is evident on a number of levels, from the National Museum’s interactive exhibit on the subject to the 27th International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences held at the University of St Andrews in 2006. Scotland’s Historic Heraldry by Bruce McAndrew is the first original research to be published on this subject for many years, as the revival of interest in the 1970s was largely confined to the revision and publication of much older, more traditional works. Moreover, the work pursued in this area has been, on the whole, scientific rather than historical, concerned with the accurate description of coats of arms of Scottish noble families and the documenting of the associated genealogical information. As such, works on heraldry tend more often than not to be compendia of, albeit useful, information rather than exercises in historical analysis. This is unfortunate and means that heraldry tout court is often dismissed by historians as little more than an antiquarian hobby resulting in work which is regarded as methodologically unsound, poorly researched and archaic. Indeed, the lack of professional historians writing on this subject has further contributed to the impression that a somewhat ‘anoraky’ image envelopes the study of heraldry. McAndrew’s book offers a ‘radically different approach’ (p. 4) and attempts to cross the bridge between the science of heraldry and its historical context and relevance. Here, in a beautifully presented volume, is a discussion of the significant families of Scotland and their heraldry from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, ‘combining the three themes of heraldry, history and genealogy together in a broadly chronological fashion’ (p. 4). Chapter by chapter McAndrew takes us through the significant moments of Scotland’s history and discusses the heraldry associated with leading figures in events such as the Great Cause and the Declaration of Arbroath. He also considers the range of domestic and foreign armorial rolls which contain Scottish arms. Some of these, such as Sir David Lindsay of the Mount’s Armorial, are well known and much has been written about them. Others, however, such as the Scots Roll of the mid-fifteenth century, have previously only been known to a small group working in the field and the Heraldry Society of Scotland, whose in-house publisher produces small booklets of Scottish rolls. In the majority of chapters of Scotland’s Historic Heraldry the author explains relevant genealogical information and places this in historical context. McAndrew also includes chapters on reading and understanding heraldry and on more complex ideas like the marshalling of arms and Scottish ordinaries, all of which are clear [End Page 151] and easy to comprehend. Perhaps the most significant contribution is the suite of chapters looking at the heraldry of the lairds of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the Borders, the central belt, Tayside and Grampian, and the Highlands and Islands. Here the author identifies trends in regional iconography, which seem to be directly related to proximity to Edinburgh and Stirling. There is a wealth of useful information included in the book: a glossary of heraldic terms and dozens of genealogical tables with accompanying, full-colour arms interspersed throughout the text. What is missing is any kind of bibliography, which would have been a useful research tool for those interested in the themes pursued in the book. Yet whilst this book is impressive for its collation of complex research, it does fall short of achieving a true reinterpretation of the study of Scottish heraldry. What we have here is up-to-date research which should certainly replace the older, hallowed volumes which are still the first port of call for those interested in the...

Barrow (ed.), The Declaration of Arbroath

Barrow (ed.), <i>The Declaration of Arbroath</i>

The Mark of Scottish America: Heritage Identity and the Tartan Monster

On 20 March 1998, the United States Senate unanimously adopted Resolution 155, declaring 6 April of each year National Tartan Day to celebrate the contribution of Scots in America over the centuries. Proposed by a Republican Majority Leader of Scottish descent, Trent Lott, and intended to establish the relationship between the two nations, the document harks back to Scotland’s revered 1320 statement of national independence, the Declaration of Arbroath: “the American Declaration of Independence was modeled on that inspirational document … Scottish Americans successfully helped shape this country in its formative years and guided this Nation throughout its most troubled times.” More than simply a pluralist call for the recognition of an ethnic culture in America, the document constructs a vision of shared national origins.

Terry Brotherstone and David Ditchburn, eds. Freedom and Authority, Scotland c.1050-c.1650: Historical and Historiographical Essays Presented to Grant G. Simpson. East Lothian, Scotland: Tuckwell Press. 2000. Pp. xii, 292. £25.00 ISBN 1-898410-79-8.

Terry Brotherstone and David Ditchburn, eds. Freedom and Authority, Scotland c.1050-c.1650: Historical and Historiographical Essays Presented to Grant G. Simpson. East Lothian, Scotland: Tuckwell Press. 2000. Pp. xii, 292. £25.00 ISBN 1-898410-79-8. - Volume 33 Issue 2

The War of the Scots, 1306–23

The life of Robert I, king of Scots, written by John Barbour archdeacon of Aberdeen is the fullest of any medieval king in the west, a chronicle of chivalry in vernacular octosyllabic couplets, on which much of our understanding of the events and ethos of the Scottish war depends. In this paper I discuss some aspects of the king's reign which Barbour ignored: pro-Balliol sentiment which lingered in Scotland and at the French and papal courts; and also aspects of the war where Barbour's narrative is incomplete or misleading, but which illustrate the growth of King Robert's military effort from that of a very uncertain factional rising to one which matched the rhetorical claims (in die Declaration of Arbroath) of a people at war. I shall be treading ground already mapped in Professor Barrow's masterly study, seeking only to point out features to which Barbour has, by omission or commission, drawn my attention.

The Middle Ages: a concise encyclopaedia (review)

154 Reviews the female body. The womb and internal female organs were seen exclusively as an inversion of the male penis. The clitoris was not identified, except incidentally, as a site for female pleasure and the Renaissance anatomist Gabriel Fallopio was able to claim, with some exaggeration, that he was thefirstto identify what he caUed the pudendum. In this way, anatomical discussion can be seen to be an extension of male interpretations of the superiority of their own bodies. Hdary Carey Department of History University of Sydney Loyn, H. R., ed., The Middle Ages: a concise encyclopaedia, London, Thames and Hudson, 1989; cloth; pp. 352; 250 Ulustrations; R. R. P. AUSS79.95. The General Editor here has undertaken a daunting task, and one to which it is easy to take exception in matters of detail. On balance, however, he and his team of 40 specialists have put together in a most usable manner an attractive and selective, rather than comprehensive, guide to the chief events, persons, achievements and institutions of the Middle Ages. The volume will suit the generaUst reader rather than the speciaUst Suburban or school libraries might well find it an acceptable alternative to a series of more speciaUsed volumes. There are many satisfying and useful general articles; for example, agriculture, alchemy, annals (and chronicles), armour, architecture, astrology, burial customs, calendars, cathedrals, Celtic Churches (and Catholic Church, and Church-Eastern Orthodox), chivalry, Christianity, climate, clocks, comets, education ( a n d Universities), Exchequer (English), famine, feudalism, glassstained , Islam, Jews, language and dialect, law, libraries (also handwriting, books in manuscript, manuscript illumination, manuscript studies), monasticism, music, neoplatonism, pipe rolls, plague, political thought (and Marsilius of Padua), ships and shipping, slavery, synods, towns, war (and W a r s of the Roses), wills and testaments, w o m e n (but not m e n or children). Renaissances figure well (Northumbrian, twelfth-century and Italian), but there is no liturgy, literacy or even, surprisingly, Bible. The coverage is broad and weU-balanced: Arab, Turkish, Byzantine, Mongol, Russian, and Slav entries occur. There is no Peking but, to compensate, we find Arpad, the chief of the Magyars c. 850-905! Ancient culture and the Renaissance are represented by such entries as Aristotle, Aetius Flavius, Plotinus, Fra Angelica, Pico della Mirandola, Cisneros (but do not look up the latter under Ximenes). Art, literature and thought appear in a number of entries as do the main Italian towns (for example, Florence, Reviews 155 Milan, Venice, Rome, but not Siena, and Bologna only gets in under Bologna University, although Genoa gets a good guernsey). Some rather obscure glossators get in (Accursius, Azo and commentators) together with a few deUghtfully specialised characters of Great British interest only (Llywelyn ab Iorwerth the Great, but not M a el g w y n , R or y O'Conor, John Balliol), who seem to exclude such obscure continentals as, for example, Otto of Freising, though his famous biography of Frederick Barbarossa gets in as a reference under the entry for that ruler. Readers will be comforted to know that Otto's English contemporary William of Malmesbury makes it safely, as does the much more obscure continental A d a m of Bremen. It is nice to see entries such as Etienne Boileau, Union of Calmar, and Declaration of Arbroath, if only to remind one of one's ignorance. Giano della Bella's inclusion seems excessive since even Dante does not name him! Stave Churches (Stavkirchen) get an entry and an illustration. Scotland and Wales are well covered and even St. Andrews University is included. However, only some kings, popes and similar rulers are included so that despite some tables (Hohenstaufen, Plantagenets, for example) the work is not useful as a quick reference for regnal years and the like. The one or two bibliographical items after most entries are usually useful; although, there are exceptions to the rule. N. M. Haring's The case ofGilbert de la Poree is presented as a book to consult but is, however, unknown to the author of the entry who fads to cite its correct reference: N. M. Haring, The Commentaries on Boethius by Gilbert of Poitiers (Toronto, 1966). The reference given in the...