FOR more than 700 years there has been an association between Scotland and France. It dates back even before the Auld Alliance, signed in 1295 by Kings John Balliol and Philip IV. You can see a copy in the Archives Nationales of France, now located at Pierrefitte-sur-Seine in the north of Paris, not far from where the horrendous events of Friday night occurred.
After the Auld Alliance Scots fought for France, and the French monarch’s Garde Ecossaise was formed from Scottish soldiery. King James IV and many thousands of Scots died at Flodden in 1513 as in furtherance of the treaties between our two countries. The French even influenced our language – ashet, braw, douce, gigot, to give but a few examples – and for a short time French and Scottish citizens had equal rights in both countries.
Our national drink for generations was not whisky but claret wine, and of course Scots did their bit in the liberation of France from Hitler’s tyranny.
We have a long shared history, but apart from the Glasgow Airport incident Scotland has not suffered the terrorist outrages visited upon France. Over the weekend we Scots all watched aghast from afar, devastated at the carnage visited upon Paris, and many Scottish tears were shed at the death and injury occasioned by evil men who cannot understand their own religion’s message of peace.
The Scottish Government has rightly offered what help we can, but France is a mighty nation and will handle this tragedy in its usual manner, its people standing together in liberty.
From the land of the Enlightenment that so influenced French thought, we send this message: peoples of reason and goodwill will always defeat the ignorant and depraved. Our friends in France should also know that in these dark days, Scotland is sending all the love this small nation of ours can muster.
Vive la France.
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