Declaration of Arbroath to become a Unesco ‘memory of the world’

Scottish Government Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop will make the announcement along with Elizabeth Oxborrow-Cowan, who chairs the Unesco UK Memory of the World committee.

Five years ago, Unesco turned down Arbroath Abbey’s bid to become a World Heritage Site, but the importance of the Declaration of Arbroath was recognised and referred to the UK Memory of the World Advisory Committee.

The Memory of the World scheme preserves important documents, sound recordings and films for posterity.

Documents such as the Magna Carta, the Hereford Mappa Mundi and the Churchill Papers have been named as Memories in the UK. The announcement is a change of heart by Unesco, whose 2011 report stated: “The case was not adequately made for the global importance of the declaration and there was insufficient tangible evidence linking it to Arbroath.

“It was noted that the declaration was only issued from Arbroath because the Abbot of Arbroath was also Chancellor of Scotland and that the link was essentially bureaucratic.

“While the declaration is clearly of great importance for Scottish and United Kingdom history, its international significance is not demonstrated. The Panel noted the declaration was held in Edinburgh.”

At the time, local councillor Jim Millar said: “The Declaration of Arbroath, one of the earliest expressions of a desire for democracy, is studied across the world, and has had a significant impact, especially in places such as the USA and Canada”.

The rethink is likely because Elizabeth Oxborrow-Curran became the Chair of the Committee in 2014 and she works with archive services both public and private across the UK, providing strategic and technical advice as well as supporting funding bids.

She also works with key policy bodies such as The National Archives and the Scottish Council on Archives, and sits on the Archives Accreditation Committee, while being an expert adviser and mentor for the Heritage Lottery Fund and a Director of NCS.

The Committee’s Scottish member is Brian Smith who joined the committee in 2009. He was the Bishop of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal Church from 2001 until his retirement in 2011.

The Scottish Government was not commenting ahead of the announcement which will see the only copy of the Declaration in Scotland being brought out of safe keeping for the first time in 11 years.

This document’s influence stretches much further than medieval Britain

Analysis by Hamish McPherson

THE most important thing to know about the Declaration of Arbroath is that it was a letter to the Pope at a time when the Bishop of Rome had huge power, both spiritual and temporal.

Kings and ordinary people and everyone in between really did believe the Pope could condemn you to Hell or get you out of it, and in matters of diplomacy he had the church’s authority to tell monarchs what to do.

Written in Latin and dated April 6, 1320, the letter was one of three sent to Pope John XXII. The other letters were sent by Robert the Bruce and four Scottish bishops. Those two are lost, but are thought to have been making the same case for Scotland’s right to be recognised as an independent kingdom.

Though it does not directly say so, the Declaration was in effect saying to the Pope that if England’s King Edward II, the loser at Bannockburn, was to invade Scotland again then the nation would defend itself to the utmost.

The signatories also wanted to send a strong signal that Scottish independence should be recognised across Europe. Scotland is a nation, they were saying, made up of people from across the realm, and that’s why so many nobles – 51 in all – signed and sealed the letter.

The background was that the previous Pope, Clement V, had sided with Edward Longshanks in his claim to be overlord of Scotland.

There was also the small matter of Bruce having been excommunicated for murdering John Comyn in Greyfriars Church in 1306 – such an act was a definite no-no, even for a king.

Bannockburn had changed everything, and Bruce’s victory appeared to have made his reign secure, but there was still a Comyn faction claiming the throne, backed by the English king who wanted revenge both for his humiliation in 1314 and the subsequent raids into England by Scottish forces. The Declaration had its desired effect, as John XXII at least temporarily conceded what Bruce and the bishops and nobles wanted, which was recognition of Scotland’s right to exist.

The document is credited with creating the concept of “popular sovereignty”, which many people would argue is still a driving force in the Scottish polity.

The US Congress has officially recognised its influence on the American Declaration of Independence which was drafted by Thomas Jefferson, possibly helped by a Scot, the Rev John Witherspoon, who signed that most significant document.

Here is the most famous excerpt from the Declaration: “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 should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own right and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be subjected to the lordship of the English.

“It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.”

For those interested in the actual words, here is the original Latin text: “Quem si ab inceptis desisteret, Regi Anglorum aut Anglicis nos aut Regnum nostrum volens subicere, tanquam Inimicum nostrum et sui nostrique Juris subuersorem statim expellere niteremur et alium Regem nostrum qui ad defensionem nostram sufficeret faceremus.

“Quia quamdiu Centum ex nobis viui remanserint, nuncquam Anglorum dominio aliquatenus volumus subiugari.

“Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertate m solummodo quam Nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit.”