A History of Britain 04. Nations (25 of 30)

A History of Britain

Men could pass dry foot over it on drowned horses and men. Edward II left his shield, his seal, his honour and perhaps 4,000 English and Welsh dead.
Having won a victory on the battlefield if not the war itself, the Scots now sought international recognition of their newly-won liberty.
The occasion was a letter sent to the Pope, setting out the reasons why Scotland's independence ought to be recognised by the Church as itself sacred.
The letter was written here in Arbroath Abbey, and more than anything ever produced south of the border represented a perfect fusion between the two ideas of sovereignty we've seen in action - the nation and the prince.
At the heart of what we call the Declaration of Arbroath is something much more powerful, much more deeply moving.

It is the insistence that the nation lived on, beyond, and outside the person of the prince, who for a time happened to claim its government.
We've heard something like this before at the very beginning of our story in Oxford in 1258.
But here in Scotland, it's much more eloquent, the image of the free patriot drawn not as a desperado like Wallace or a mighty prince like Bruce, but as one of a band of brother survivors.
For as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, we will yield in no least way to English dominion. We fight not for glory, nor riches, nor honour, but for freedom, which no good man gives up except with his life.