The Declaration of Arbroath

Images of Britain: The Declaration of Arbroath

The Declaration of Arbroath is a sheepskin document in the form of an 800-word letter in Latin signed by 39 Scottish nobles and sent to Pope John XXII in 1320 from Arbroath Abbey in Arbroath, asserting Scotland's independence from England.

It was intended to support King Robert the Bruce's claim to the Scottish throne to affirm the nation's right to self-determination and a diplomatic approach to the Pope to intervene with Edward II of England. The document is considered one of the most important in Scottish history and has been regarded as an early expression of the principles of constitutional monarchy.

Robert the Bruce had been excommunicated by Pope Clement V for complicity in the murder of John Comyn in Greyfriars Church in Dumfries in 1306. The letter is also a plea for the papacy to lift Bruce's excommunication.

The Tyninghame copy of the Declaration from 1320, in the National Archives of Scotland. — The 'Tyninghame' copy of the Declaration from 1320, in the National Archives of Scotland

The document's most famous lines are: "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 life itself." They are thought to have influenced the American Declaration of Independence.

While the declaration did not immediately lead to widespread international recognition of Scotland's independence, it remains a symbol of Scottish identity and resistance to external oppression. Over the centuries, it has played a significant role in Scottish national consciousness.

There is only one surviving copy preserved by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) in Edinburgh. It last went on public display at The National in the Scottish capital in 2023. For centuries the document lay largely forgotten in Edinburgh Castle, even bitten by rats, until it was printed in Latin in 1680 and later translated into English. From then on its historical significance grew.