WHO WERE THE SCOTS?

By

W. E. Filmer

THE RECENT issue of a postage stamp to commemorate the Declaration of Arbroath - from ‘Greater Scythia’ draws attention to this curious document of A..D. 1320. In this the Scots claimed that and Spain. This poses a problem because there are good grounds for thinking that the Anglo-Saxons came from Scythia whereas, from their Gaelic language, it would appear that the Scots were more nearly related to the Celts of Wales than to the English.

As regards the origin of this document, it will be remembered that in 1296 Edward I carried off from Scotland the Coronation Stone and placed it in Westminster Abbey. By this act, and the removal to London of their national records, he sought to demonstrate to the Scots that he had annexed their country. A few years later, in reply to a Papal Bull, the justice of his claim was substantiated on the grounds that the British had been in possession of the whole of their island ever since the days of the Judges Eli and Samuel. It would seem that this view was derived from The History of Britain (II) by the ninth-century writer Nennius.

The Scottish nationalists, however, continued to resist and, following their victory over the English at Bannockburn in 1316, they made a further appeal to the Pope in the Declaration of Arbroath. In it they wished to point out that the Scots had always been a free people ever since before the Exodus, and had never been subject to anyone, let alone the English.

The following extract is of particular interest:

‘We know, Most Holy Father and Lord, and from the chronicles and books of the ancients gather, that among other illustrious nations, ours, to wit, the nation of the Scots, has been distinguished by many honours; which, passing from the greater Scythia through the Mediterranean Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and sojourning in Spain among the most savage tribes through a long course of time, could nowhere be subjugated by any people however barbarous; and coming thence one thousand two hundred years after the outgoing of the people of Israel, they, by many victories and infinite toil, acquired for themselves the possessions in the West which they now hold, after expelling the Britons and completely destroying the Picts, and, although very often assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes and the English, always kept themselves free from all servitude, as the histories testify. In their kingdom one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, no stranger intervening, have reigned.’