Tartan Day celebrations in America and Canada have been centred round one
of the most important dates in Scottish history - 6 April 1320 - the date
when the Scottish nobles appended their seals to the letter to Pope John
XXII, on behalf of the Community of the Realm, asserting Scottish
Independence at Arbroath Abbey.This year will also see Tartan Day
celebrations in Scotland's long-time ally France and perhaps most
appropriately the Burgh of Arbroath itself. Arbroath plans a week of
celebration from 3-10 April 2004.
This week's column concentrates on The Declaration of Arbroath, a document
of historic importance not only to Scots but to the world. It marked the
emergence of Scotland as the first Nation State in Europe in the modern
sense, and the seeds of democracy by declaring that a ruler could be
removed if he failed the people.The Arbroath Letter was to inspire another
historic document - The American Declaration of Independence.
In the splendid Saltire Society reprint 'A Scottish Postbag - Eight
centuries of Scottish letters' (2003) the joint editors, Paul H. Scott and
the late George Bruce, wrote of The Declaration of Arbroath :
'The document known as the Declaration of Arbroath, the most important and
best known in Scottish history, was a letter, if of a specialised kind. It
was a diplomatic communication from the barons and 'whole community of the
realm' of Scotland to Pope John XXII, remarkable for both its eloquence
and persuasiveness and for the boldness and originality of its ideas. Long
before such conceptions were found elsewhere in Europe, it spoke for the
whole community and asserted the ideas that the independence of the nation
was worth defending for its own sake and that rulers exist to serve the
community and not the reverse.'
The crux of the Declaration lies in the following words -
'But from these countless evils we have been set free, by the help of Him
Who though He afflicts yet heals and restores, by our most tireless
Prince, King and Lord, the Lord Robert. He, that his people and his
heritage might be delivered out of the hands of our enemies, met toil and
fatigue, hunger and peril, like another Maccabaeus or Joshua and bore them
cheerfully. Him, too, divine providence, his right of succssion according
to our laws and customs which we shall maintain to the death, and the due
consent and assent of us all have made him our Prince and King. To him, as
to the man by whom salvation has been wrought unto our people, we are
bound both by law and by his merits that our freedom may be still
maintained, and by him, come what may, we mean to stand.
Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree 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
rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us
our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we
on any conditions be brought under English rule. 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.' ( Part of
a translation by Sir James Fergusson from the Latin original.)
These words have rung down the centuries. In any other country in the
world, a document such as The Declaration of Arbroath would be marked by a
National Public Holiday, but not in a Scotland, still tied to rule from
outwith her own borders.Hopefully the celebration of the date in other
countries will help convince Scots that Scottish Freedom should be
regained and the words of 1320 honoured.
Arbroath is also famous for the food product, the Arbroath Smokie, now
protected by Euro regulations as reported in a previous column, and we
celebrate Tartan day and the famous Declaration with a smokie recipe.
Taken from Scottish food doyen Elizabeth Craig's 'Hotch Potch' (1978),
Arbroath Kedgeree will delight the palate.
Arbroath Kedgeree
Ingredients : 8 oz (200 g) smoked haddock (Arbroath), boiled; 4 oz (100 g)
boiled rice; 2 oz (50 g) butter; 1 or 2 coddled eggs, chopped; salt and
pepper; cayenne pepper; pinch grated nutmeg
Remove all skin and bones from the fish and chop or flake roughly. Mix
with the rice. Place in a saucepan. Add the butter, and egg white if
liked, finely chopped. Stir until piping hot. Season to taste with salt
and pepper, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. Dish up in the shape of a pyramid
on a heated platter. Garnish with minced parsley and sieved egg yolk. If
preferred, cut the egg white into strips and arrange round the kedgeree
instead of mixing it with the fish. You can extend the kedgeree by
increasing the cooked rice to 8 oz (200 g). Yield : 3-4 portions
