# Happy Declaration of Arbroath Day! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 6, 2016, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-declaration-of-arbroath-day/751337 "2016-04-06T13:31:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-declaration-of-arbroath-day/751337/1 "2016-04-06T13:31:19Z")
Happy [Declaration of Arbroath](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Arbroath) Day! (Also known as [Tartan Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartan_Day)) By a letter to the Pope, dated April 6, 1320, probably drafted by the Abbott of Arbroath and sealed by a group of Scottish nobles, Scotland affirmed its independence from England. [QUOTE=Declaration of Arbroath] …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. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Wiki article] The Declaration made a number of rhetorical points: that Scotland had always been independent, indeed for longer than England; that Edward I of England had unjustly attacked Scotland and perpetrated atrocities; that Robert the Bruce had delivered the Scottish nation from this peril; and, most controversially, that the independence of Scotland was the prerogative of the Scottish people, rather than the King of Scots. In fact it stated that the nobility would choose someone else to be king if Bruce proved to be unfit in maintaining Scotland’s independence. Some have interpreted this last point as an early expression of ‘popular sovereignty’[4] – that government is contractual and that kings can be chosen by the community rather than by God alone. [/QUOTE] Now go celebrate with a good dram of Scotch! And listen to some pipes: [Scots Wha Hae](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVWyGHq7Rqw) [Flower of Scotland](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwNTWaMHv2E) [Scotland the Brave](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSH0eRKq1lE&nohtml5=False) ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-declaration-of-arbroath-day/751337/2 "2016-04-06T13:39:55Z")
I have some Scottish ancestry - I always thought it a savage twist of irony that Scotland willingly gave up its centuries-fought independence, so movingly argued in the Declaration of Arbroath, because of - failed colonial stock speculation. > **[Darien scheme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darien_scheme)** > > The Darien scheme was an unsuccessful attempt, backed largely by investors of the Kingdom of Scotland, to gain wealth and influence by establishing New Caledonia, a colony in the Darién Gap on the Isthmus of Panama, in the late 1690s. The plan was for the colony, located on the Gulf of Darién, to establish and manage an overland route to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The backers knew that the first sighting of the Pacific Ocean by Balboa was after crossing the isthmus through Darién... As Robbie Burns put it: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/gLufwtSZiIs/hqdefault.jpg "Steeleye Span - Rogues in a nation") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLufwtSZiIs) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-declaration-of-arbroath-day/751337/3 "2016-04-06T13:52:52Z")
Ungrateful so-and-sos.