Feature: the Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April 1320

The Declaration of Arbroath and Scottish independence

William Wallace's victory at Stirling Bridge in 1297 won a temporary respite, but Edward refused to relinquish his claims. In 1306 Robert the Bruce seized the throne and began a long struggle to free Scotland from the invaders. His success at Bannockburn in 1314, when he defeated an English army under Edward II, did not end the war, but it allowed normal government to be re-established. However, the English still refused to recognise Scotland’s independence or Bruce's position as king.

On the European front, by 1320 Scottish relations with the papacy were in crisis after they defied papal efforts to establish a truce with England. When the pope excommunicated the king and three of his bishops, the Scots sent the Declaration of Arbroath as part of a diplomatic counter-offensive. The original letter, delivered to the pope in Avignon, is lost, but we know it reached him. He wrote to Edward II urging him to make peace, but it was not until 1328 that Scotland's independence was acknowledged.

The Declaration was probably drawn up by Bernard, Abbot of Arbroath. Documents at that time were not signed, seals were attached for authentication. Eight earls and thirty eight barons put their seals to the Declaration. Their names were written by the clerk at the foot of the parchment.

Versions, copies and facsimiles of the Declaration of Arbroath
The document in the NAS is the only surviving copy of the Declaration. It was kept with the rest of the national records in Edinburgh Castle until the early seventeenth century. When work was being done on the castle, the Declaration was taken for safekeeping to Tyninghame, the home of the official in charge of the records. While there it suffered damage through damp and it returned to the custody of the Deputy Clerk Register (the predecessor of the Keeper of the Records of Scotland) in 1829. Conservation staff at the NAS monitor the Declaration to ensure it survives for many centuries to come.

Although the Declaration was damaged during its absence from Edinburgh Castle, the full text was known from an engraving made around 1815, produced by the engraver William Home Lizars (1788-1859). You can still buy a limited edition facsimile of the Declaration of Arbroath, hand printed from Lizars original copper plate or a colour poster of the Declaration. For more details see our publications page.

Download an image, transcription and translation of the Declaration of Arbroath (Acrobat PDF, 209Kb, new window).

Nearly 200 years after Lizars engraved the Declaration onto copper plate, a scientist has created what is probably the smallest ever version of the Declaration. Andy Walker, the founder of the Schiltron Corporation in California, has designed a microchip which features the text of the Declaration in English and Latin. It occurred to Dr Walker that there was space on a chip which could be utilised in an aesthetic way and he used it to show how small you can make text. A microscope is needed to read the text, as each letter measures about one micrometre (a thousandth of a millimetre). Dr Walker was brought up in Blairgowrie, about 50 kilometres from Arbroath Abbey, where the Declaration was sealed, and he studied physics at Dundee University. This explains his choice of the Declaration of Arbroath for the first microscopic historical text.

Find out more about the Scottish Wars of Independence, William Wallace, King Robert I of Scotland and the Declaration of Arbroath in our 'For Freedom Alone' education resource on the Scottish Archives for Schools website.