Was Scottish Identity at Threat After the Act of Union in 1707

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Seminar 1 Scottish National Identity For each of the following extracts, consider: • How does the source describe the Scots? What does this tell us about how people in the past imagined the Scots as a nation? • How does the source describe the English? In what ways have the Scots defined themselves in relation to an English ‘other’? • Compare each source and consider how Scottish national identity has changed over time. 1) Extract from the Declaration of Arbroath, 1320 [pic] Most holy father and lord, we know, and we gather from the deeds and books of the ancients, that among other distinguished nations our own nation, namely of Scots, has been marked by many distinctions. It journeyed from Greater Scythia by the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long span of time in Spain among the most savage peoples, but nowhere could it be subjugated by any people, however barbarous. From there it came twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea and, having first driven out the Britons and altogether destroyed the Picts, it acquired, with many victories and untold efforts, the places which it now holds, although often assailed by Norwegians, Danes and English. As the histories of old times bear witness, it has held them free of all servitude ever since. In their kingdom one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock have reigned, the line unbroken by a single foreigner…. [From] countless evils we have been set free … by our most valiant prince, king and lord, the lord Robert who, that his people and inheritance might be delivered out of the hands of enemies, bore cheerfully toil and fatigue, hunger and danger, like another Maccabeus or Joshua. Divine providence, the succession of his right according to our laws and customs which we shall maintain to the death, and the due consent and assent of
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