Declaration of Arbroath

1320. A letter drawn up by a large number of Scottish nobles and barons and “the whole community of the realm,” and sent to the pope who had declared against Robert the Bruce. The document stated that Providence, the laws, the customs of the country, and the choice of the people, had made Bruce their king, and that if he betrayed his country they would elect another. They cared not for glory, continued the declaration, but for that liberty which no man renounces until death.