Unexceptional

In her letter (25 August) in response to mine (22 August) Mairianna Clyde seems to fall into the trap of Scottish ‘exceptionalism’– believing that the people of the northern part of Britain are somehow intrinsically different to others on the island.

My basic point was that the current boundaries within Britain are not inevitable and have always been fluid.

She is quite right to point out that the Northumbrians were forced out of Pictland (Fife) in the battle of Nechtansmere and later defeated at Athels ta ne ford in the Lot hi ans. However t hose battles had followed the battle of Degsastan (603) in which a Northumbrian force defeated a combined army of Scots and Britons (from Strathclyde) to lay the foundations for Anglian dominance of what is now the Lothians and Borders.

In other words, boundaries (and power) were in constant flux in the same way that first Mercia and then Wessex dominated the kingdoms in the south of the island.

That instability lasted well in to the Middle Ages. It was, after all, the Lord of the Isles, John MacDonald, who in 1462, in league with the Earl of Douglas, hatched a plot with Edward IV of England to drive the Stewarts from the Scottish throne.

Had Edward not been distracted by the Wars of The Roses what would have been the outcome of that plot and how would it have affected the current borders?

PETER LEWIS Albert Terrace, Edinburgh