Document that helped shape the world

THE Declaration of Arbroath may be the most influential document in Scottish history, but its impact stretches way beyond our shores.

It was written in 1320, six years after Robert the Bruce’s Bannockburn victory over Edward II, as a plea to the Pope to recognise Scotland as an independent and sovereign state.

It was drafted in Latin in Arbroath Abbey by Abbot Bernard on behalf of the nobles and barons of Scotland. In an era when monarchs were considered to rule by divine right, it asserts that Bruce is king because the people, not God, chose him – and had the right to cast him out if he failed in his duties.

The appeal eventually won papal approval, but the most profound impact of the document came nearly 500 years later when it was used as the basis of the American Declaration of Independence – drafted by Thomas Jefferson, whose father was an Aberdonian.

The original that was sent to Avignon is lost, but a copy survives in the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh.