15/10/2026
Aye, we're serious. ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ
This is Dalhousie Castle in Midlothian, and in 1320 the man who owned it put his seal to the Declaration of Arbroath; a letter to the Pope telling him Scotland would never bow to England.
456 years later, America had a problem. Fifteen months into the war with Britain, and it wasn't going well; beaten out of Canada, and the largest fleet Britain had ever sent anywhere was arriving off New York. They needed France. But France wouldn't back a rebellion. France could only ally with a country.
So they wrote one into existence, and the Declaration of Arbroath provided the template.
Sounds wild?? Senate Resolution 155, passed 20 March 1998, states that "the American Declaration of Independence was modeled on that inspirational document": the Declaration of Arbroath, signed 6 April 1320. Search it on congress.gov. It's also why Tartan Day falls on 6 April.
As for the French: the Declaration was adopted 4 July 1776. France signed a treaty of alliance nineteen months later, in February 1778. At Yorktown in 1781 there were more French troops on the field than American ones, with a French fleet sealing off the sea. Cornwallis surrendered. War over.
Scottish paperwork, French navy, American holiday. ๐
Plenty of historians reckon Congress got carried away, mind โ one's a letter to a Pope, the other's a declaration of war. Take it up with the Senate.
โ๏ธ And yes, you can actually stay at Dalhousie Castle!
