The Scots who turned the world upside down
BILLY KAY
January 04 2006
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/53578.html
"Fredome is a noble thing . . . "
John Barbour's famous words from The Brus resound across the centuries and
the ideal of freedom born in this period became engrained in the Scottish
psyche, affecting everyone brought up as a Scot.
Over four centuries later, Robert Burns still testified to the emotive power
resonating from those days: "The story of Wallace poured a Scottish
prejudice in my veins which will boil along there till the flood gates of
life shut in eternal rest."
I am convinced that in the great period of European nationalism of the late
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was this Scottish heritage that
galvanised people such as James Boswell to adopt the cause of Corsica,
George Gordon, Lord Byron, to die for the liberation of Greece and Lord
Cochrane to fight for freedom in South America.
Cochrane was called Le Loup de Mer, the Sea Wolf, by his admirer Napoleon,
and El Diablo - the Devil - by his enemy General Pezuela, the Spanish
viceroy of Peru. To the colonial powers of South America, Spain and
Portugal, he was regarded as an unprincipled and dangerous mercenary, yet he
rejected a far more lucrative commission from Spain itself.
In his day he was regarded by the British establishment as a dangerous
radical, but his exploits as a serial liberator in South America and Greece
thrilled everyone thirled to the concept of freedom. A contemporary who
witnessed his exploits in Chile, Maria Graham, wrote: "He is doing honour to
his native land, by supporting that cause which used to be hers, and in
after-ages his name will be among those of the household gods of the
Chilenos".
Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, arrived in Chile with his wife and
sons in November 1818. He caused a stir in Valparaiso when he hosted a St
Andrew's night ball dressed as a Highland chieftain. His strategy initially
was to stage small-scale coastal raids on Spanish forts and procure captured
treasure. But he was also aware that he had to inflict mortal blows to
Spanish power to win control of the sea, and at Valdivia in Chile and Callao
in Peru he achieved this with spectacular success.
At Valdivia, a stronghold consisting of a number of separate forts, Cochrane
put in 300 men against a garrison of 1300. Before launching the attack, he
dismissed the small problem that his guns had been rendered useless when his
ammunition got soaked, by telling his men that their reliance on the bayonet
that night was in their favour as it gave them the element of surprise, and
the Spaniards had a "rooted aversion" to cold steel.
After Callao, Cochrane was the undisputed master of the Pacific, with
Peruvian and Chilean independence guaranteed. These raids are still
celebrated and commemorated as essential turning points in their respective
national histories and the sites are places of pilgrimage for Chileans and
Peruvians to this day.
Cochrane thenwent on to Brazil, where he similarly achieved spectacular
results against the Portuguese. In Scotland, he arrived home a hero and when
he appeared in an Edinburgh theatre on October 3, 1825, the whole audience
rose to give him an ovation.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey. I have never visited his tombstone, but I
have seen photographs of him lovingly taken by Carlos Arredondo, a Chilean
musician in exile here in Scotland. As is always the case with history, the
modern echoes are compelling. Carlos's life proves that liberty, once won,
has to be constantly fought for. He is aware that the navy founded by
Cochrane was engaged in gross abuses of human rights during the Pinochet
era.
Knowing Cochrane's humanitarian reputation, Carlos believes that the admiral
would have abhorred the excesses of the navy under the fascists, and wants
to reclaim him for the Chilean people.
As a Scots-Chileno himself now, Carlos sees Cochrane as a symbol of the best
of both his homelands and as an icon whose example can help re-establish
real freedom for the people of Chile.
James Boswell is one of many Scots who became involved in other people's
liberation struggles, yet had seriously ambivalent feelings when it came to
his own country's history of independence and union. Although he undoubtedly
suffered from the Scottish cringe, he regarded himself as a Scottish patriot
and it is this feeling for Scottish history that attracted him to the
Corsican cause.
Nowhere is this stated more clearly than on the title page of his book, An
Account of Corsica, the Journal of a Tour to that Island, and Memoir of
Pascal Paoli, published in 1768, leading with the famous words from the
Declaration of Arbroath, "We fight not for glory, nor for wealth nor
honours; but only and alone we fight for Freedom".
But why were these men so drawn to become deeply involved in other people's
liberation struggles? Was their attraction to the cause an extension or a
sublimation of their feelings for Scotland, possibly an expiation of guilt
as they saw the distinctiveness of their own country being eroded in the
eighteenth and nineteenth century?
On the Grand Tour, Boswell was constantly in touch with home. From Avignon
to Rome, he came across illustrious Jacobite exiles. In the university
library in Leipzig, he also discovered a copy of the Declaration of Arbroath
and regaled astonished professors with declamations of his favourite
passages.
"They were struck with the noble sentiments of liberty of the old Scots and
they expressed their regret at the shameful Union. I felt true patriot
sorrow. Oh, infamous rascals, who sold the honour of your country to a
nation against which our ancestors supported themselves with so much glory.
But I say no more, only alas, poor Boswell was 24 years old and had the
gallus brass-necked cheek of youth as an ally when he succeeded in getting
himself invitations to meet Voltaire and Rousseau. It was Rousseau who told
Boswell of the Corsican struggle for freedom and of the nobility of its
leader, General Paoli. Boswell resolved to go there and tell their story to
the world.
The Corsicans had been dominated by the Republic of Genoa since medieval
times but had begun their struggle to free themselves more than 35 years
before Boswell's arrival.
Indeed, Boswell was able to travel freely because there was a lull in the
fighting, and with tensions relaxed, both General Paoli and the Corsican
people were open to this foreign writer engaged in their fight. He repaid
their hospitality by making their cause famous throughout Europe.
In British politics, like Lord Cochrane, Byron was a political Radical and
Whig, yet his romantic love of things Scottish attracted him to a High Tory
like Sir Walter Scott and they became firm friends despite political
differences.
By the early 1820s Byron was looking around for something momentous to
engage himself with and at one point he had discussions with people who were
involved in Símon Bolívar's anti-colonial movement in South America. When
his friend Hobhouse of the London Greek Committee suggested that he would be
an important focus for the Greek cause, if he would consent to be on the
ground there, he accepted and made plans for departure.
There is a painting by Theodoros Vrizakis which commemorates his arrival in
Missolonghi in January, 1821. Here, Byron alights wrapped in a tartan plaid
and carrying a Homeric helmet. He had commissioned both for his trip to
Greece - he had enough tartan to swathe his horse as well - and was aware
that these romantic symbols of Greek and Highland warriors would strike the
right heroic chord and help galvanise the disparate forces of opposition to
Turkey.
It is entirely possible that it was Cochrane's example which inspired Byron
to join the liberation struggle of Greece against Turkey. Amazingly,
following Byron's death, it was Cochrane himself in 1825 who continued the
fight as First Admiral to the Greek fleet. The invitation to him to take up
the Greek cause came via the same London Greek Committee which had
originally approached Byron. Its leaders included the Radical Scots MP
Joseph Hume, whose son Allan Octavian Hume went on to found Indian National
Congress, the main motor for India's struggle for independence in the
twentieth century.
We could analyse the diverse factors which motivated all of these kenspeckle
characters till the kye comes hame, but let us not lose sight of their
unifying characteristics - they were all steeped in the Scottish traditions
of social progress via education and the Enlightenment and they had an
emotional attachment to the struggles of Bruce and Wallace.
Both traditions had a huge impact on the world. The story of Bruce inspired
Poland at the time of partition. Wallace was a hero of Garibaldi at the time
of the Italian Risorgimento. The tune of Scots Wha Hae was played at the
lifting of the English siege of Orléans when Joan of Arc and the Scots of La
Garde Écossaise liberated France. David Livingstone was known to sing the
song to revive his spirit and he was called Africa's first freedom fighter
by Kenneth Kaunda. "Now's the day and now's the hour" were the words on the
proclamation that inspired the American revolt against Mexico in Texas.
Robert Louis Stevenson was engaged in the cause of Samoa. The father of the
Norwegian independence movement was W K Christie and its cultural hero was
Edvard Grieg, both children of the Scottish diaspora.
And, of course, there's Corsica, Greece, India, Chile, Peru and Brazil. All
of their liberation movements have a proud pedigree rooted in the Scottish
experience of a people who know that Fredome is, and always will be, a noble
thing. Scotland!"
Billy Kay's three-part Radio Scotland series, Fredome is a Noble Thing,
begins tomorrow at 11.30am and is repeated at half past midnight, then again
on Sunday after 5pm.
Scots and revolution
1729 Corsicans begin a 44-year struggle against the oppression of the
Republic of Genoa
1768 James Boswell's An Account of Corsica, the Journal of a Tour to that
Island and Memoir of Pascal Paoli published
1768-1789 Corsica comes under French control, and remains so today
1818 Admiral Cochrane arrives in Chile. Declaration of Chilean Independence
1820 Cochrane defeats the Spaniards at Valdivia in Chile and at Callao in
Peru
1821 Independence of Peru
1822 Declaration of Brazilian Independence
1823 Cochrane defeats the Portuguese in Brazil
1821 Beginning of the Greek War of Independence against the Turks
1823 Byron arrives in Greece to join the struggle
1824 Byron dies in Missolonghi
1825 Cochrane takes command of the Greek navy in the struggle against the
Turks
1832 Greek Independence is guaranteed in the Treaty of Constantinople
1883-1885 Allan Octavian Hume founds the Indian National Congress
1947 India achieves independence
