Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.

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You're listening to The Arts and Ideas podcast from the BBC with me, Anne McHelvoy, and Freethinking.

700 years ago with Robert the Bruce on the throne of Scotland in an eventful early 14th century,

the Declaration of Arbroath marked a decisive moment in the emergence of a clear Scottish identity.

Well, really, it wasn't so much a declaration as a private missive,

sent to Rome by the powerful of the Scottish realm,

and asking for papal intervention in a bitter dispute between Scotland and England,

which had been running since the late 13th century.

It was also a sinewy diplomatic attempt to placate a papacy unhappy with Robert's leadership. There was a small

matter of a falling out with Rome. The Pope John of Avignon had sought to enforce excommunication,

unheeded by Robert on the grounds that the edict did not refer to him as king,

but then he had been damned for murdering a rival claimant to the throne.

Also very medieval.

But the reason the declaration of Arbroath resonates beyond church and state infighting seven centuries ago

is that its broader message has been interpreted as a cry for Scottish distinctiveness

and the right of Scots to rule themselves.

The reverberations of that carry through all the big political debates today

even into different understandings of how messages of national resolve are treated

in the present coronavirus crisis. So as independence campaigns and backlashes bubble along

...