5 - Sent Abroad to Talk for Their Country: Two Examples of Early Scottish Humanist Diplomacy

Summary

ON 12 September 1484, at Nottingham Castle, Archibald Whitelaw addressed Richard III and his selected council, in his best humanist Latin, as a spokesman and ambassador for James III. The occasion was a diplomatic mission from the Scots, offering a truce and a royal marriage; Whitelaw was the royal secretary and archdeacon of Lothian. In 1522, at the Ascensian press in Paris, Hector Boece's first historiographical work was printed, Vitae Episcoporum Aberdonensium et Murthlacensium. In this work, Boece attributes to William Elphinstone, bishop of Aberdeen and Boece's patron, another ambassadorial speech on behalf of James III, this time to Louis XI in c. 1479. In both cases, humanist Latin is pressed into Scottish political service. The choice of approach reflects the interests and preferences of the men involved: from the evidence of their libraries, both Whitelaw and Elphinstone were engaged with the intellectual developments related to the Renaissance in mainland Europe, while Boece, a generation younger, is even more deeply embedded in humanist learning and practice. Nevertheless, in these speeches, there is more than personal preference at stake: the deployment of humanist rhetoric in these diplomatic situations asserts the speakers’ intentions that the views of the Scottish crown be taken seriously, by ally and by enemy. Through an examination of the rhetorical features of these speeches, particularly their references to Classical Latin literature, this essay will consider the nature of these examples as two of the earliest demonstrations of Scottish humanism, its uses and its significance. In so doing, it will rely heavily upon Roger Mason's work on Scottish descriptions and definitions of national identity – indeed, the juxtaposition of speeches that is the core of this essay is suggested by his article ‘Regnum et Imperium: Humanism and the Political Culture of Early Renaissance Scotland’. There Mason draws attention to the significance of Whitelaw and Elphinstone as ‘early adopters’, and outlines what humanism might have contributed to Scottish government through the centrality of those bureaucrats and their intellectual allegiances, and what they passed on to their successors. This essay looks specifically at the rhetorical productions attributed to Whitelaw and Elphinstone, with three particular questions in mind: firstly, in what ways might these speeches be defined as humanist; secondly, how do they display their knowledge of Classical material; and finally and most significantly, to what end?