If history has taught us anything it is that nothing remains the same. Look at a map of Europe after the Second World War and it’s virtually unrecognisable, entire countries have split and others have disappeared. Yugoslavia, which once spanned much of the Balkans, is now a clutch of independent countries.

Likewise, the Soviet Union has split into 15 independent states spanning Europe and Asia. And, of course, Germany has been reunited.

Scottish identity and a desire for independence among many Scots is also ever changing, with Oxford University professor Danny Dorling, an expert in human geography, claiming recently that a form of independence is already in progress, due to an ever increasing political and cultural divide between England and Scotland.

However, new research by University of Glasgow professor Dauvit Broun surprised many people. He explores the idea of Britishness in relation to Scottish independence and identity in the Medieval period, offering a different insight into contemporary debates surrounding national identity.

Broun examines the ideas of Scottish academics and historians in the 1380s and 1520s of Britain as an extension of the Scottish Kingdom. Broun makes use of a recently discovered early 16th century homemade compendium booklet of........

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