Bruce no Anglo

How disappointing to find Allan Massie, whose historical knowledge is so extensive and – usually – so aptly applied to contemporary debates, repeating the absurd description of Robert Bruce as “Anglo-Norman” (Perspective, 11 September).

Families of Norman origin who settled in England were Anglo-Norman: the term is no more applicable to those in Scotland than to those in Sicily.

In her biography of Bruce, Caroline Bingham identifies his paternal ancestors through seven generations, showing that they were among Scotland’s most important land-owning families since the time of  David I.

The family had been Scottish by territorial power base for much longer than it was ever “Anglo”; and for that matter, probably longer than it was ever Norman after arriving in France from Scandinavia.

The point is academic, of course; but the endless repetition of a plain error by people who should know better is, to say the least, irritating.

Derrick McClure

Rosehill Terrace

Aberdeen