ANST - Scotch whiskey (was - Wrasslin' with Saracens)

[Decker, Terry D.]

Let me switch over to serious history mode on the question of whiskey at
Bannockburn, because if the document you mention dates properly, it would be
an interesting addition to the history of distillation.  I certainly accept
the fact the Scots carried whiskey into battle, but I have serious
reservations that they did so at Bannockburn.

The date commonly given for Villanueve's brandy is 1299-1300.  There is very
little evidence that distilled spirits were widely known or used at this
time.  The use of flammable spirits (at least 100 proof) appears in recipes
at the end of the 14th Century and the evidence of increasingly common usage
appears in the 14th and 15th Century.

Bannockburn, where the Bruce engaged the English against over 3 to 1 odds
and routed them from Scotland, occurred June 24, 1314.  According to most
historians, aqua vitae, the Medieval white lightning, was relatively unknown
and peat-smoked barley single malt was somewhere in the future.  If the
document dates to the first half of the 14th Century, then the historic view
of whiskey changes drastically.

The idea that whiskey was "issued" leads me to believe that the document
probably dates no earlier than the mid-17th Century, after the unification
of England and Scotland when Scots regiments were raised to serve in the
Army.

Bear



> << Too bad we
>  can't prove the boys at Bannockburn were fired up on scotch 
> whiskey. >>
> BUT THEY WERE-  Spirits were the standard issue for all 
> Lowland fighters 
> kits.  Saw it in a document when at Edinburgh Castle about 6 
> years ago. All 
> had a little canteen to hang around their shoulder containing 
> the water of 
> life (single blend whiskey)
> 
>   Baron Bors of Lothian
 
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