7. Auld Alliance and the Ideal of Friendship - with Clément Guézais

This episode's guest is Dr Clément Guézais, a French historian, lecturer at the University of Arras, and specialist of the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France.We discuss the alliance itself - its origins, its history, and its legacy - as well as the ways in which French and Scots have imagined, understood and misunderstood one another across the centuries. At its heart, this is a discussion about the possibility of genuine friendship between nations, rather than merely a relationship of political convenience. 02:00 - Clément's journey as a scholar and into Scotland07:30 - The origins of the Auld Alliance16:00 - Why was the "Alliance" called "Auld"?23:27 - The alliance and medieval notions of riendship26:30 - The alliance and the Hundred Years' War 35:45 - The "Garde Ecossaise"38:20 - Why the Auld Alliance came to an end 47:15 - How the French understood the Scots in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance57:37 - The legacy of the Auld Alliance 01:07:00 - "Distance Unites": Clément's Franco-Scottish identity and his future works