26 SEPTEMBER 1998, Page 31

Sir: Peregrine Worsthorne, like most Englishmen condescending to our island

neighbours, puts his foot in his mouth: 'I . . . gloried in the heroism of Robert the Bruce and William Wallace quite as much as that of the Black Prince or Henry V.'

William Wallace and King Robert I, defending their country from an invader, should be compared to Alfred, Harold II, Leonidas, Joan of Arc or El Cid de Bivar. There is no moral equivalence between these defenders of national independence and Henry V or the Black Prince, who waged wars of aggression against our neigh- bours.

lain Burgess 4 Cedars Road, Hampton Wick, Middlesex