The Pictish Free State was a micronation initiative started by Brian Robertson AKA Robbie the Pict in 1977. Apparently created to further knowledge of Pictish culture, Robertson started the project with one acre of his own land on the Isle of Skye. Since then the Pictish Free State has grown to over 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) through supporters donations. Robbie, under 'Pictish High Commission' auspices, has in the past been in conflict with HM Government over his use of Pictish diplomatic registration plates and non-compliance with UK laws.
For a time in the early 1990s Robbie was to be found in Tallinn, Estonia where he sought political asylum. Robbie ultimately felt that he had been undermined by the influence of MI6 on the serving Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trivimi Velliste, to prevent a scenario of his being created a cause célèbre by the official granting of political asylum status - Robbie held, and still holds the belief, that Velliste's Soviet past cast a shadow on his ability to escape compromise by informed intelligence services.
Robertson was a candidate for Member of the European Parliament in 1999. He had a website.
Famous quotes containing the words free and/or state:
“Others apart sat on a Hill retir’d,
In thoughts more elevate, and reason’d high
Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate,
Fixt Fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
And found no end, in wandring mazes lost.
Of good and evil much they argu’d then,
Of happiness and final misery,
Passion and Apathie, and glory and shame,
Vain wisdom all, and false Philosophie:”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
““He swore that day till the leaves shook on the trees. Charming! Delightful! Never have I enjoyed such swearing before or since. Sir, on that memorable day he swore like an angel from Heaven!””
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)