3 finals down 2 more to go! I am so ecstatic about being nearly done with this semester. Anyway, I am defiently one of the worlds worst procrastinators, I dont think I have ever really properly been prepared when writing a paper, yet I tend to keep my grades high anyway. Well, even though the paper is not up to my standards, I really dont have the time to worry about going through a full revision as I would like, so I am just going to post it. It might educate some and if others dont agree with something that I have said, let me know, I enjoy learning. Here goes, the version with most little errors fixed (the teacher got a very buggy version). Be gentle


The True Wallace
Reston Bishop
Ask a person today who “Braveheart” is and many will be able to tell you that he was a Scottish freedom fighter; some may even be able to tell you that his name was William Wallace. Before Mel Gibson’s 1995 production of Braveheart, if the same question was posed many less people would be able to identify the Scottish icon. The Emmy award winning film brought William Wallace to prominence all over the world as well as in his homeland of Scotland. However, this film that gained so much critical acclaim has ultimately fallen under much scrutiny by scholars as the years have gone by. In an attempt to make the story more palatable, “the director and screenwriter interjected fictional romances and a homophobic subplot” (Sanello, 24). While the film can be rightfully accused of being widely inaccurate, it can equally be praised for popularizing Scottish heritage and inspiring millions of people around the world with Scottish blood in their veins to seek out their heritage and to become more aware of the Scottish hero. Thought the awareness that the film inspired may well have been more beneficial than harmful to Scottish heritage, in many ways it has also served to mar the already cloudy picture of who William Wallace truly was and the motivations that gained him the nickname “hammer of English” (Magnusson 133). Historically, much more information is available on William Wallace’s exploits than is available about William Wallace the man. Wallace is a mysterious historical figure whose reality has been mixed with fiction to create a legend. This paper will attempt to peel back the layers of myth surrounding the warrior and find the historical figure underneath.

In order to truly uncover the truth behind what made William Wallace such a powerful figure, it is necessary to understand the status of the country he was born into. Scotland, when Wallace was young, was relatively peaceful nation ruled by Alexander III. Scotland’s wool industry and successful cattle trade, along with low taxation allowed trade to flourish. The country sported stone homes with cellars in the more prosperous areas of Perth, Aberdeen, and Berwick and the country had “a network of good roads, capable of taking wheeled carts and wagons . . . established” (Mackay 28). These features spoke of a country that was economically sound—“far removed from the beggarly nation which English propagandists were to satirize in succeeding generations” (Mackay 27). Unfortunately, the idea that Scotland was a poor, archaic society remains the popular view today and that view was done no disservice by Gibson’s Braveheart. In Braveheart, the town in which William Wallace grows up in and most others portrayed in Scotland, are comprised entirely of mud huts with straw roofs. No good roads are prominent and even the brilliant cathedrals, abbeys, monasteries, and castles of the period are largely ignored. The numerous Scottish architectural achievements of the time clearly show that the popular view of Wallace’s Scotland far misses the mark.

It is also important to consider the accuracy of the sources which are generally relied on to tell us who William Wallace the man really was. The foremost source of Wallace’s early history is an epic poem composed by the bard Blind Harry over 100 years after the hero’s death. Harry’s depiction of Wallace leaves one with the idea that Wallace was a larger than life savior of Scotland. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, not to mention on the opposite end of the war, English “government records and contemporary chroniclers . . . are . . . without exception, violently anti-Wallace” (Magnusson 128). Blind Harry claimed to have based his saga off of a “Latin manuscript compiled by Wallace’s chaplain, John Blair” (Mackay 11). No version of Blair’s account actually exists today so it is impossible to compare Harry’s work with Blair’s to check for accuracy. Some scholars tend to have faith in the fact that Harry would have no real reason lie about Wallace’s grand history; after all, Harry’s work is not the only one to tell of Wallace’s remarkable achievements. Certain obvious mistakes and contradictions, however, in Harry’s account, such as “the great Battle of Biggar which never took place,” cause much doubt in the document’s veracity despite the fact that a majority of the epic can be backed up (10). Unfortunately Harry’s patchwork of a saga is riddled with grandiose oral tradition and a general disregard for actual dates making it all the more difficult to determine fact from fiction and really learn who William Wallace was.

Wallace did much growing up during Alexander III’s prosperous reign, though Wallace’s birth date is debated. There is some speculation that his birth was in the 1260’s but “most scholars now accept a date around 1292” (Magnusson 132). It is also generally accepted that William Wallace was the son of Sir Malcom Wallace, a knight and landowner. In recent years, however, Wallace’s seal of 1297 has been analyzed, reading “son of Alan Wallace” (Fisher 2). Records exist of an Alan Wallace who was royalty in Ayrshire, but what connection, if any, existed between the two is still unclear. Another generally accepted fact is that Wallace was born in Ellerslie, Ayrshire. An unfounded tradition that finds its roots in the 19th century claims that Wallace was born in Ellerslie, Renfrewshire. Though this is an honest mistake, the town in Renfrewshire has clung fervently to the idea and erected monuments and placards of Wallace. The town also claims to contain the cottage which Wallace grew up in and an ancient oak that the hero used for shade. These false oral traditions and the more recent release of Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart,” which falsely presents William Wallace as a lowborn peasant, further obscure the true picture of the Scottish freedom fighter.

One can make certain assumptions concerning Wallace derived from historical facts of the time which help to truly separate the man from the legend. The period of peace, prosperity, and justice in which Wallace had grown up ended suddenly upon the unexpected death of Alexander III, who met his end on a stormy night in March, 1286. After a meeting with his councilors at Edinburgh castle, “Alexander insisted on setting out to spend the night with his young wife, who was staying in a royal castle at Kinghorn” (Magnusson 105). Despite the warnings of his peers, Alexander set out into the treacherous night. While the exact details are unknown, Alexander was found in the bottom of a ravine with a broken neck leaving only one direct heir to the Scottish throne, his three year old daughter Margaret, also known as The Maid of Norway. The nobility of Scotland met at Perth and swore fealty to the young queen. Meanwhile, arrangements were made for The Maid of Norway to marry Prince Edward II, the five year old son of King Edward I (Mackay). This was a clever move by the crafty English king to further his influence on Scotland. As fate would have it, the marriage would never take place as “Magaret’s health, never robust, broke under the strain” of the sea voyage and the young queen died en route to her new kingdom” (Magnusson 111). With all of Alexander’s heirs dead, the throne of Scotland was up for grabs and the opening caused feuding between many factions that had developed in Scotland. The peaceful Scotland which William Wallace had known was destroyed within a mere few years.

More to come. . .