General Notes

REFN: 5827AN
The great Scot Patriot who fought King Edward I Longshanks for Scottish
indep endence.
William Wallace (c1270 - 1305)
William Wallace is one of Scotland's greatest national heroes, undisputed
leader of the Scottish resistance forces during the first years of the
long and ultimately successful struggle to fre e Scotland from English
rule at the end of the 13th Century.
Records of Wall ace's life are patchy and often inaccurate. This is partly
because early acco unts of his heroic deeds are speculative, and partly
because he inspired such fear in the minds of English writers at the
time, that they demonised him, h is achievements, and his motives.
Many of the stories surrounding Wallace have been traced to a late-15th
Century romance "The Wallace", ascribed to Henry the minstrel, or "Blind
Harry". This epic is vehemently anti-English in langu age and tone. The
most popular tales about Wallace are not supported by docum entary
evidence, but they show his firm hold on the imagination of his people .
He represented the spirit of the common man striving for freedom against
oppression, and exposed the Scottish nobility of the time as a group of
unpri ncipled opportunists.
Wallace's place as a hero in Scottish history is assured . There can be
little doubt that he has always been revered as a self-effacin g and
passionate patriot by later generations of Scots. Unlike the conniving
Scottish nobles who had collaborated with the English in return for
financi al benefits, Wallace had never sought personal fame nor benefited
from it. He had accrued neither wealth nor land.
Wallace was born in around 1270, probabl y near Ellerslie (now Elderslie),
in Ayrshire, Scotland. His father was Sir M alcolm Wallace, Laird of
Elderslie and Auchinbothie, a small landowner and li ttle-known Scottish
knight. [Note: in 1999 the seal of Sir Wallace was transl ated from the
archaic latin. On his seal it says he is the son of 'Alan'.] Hi s mother
is believed to have been the daughter of Sir Hugh Crawford, Sheriff of
Ayr, and he is thought to have had an elder brother, also called Malcolm.
Because he was the second son, William did not inherit his father's title
o r lands.
At the time of Wallace's birth, Alexander III had already been on
S cotland's throne for over twenty years. His reign had seen a period of
peace, economic stability, and prosperity and he had successfully fended
off contin uing English claims to suzerainty. King Edward I (known as
Edward "Longshanks ") came to the throne of England in 1272, two years
after Wallace was born.
There is almost no reliable information about William Wallace's early
life. H e is said to have spent his childhood at Dunipace, near Stirling,
under the s upervision of his uncle, who was a priest. Wallace probably
led a comfortable and peaceful life as the son of a nobleman. He and his
brother Malcolm must also have trained in the martial arts of the time, -
including horsemanship a nd swordsmanship. Contemporary chroniclers say
that William was a large, powe rful man. He reportedly stood more than six
and a half feet tall, - a veritab le giant at a time when the average
height of an infantryman was only slightl y more than five feet.
Carrick, in his Life of Sir William Wallace of Eldersli e, consolidates
some of the available historical descriptions of Wallace as f ollows:
"His visage was long, well-proportioned, and exquisitely beautiful; hi s
eyes were bright and piercing, the hair of his head and beard auburn, and
inclined to curl; that on his brows and eyelashes was of a lighter shade.
Hi s lips were round and full. His stature was lofty and majestic, rising
head a nd shoulders above the tallest men in the country. Yet his form,
though gigan tic, possessed the most perfect symmetry, and with a degree
of strength almos t incredible, there was combined such an agility of body
and fleetness in run ning that no-one, except when mounted on horseba