[MR] BBC: William Wallace Church Foundation Discovered

[Garth Groff via Atlantia]

Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots,

Today the BBC is reporting the discovery of a buried foundation thought 
to be the Kirk o' the Forest, the church where William Wallace was 
proclaimed Protector of Scotland: 
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-36158808 . While this 
discovery is no doubt an important piece of history, local officials are 
already rather optimistically proclaiming it as a possible major tourist 
draw (of course with the inevitable gift shop selling cheesy tartan 
"Braveheart" merchandise). Hmmm.

Attached at the bottom of this story are links for two earlier William 
Wallace stories: a 2012 piece on the temporary return of a Wallace 
letter to Scotland ( 
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-16530452 ) and a 
2011 story on a previously unnoticed entry in Edward I's Pipe Rolls 
accusing Wallace of styling himself 'King of Scotland' ( 
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-13412135 ). The latter 
is very interesting. The commentary suggests that this might have been 
English propaganda.

William Wallace invokes a really annoying recasting of modern myth as 
"history". Mel Gibson didn't help matters one bit, especially by 
dressing Wallace in an out-of-period kilt (on horseback, no 
less--imagine the chafing). A very tasteless example of this was the Tom 
Church statue "Freedom" with Mel's face at the Wallace Monument near 
Stirling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Monument . 
Controversial, to say the least. However even most Scots rarely question 
the authenticity of the so-called Wallace sword displayed inside the 
monument. The actual history of the sword is fairly well known. It 
appears to be an early 15th century German two-hand blade (imported 
unfinished into Scotland in large numbers during the 1400s). The sword 
was passed off as the "original" Wallace blade and sold to King of the 
Scots James IV. James confused matters further by having it re-hilted in 
the contemporary late 15th century pattern. (Sigh!)

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, That Crazy Scot