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BALLADS » Blind Harry's Wallace

 
Anthony Walker, Portrait of Sir William Wallace, c 1272 - 1305. Scottish patriot, National Galleries of Scotland, Wikimedia Commons

Introduction

Much has been made of the historical inaccuracies in Randall Wallace's screenplay for the award-winning film "Braveheart." There are, in fact, only a handful of reliable events recorded about William Wallace ... Continue reading ...


Editions and Versions

Blind Harry's Wallace has been one of the most popular works of historical literature in Scotland and was one of the first books to be printed there, c. 1508, by Chepman and Myllar, Edinburgh. Several editions and versions have been published over the course of the next four centuries Continue reading ...


Index of Books and Chapters

The version of Blind Harry's Wallace presented on this site is The Life and Heroick Actions of the Renoun'd Sir William Wallace, General and Governour of Scotland, by William Hamilton of Gilbertfield, first published by William Duncan, Glasgow, in 1722, last issued in 1859. The original spelling and capitalization has been retained; quotation marks and paragraph breaks have been inserted for ease of comprehension. Continue reading ...


Chapter Synopses

The ballad begins with a stanza about the Scots and their gallantry in defending their nation against the Picts, Danes and Saxons. William Wallace's family background is then given, followed by a brief summary of his patriotic attributes. Wallace's father, Malcolm, was "of honourable and true Scottish blood;" ... Continue reading ...


Credits: (Related Resources) Includes material from the Wikipedia article "List of battles between Scotland and England", "First War of Scottish Independence", and "Edward I of England", which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
Photo credits: (Featured) Portrait of Sir William Wallace, Anthony Walker, 1757, National Galleries of Scotland, CC-BY-NC 3.0, (Related Resources) (1) Bibliotheque Nationale MS Fr. 2643, Battle of Neville's Cross (1346), PD-Art Wikimedia Commons, (2) Notable figures in the first Scottish War of Independence, 1898, William Hole, Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-3.0, (3) Alexander III, King of Scots, as a guest of Edward I of England, Wikimedia Commons, CC-PD-Mark

Related Resources

English fight the Scots at Neville's Cross led by their king, David Bruce, Folio 97 verso from Froissart's Chronicle, Wikimedia Commons
The Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland fought dozens of battles with each other. They fought typically over land, particularly Berwick-Upon-Tweed, and the Anglo-Scottish border frequently changed as a result. Read more at Wikipedia.


Notable figures in the first Scottish War of Independence, Detail from a frieze in the entrance hall of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Photo by William Hole, Wikimedia Commons
The First War of Scottish Independence was the initial chapter of engagements in a series of warring periods between English and Scottish forces lasting from the invasion by England in 1296 ... Read more at Wikipedia.


Alexander III, King of Scots, as a guest of Edward I of England at the sitting of an English parliament, Wikimedia Commons
Edward I (1239-1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Read more at Wikipedia.