Posted on 05/19/2011 11:45:14 AM PDT by Renfield
A newly discovered English source, which also marks the earliest record of Wallace’s gruesome execution, confirms outright what historians had only suspected before: the reason that Edward I dealt so harshly with Wallace was that he viewed him as a pretender to the Scottish crown.
Accounts of King Edward I’s Exchequer for the financial year 1304–1305, known as the ‘Pipe Roll’, describe Wallace as, “…a robber, a public traitor, an outlaw, an enemy and rebel of the king, who in contempt of the king, throughout Scotland had falsely sought to call himself king of Scotland.”.....
(Excerpt) Read more at pasthorizons.com ...
Auld Scots ping...
Let me be the first to say it...FRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!
Sure he did Longshanks.
And Jesus called himself King of The Jews too you know.
Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled ...
I read a book earlier this year called the Wallace Book. It discussed who Wallace was, was he a commoner or noble blood, was the sword at the monument in Stirling really his, etc.
At lease one article in the book put forth the argument that he could very well have been a criminal the way we think of them (in addition to fighting the English).
bttt
BTW, I went to that monument last November. Impressive place. Placed on the Abby Craig, it overlooks the town of Stirling.
Most of the nobility of the time were criminals by today’s standards.
There were pretty much two ways to make a living, at the time.
Grow stuff, or extort stuff from the people who grew it.
The nobility specialized in the second.
Things haven't changed a whole hell of a lot in 706 years.
It’s good to be king.
One of the reasons that Scots made such good warriors was that they were constantly occupied with either stealing cattle, or tracking down and disembowling their neighbors for the crime of same. Generations of such activity breed hard men.
Years ago, I was crwling around the graduate stacks at the University of Michagan, looking for a map - believe me, this was before google earth.
Anyway, I came across a book that listed my last European ancestor (I tend to get distracted in libraries. Or reading the dictionary, for that matter).
He was described as a “Baronial Ruffian.”
That made me laugh.
MARK
To be fair, the English borderers were every bit as tough.
Several centuries of exciting but pointless bloodshed.
A very disproportionate percentage of those who came to America came from one or the other side of the Border. Directly or via a stop in Ireland.
I liked it when Edward threw his gay son’s lover out the window.
Roy Roy MacGregor being one. Hardy soul, cattle rustler, sort of a Robin Hood type, though. It’s hard to be noble when you’re starving.
Ed was a pretty tough cookie himself.
Even though I’m a Scot (Nisbet/Cabeen), I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Edward Longshanks.
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