Sir William Wallace - Braveheart

Most medieval collectors are more than familiar with the Mel Gibson movie “Braveheart”, the semi fictional exploits of one of Scotland’s greatest heroes. The real Sir William Wallace was a far cry from the cinematic version... He never painted half his face blue and he never wore a kilt either! Wallace was a lowlander from a small town called Elderslie, near Glasgow not far from where yours truly was born. In battle Wallace was garbed in much the same contemporary military fashion as his enemies led by Edward I of England. He was a Scottish knight of Norman background who became one of the main leaders during the First Scottish War of Independence (1296-1328). His ‘finest hour’ came in September 1297 when he led his vastly outnumbered Scottish Army and defeated a much-larger English force of 3,000 mounted knights and about 10,000 foot soldiers at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Our K&C ‘Wallace’ is dressed in chainmail with a surcoat bearing the saltire St. Andrew’s Cross of Scotland. On his shield and horse’s coat is a white lion rampant on a red background... part of his family’s coat-of-arms. In his raised right hand he wields a one-handed ‘Ball & Chain Flail’... a wooden shaft connected by a chain to a spiked, metal ball... deadly and dangerous!