In pursuit of freedom

IN an age which has become commemoration-conscious, our lives are loosely mapped out in remembrance of events and historical figures past. Nineteen-ninety-three was the year of St Margaret of Scotland (d. 1093); 1994 was Robert Louis Stevenson's centenary; 1995 was the year of Charlie, the Bonnie Prince, and the Burns Bicentenary has been a main topic throughout 1996.

Stirling is now poised to take centre stage in 1997 for the year of Wallace. ``In 1297, William Wallace lifted up his head,'' wrote the chronicler Walter Bower. In one way or another, Wallace's response to the brutal invasion and occupation of Scotland by Edward I of England has been remembered ever since. Its military high point was the spectacular Scottish victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, September 11, 1297.

In the middle ages, Stirling Bridge was perceived as the only passageway across ``the Sea of Scotland'' as the Firths of Forth and Clyde were then known. Matthew Paris's map of 1250, a version of which was undoubtedly used by the English army, depicts Scotland as a peninsula, accessible only via the Bridge of Stirling.

Wallace's victory at Stirling Bridge was of crucial importance in securing Scotland's survival as a nation. It confirmed the dictum that ``to hold Stirling is to take Scotland''.

Even before this decisive battle, the town had adopted the symbol of the bridge with opposing armies as its seal, and the crucified Christ above, implicitly on the side of the Scots. Without Wallace's campaign of 1297, Bruce's later victories would have been scarcely possible. Stirling is justly proud of its place at the crossroad of Scottish history, and through the Stirling Initiative has done much to enhance the principal historic sites of Stirling Castle, Bannockburn and the Wallace Monument. Preparations are now under way for an exhibition at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum to mark the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

Wallace's victory has been commemorated in different ways in the past. In 1797, the Scottish patriot Colonel William Fullerton had a medal struck, which was limited in its issue, since it bore too close a resemblance to the coins of the realm. In 1897, a great celebratory dinner was held in Stirling, and a song was written. One of the best Wallace statues, that by William Grant Stevenson in Aberdeen (1899), commemorates the prelude to the battle, and the painter William Hole, in his episodical murals on Scottish history in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, devotes an impressive panel to it.

Brave Art, the exhibition running at the Smith, was mounted as a prelude to the year. Contemporary artists, living and working in Scotland, were asked to take the story of Wallace as their inspiration, and the 200 works on display show remarkable diversity and ingenuity. As may be expected from an exhibition on Wallace, the sculptors are to the fore. The Ukraine's leading sculptor, Valentin Znoba, was inspired by the film Braveheart itself.

His hosts in Tranent, East Lothian, took him to the cinema, and although his understanding of English is minimal, he sat up all night creating a powerful warrior on horseback, which was cast in bronze at Powderhall and is now in the exhibition. Sandy Stoddart offers a challenging interpretation of Wallace's biographer, Blind Harry, while Alan Reid has a naked Wallace fashioned from Caithness stone and tattooed with Pictish symbols, rising from his knees to step over a Stone of Destiny writhing with treacherous snakes. Finding traces of the historic William Wallace is a much greater challenge, but no stone will be left unturned. The race is now on to locate and record Wallace memorabilia for next year's exhibition. Inevitably, much is of recent origin, but Wallace's posthumous career is as fascinating as his life. Accounting for the survival of a legend over a 700-year period is a major task.

How did the stories of Wallace survive, before Blind Harry wrote them down in the 1460s and Chapman and Miller printed them in 1506? Did King James IV, who had Bruce's armour in his care in the 1490s and had Wallace's sword repaired in 1505, play an active part in promoting the story?

How does Wallace become the hero of European nationalist movements in the nineteenth century, and why did he inspire Garibaldi and Mazzini in Italy and Kossuth in Hungary?

His story bears a remarkable resemblance to that of Joan of Arc, who also came from the people, led a revolt against an English army of occupation, was captured, given a show trial, and judicially murdered, her body being totally destroyed to prevent any cult of sainthood around it. Was this perhaps the source of appeal to French socialist Louis Blanc when he subscribed to the building of the National Wallace Monument in the 1860s?

To all intents and purposes, Wallace was canonised by the Scots as Joan of Arc was by the French.

Although his body was destroyed, every wood, tree and cave in which he sheltered, every stone on which he rested, every well from which he drank, was honoured by his name and often given a place on the older maps. The stone on which he rested when fleeing from Dundee in 1298, was handed down the generations and is now in Dundee Museum and Art Gallery.

Robert Burns is explicit about the reverence for Wallace in his own time. In a letter of 1786, he described how he: ``walked half a dozen miles to pay my respects to the Leglen Wood, with as much devout enthusiasm as ever pilgrim did to Loretto; and as I explored every den and dell where I could suppose my heroic Countryman to have sheltered, I recollect that my heart glowed with a wish to be able to make a Song on him, equal to his merits''.

William Wordsworth neatly summarised this age-old deification of the landscape with Wallace's name, when he wrote of:

How Wallace fought for Scotland; left the name

Of `Wallace' to be found like a wild flower

All over his dear country; left the deeds

Of Wallace, like a family of ghosts

To people the steep rocks and river banks

Her natural sanctuaries, with a local soul

Of independence and stern liberty.

Unfortunately, no complete record of these traditions has been made, and the old place-name associations are disappearing with the new Ordnance Survey maps. It is almost too late. More formal memorials were erected in Scottish towns and villages. The first was at Wallacestone, Falkirk, in 1810, the obelisk replacing the earlier stone.

Beside the monument is the only piece of London Bridge now left in Britain. Some patriotic Falkirk masons in the last century, conscious that Wallace's head had been displayed on London Bridge, liberated part of the parapet and brought it back. The Sir William Wallace Grand Lodge of Free Colliers of Falkirk have terminated their annual 10-mile march in honour of William Wallace at the monument every year since 1863.

The Lanark Wallace statue, sculpted by Robert Forrest in 1817, occupies a central position in Lanark's cultural life. Every year, it is decorated with flowers for Lanimer Week, and highlighted at Christmas. Ayr's statue dates from 1819, and the Barnwell Tower outside Ayr was erected in his memory.

Edinburgh and Glasgow vied with each other to house the National Wallace Monument. In the end, the honour went to Stirling. The Wallace statue at Edinburgh Castle was erected only in the 1920s, but it was the inspiration for Randall Wallace's Braveheart novel and the film; without it, the author might never have found out about his historic namesake.

The furthest-away Wallace monument is the white marble statue, erected at Ballarat in the Australian goldfields last century. The tallest statue is undoubtedly the Dryburgh monument (21ft) completed in 1814, and the most recent memorial is a bas-relief of Wallace's mother, who is buried in the grounds of Dunfermline Abbey.

Much has been promised for next year's exhibition, and people have been generous with loans and gifts, but more is needed. We are still looking for the beautiful box made from the Wallace tree at Torwood and gifted by the Edinburgh Goldsmiths to the Earl of Buchan, who in turn gifted it to George Washington, to be passed to ``the American most deserving it'' on his death.

The casket was instead returned to the Earl of Buchan, and gifted by him to Dr Benjamin Rush (who had successfully broken a great fever epidemic). Unfortunately, the casket never reached him, being stolen while travelling between New York and Philadelphia in 1803.

If you know where this, or any other pieces of Wallace memorabilia may be, the Smith would be glad to hear from you.