Whats your opinion on??

Question

William Wallace do you like him do you see him as Scotland's hero personally i think he was fantastic what do you all think about him?

Answer 1

He did some horrible things to women and children actually.  He wasn't as portrayed in Brave Heart>>>>faints

He is a hero in my opinion because he stood up for his kin.

Answer 2

what?where?how?

Answer 3

Who?

Answer 4

Was he the motor-cycle stunt driver who lived in Alexandra Road Sheerness?

Answer 5

The film Braveheart made me want to vomit! Wallace was not a Highlander, he was a lowlander. He was not some benevolent, simple yokel from some poor village in the backside of nowhere, he was a noble. No-one in Scotland was wearing woad on their faces during Wallace's era. He did not go into battle dressed like Adam Ant, he wore appropriate armour for his time.

And the Battle of Stirling Bridge as depicted in the movie. WTF?!!! No bridge, no marshland, no wooded hill and not even the d**n river?!!!!

In direct relation to your question, however:

Wallace was a medieval Scots noble, with all that this implies. Whilst it can fairly reasonably be accepted that he believed in Scottish independence and self rule, it should be borne in mind that he also thought that it should have been he who was doing that ruling.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest he was as up to his neck in political manoeuvring, double-play and back-stabbing as all of the rest of the medieval aristocracy.

To put it bluntly - if you met him today, you would probably consider him a loathsome, immoral and unethical brute of an individual. And I'm afraid that, if you were a peasent or an aristocratic enemy, he wouldn't bat an eyelid at killing you, your whole family and everyone who was either a friend or associate - young and old, men, women and children alike. We're talking about the medieval period here, not the age of the United Nations, the Geneva Convention and the Human Rights Act.

All that said, I can certainly understand why he is such an historical icon for the Scots. He fulfilled most of the criteria of the archetypal underdog and enjoyed some spectacular successes against a European superpower in defence of his own, beleagured country.

His tactical genius at the (real) Battle of Stirling Bridge is still studied by military students today!

By accident of birth I just happen to be an Englishman, so I hope you won't consider me too impertinent, but in my opinion Wallace seems to me to be a perfectly acceptable and understandable person for Scots folks to consider a national hero.

Answer 6

I did not know too much about him, just the basics, before seeing the movie Braveheart, which I thoroughly enjoyed. If he is historically like he is in the movie, then he must have been a great man.