Did William Wallace Wield This Sword? The Wallace Sword - Real Artifact or Hoax?

the wall of sword today people around the world consider it an important symbol of the Scottish nation and spirit and thousands visited at the Wallace monument in Sterling every year but spoiler alert this is not William Wallace's sword or at least not exactly rather this artifact one of the most popular tourist draws in Scotland is something of a hoax here's why [Music] thank you to set the stage let me introduce you to a little thing known as the ship of Theseus according to Greek myth Theseus the founder king of Athens rescued the children of Athens from King Minos of Crete by slaying the Minotaur he then escaped on a ship going to Dallas for hundreds of years the Athenians annually commemorated the Rescue by sailing that very same ship to delos and back but as the years wore on the ship began to fall apart naturally the Athenians replaced the broken bits as they needed to but after several centuries of doing this some people started asking if each individual part of the ship of Theseus has been replaced one at a time is this thing still the same ship basically the ship of Theseus is a thought experiment about whether an object which has had all of its original parts replaced Remains the Same object you can apply it to a lot of things even people's identities Sir William Wallace the great national hero who fought the English is often credited with using this very two-handed sword just look at the statues but the object we refer to as the sword of William Wallace is actually a conglomeration of various elements a true ship of Theseus maybe now just to recap William Wallace born in 1270 was a knight from a noble Scottish family his story is complex but suffice to say Wallace was one of the greatest commanders to fight against the forces of king Edward the first of England his greatest Triumph was the Battle of Sterling bridge in 1297 sadly his gains were reversed only about a year later at the Battle of Falker and Wallace was a hunted man until his capture and execution in 1305. nevertheless his Rebellion paved the way for Robert the Bruce to later win Scottish independence now if you're an American odds are the first you ever heard of William Wallace was the 1995 film Braveheart directed by and starring Mel Gibson this is not an accurate historical film but it cemented an icon of Wallace as a somewhat Barbara's Highlander in fact wearing a kilt which they didn't wear in the 13th century painted with woad which had not been worn for at least 500 years and brandishing a mighty Claymore it's pretty epic to look at but it is not the truth [Applause] did melt invent this Persona whole cloth no if anything he took the idea which had been promulgated in the 19th century and quite literally ran with it the movie is just the latest example of the sword of the muddy Wallace as a symbol so what sort of Sword would the real William Wallace have used good question there's a very small chance that Wallace might have used a large two-handed sword known as a long sword a hand and a half or Bastard Sword this style by the way was the basis for the weapons in The Lord of the Rings movies such weapons start to appear in illustrations of the late 13th century but again it's highly unlikely that Wallace had one rather as a knight he would probably have been trained to use a single-handed sword with a shield a fighting style suitable for both on foot or on horseback the weapon would be what's vaguely referred to as a nightly sword or an arming sword this weapon was usually about 30 inches long and weighed around two to two and a half pounds it was The Descendant directly of the Viking sword whilst may even have wielded a falcon a sort of arming sword and machete hybrid which was quite popular at the time for breaking opponent's Shields and skulls now compare this to the artifact at Sterling that sword looks for all intents and purposes like a claymore Claymore being gallic for Greatsword by the way Claymores were very popular in the highlands in the 16th and 17th centuries they most likely had their origins in German designs of the 16th century which the Highlanders decided were practical for inter-clan Warfare in the 16th century such as zwai Honduras or two-handers were used against Cavalry and more importantly by specially trained foot soldiers to break apart Pike squares by literally breaking the hafts of the pikes extremely risky business in Wallace's time these weapons had not yet developed because the tactics and scenarios that called for them did not exist so let's look at our thestia sword specifically [Music] the Wallace monument sword is a massive five feet four inches long it has a straight double-edged blade exactly four feet four inches long tapering toward the tip The Edge is rather blunt which is typical of a claymore and it features a fuller which seems like it was probably a later addition the handle is very much of a 16th century design long and made to be used with two hands the guard with its Acorn tipped queons and ring is a common style of the Renaissance finally the monument weapon is very very heavy weighing into the massive 5.95 pounds important note many modern people and by that I mean anyone living from say the year 1800 onwards often imagine ancient weapons as being huge and heavy it fits in with our romantic notion of muscle-bound Warriors towering over the battlefield like Conan the Barbarian the fact is that most functional swords throughout history have not weighed much more than a couple of pounds anything heavier was not practical to carry not fast enough and certainly not accurate enough so make no mistake the walls Monument sword is a real sword it's just not one that you could fight very well with and whilst himself would not recognize it in short seems like it's a fancy so how'd this come about well before being transported to London to be tried and executed Wallace was held at Dumbarton Castle near Glasgow according to tradition his sword the one he had fought with at both Sterling and Falkirk remained at Castle Dumbarton even then beginning to acquire some sass as a sort of a cult icon apparently the Legends surrounding Wallace himself and his sword date back to his lifetime at the tail end of the 13th century then in 1477 a poem called The Wallace composed by an artist called Blind Harry or Harry the minstrel cemented that heroic status actual data on his sword is almost non-existent what we do have is a note in the records of the Lord High treasurer of Scotland for 1505 during the reign of King James IV this is the first time the weapon is ever mentioned in documents almost exactly 200 years after Wallace's Death Note reads as follows item for binding of and riding sword and Rapier and binding of Wallace sword with chorus of silk new Hilt and plummet translation money was allocated for an extensive refit ordered by the king a new hilt Pummel and Scabbard the new Scabbard wrapped in cords of silk ostensibly replacing the original which according to tradition was made from the dried skin of Hugh de cressingham the accountant's note says nothing about the blade itself it is possible that this was in fact the blade used by Wallace himself however we also have to admit that it may only have been the sword of one of his men but again this is not the blade we have now our thesis ship blade is made from three distinct pieces of metal Hammer welded together into a much larger blade the very bottom end has a flattened diamond cross section a shape more typical of 13th century weapons so this part just might be the remains of a sword that saw the Scottish Rebellion are all these other parts the result of King James restoration it doesn't seem very likely okay well now comes the part where I sync the ship completely the biggest leak in the hull so to speak is this we just cannot assume that the Dumbarton Castle Sword and the James fourth sword are even the same object there's no real evidence to prove the existence of a wall of sword at Dumbarton for 300 years basically between 1500 and 1800 the first clear record of anyone seeing it there is in the Memoirs of Dorothy Wordsworth sister of Williams Wordsworth from 1803. clearly whoever showed it to her believed it to be the sword of William Wallace but that's all we can say small aside here my grandfather owned a carbine with the name Geronimo carved in a stock he was convinced it had actually belonged to the great warrior himself no documentation just Faith so we're all guilty of this kind of thing the Dumbarton wallaceword is a showpiece of the national Wallace monument in Sterling designed by noted architect John Thomas rockhead the monument was erected on the Abby Craig a volcanic outcropping which the victorians believed wall is used as a lookout just before the Battle of Sterling Bridge the massive neo-gothic Tower was completed in 1869. getting that Monument built was a long and arduous process and one of the many challenges was Finding suitable relics to honor Scotland's national hero there just weren't that many to be had so it wasn't until 1888 that the good people of Dumbarton finally agreed to give over the wall of Sword to the monument it's likely that the Victorian Scots needed the sword so badly that if one did not exist they would have created one and chosen to believe their own fairy tale [Music] as it was Dumbarton Castle lore claimed that they had one the one so why question it this item seemed close enough based on what they understood about medieval weapons so why not in fact this situation is not at all unusual when it comes to popular historical artifacts fast forward to today and we have a former president of the Society of antiquaries of Scotland Dr David Caldwell among those who feel this is exactly what happened stating flatly that the sword had nothing to do with William Wallace Caldwell said that the object is quote not a very good example of a two-handed 16th century sword end quote and it was acquired in quote desperation to link the monument to Wallace as we said there's no evidence that the object at the monument is even the same item James IV ordered new parts for our ship of Theseus may just have been a ghost ship from the get-go so what do you think is the sword at the monument a ship of Theseus is some small part of it steel that Wallace used to cleave the body of Hugh depressing him or is the hoax invented by someone in the 16th century or later and preserved by local Pride for hundreds of years so here's the real question does it matter well I myself do feel that one small part of the blade is a relic of the Rebellion a remnant of an object someone decided had belonged to Wallace whether it had or not to them it didn't matter if it had for certain it just felt right then later on someone saw this scrap of rusty metal and decided that it should you know look the part so they built the Festus ship blade according to their own imagination this was at the same time as the work ordered by James IV or happened later we don't really know and yes maybe there always were two or more objects out there ascribed to be the sword of Wallace I think the point is that no matter what what we have now is not a monument to Wallace himself but a monument to Scottish passion and pride we need Heroes and we need ways to connect to them this object has helped people to do exactly that just like those ancient Athenians sailing their replica ship every year they didn't care if it was exactly what Festus had escaped Creed in it was the idea of that exploit that really mattered so if people leave the Wallace monument feeling proud and prepared to do something good for their people good for their culture well then mission accomplished good [Music] thank you for joining me on this journey if you'd like to learn more about the Wallace monument and other Scottish historical interests please check out the links in the description below and of course we'd encourage you to watch our other videos on Scottish history have a good day

Channel: USA Kilts & Celtic Traditions

Views: 11,011

Keywords: where to buy a kilt, usa kilts, formal highland dress, #kilts, #usakilts, how to wear the kilt, Victorian Scotland, traditional kilt, Scottish national dress, great kilts, tartan craze, William Wallace, Braveheart, the real Braveheart, Biggest fibs in history, hoaxes

Id: v6E5aJOQwds

Length: 13min 30sec (810 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 08 2023