My name's Alistair McConnachie, it's the 11 of September 2013 and we're here today in
Stirling.
And it was on this day in 1297, when William Wallace fought the army of Edward 1, and won
the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
What we're going to do in this video is to introduce you to the Unionist view of Wallace,
which was taught in schools in the 19th and much of the 20th century.
It's a view which sees Wallace as a key figure in our evolution towards a United Kingdom.
Someone who is part of the Great British Pantheon of Heroes placed firmly within a British,
not just a Scottish context.
One who embodies the Great British Spirit of Liberty.
The Wallace Monument was built by Unionists who saw Wallace as such a man.
And it was a view held by the English too.
For example, Richard Lodge, Professor of History at Glasgow University, who was from Staffordshire,
said in 1894: "English boys are taught both in prose and in poetry to regard Wallace and
Bruce as the heroic champions of a just cause" and he added "and to attribute to them perhaps
greater purity of motive than they can justly claim."
The "Just Cause" was to fight against what was regarded as an alien French and Norman
Plantagenet monarchy.
The poet and dramatist Joanna Baillie said, for example, in 1851: "England as well as
Scotland, under Divine Providence, may owe its liberty to [Wallace]; for, had the English
crown, at so early a period, acquired such an accession of power, it would probably,
like the other great crowns of Europe, have established for itself a despotism which could
not have been shaken."
Wallace had saved not only Scotland but also England from dictatorship.
This was Wallace not only as a champion of liberty.
But also as an early British Constitutionalist.
The Unionists who built this monument also believed that Wallace was one of the key figures
who had helped to secure Scotland, in its own right.
This meant that when it came time for Union, Scotland was able to enter into it, not as
a conquered and subservient place, but as a nation able to stand on its own feet.
In this way, Wallace is seen as having helped to create the Scotland, which created the
Union, which created the Greatest Empire on earth.
For Unionists, his Legacy can be seen as profoundly British.
Something which is reflected in the design of this Monument itself.
For example, the academic James Coleman has written:
"The rock-faced rubble construction of the superstructure of the tower was intended to
represent the history of Scotland and its culture, as modern construction methods drew
on precedents from the past.
"At the same time the 'imperial crown' forming the apex of the monument symbolised the power
of the British Empire.
In other words, the past supports the present; the legacy of Scottish history is crowned
with the achievements of the nineteenth century, all combined into a sturdy and harmonious
whole -- that whole being both the Wallace Monument and the British Empire.
"Such a sentiment was explicit in the intentions of those who chose the design and were responsible
for raising the funds for the monument's construction."
This view of Wallace as a Hero of the British value of Liberty, as an early British Constitutionalist
and as a Founder of a Scotland which would go on to do Great Things as part of Britain,
is still very relevant.
Rather than seeing Wallace as a divisive figure of separation, we can see him as how the Unionists
of the past saw him, which is as a key figure in our evolution towards ever closer, ever
more successful, ever more peaceful union.