Osprey Publishing specialise in easy to read illustrated military history titles which concentrate on a specific subject - a battle, campaign, type of army from a specific time - and use lots of colour pictures and short paragraphs to go with it. They don't dumb it down, the research is excellent, they just make it accessible. This looks at the William Wallace rebellion, which I became interested in through the film Braveheart. It's two battles really, which is what Wallace's campaign really consisted of, with a few raids thrown in. Stirling Bridge was won by Scotland, partly because the English foolishly crossed a river right in front of the Scots and were massacred on the bank. Then England got serious, Edward I took charge (a horrible man, Edward, great solider, totally formidable - Patrick McGoohan played him magnificently in the Gibson film), and they beat the Scots at Falkirk - partly because the mossy ground inhibited Scottish maneuvring, partly because of the superiority of English cavalry (which covered the Scottish flanks) and long bowmen, who hammered the Scottish infantry and effectively won the battle. (George MacDonald Fraser once wrote a funny line about Scotland at war - he was referring to the Duke of Cumberland and it went along the line that the Duke learned the valuable lesson that if you stop Scotland scoring in the first five minutes you're in with an excellent chance because they tend to lose interest.)
Wallace lost his power after the defeat; his career went on for years after that, eluding capture and occasionally raiding the English before being betrayed by Scots eager to make peace then dying horribly. He did not have it off with a French princess and impregnate her, that was a Hollywood invention (I think its OK to have Edward I die around the time of Wallace as he only lasted an extra year in real life, but having Wallace father Isabella's child was a bit too much - mind you, you need romance, and Edward II was a wimp, even if it fits into Gibson's pattern of homophobia in his films a bit to easily). From reading this book and seeing the illustrations it also seems the movie was visually off when it came to Scottish army - Wallace was a proper neat knight, and the army disciplined, not a rabble (I guess Gibson wanted to differentiate them). A worthy corrective to the film. Reading it I don't think Scots would have had a genuine chance against Edward I, he was simply too good, not without say France invading as well or something. But Wallace's efforts did provide the basis for the successful efforts against Edward II.
No comments:
Post a Comment