Gibson’s history is bunk
What are the
historical inaccuracies in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart? PRECISE details about William Wallace’s life are hard to come by as little historically accurate information was written about him.
Much of what we know is based on the anti-English poem The Acts And Deeds of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Elderslie, reputedly written by the wandering minstrel Blind Harry (1440-1492).
Historians disagree with parts of Blind Harry’s tale or dismiss the entire composition.
The poem Barns Of Ayr, for example, describes the incident when 360 Scottish nobles were summoned by the English to a conference. As each passed through a narrow entrance, a rope was dropped around his neck and he was hanged.
But this incident didn’t occur. Blind Harry had misread a line from an earlier poem about Robert the Bruce, which tells how Scottish nobles were hanged ‘in ar’ — a legal term meaning ‘ by a circuit court’. But the incident, as described by Blind Harry, appears in the film Braveheart.
William Davies, Edinburgh. JUST about the only accurate thing in the movie is that Scotland and England were at war.
Wallace’s wife didn’t live in a turf bothy. Her family house was stone and still exists in Edinburgh.
Wallace (c. 1270-1305) never met the French Princess Isabelle, played by Sophie Marceau. She didn’t arrive in England until 1303.
The battle at Falkirk, about which Isabelle warns Wallace in the movie, occurred in 1298 and she was just 11 when he was executed.
Robert Bruce’s father wasn’t a leper as depicted in the film. Bruce senior was in Norway at the time, avoiding Edward I.
Nor did Wallace invent the long spears, known as pikes, which had long been the Scots’ traditional
QUESTION
Tall stories, short heroes: Mel Gibson as William Wallace in Braveheart form of defence against cavalry. At the battle of Stirling Brig, Wallace didn’t goad the English into attack.
The English army was attempting a river crossing using Stirling Brig (bridge). Wallace allowed half the English army to cross, then led a charge to drive the heavily encumbered English soldiery into mud where they were cut to pieces by the lightly-armed Scots.
Wallace didn’t kill the Scottish chieftains — Robert Bruce did that. To become king, he had to demolish the ruling families of Scotland. Those families knew Bruce as a political opportunist who turned his coat when he saw advantage for himself.
Gibson also erred by casting himself as Wallace. Gibson is around 5ft 9in, while Wallace is recorded as having been 6ft 7in, a veritable giant of a man.
S. Cousins, Hull.
QUESTION
Is it dangerous to
drink wine from a lead crystal glass? THE risk is in proportion to the acidity of the drink and the duration of contact, but both have to be extreme to cause poisoning. The risk is negligible when drinking wine poured from a non- lead glass bottle.
The only cause for concern is when the wine has been left in a lead crystal decanter. The wine may also have oxidised into vinegar, which is more capable of leaching lead from the glass.
The International Crystal Federation recommends that wine or spirits should not be stored in decanters for long periods unless the decanters have been treated to eliminate lead migration.
Charles Siu, London EC2.
Who is the greatest
real- life detective of all time? What were his methods? EUGENE François Vidocq was an 18th- century French crook-turnedcop who was a confidant of at least two contemporary writers, including Honore De Balzac, and became an inspiration for many others around the world.
As a fugitive from French justice, he first offered his services as a police informer. Later, he became so successful at catching criminals that he was named the first chief of police at the Sûreté in 1811. Vidocq eventually directed a force of 28 detectives, all of whom were former criminals.
He is considered to be the father of modern criminal investigation. He introduced record keeping, criminalistics and the science of ballistics into police work.
He was also noted as a master of disguise, and held patents on indelible ink and unalterable bond paper.
After he resigned from the Sûreté to set up a detective agency, Vidocq wrote Memoires, which became a
QUESTION
bestseller and established him as the world’s greatest detective.
Bill Urquhart, Inverness.
HSBC’s adverts
show people committing social faux pas, for example the man who gives the OK hand gesture in a Brazilian bar, which is considered deeply offensive. What other cross-cultural errors are there? FURTHER to earlier answers, I was on a course where the instructor, who was from the U.S., asked: ‘Has anyone got a stiffie?’ The room went silent before breaking into hilarity.
What he wanted was a 3.5in computer diskette, which are known as ‘floppies’ in Britain. In the U.S., the old 5.25in diskettes were called ‘floppies’ and the 3.5in rigid- cased diskettes ‘stiffies’.
Mrs H. Kerr, Cambridge.
QUESTION