Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/260

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396
SIR WILLIAM WALLACE.


every species of wrong and insult.[1] Those who refused to take the oath of allegiance to Edward were deprived of their estates, and in many cases of their lives. Whatever was valuable in the kingdom was seized upon by its oppressors; even the cause of female virtue was not held sacred under their unhallowed domination; and in short, the whole country was laid under a military despotism of the most unqualified and irresponsible kind. It was at this dark hour of Scotland's history, when the cry of an oppressed people ascended to heaven, and the liberty for which they had so long struggled seemed to have departed for ever from them, that Sir William Wallace arose, to avenge the wrongs, and restore the rights of his country.

Sir William Wallace was descended from an ancient Anglo-Norman family in the west of Scotland. His father was knight of Elderslie and Auchinbothie, in Renfrewshire, and his mother daughter of Sir Raynauld Crawford, sheriff of Ayr. Wynton, in his Chronicle, speaking of him, says,

Hys Fadyere was a manly knycht,
Hys Modyere was a lady bricht,
Begothene and born in manage;
Hys eldare brodyere the herytage
Had and enjoyed in his dayis.

According to some writers, his father and brother were both slain by the English at Lochmaben; but from the above lines it would seem, that the elder

  1. Barbour, in his Bruce, has given the following lively picture of the deplorable state to which the country was reduced:—

    Fra Weik anent Orkenay,
    To Mullyr snwk in Gallaway;
    And stuflyt all with Ingliss men.
    Schyrreffys and bailyheys maid he then;
    And alkyn othir officer is,
    That for to gowern land afleris,
    He maid off Inglis nation;
    That worthyt than sa rych fellone,
    And sa wykkyt and cowatouss,
    And swa hawtane and dispitouss,
    That Scottis men mycht do na thing
    That euir mycht pleyss to thar liking.
    Thar wyffis wald thai oft forly,
    And thar dochtrys dispitusly:
    And gyffony of thaim thair at war
    That watyt hym wele with gret scaith;
    For that suld fynd sone enchesone
    To put hym to destructione.
    And gyff that ony man thaim by
    Had ony thing that wes worthy,
    As liorss, or htmil, or othir thing,
    That war plesand to thar liking;
    With rycht or wrang it have wald thai
    And gyf ony wald thaim withsay;
    Thai suld swa do, that thai suld tyne
    Othir land or lyff, or leyff in pyne.
    For thai dempt thaim eftir thair will.
    Takand na kep to rycht na skill.
    A l qubat thai dempt thaim felonly
    For gud knjchtis that war worthy.
    For litill enchesoune, or than nane,
    Thai hangyt be the nekbane.
    Als that folk, that euir wes fre,
    And in fredome wount for to be,
    Throw thar gret myschance, and foly,
    War tretyt than sa wykkytly,
    That thair fays thair jugis war:
    Quhat wrechitnes may man have mat?