William Wallace plaque, High Street

Image: © kim traynor Taken: 22 May 2011

I seem to recall Lanark making a similar claim to being the place where Wallace struck the first blow for Scottish freedom. It just goes to show what a great man he was, managing to strike the first blow in two different places. Four centuries later and his spirit, in a sense, lived on... The Chevalier de St. George was the 'Old Pretender', James Francis Edward Stuart (son of the deposed James II and VII) who styled himself James III and VIII. Landing at Peterhead in December 1715, too late to influence the outcome of the first Jacobite Rising, he was proclaimed King at the cross in Dundee shortly before returning to France. Like the other east coast trading ports the town was suffering a slump in trade following the Union with England less than a decade before, so James made sure to play the anti-Union card. "James the Eight, by the Grace of GOD, King of Scotland, England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith &c. To all our loving Subjects of what Degree or Quality soever. Greeting. Having always born the most constant Affection to our ancient Kingdom of Scotland, from whence we derive our Royal Origin, and where our Progenitors have swayed the Sceptre with Glory through a longer Succession of Kings, than any Monarchy upon Earth can at this Day boast of. We cannot but behold with the deepest Concern the Miseries they suffer under a foreign Usurpation, and the intolerable Burdens daily added to their Yoke... We see a Nation always famous for Valour, and highly esteemed by the greatest of foreign Potentates, reduced to the Condition of a Province, under the specious Pretence of an Union with a more powerful Neighbour; in consequence of this pretended Union, grievous and unprecedented Taxes have been laid on, and levied with Severity, in spight of all the Representations that could be made to the contrary, and these have not failed to produce that Poverty and Decay of Trade, which were easily foreseen to be the necessary Consequences of such oppressive Measures."

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0