WILLIAM WALLACE, MEL GIBSON, AND BRAVEHEART


The story of William Wallace in true history is obscure considering the stature of the man and his importance to the Scottish nation, with a fair portion of what is known of Wallace coming from the minstrel “Harry the Blind” who lived two centuries later. Mel Gibson’s popularization of Wallace in the film “Braveheart” catapulted Gibson to theatrical prominence but also made the name William Wallace a household word for millions of movie goers and home viewers, Gibson’s movie introducing them to this national hero. Gibson’s portrayal of Wallace as a devout Catholic was in harmony with his own rigid, pre-Vatican II Romanism, and from available extant sources appears to be correct historically concerning Wallace’s own religious practice. Romanism was essentially the only religion publicly practiced in the British Isles at the time, with Druidic and Wiccan practices condemned as witchcraft by the Papacy. Hence the whole population were professing Catholics, possessing no Bible in the common tongue nor instructed in the truths of God by a priesthood notorious for drunkenness, lewdness and fornication, crimes against nature, slothfulness and greed. These same conditions amongst the “clergy,” monks and nuns over two centuries later were part of the impetus for Henry VIII to dissolve the monasteries nationwide and take their assets and lands for himself and his nobility.

King Edward, known as “Longshanks” was an inveterate idolater who had repeatedly invaded Scotland. “King Edward was a serious prince, according to the notions of the age, and much given to relic worship.” In 1296 he removed from the Abbey of Scone the famous “Stone of Destiny” on which the coronation of the Scottish kings was performed. “It was enshrined in a chair or throne, on which the kings of the Scots were wont to be crowned. Its legendary history was, that it was the pillow on which Jacob reposed when he saw the vision of the angels ascending and descending the ladder, and that it was brought over by Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh from whom the Scots line of monarchs was descended.” “He intended at once to enclose the relic in a shrine, which should be the coronation chair of the kings. At first he gave orders for a chair of bronze, then altered his intention, and had it made of wood. Its cover or shrine thus being a seat or throne, altered and adorned from age to age, became the coronation chair of the kings of England.” (It is noteworthy that Herbert W. Armstrong and many other Anglo-Israelism believers have accepted this story of the stone and its origin at face value.) “Besides the Stone of Destiny, King Edward got possession of another movable, valuable to him as a weakening of the enemy and a strengthening of his own hand by the possession of a potent relic: this was the celebrated Black Rood or Holy Rood. It was a certified fragment of the true cross preserved in a shrine of gold or silver gilt. It was brought over by St. Margaret...” Edward had in the course of his warring against Scotland not only plundered its most revered object, but trodden under foot and killed many of the general population, besides the armed men who sought to resist him. There was a great ire and anger amongst the Scots, the popular uprising led by Wallace being the result.

The revolt against the English by Wallace and his followers occurred somewhat in the very manner depicted by Gibson in his production. Wallace was however not the mere peasant Scot that is presented in the film. “His father was a knight and a landowner, having the Estate of Ellerslie, in Renfrewshire. He had been knighted, and was thus, by the etiquette of Norman chivalry, as well entitled to lead armies as any noble, or even monarch, of his day.” Whether of Norman or mingled Norman/Saxon blood, William Wallace was of Teutonic descent, and the interests of his own family were tied with those of the surrounding population. “He had just taken to wife a virtuous damsel named Bradfute. She resides in the town of Lanark, where there is an English garrison; and as he is a marked man, from having already resented the insults of the invaders, it is not safe for him to reside there, and he must be content with stealthy visits to his bride. One day, having just heard mass, he encounters some straggling soldiers, who treat him with ribaldry and practical jokes.” “Wallace bears all with good temper, until a foul jest is flung at his wife. Then he draws his great sword, and cuts off the offender’s hand. He is joined by a few of his countrymen, and there is a scuffle; but the English are many times their number, and they must seek safety. His own door is opened for Wallace by his wife, and he escapes it into the open country. For this service his wife is slain, and he vows eternal vengeance. Gathering a few daring hearts around him, he falls upon the garrison in the night, burns their quarters, and kills several of them, among the rest William de Hazelrig, whom Edward had made Earl of Clydesdale and Sheriff of Ayr.” (This is essentially the plot Gibson presented, with a few small changes, one of which was the notion that the practice of Prima Nocte was in use by the lords of Scotland, when in fact this was not the case.) The cited descriptive passage (from John Hill Burton’s 8 volume HISTORY OF SCOTLAND, 1905, Edinburgh, Blackwood and Sons, publishers) is the general outline used by Gibson, and finds corroboration in the writings of an imprisoned North Umbrian knight sixty years after the incident, who gave a detailed description of his own father surviving the attack on the garrison, having been left for dead between two burning buildings. It seems that the Braveheart scriptwriter and Gibson had the authoritative Burton account before them as they worked on the film. Burton was the Historiographer Royal for Scotland, and cites many Latin, French, and English documents of the period to which he had access. His accounts appear dispassionate and balanced; though the language and phraseology in other sections of the work make it plain that he was himself a professing Protestant who likely believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The certainty of Wallace being a devoted Papist seems to be indisputable: he at one point offered protection to some clerics in Hexham, England in the midst of a bloody incursion into enemy territory. “As his unruly soldiers pillaged the church of Hexham, he took the canons under his immediate protection. “Abide with me,” he said, “holy men; for my people are evil doers, and I may not correct them.”” (History of Scotland, by Sir Walter Scott, Collier, 1909, page 88, volume one.) At his capture Wallace was in possession of a letter of safe conduct from King Philip of France, and in the Tower of London another paper turned up which was found to be a letter from Philip of France recommending to them his friend William Wallace. The solid Catholicity of Wallace was no doubt something that would have commended Wallace to Gibson and his Opus Dei father Hutton, and Jesuit co-adjutor Alex Jones as well. (For a number of years Jones used a sound clip of Gibson from Braveheart in his broadcast breaks, has interviewed Hutton Gibson numerous times, and actively promoted Gibson’s THE PASSION.) Gibson also made another film, WE WERE SOLDIERS, a Vietnam war flick, where he portrays a devote roman Catholic Colonel who takes fellow soldiers to pray before a Catholic altar, and even does his own version of extreme unction to the dead and dying on the field of battle.

The actual fighting scenes in BRAVEHEART are loosely fashioned after the facts, but again with some noticeable differences. At the battle of Stirling, the English heavy horse crossed a narrow bridge two abreast for a good part of the morning, and then were attacked by Wallace’s army. The Scots slaughtered the force projected across the bridge, and many others were driven into the river. At the later depicted battle of Falkirk the method of receiving the charge of cavalry or heavy horse shown by Gibson was utilized, but the Scots were positioned in circular clumps of spearmen, and not in a unified front. The horses impaled themselves on the spears and lances, which resulted in confusion amongst the English, but the sheer preponderance of numbers took its toll and each clump of spearmen were destroyed one at a time. Wallace and a few followers escaped the field. It is of special interest that in the Hollywood depiction by Gibson, King Edward gives orders for his archers to fire into the infantry as they were engaged in fighting at close quarters. An aide says, “But we will hit out own men.” To which Edward replies, “Yes, but we’ll hit theirs too. Bring me word of our victory.” Here the Jesuit Order tips the hand of their involvement in the film: a willingness to kill their own to achieve their purpose, with no regard for the value of any individual life.

The sum in the historical aspect of the life of William Wallace and his successor Robert Bruce is simple: the efforts of these two men resulted in the unification of Scotland as a nation, that it not remain simply as a conglomeration of feuding related clans continually meddled with by the English. The Scots were given a glimpse of victory and liberty by the triumphs of Stirling under Wallace, later Bannockburn under Bruce. This taste of freedom never left them, and made the nation fertile ground for what was to come. God in his gracious providence prepared the nation for the re-entry of the true gospel of Jesus Christ centuries later, and used the yearnings and desires of two Papists to do it. Wallace and Bruce were Catholics, but nationalists. Rome was too far away for them to have any concern about the Pope’s supposed temporal power being brought to bear upon them. They resisted with their whole beings the temporal power of a tyrannical prince who had no regard for man or God, and exhibited personal courage of the highest nature. Wallace is reputed to have hacked the body of the first English lord that was killed to pieces (Hazelrig) as a message to his own men and the English. Bruce slew three men who jumped him while he was in full armor on horseback. On another occasion went forward between his own lines and that of the enemy, a Scottish sort of David, and meant an enemy challenger, killing him with one blow to his helmeted skull. These men were not the sort to be trifled with, and the fleshly power they exhibited then were later surpassed by the various fearless Scottish ministers who loved not their lives unto death. God has his way in the whirlwind of history.

There are many peculiarities about the career of Mel Gibson and his rise to prominence as first an actor and now director. In the filmography below notice his lead role in GALLIPOLI, where the slaughter of the British troops by Turks in a senseless and impossible attack is depicted, one determined by co-adjutor Winston Churchill. He also played the lead in CONSPIRACY THEORY, as well as THE PATRIOT (another Alex Jones promoted film). Having viewed quite a few of these productions, it seems that Gibson is an Opus Dei/Jesuit anointed papal knight engaged in Jesuit theatrical mockery and subversion of the viewing public of America. In some of the films he engages in sympathetic, heart rending acting, but in his most popular roles plays a good kind of guy forced to engage in rapid, angry killing of those that have wronged him and his lived ones. His portrayal of Hamlet, while competent has an unnerving, psychotic aspect to it that goes far beyond Shakespeare (de Vere). In one of the LETHAL WEAPON movies he also engages in race mixing behavior with the woman playing his partner’s daughter. Mel’s recent outbursts, public drunkenness, and one noted testimony of adultery (by the fornicatrix who claims to have consorted with him) are certainly the works of the flesh and the fruits of Romanism, and possibly the result of practicing the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. His loyalty to Romanism is unquestionable, as the building of his own personal church to engage in pre-Vatican II, Council of Trent style worship testifies. His affability and ability to engage and hold the attention of his viewer are obvious, but there is much more to him than meets the naked eye.

A PARTIAL MEL GIBSON FILMOGRAPHY

Complete Savages (TV series, 3 episodes) (2004)
Paparazzi (2004)
The Singing Detective (2003)
Signs (2002)
We Were Soldiers (2002)
Breaking The News (TV, narrator) (2001)
Drama School (TV series, as himself) (2000)
What Women Want (2000)
Chicken Run (2000)
The Patriot (2000)
The Million Dollar Hotel (2000)
Payback (1999)
The Simpsons (TV series, one episode, voice) (1999)
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
Conspiracy Theory (1997)
Fairy Tale: A True Story (1997)
Father's Day (1997)
Ransom (1996)
Pocahontas (voice) (1995)
Casper (1995)
Braveheart (1995)
Maverick (1994)
The Chili Con Carne Club (short) (1993)
Man Without A Face (1993)
Forever Young (1992)
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
Dame Edna's Hollywood (TV, as himself) (1991)
Hamlet (1990)
Air America (1990)
Bird On A Wire (1990)
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
Tequila Sunrise (1988)
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
The Bounty (1984)
Mrs Soffel (1984)
The River (1983)
The Year Of Living Dangerously (1982)
Attack Force Z (1982)
Punishment (TV series) (1981)
Mad Max 2: Road Warrior (1981)
Gallipoli (1981)
The Chain Reaction (1980)
Tim (1979)
Mad Max (1979)
Summer City (1977)
The Sullivans (TV series, one episode) (1977)