The story behind the image:
So traveller as you stand on the esplanade
of Stirling Castle and look towards the hills,
you see below you the scene of one of the pivotal moments in Scottish history.
On the morning of 11th September 1297, an English Army under the command of Hugh de Cressingham began moving across the bridge over the River Forth, a little to the north of the present bridge.
On the plain to their front and left were marshlands encircled by the twists and turns of the river.
Here stood The Army of the Kingdom of Scotland.
Their commander was Sir William Wallace.
He was the second son of a small landowner and of no account to the nobility of Scotland or England.
His army was a rabble according to the historians of the day and the Scots earls watched the battle from the sidelines.
When half of the English were across the bridge, Wallace's Scots destroyed the bridge supports and fell on the now stranded enemy.
Cressingham was dragged from his horse and slaughtered, his skin made into a sword belt for Wallace.
The English on the south bank fled back to England.
The Scottish Wars of Independence had begun in earnest. They would last for sixty long years.
Wallace met with judicial murder at the hands of Edward of England.
The monument above the battlefield on the shining river was raised in the 19th century to his everlasting memory`.
For it is not for glory, riches or honour that we fight, but for freedom alone,
which no good man gives up,
save with his life
( Declaration of Arbroath 1328)
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