Life of Sir William Wallace of Elderslie, Vol. 2 (of 2)Carrick, John D. (John Donald)
History
Life of Sir William Wallace of Elderslie, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Carrick, John D. (John Donald)
Wallace, William, Sir, -1305
“I shall only add an important proof from the Lanercost MS., referred
to in the _Preliminary Remarks_.[106] ‘_Captus_ fuit Willelmus Waleis
per unum Scottum, scilicet per dominum Johannem de Mentiphe, et usque
London ad Regem adductus, et adjudicatum fuit quod traheretur, et
suspenderetur, et decollaretur, et membratim divideretur, et quod
viscera ejus comburentur, quod factum est; et suspensum est caput ejus
super pontem London, armus autem dexter super pontem Novi Castri super
Tynam, et armus sinister apud Berwicum, pes autem dexter apud villam
Sancti Johannis, et pes sinister apud Aberden.’ Fol. 211. _Mentiphe_ is
obviously an _erratum_ for _Menteith_.”
Mr Tytler, in the “Notes and Illustrations” to the first volume of his
History of Scotland, has also handled this subject with considerable
ability. We shall select the following, as affording additional
arguments to those already advanced by Dr Jamieson. In alluding to
the evidence afforded by the Lanercost MS., that intelligent writer
observes, “We cannot be surprised that Lord Hailes should have been
ignorant of this passage, as he tells us, Annals, vol. ii. p. 316, he
had not been able to discover where the MS. of Lanercost was preserved.
“The same excuse, however, will not avail him as to the next piece
of evidence, of Menteth’s having seized Wallace. It is contained in
Leland’s extract from an ancient MS. Chronicle, which Hailes has
elsewhere quoted; I mean the Scala Chronicle, preserved in Corpus
Christi Library, Cambridge. In Leland’s Collect., vol. i. p. 541, we
have this passage from the Chronicle. ‘_Wylliam Waleys was taken of the
Counte of Menteth about Glaskow_, and sent to King Edward, and after
was hangid, drawn, and quarterid at London.’ This is only Leland’s
abridgment of the passage, which in all probability is much more full
and satisfactory in the original. Yet it is quite satisfactory as to
Menteth’s guilt.
“The next English authority is Langtoft’s Chronicle, which Hailes has
himself quoted in his Notes and Corrections, vol. ii. p. 346. It is
curious, and as to Menteith’s guilt perfectly conclusive.
‘Sir Jon of Menetest serwed William so nehi,
He tok him whan he wend lest, on nyght his leman bi.
That was thorght treson of Jak Schort his man,
He was the encheson, that Sir Jon so him nam.’ p. 329.
“We learn from this, that Sir John Menteth prevailed upon Wallace’s
servant, Jack Short, to betray his master, and came under cover of
night, and seized him in bed, ‘his leman bi,’ and when he had no
suspicion of what was to happen. How Hailes, after quoting this
passage, which was written more than two centuries before Blind Harry,
should have represented this poor minstrel as the only original
authority for the guilt of Menteth, is indeed difficult to determine.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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