Wallace and Wallace

It seems to me that Ballantyne made the heroe of the story, young Will Wallace very similar to the real Will Wallace of Scotland.

Ballantyne's hero is well over six feet, has tremendous strength, bears the same name as the Scotch leader, and in the beginning of the story, is a trooper in the king's service.

Unlike the real Wallace, who was executed in his mid-twenties, Ballantyne's heroe lives to a "ripe old age" and has plenty of children and grand children.

In G. A. Henty's book, In Freedom's Cause, the heroe of the story has a comrade in the real William Wallace.

Both books are great historical novels from two of the best Christian authors of all-time!

Thank you for your comment, Brandon. I always did find the parallels between Wallace and Wallace to be very telling as to RMB's love of history.

I do think that Ballantyne based the hero of his story off of the true William Wallace. It definitely would have been the sort of thing for Ballantyne to do: Tipping his hat to the real "braveheart" while enhancing him with a more reformed worldview and setting him in a more recent age.

I always was glad that Will (in the book) lived to a "ripe old age" as you say. Its a much happier thing to do then having your entrails cut out in the prime of life.

We definitely can benefit from the example of both Wallaces. -JT