When I wrote my recent post about King Philip IV of France I was not aware but a letter he wrote or authorised was about to go on show, albeit only for five hours, in Edinburgh last weekend.
One of only two surviving documents which appear to have a direct connection with the Scottish leader it is a letter of recommendation from King Philip in late 1300 to his representatives in Rome requesting their aid for Wallace on a proposed visit to the Papal seat. It seems likely that this was one of the documents that was found on Wallace when he was captured and hence its survival in the records of the English crown. The National Archives had lent it to the Scottish equivalent in Edinburgh to mark Saint Andrew’s Day.
The display is reported upon by BBCNews online in two linked articles at Rare William Wallace letter to go on show and at William Wallace letter goes on show for five hours only
A Guardian article about the letter in connection with a previous display of it in 2018
The other surviving document linked directly to Wallace is what is now referred to as the Lübeck Letter. This, together with one to Hamburg, which was destroyed in the Second Workd War, was sent by Wallace and his colleague Sir Andrew Murray as Guardians of Scotland to these leading cities of the Hanseatic League following the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 to announce that Scottish ports were again open for trade.
The letter with its seal and Wallace’s counter seal can be seen at Wars of Independence - William Wallace and the Lübeck letter, 1297
The texts of both letters can be seen in a 2012 post from The History Blog at Two William Wallace letters return to Scotland
The survival of both these documents is in many ways remarkable, defying the onslaught of time and chance.
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