Wallace Monument Thomas Carlyle, Hugh Miller, Thomas Chalmers, David Livingstone, and W. E. Gladstone. In 2017 it was announced that Mary Slessor and Maggie Keswick Jencks will be the first heroines to be celebrated in the hall. The original Victorian statue of Wallace stands on the corner of the monument and is by the Edinburgh sculptor David Watson Stevenson. In 1996 Tom Church carved a statue of Wallace called "Freedom", which was inspired by the film "Braveheart". It has the face of Mel Gibson, the actor who played William Wallace in the film. Church leased the statue to Stirling Council, who in
Scotland in the Middle Ages the Auld Alliance. In 1296 Edward invaded Scotland, deposing King John. The following year William Wallace and Andrew de Moray raised forces to resist the occupation and under their joint leadership an English army was defeated at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. For a short time Wallace ruled Scotland in the name of John Balliol as guardian of the realm. Edward came north in person and defeated Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk. The English barons refuted the French-inspired papal claim to Scottish overlordship in the Barons' Letter, 1301, claiming it rather as long possessed by English kings. Wallace escaped