William Wallace's Wardrobe Malfunction

"William Wallace kell'd fefty men. Fefty. Af'it was one!"

Braveheart is one of the most loved movies from the 90s, and for good reason.  Who doesn't love a good tale about standing up for FREEDOM and liberty?  Commies.  Commies don't like tales about freedom and liberty.  But I digress.

The picture above shows William Wallace flanked by British guards looking completely B.A.  What is it about him that looks so B.A, you may ask?  Well he's got a mane of wild long hair, a look of pure ice on his face despite being surrounded by enemies, and of course, he's wearing a kilt.

The Danish Tartan...because I'm 1/4 Danish.

The are very few things more epic than watching a 13th century Scotsman run into battle wearing a kilt.  The only problem is that no 13th century Scotsman ever ran into battle wearing a kilt.  That's because kilts weren't introduced in Scotland until the 17th century, about 300 years after William Wallace's death in 1305.

As for tartans, the patterns used in making kilts, they are much more ancient than kilts, with evidence present
of them existing in Scotland as far back as 320 AD.  Many people have been taught that specific tartans are assigned to specific clans in Scotland and have been for centuries.  In fact the assigning of tartans to clans did not start until the 19th century when a crafty weaver by the name of William Wilson decided that, instead of using numbers to identify his patterns, he would name them after clans, family names and towns in Scotland.  The trend caught on, in large part because of the intense nostalgia that reined in Scotland and Britain during the time, and now there are many families who use tartans as identifiers.  There is a national register for tartans where anybody from anywhere may register a new tartan, but the registry is not regulated in any way.



Source: The Early History of the Kilt

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