WITH the 700th anniversary of the death of William Wallace looming, Scots are preparing for a festival of misty-eyed commemoration.

However, one of Scotland’s leading historians is about to spoil the party by claiming that the country’s greatest nationalist icon could equally be regarded as a unionist hero.

Professor Tom Devine will argue that Wallace’s reputation has significantly changed over the centuries and that middle-class Victorians viewed him as responsible for the Union of 1707.

Devine’s intervention will anger nationalists, who have accused the Scottish executive of not doing enough to honour his memory. Earlier this month, Alex Salmond called for the Scottish flag to be flown from every public building in the country to mark the 700th anniversary of Wallace’s execution.

Wallace — whose story was popularised in the 1995 film Braveheart, starring Mel Gibson — is chiefly remembered for his victory over English forces at the battle of Stirling Bridge on September 11, 1297.

Devine, who will present his theory this week at the inaugural Festival of Politics at Holyrood, said the Wallace story was “malleable”.

“I think the problem is this, ever since Braveheart and ever since the view that Braveheart actually was a factor in devolution, he’s been regarded as a nationalist icon. You could say the nationalists have hijacked him, but that’s no different from what happened in previous ages,” he said.

“It is quite extraordinary to think of Wallace as a unionist, but mid-19th century Scots felt he and Robert the Bruce were responsible for the Union because they prevented England from conquering Scotland in the wars of independence.

“The argument was that because these heroes had prevented the conquest of Scotland, they allowed for what was termed an equal union between England and Scotland in 1707.”

The historian, who is director of the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at Aberdeen University, will cite as evidence extracts from Scotland’s Story, a book by the historian HE Marshall, which was popular at the turn of the 20th century.

One excerpt reads: “Both Englishmen and Scotsmen will ever remember Wallace as their hero for they know that in preventing Edward from conquering Scotland he did a great work for the two countries. The (1707) Union became firm and unbreakable and all Britons may honour the name of Wallace from the part he had in making it so.”

Christine Grahame, nationalist MSP for south of Scotland, has put a motion to parliament calling for official recognition of Wallace as the “Guardian of Scotland”. Last night Grahame dismissed Devine’s analysis.

“What Tom Devine has said is a joke,” she said. “I hope he prints this so that all red-blooded Scots will see red. The William Wallace spirit still fuels the desire for independence.”

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