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Article Brave Heart In 1296, King Edward I of England assembled a large army and crossed the border of his own nation into Scotland. Edward was a skilled leader and a fierce warrior. A tall, strong man, he had gained his first real combat experience beginning at age twenty-five. In the following years, he became a seasoned veteran while fighting in the Crusades in the Holy Lands. At age fifty-seven, he was fresh from victories in Wales whose people he had crushed and whose land he had annexed. In that conflict, his purpose had been clear — “To check the impetuous rashness of the Welsh, to punish their presumption, and to wage war against them to their extermination.” For a time, Edward had attempted to manipulate Scotland’s fate. He managed to make himself overlord of the territory and then placed a weak king over it, a man the people of Scotland called “Toomtabard,” meaning empty coat. Then Edward bullied the straw king until he rebelled, thus giving the English monarch a reason to invade the country. The Scottish people crumpled. Edward sacked the castle of Berwick and massacred its inhabitants. Other castles surrendered in quick succession. The Scottish king was stripped of power and many believe that the fate of the Scots would be the same as that of the Welsh. But they did not take into account the efforts of one man, Sir William Wallace, who is still revered as a national hero in Scotland, even though he has been dead for nearly seven hundred years. If you saw the movie, Brave Heart, then you have an image of William Wallace as a fierce and determined fighter who valued freedom above all else. His older brother, Malcolm, as the first-born son was expected to follow in the footsteps of their father as a warrior. William, as many second sons of the day, was being groomed for the clergy and was taught to value ideas including freedom. But he grew to resent the oppressive English after his father was killed in an ambush and his mother was forced to live in exile. At age nineteen, he became a fighter when a group of Englishmen tried to bully him. By his early twenties, William was a highly skilled warrior. During the time of William Wallace and Edward I, warfare was usually conducted by trained knights, professional soldiers, and sometimes, hired mercenaries. The larger and more seasoned the army, the greater their power. When Edward faced the smaller Welsh army, they did not stand a chance. And the same was expected of the Scots. But Wallace had an unusual ability. He drew the common people of Scotland to him, he made them believe in the cause of freedom, and he inspired and equipped them to fight against the professional war machine of England. William Wallace was ultimately unable to defeat the English and gain Scotland’s independence. At age 33, he was brutally executed [his treatment was actually worse than that portrayed in the movie, Brave Heart]. But his legacy of enlargement carried on. The next year, inspired by Wallace’s example, nobleman Robert Bruce, claimed the throne of Scotland and rallied not only the peasants, but also the nobility. And in 1314, Scotland finally gained its hard-fought independence. As a rule, team members love and admire a player who is able to help them go to another level-someone who enlarges them and empowers them to be successful. Those kinds of people are like the Boston Celtics hall of fame center, Bill Russell, who said, “The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I would make my teammates play.” Bill Russell and William Wallace have something in common. They both saw people who had talent, but who did not believed that they had talent. To these people they gave heart, a brave heart, to accomplish what needed to be done. That is what the best team members do. They give each other a sense of strength. They give each other a sense of purpose. They give each other the ability to believe that what looks impossible can be quite possible. For more information about Ken Chapman and Associates’ Leadership Development Programs, contact Ken Chapman at 205.366.0265 or email Ken at kchapman@leaderscode.com. <End> |
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