Why were bagpipes outlawed

The basic idea of the Pipe is the same with a bag and chanter but there are varying amounts of drones and sounds. It is inconclusive when the pipes were first on Scottish shores in some format, they were played at Banockburn in to urge the clans to victory, but not in the form we know them today. The first written reference of the Great Pipes is in , a piper from Perth was prosecuted for playing on the Sabbath.

Various towns throughout Scotland hired Bagpipers to play. The Highlanders were the ones to develop the Pipes into the instrument it is now and to make it the National instrument of Scotland in peace and war.

All the chiefs of the Highland Clans employed pipers. They were considered a very important part of their establishments. The music of the Pipes spurred the troops on to many a victory. They were used in many great battles.

The playing of the Bagpipe was banned in Scotland after the uprising of They were classified as an instrument of war by the loyalist government. They were kept alive in secret. Unfortunately, however, the southern population did not support him, so he was forced to head north. After turning north, the Jacobite army laid siege to Stirling Castle.

It was here that the Battle of Falkirk Mur was fought. This was the last major victory for the Jacobites and Prince Charles. The government forces finally caught the Jacobite army near Inverness. The government force decisively defeated the Jacobites.

The army scattered after the battle, although over Jacobites were captured by government forces. The normal punishment for these prisoners was to execute 1 in 10 of the prisoners and transport the rest to the colonies. One of the prisoners was James Reid. Rather than facing this punishment, he decided to take his case to trial, with the novel defense — he claimed that he was not a combatant in the battle, because he was a bagpiper.

This is where the idea that bagpipes were an instrument of war began. The judge's ruling mentioned that the bagpipes could be considered an instrument of war. This was because, he said, no Scottish army would go to war without pipers. The final ruling, unfortunately for this myth, is that he was guilty — not because he was a piper, but because he was an active participant he was a conscript.

Some interesting bits of trivia surround this. Firstly, Highland bagpipers weren't the only pipers in the Jacobite army. Many of the clans brought their pipers from the highlands, but many of the Lowland troops had pipers as well, playing Lowland pipes.

Several of the other prisoners captured at the same time as Reid were released by the government and not executed or transported. Fast forward a few centuries from those unfortunate souls, and we stumble on an interesting run-in with this ruling that took place in , now famous among piping circles as 'the piper of Hampstead Heath'. David Brooks , a bagpiper in London, made headlines in after he was fined for playing his pipes on Hampstead Heath.

The fine was due to an old City of London bylaw against musicians playing any instruments in the area, but Brooks argued that he was not playing a musical instrument The judge in the case, while very amused by his novel defense, ruled that Reid's execution an illegal act. Because of this, bagpipes were not considered an instrument of war. More than that, he pointed out that if they were, Brooks could be charged with carrying a deadly weapon in public — a far more serious crime that carried a prison sentence!

So, in they were classified as an instrument of war, which was then challenge in Bagpipes were not mentioned in the Act of Proscription of The act included many weapons — and specifically included Highland attire such as the wearing of the kilt — but the Act itself says nothing about bagpipes.

In fact, soon after this, bagpipes became a standard part of the Highland Regiments and government forces, featuring in documented accounts of campaigns worldwide. The first formalized bagpipe competition, the Falkirk Tryst , was held in , a mere 35 years after Culloden, and built on the many regional competitions that had been taking place up to that point.

So, ultimately, the great highland bagpipes may not have been banned as an instrument of war So although pipers weren't the pariahs many may think we were — it sounds pretty cool to be able to say you play an "instrument of war", doesn't it? Actually they sacked the city of Carlisle. Factual error : Some more errors about Princess Isabella: at the height of William Wallace 's rebellion Edward I sends her as an ambassador to negotiate with Wallace and spy on the Scots instead she falls in love with Wallace.

Princess Isabella was born in Wallace's rebellion was at its height during , so she could have been no more than 6 at the time. Somebody else has already observed that she was only 13 at the time of Wallace's execution.

Isabella's first language would obviously have been French, a 13th century Scotsman would speak either a heavily accented Scottish version of English, or Scots Gaelic, but Isabella has no communication difficulties in Scotland.

The Wallace-Isabella affair is also absurd, since it is implausible that, at the height of a war, an unaccompanied young woman, let alone a princess engaged to the heir to the throne of England, would be sent into the heart of a war zone as an envoy and a spy.

Suggested correction: Her age has already been marked as an error. As someone well travelled, Wallace knew several languages and as an educated princess, Isabella would have likely known several and this could all simply be a translation convention.

And the king admits that he knew of the danger, and hoped that if Wallace or his men killed her, her father the King of France would help him defeat the Scottish rebellion. I concede most of your points, and, as you observe, if Isabella and Wallace can converse, this is 'translation convention'.

Another error in the film that has already been marked: while the historical Wallace was a minor nobleman, Braveheart shows him as a common man, with no aristocratic or upper class traits, so the Isabella-Wallace romance forms a stock element of many romantic stories, a princess or prince defying social convention to fall in love with a lower class man or woman, entertaining as a story, but implausible in reality.

And I think we agree that Isabella was only 6 at the time of Wallace's rebellion, so, in reality, she would have been far too young to have been involved in events. First, both historical inaccuracies and things that you consider unlikely are not mistakes. Second, history is riddled with accounts of nobles having affairs with commoners and slaves. He bends down to kiss her and as he stands back up, if you look over his left shoulder through the trees you can see the van going past.

It's very quick, small, and blurred, but it's there. DVDs can be longer or shorter under different countries' TV systems. Please try one of these times:. Trivia : Perhaps you're wondering what William Wallace shouts after delivering his speech just prior to the Battle of Stirling. It's "Alba gu brath," which means "Scotland forever. Question : The script was written by Randall Wallace.

Any family connections to William Wallace or is it just a coincidence? I can't prove it but then no one can disprove it.

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